John Young and Robert Crippen

In their official portrait, astronauts John Young, the shuttle commander (left), and Robert Crippen, the pilot, are all smiles. And with good reason: Their mission, STS-1, was a historic moment in the U.S. space program. Their spacecraft was unlike anything NASA had sent into orbit in the earlier era of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. The space shuttle was the world's first reusable spacecraft, and it wasn't just shaped like an airplane--it could land like one, too.

The togs that Young and Crippen are wearing here are their ejection escape suits.

April 12, 2011 4:20 AM PDT

Photo by: NASA

| Caption by: Jonathan E. Skillings