Space Shuttle Columbia southern California. The facility is also a hands-on learning center with interactive exhibits, workshops, and classes about space science, astronautics, and the Space Shuttle program's legacy — providing educational opportunities for all ages. The Shuttle's final crew was honored in 2003 when the United States Board on Geographic Names approved the name Columbia Point for a mountain in Colorado's Sangre de Cristo Mountains, less than a half-mile from Challenger Point, a peak named after America's other lost Space Shuttle. The Columbia Hills on Mars were also named in honor of the crew, and a host of other memorials were dedicated
Space Shuttle program from the back of a specially modified Boeing 747, only for initial atmospheric landing tests (ALT). "Enterprise"'s first test flight was on February 18, 1977, only five years after the Shuttle program was formally initiated; leading to the launch of the first space-worthy shuttle "Columbia" on April 12, 1981 on STS-1. The Space Shuttle program finished with its last mission, STS-135 flown by "Atlantis", in July 2011, retiring the final Shuttle in the fleet. The Space Shuttle program formally ended on August 31, 2011. Before the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969, NASA began early studies of space shuttle designs.