At exactly 7:00am ET, on April 12, 1981, NASA launched the Space Shuttle for the first time with John Young and Robert Crippen at the controls of the orbiter Columbia. The 36-orbit, 933,757-mile-long flight lasted 2 days, 6 hours, 20 minutes and 32 seconds.

Post-flight inspection of Columbia had revealed the orbiter had lost 16 heatshield tiles and sustained damage to 148 others. In all other respects, however, the orbiter came through the flight with flying colors, to launch again seven months later.

This acrylic was produced for Harold H. Hill, a biomedical administrator at Johnson Space Center at the request of the center's director Christopher Kraft, Jr. Embedded within the memento is a segment of thermal protection tile cut from one that was damaged and removed from Columbia after its first flight.