1. (In 1999 that telescope —the Chandra X-ray Observatory— was successfully launched into orbit by the space shuttle Columbia.)

2. Canadarm, Canada's most famous robotic and technological achievement, made its space debut on the Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-2) on November 13, 1981

3. Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-3) once landed at the White Sands Space Harbor, New Mexico; this was viewed as a last resort as NASA scientists believed that the sand could potentially damage the Shuttle's exterior.

4. As Space Shuttle Columbia was the oldest and heaviest of the fleet, it was not suited for efficient operations at Mir's (and later the ISS's) 51.6-degree inclination – Columbia was therefore not retrofitted with the necessary external airlock and Orbital Docking System, and never flew to a space station.

5. The Shuttle Remote Manipulator System (SRMS), also known as Canadarm (or retroactively Canadarm 1), is a series of robotic arms that were used on the Space Shuttle orbiters to deploy, maneuver and capture payloads.After the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, the Canadarm was always paired with the Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS), …