STS-5
"Columbia" landed on Runway 22 at Edwards Air Force Base on 16 November 1982, at 6:33 am PST, having traveled 2 million miles in 81 orbits during a mission that lasted 5 days, 2 hours, 14 minutes and 26 seconds. "Columbia" was returned to KSC on 22 November 1982. STS-5 was the first shuttle flight in which the crew did not wear pressure suits for the launch, reentry, and landing portions of the flight, similar to the Soviet Voskhod and Soyuz missions prior to the ill-fated Soyuz 11 mission in 1971.
The shuttle was formally declared "operational" after STS-4. However, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB), in its report on the loss with all crew aboard of "Columbia" during STS-107 in 2003, asserted that the orbiter should never have been considered operational and that, while not intrinsically unsafe, it was in fact an experimental vehicle. The CAIB's rationale was that civilian and military aircraft that are considered operational must have been tested and proven over thousands of safe flights in their final operational configurations, whereas the shuttle had conducted under 200 flights, with continuous modification. NASA operated the Space Shuttle as an experimental vehicle for the remainder of the program.
SS Drexel Victory
"Drexel Victory" departed Portland, Oregon for Yokohama, Japan on January 20, 1947. As part of Marshall plan she was loaded with more than 5,000 tons of grain. As she streamed down the Columbia River she struck the Columbia Bar hard and began breaking up between in her middle, between cargo holds 4 and 5. Captain Canute Rommerdahl was operating the ship for Olson & Company under the U.S. Maritime Commission. What the "Drexel Victory " hit is still a mystery as the charts for the area she hit recorded the channel at 57 feet deep. "Drexel Victory" water line was only at a depth of 30 feet. But, shifting sand bars are known to happen anytime. A large swell could have put her on a bar. She may have struck a submerged shipwreck. She was refloated and towed to sea by the USCGC Onondaga (WPG-79), but she sank 5 miles from Cape Disappointment due west of buoy #6. She lays at about 210 feet under the surface water at Latitude: 46.31232. Longitude: -124.1596. The "Drexel Victory" was abandoned without loss of life in the fog and darkness. The US coast guard reported the ship sank at 3:35 AM. The lifeboats were lowered and the crew of 30 loaded boarded as the ship started to break up. The US coast guard picked up the crew 2 hours later with the ship "USCGC Triumph". The crew and lifeboats were found near the SS "Columbia" by a river pilot schooner. Columbia river pilots ship program started in 1846, to help ships safety cross the treacherous Columbia River Bar. The Liberty ship SS "Joseph Gale" picked up some of the crew before the US coast guard ship arrived.