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.
USS Columbia (CL-56)
"Columbia" sortied from Port Purvis on 6 September with the covering force for the landings in the Palaus, and remained off Peleliu to provide gunfire support to forces ashore and protection to assault shipping until her return to Manus on 28 September. She sailed on 6 October, guarding the force which was to seize Dinagat and other islands at the entrance of Leyte Gulf which must be neutralized before the vast Leyte invasion fleet could enter the Gulf. These islands were taken on 17 October, and "Columbia" sailed on to give gunfire cover to the main landings three days later. But as the landings proceeded, the Japanese fleet sailed south to give battle, and on the night of 24 October, its southern force entered Leyte Gulf through Surigao Strait. Attacks by motor torpedo boats and destroyers on the Japanese force opened this phase of the decisive battle for Leyte Gulf. "Columbia" with other cruisers had joined the old battleships and lay in wait. In a classical maneuver, the American ships "crossed the T" of the Japanese column, and opened heavy gunfire which sank the battleship , and forced the heavily damaged cruiser and other units to retire. Toward dawn, "Columbia" sped to deliver the final blows which sank destroyer , crippled in earlier attacks.