Editing STS-1 (section)

== In popular culture ==
The song "[[Countdown (Rush song)|Countdown]]" by [[Rush (band)|Rush]], from the 1982 album ''[[Signals (Rush album)|Signals]]'', was written about STS-1 and the inaugural flight of ''Columbia''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/jscfeatures/articles/000000502.html|title=25 years later, JSC remembers shuttle's first flight|date=2006|issue=502|work=JSC Features|publisher=Johnson Spaceflight Center|access-date=March 3, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090719110312/http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/jscfeatures/articles/000000502.html|archive-date=July 19, 2009|url-status=dead}} {{PD-notice}}</ref> The song was "dedicated with thanks to astronauts Young and Crippen and all the people of NASA for their inspiration and cooperation".

The footage of the launch was commonly played on [[MTV]] throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and was the first thing shown on the channel, along with footage of [[Neil Armstrong]] on the Moon and the launch of [[Apollo 11]].

[[IMAX]] cameras filmed the launch, landing, and mission control during the flight, for a documentary film entitled ''[[Hail Columbia (film)|Hail Columbia]]'', which debuted in 1982 and later became available on [[DVD]]. The title of the film comes from the pre-1930s unofficial American national anthem, "[[Hail, Columbia]]".

The beginning of the song "Hello Earth", on Kate Bush's 1985 ''[[Hounds of Love]]'' album, contains a short clip of dialogue between ''Columbia'' and Mission Control, during the last few minutes of its descent, beginning with "Columbia now at nine times the speed of sound..."

In 2006, "Collateral Damage," the 12th episode of the [[Stargate SG-1 (season 9)|ninth season]] of the long-running Canadian-American military science fiction television show ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', a childhood flashback shows that the character [[Cameron Mitchell (Stargate)|Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell]] witnessed the launch with his father live on television at the age of ten, one of the events that led to him becoming a [[United States Air Force]] [[Fighter pilot|pilot]].