Lift off, second Space Shuttle flight, Kennedy Space Center, Merritt Island, Florida, USA, November 1981. STS-2 was the second Space Shuttle mission conducted by NASA, and the second flight of the orbiter 'Columbia'. The Space Shuttle program, (official name, Space Transportation System or STS), was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine Earth-to-orbit transport for crew and cargo between 1981 and 2011.