On the morning of 4 July 1982, a fast-moving black-and-white speck appeared on the horizon at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., bringing a pair of U.S. space explorers back to Earth after a week in orbit. Minutes later, at 9:09 a.m. PDT, shuttle Columbia and her crew—Commander Ken Mattingly and Pilot Hank Hartsfield—alighted on concrete Runway 22, becoming the first (and so far only) American human mission to land on Independence Day, this quintessentially U.S. holiday of remembrance.