In 1972, Rockwell was awarded the contract to design and build the Space Shuttle orbiter Columbia, which was rolled out of Air Force Plant 42 at the Palmdale, California, assembly facility on March 8, 1979. Columbia was the first of five operational orbiters. Rockwell built the aft fuselage and crew module at its facility in Downey, California, where most of the design work for the orbiter was done. Once the design was finalized, Rockwell took about three years to assemble the orbiter.