I was on console at Goddard ( Space Flight Center) for the first four shuttle missions. The fist two had crews of 2, with ejection seats ( later removed for weight considerations). I have worked with several of the astronauts, after they left NASA. All have stories to tell...

The easy way to tell if a picture is of the first two flights is to look at the external fuel tank. They were painted white ( which would show damage, leakage, or breakage of the insulation) but the paint was not used on later flights ( 3 on) because of the weight it took away from payload ( hundreds of pounds!).

Originally, before the budget cutbacks, the intent was to always have the next mission on the pad ready to go in case of a problem with the one on-orbit.

The first flight, the description I heard was that it "rained tiles" on the launch site. Pictures on-orbit show numerous gaps on the rear ( engine and tail) area, with unknown loss on the bottom- But it got back ok. There was discussion of sending up a "repair kit" of the spray-on heat sheild used in Apollo, to fill in any large gaps, but it was not thought to be needed.

There has always been a group in the space community that wanted NASA to boost the external tanks all the way into orbit, and then ( at a later date ) make them into livable units. Some design work was done to see if aall the needed parts could be made in pieces small enough to fit throught the existing access ports.