On This Date…Feb. 28

#OTD in 2000…Atlantis launched on a mission to make the International Space Station a home in orbit

The final manned Mercury mission was launched atop an Atlas rocket on this day in 1963 with Gordon Cooper aboard Faith 7 for a 34-hour, 22-orbit flight.

Studying the atmosphere as part of NASA’s Mission to Planet Earth was the objective of shuttle Atlantis’ STS-45 mission in March 1992.