On This Date…Feb. 28

America’s first space shuttle launched on this day 35 years ago as the reusable flying machine, Columbia, lifted off from Kennedy Space Center with John Young and Bob Crippen aboard.

Today in 1969, the launch of Apollo 9 and the first manned flight of all lunar hardware in Earth orbit.

#OTD…The first launch of Challenger in 1983 and Columbia’s shortened Spacelab mission in 1997