On This Date…March 1

OTD…Launch of Discovery in 1991 on a Defense Department research flight

The U.S. launched its first man into space on this date, May 5, 1961, as Alan Shepard rode the Freedom 7 capsule on a 15-minute suborbital flight to 116.5 miles in altitude and 303 miles downrange to splashdown.

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