On This Day… Endeavour Launches on ASTRO-2 Mission

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.

#OTD…Launch of Challenger in 1985 on a Spacelab research flight

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