OTD…April 5 launches of STS-37 and 131

Today marks the 40th anniversary — July 20, 1976 — of the first U.S. robotic landing on another planet by the Viking 1 spacecraft on Mars.

On this day in 2010, Atlantis on her next-to-final mission launches with Russia’s Rassvet mini module for the International Space Station

Apollo 16 launched to the Descartes Highlands of the moon on this day in 1972 with John Young, Charlie Duke and Ken Mattingly.