OTD…April 9 and STS-59

#OTD in 2005…Discovery launched on the first space shuttle mission after the Columbia tragedy

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.

#OTD in 1997…Atlantis launched on the seventh joint docking mission with Russia’s space station Mir