OTD…April 12 and STS-1 and 51D

#OTD in 1983…Challenger launched with America’s first woman astronaut. Watch the launch:

#OTD in 2002…Atlantis launched the outward expansion of the space station’s truss backbone

Scott Carpenter launched atop an Atlas rocket to become the second American to orbit the Earth today in 1962, flying for 4 hours and 39 minutes aboard Aurora 7 while making three revolutions of the globe.