OTD…May 14 and STS-132

VIDEO: The winged spaceship Columbia returned to Earth with a pinpoint landing at Edwards Air Force Base on this day 35 years ago, concluding the maiden flight of the space shuttle.

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 in 1995, Endeavour launched on the ASTRO-2 astronomy mission: