OTD…July 4 and STS-121

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 1989…Atlantis launched the Galileo spacecraft to Jupiter and in 1993…Columbia launched on a life sciences Spacelab flight

#OTD in 2000…Atlantis launched on a mission to make the International Space Station a home in orbit