OTD…July 12 and STS-104

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 1994…Discovery launched to develop new techniques for monitoring Earth’s environment from space…and in 2006…Construction of the space station resumed as Atlantis delivered a power-generating truss

Today in 2011, shuttle Discovery made a graceful landing at Kennedy Space Center, returning from her final voyage after a remarkable three-decade life of service.