OTD…July 13 and STS-70

#OTD in 2012…California welcomes Endeavour back to birth state for retirement

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…Columbia launched on a microgravity science Spacelab flight