OTD…July 13 and STS-70

#OTD in 1989…Columbia launched with a classified communications satellite for the Defense Department

The first crew to inhabit Skylab — Conrad, Weitz and Kerwin — launched today in 1973 for a 28-day mission that successfully made critical repairs, brought the station into operation and conducted solar astronomy, Earth resources and medical experiments.

#OTD in 2007…NASA’s Dawn probe launched to explore the uncharted worlds of Vesta and Ceres in the heart of the asteroid belt.