OTD…Aug. 18 and STS-68 abort

Scott Carpenter launched atop an Atlas rocket to become the second American to orbit the Earth today in 1962, flying for 4 hours and 39 minutes aboard Aurora 7 while making three revolutions of the globe.

#OTD in 1982…Columbia launches on the fourth space shuttle mission. #OTD in 1995…Atlantis launches on first shuttle-Mir docking flight

US-French-Saudi crew launched aboard Discovery with a multi-satellite payload