OTD…Aug. 18 and STS-68 abort

#OTD in 1985…Discovery launched on the first classified space shuttle mission for the Department of Defense. Watch the liftoff:

#OTD in 1996…Columbia launched on a life sciences and microgravity flight.

NASA’s first space station — the Skylab orbital workshop — was launched atop a Saturn 5 rocket today, May 14, in 1973.