OTD…Oct. 12 and Endeavour

Today in 1971…The launch of Apollo 14 to Fra Mauro with Alan Shepard, Stuart Roosa and Edgar Mitchell.

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.

American and Soviet crews were launched today in 1975 for the first handshakes in space between the two superpowers as part of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.