OTD…Oct. 20 and STS-73

The final manned Mercury mission was launched atop an Atlas rocket on this day in 1963 with Gordon Cooper aboard Faith 7 for a 34-hour, 22-orbit flight.

#OTD in 2005…Discovery launched on the first space shuttle mission after the Columbia tragedy

#OTD in 1989…Atlantis launched the Galileo spacecraft to Jupiter and in 1993…Columbia launched on a life sciences Spacelab flight