OTD…Oct. 23 and STS-120

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.

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

#OTD in 1985…Discovery launched to deploy three satellites and rendezvous with another for daring repair