OTD…Jan. 9 and STS-32

#OTD in 1997…Columbia launched on the reflight of her shortened Microgravity Science Laboratory mission

#OTD in 1983…Challenger launched with America’s first woman astronaut. Watch the launch:

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.