OTD…Jan. 13 and STS-54

#OTD…Launch of Atlantis in 1989 to send the Magellan space probe to Venus

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

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.