OTD…Jan. 28 and STS-51L

#OTD in 1994…Discovery launched to develop new techniques for monitoring Earth’s environment from space…and in 2006…Construction of the space station resumed as Atlantis delivered a power-generating truss

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 1993…Endeavour launched a new NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellite.