OTD…March 3 and Apollo 9

#OTD…The first launch of Challenger in 1983 and Columbia’s shortened Spacelab mission in 1997

#OTD in 1997…Discovery launched to deploy and later retrieve the CRISTA-SPAS atmospheric research satellite

The first crew to inhabit Skylab — Conrad, Weitz and Kerwin — launched today in 1973 for a 28-day mission that successfully made critical repairs, brought the station into operation and conducted solar astronomy, Earth resources and medical experiments.