On this date…Second American in orbit

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

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

Three spacecraft built in Europe and Japan have completed their final joint tests to ensure they are ready for departure to Mercury on an Ariane 5 rocket late next year on the nearly $1.9 billion BepiColombo mission to survey the solar system’s innermost planet.