July 24, 1969: Apollo 11 returns home

#OTD in 1991…Atlantis launched another of NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellites

Boosted to an altitude of 3,604 miles by a Delta 4 rocket, NASA’s Orion deep space exploration vehicle fell back to Earth Friday in the program’s maiden voyage, slamming into the atmosphere at nearly 20,000 mph, enduring a hellish 4,000-degree re-entry and settling to a Pacific Ocean splashdown to wrap up a critical unmanned test flight.

#OTD…Launch of Columbia in 1993 on the second flight of the German Spacelab