OTD…May 7 and STS-49

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 2007…Discovery launched Harmony as the gateway to future international science laboratories

#OTD in 1990…Columbia launched to retrieve NASA’s Long duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) on the longest Shuttle flight to date.