OTD…Sept. 25 and STS-86

Today in 1969, the launch of Apollo 9 and the first manned flight of all lunar hardware in Earth orbit.

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 2012…Shuttle reaches retirement roost in sunny SoCal