Launching of the Mercury-Redstone 3 (MR-3) rocket from Cape
Canaveral on astronaut Alan B. Shepard’s Freedom 7 suborbital
mission. 

From Cape Canaveral, Florida, Navy Commander Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr.
is launched into space aboard the Freedom 7 space capsule, becoming the
first American astronaut to travel into space. The suborbital flight, which
lasted 15 minutes and reached a height of 116 miles into the atmosphere,
was a major triumph for NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration.

SANDY KOZEL

On this day in 1970, an oxygen tank exploded on Apollo 13,
preventing a planned moon landing.

SANDY KOZEL

On January 28, 1986, the NASA Space Shuttle orbiter undertaking mission
STS-51-L and the tenth flight of Space Shuttle Challenger  broke apart 73
seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members aboard: five NASA
astronauts, one payload specialist, and a civilian school teacher.

The spacecraft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of
Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11:39 a.m. EST.

Space Shuttle Challanger crew: Back row from left to right…Ellison
S. Onizuka, Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Greg Jarvis, and Judy Resnik.
In the front row from left to right: Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee,
and Ron McNair.

President Reagan delivers a nationwide speech following the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

Challenger shuttle memorial in Arlington cemetery, Washington DC.

 
ED DONAHUE
    
    
    

Space Shuttle Columbia’s last Launch.     
     
 

The Columbia’s 28th space mission, designated STS-107, was originally
scheduled to launch on January 11, 2001, but was delayed numerous
times for a variety of reasons over nearly two years. Columbia finally
launched on January 16, 2003, with a crew of seven.

Eighty seconds into the launch, a piece of foam insulation broke off
from the shuttle’s propellant tank and hit the edge of the shuttle’s
left wing.

When Columbia re-entered the earth’s atmosphere on the morning of
February 1, 2003, the damage allowed hot atmospheric gases to
penetrate the heat shield and destroy the internal wing structure,
which caused the spacecraft to become unstable and break apart.

The first debris began falling to the ground in West Texas near Lubbock
at 8:58 a.m. One minute later, the last communication from the crew of
five men and two women was heard, and at 9 a.m. the space shuttle
disintegrated over northeast Texas, near Dallas.  
     
     
    

      
        
                      
     
    
   
       
 
Crewmember helmet found in a field after the space shuttle Columbia 
disaster.

Guion Stewart Bluford Jr., Ph.D.

U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Guion S. Bluford became the first African American to travel into space when the space shuttle Challenger lifts off on
its third mission. It was the first night launch of a space shuttle, and many
people stayed up late to watch the spacecraft roar up from Cape Canaveral,
Florida, at 2:32 a.m.

The Challenger spent six days in space, during which time Bluford and his
four fellow crew members launched a communications satellite for the
government of India, made contact with an errant communications satellite, conducted scientific experiments, and tested the shuttle’s robotic arm. Just
before dawn on September 5, the shuttle landed at Edwards Air Force Base
in California, bringing an end to the most flawless shuttle mission to that
date.

These five astronauts were the crew members for STS-8, Challenger. Richard M. Truly, center, crew commander. Daniel C. Brandenstein,
left, was the pilot. The mission specialists were Dale A. Gardner,
William E. Thornton (both on back row) and Guion S. Bluford.

Guion “Buy” Bluford will be 77 on Nov. 22.