We are re-organizing the site - stay tuned!
12 April 2001
In the meantime, celebrate the 40th anniversary of manned space flight! Yuri
Gagarin became the first man to
orbit the Earth on
12 April
1961, in his Soviet "Vostok"
capsule. He only
flew in space once. He was killed in a plane crash in
1968, but his achievement will always
be remembered. Here's to forty
years of manned spaceflight!!!
More Space History - Today is also the
20th anniversary
(12
April 1981) of the STS-1
(Shuttle Columbia)
launch,
the first Shuttle mission.
Mission Fact sheet here; Crew info
here; Image collections here
and here; Special
report here.
STS-1 was the first
spaceflight of the Shuttle, (the world's first
reusable spacecraft), the first
manned flight using solid-fueled rockets, and the first time a
US spacecraft had flown with a crew aboard on
its maiden flight (no
unmanned tests for these guys!). Columbia,
which launched on the 20th
anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's historic flight, would land 2
days later at Edwards AFB.
After 2 decades, the Shuttle program (and
Columbia herself) is still
going strong.
[Date: NASA]
To keep going back in the timeline, check the
Space News Archive for
March 2001,
February 2001,
January 2001,
all of 2000 and
1999, as well as
Shuttle Missions and
ISS coverage.
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