9 Group 2 astronauts, with Ray Zedehar (Astronaut Training Officer) & Deke Slayton (Coordinator of Astronaut Activities), begin a 4-day desert survival course at Stead AFB & Carson Sink Nev., OTD 1963. The programme included lectures, field demos & exercises in survival practice.

MSFC awards Lockheed Missile & Space Co. a 2.7m contract OTD 1978 for the development & delivery of a solar-array wing experiment to be flown on a Shuttle mission. The 30+m long x 4m wide array, folded in the payload bay, was finally flown & tested during STS-41D in Aug-Sep 1984

Congrats to @Flygirl_Joanie on completion of another solar orbit (b.OTD 1964). A former KSC electrical engineer; (1996) selected Group 16 ("The Sardines"); (2006) MS STS-116 (12+ days); was assigned to fly on STS-126 but retired from NASA Nov 2007 to enter the private sector.

Congrats to @Astro_Wakata on completing his 62nd solar orbit OTD. In 5 spaceflights (1996-2003, 504+d, 2 EVAs), he has flown on Discovery & Endeavour (both twice), Soyuz TMA & Crew Dragon & worked on 6 ISS expeditions (18-20, 38/39 (ISS Cdr) & 68). Apr 2024 joined Axiom Space

The DM of Soyuz (7K-T #52) landed OTD 1980, following a flight of 65+days (launched 26 May), 180 km SE of Dzhezkazgan. On board were the 6th Interkosmos crew (Viktor Gorbatko & Vietnam's Pham Tuan) who had launched on Soyuz 37 & spent a week with the 4th Salyut 6 resident crew.

Two days after the crews for Gemini 4 had been named, Gemini Dep Project Manager Ken Kleinknecht stated OTD 1964 that an experiment would see one of the astronauts "stepping into space" but may be nothing more than standing up in the open hatch rather than a full exit spacewalk.

STS-114 (LF-1) Return-to-Flight mission, launched OTD 2005, 907 days after the loss of Columbia during the reentry of STS-107 (1 Feb 2003). Supplies were transferred to the ISS & new Shuttle flight safety techniques & the Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS) RMS extension arm tested

The landing was at 03:38 am UTC, 25th July - local time .was 11:38 pm EDT 24th July 2001😀.

The 12+day STS-104 mission was completed OTD 2001 with a landing for Atlantis on SLF Runway 15, KSC. Over 8+days docked to ISS, the crew of the 10th Shuttle ISS mission (7A) delivered & installed the Quest joint airlock at the starboard common berthing mechanism on the Unity node

The CM of the last Apollo splashed down in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii OTD 1975. Completing a 9+day mission & the operational phase of both ASTP & America's 14-year era of pioneering human spaceflight programmes. It would be nearly 6 years before US astronauts returned to orbit

Completing a 5+d mission, with almost 2 days docked to the American Apollo spacecraft, Alexei Leonov & Valeri Kubasov landed in the DM of Soyuz 19 (#75) OTD 1975. The touchdown was 61 km northeast of Arkalyk & concluded the Soviets' participation in the historic ASTP mission.

FD6 STS-127 (2 J/A), OTD 2009. On the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11's historic lunar EVA, Dave Wolf & Tom Marshburn completed the 2nd EVA of their mission. During 6h 53m outside the ISS, the pair transferred ORU's from a cargo carrier to a stowage platform on the station's truss.

Congrats to Capt Scott Tingle USN, who turns 60 OTD. Selected in 2009 (Group 20). (2009-11) Ascan training; (2014) ESA CAVES; (2017/18) logged 168+d & 1 EVA as FE Soyuz MS-07 (ISS EO 54/55). (2020) Assigned Artemis training group; (2022) named Cdr Starliner-1 (PCM-1). ACTIVE

The uncrewed SpaceX CRS-9 (SpX-9) ISS resupply mission launched OTD 2016 carrying 2,257 kilograms of cargo (inc. the International Docking Adapter-2 located in Dragon's trunk). Berthing at the Harmony node on ISS occurred 2 days later, where it remained for the next 36+ days.

ASTP@50. OTD 1975, Tom Stafford guided Apollo to dock with Soyuz for the 1st time. 3 hrs later, the hatches were opened for a historic handshake with Alexei Leonov. Stafford & Slayton then entered the Soyuz to join Leonov & Kubasov for the next 3 hours.

Remembering ASTP@50. A mission I followed each day on UK TV. I feel fortunate to have met all the participants. Tom Stafford wrote the Foreword to Gemini, I interviewed Deke Slayton at JSC & I fondly recall the bear hugs from Alexei Leonov & Vance Brand remains a family friend.

Congrats to George "Pinky" Nelson, who turns 75 OTD (b. 1950). Selected in 1978 (Group 8 "TFNGs") as a Mission Specialist, he logged over 17d & 9+ hrs on 2 EVAs during 3 shuttle flights between 1984 & 1988 (STS-41C, -61C & -26). Upon leaving NASA in 1989, he returned to academia.

25 years ago, OTD 2000, after much delay, the Russians launched their Zvezda service module, which docked automatically to the embryonic Zarya/Unity modules 2 weeks later. This was a major step in the assembly of ISS and enabling the first resident crew to arrive later that year.

NASA revealed, OTD 1962, LOR had been chosen as the primary Apollo lunar mission mode using the Saturn C-5. However, studies would continue on uncrewed logistics vehicles, the EOR mode with a 2-man spacecraft & the potential of the larger Nova launch vehicle.

Congrats to UK Space Shuttle Payload Specialist candidate Christopher Holmes, who turns 75 OTD. Selected in the UK Skynet group in 1984, he was in PS training for STS-71C as BUp to Peter Longhurst RN until 1986 when the programme was cancelled following the loss of Challenger.