rnoe@urbana.mcd.mot.com (Roger Noe) (04/12/90)
It's too bad we couldn't have added the Hubble telescope to the list of anniversaries observed at this time of year. April 13, 1990 will be the twentieth anniversary of the explosion which crippled the Apollo 13 service module, which would have stranded astronauts Lovell, Swigert, and Haise in space had it not been for their resourcefulness and that of the ground support crew. It was the last time BC (before Challenger) that the U.S. came so close to having astronauts die during a mission. April 12 will be the ninth anniversary of the day Young and Crippen lifted off aboard Columbia on STS-1, the first shuttle mission. Twenty years before on that very same day, Yuri Gagarin became the first human being in Earth orbit on Vostok 1. Next year we'll be celebrating thirty years of space exploration by humans (April 12 in what's left of the USSR, May 5 in the USA). -- Roger Noe Motorola Microcomputer Division, Urbana Design Center Phone: 217 384-8536 1101 East University Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801 USA Internet: rnoe@urbana.mcd.mot.com UUCPnet: uiucuxc!udc!rnoe Latitude/Longitude: 40:06:55 N./88:11:40 W.