2006 –Asteroid 588 Achilles Closest Approach To Earth (4.861 AU)
2006 – Space Shuttle Discovery (STS 121) Return To Earth after accomplishing the main objectives of the mission: completing the return-to-flight objectives by flying an improved external tank and testing on-orbit shuttle repair procedures, and preparing the International Space Station for future assembly.
2003 – The most powerful Atlas rocket in history, the Atlas V 500, is launched from Cape Canaveral
carrying Rainbow 1, a television satellite, to space.
1985 – Launch of STS-51-G the 18th flight in the Space Shuttle program, and the fifth flight of Space Shuttle Discovery. Sultan bin Salman Al Saud from Saudi Arabia was on board as a payload specialist; Al Saud became the first Arab, the first Muslim, and the first member of a royal family to fly into space. It was also the first Space Shuttle mission which flew without at least one astronaut from the pre-Shuttle era among its crew. (wiki)
1975 – The Soyuz and Apollo flights launched within seven and a half hours of each other on July 15, and docked on July 17. Three hours later the two mission commanders, Stafford and Leonov, exchanged the first international handshake in space through the open hatch of the Soyuz. NASA had calculated that the historic handshake would have taken place over the British seaside resort of Bognor Regis, but a delay resulted in its actual occurrence being over the town of Metz in France. This was the last Apollo mission. Read More at Wikipedia.
