On This Day In Alabama History: NASA Successfully Launched Discovery Space Shuttle
By Graydon Rust
Alabama 200
August 30, 1984
NASA successfully launched the Discovery space shuttle for the first time with Birmingham native Henry Hartsfield serving as commander. A U.S. Air Force pilot with more than 7,300 hours of flight time, Hartsfield joined NASA’s astronaut program in 1969 and eventually logged 483 hours in space aboard three different shuttles. He later served as an upper-level administrator for NASA, holding positions at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, the Johnson Space Center in Houston and NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C. Hartsfield received many awards in his lifetime and was inducted into the Alabama Aviation Hall of Fame and the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame.
Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.
Please visit Alabama News Center for the Full Article
Category: ALL POSTS, Partner News Stories
About the Author (Author Profile)
Alabama News Center tels the stories of the people and businesses powering the states of Alabama, striving to make Alabama a wonderful place to live and work.Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
