Today’s the day in 1983, that ESA’s first astronaut was launched into space! Along with the first European-built Space Shuttle element, the Spacelab laboratory…
On this day: 28 November 1983, liftoff of Space Shuttle Columbia STS-9 and the first flight of ESA’s Spacelab, with Ulf Merbold, the first ESA and first non-US astronaut to fly on the Shuttle. STS-9 was the ninth NASA Space Shuttle mission and the sixth mission of Columbia (pic: NASA)