#OTD (Jan 17) 1963 - Joe Walker flew the X-15 to a height of 82,600 m (271,000 feet) and, having flown higher than 50 miles, he qualified for astronaut wings.

Jan 18, 1911 – Eugene Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania anchored in San Francisco Bay, marking the first time an aircraft landed on a ship.

#OTD (Jan 18) 1957 - Completing the flight in 45 hours 19 mins, three USAF B-52 Stratofortress bombers make the world’s first round-the-world, non-stop flight by turbojet-powered aircraft.

Leroy Chiao works in the payload bay of Endeavour during mission STS-72. Shark Bay, Australia looms in the background.

#OTD (Jan 20) 1965 - Gemini 2 was launched. This was an unmanned mission used to test the spacecraft's heat shield.

The F-16 Fighting Falcon made it's first 'accidental' flight #OTD (Jan 20) 1974 during a high-speed taxi test. It would make it's first planned flight on Feb 2.

The Little Joe booster lifts off for the LJ1B mission, January 21, 1960. This mission achieved the suborbital Mercury capsule test, testing of the escape system, and biomedical tests by using a monkey, named Miss Sam.

The de Havilland DH.106 Comet, the world's first commercial jet airliner.

Two Douglas F4D-1 Skyray fighters of VF-102 "Diamondbacks" in flight, April 1960

The Douglas A-20 "Havoc" made its first flight #OTD (Jan 23) 1939. The aircraft was used as a medium bomber, attack aircraft, night intruder, night fighter, and reconnaissance aircraft during World War II.

Opportunity, an American robotic rover landed on the planet Mars #OTD (Jan 25) 2004. The rover was operational on Mars for 5111 sols (14 years, 138 days) and traveled a distance of 45.16 kilometers (28.06 miles).

#OTD (Jan 27) 1943 - The USAAF makes its first daylight raid on Germany over Wilhelmshaven. B-17s and B-24s attack the U-Boat construction yards.

#OTD (Jan 27) 1967, Command Pilot Gus Grissom, Senior Pilot Ed White, and Pilot Roger B. Chaffee were killed in a cabin fire during a launch rehearsal test for the Apollo 1 mission.

The first flight of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, a WWII American Twin-engine, single seat fighter aircraft occurred #OTD (Jan 27) 1939.

On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members aboard. It was the first fatal accident involving an American spacecraft in flight.

The first photo ever taken from the surface of the Moon taken by Luna 9. The Luna 9 spacecraft was the first spacecraft to achieve a survivable landing on a celestial body.

The Air Zoo is closed today (Feb 22, 2023) due to inclement weather. We will reopen Feb 23, 2023.

Due to inclement weather the Air Zoo will close at 2:30pm.