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[b]Space Cover 662: Fourth of July's Shuttle launch and landing[/b] America proclaimed its independence from Great Britain on July 4th, 1776, becoming the United States of America and every fourth of July since has been celebrated as America's Independence Day: The Fourth of July. Aerial fireworks are a big part of celebrating Independence Day but it was forty-seven years before a NASA manned launch created a spectacular aerial fireworks display on the Fourth of July. It finally did on July 4th, 2008, with the launch of STS-121, 47 years after Alan Shepard's Mercury-Redstone 3 launch in 1961. Also, and surprisingly enough, no American had been in space on July 4th until the fourth (appropriately) flight of the Space Shuttle Program, STS-4; twenty-one years and 34 manned flights after Mercury-Redstone 3. At the end of the STS-4 flight, Ken Mattingly and Hank Hartsfield landed orbiter Challenger at Edwards Air Force Base, CA on July 4th, 1982. President Ronald Reagan was there to welcome them and then for NASA to proclaim the Orbital Flight Test Program a success and the Space Shuttle operational. It was a very special Fourth of July/Independence Day event for the country. The top cover, canceled on July 4, 1982 at EAFB, CA and signed by the STS-4 crew, marks the first time Americans had been in space on Independence Day, and the bottom cover canceled on July 4, 2008 and signed by the STS-121 crew, marks the first NASA manned spaceflight launch on the Fourth of July. Viking 1 was scheduled to land on Mars on July 4th, 1976, America's Bicentennial, but was delayed to July 20. Then on July 4th, 1997, the Sojourner rover landed on Mars, followed on July 4th, 2016, with the Juno probe placed in orbit around Jupiter. So July the Fourth has had several significant US space events happen on that special national holiday. Anyone have covers they'd like to be shown here for Sojourner's and Juno's Fourth of July celebrations?
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