Fifteen years ago today — August 13, 1998 — the Russians launched a crew to the Mir space station, and the U.S. launched a small science satellite.
(SCISAT-1. NASA image.)
Soyuz TM-28 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome with Gennadi I.Padalka, Sergei V.Avdeyev, and Yuri M.Baturin aboard. The trio docked with Mir two days later using manual controls because one of the two automatic systems had failed.
And on this date 10 years ago, the Canadian research satellite SCISAT 1 launched on a Pegasus XL rocket. The Pegasus was released over the Pacific Ocean from its L-1011 carrier plane, on a flight that originated out of Vandenberg AFB, and placed SCISAT in orbit to monitor atmospheric ozone and dust.
by 
