55 Years Ago – 1949
May 3: U.S. Navy launched Martin Viking Rocket No. 1 to altitude of 51.4 miles and a speed of 2,250 miles per hour, from the White Sands Missile Range, NM.
May 11 - President Harry Truman signed into law the act authorizing the Atlantic Missile Range, FL.

45 Years Ago - 1959
May 14: The Moon was used as a relay station for intercontinental transmission. Jodrell Bank, England to Bedford, MA.
May 28: "Able" and "Baker" were successfully launched atop a Jupiter rocket to an altitude of 300 miles and 1500 miles downrange. The two "monkeynauts" were successfully recovered. Launched from the Eastern Space Missile Center, FL,.

40 Years Ago – 1964
May 15: The Atlantic Missile Range was renamed the Eastern Test Range, FL.
May 28 - SA-6 launched 1:07 p.m., EDT, ESMC. The first flight of an unmanned Apollo spacecraft boilerplate.

35 Years Ago – 1969
May 9: HL-10 first supersonic flight, piloted by John A. Manke, DFRF.
May 18: Apollo 10 launched 12:49 a.m., EDT, KSC on "the mission before THE mission." Astronauts Thomas P. Stafford, John Young, and Eugene Cernan. Testing all aspects of the lunar landing mission, except the actual lunar landing.
May 21: Intelsat III F-4 launched, 10:00 p.m., EDT, ESMC.

30 Years Ago – 1974
May 17: SMS-1 (Synchronous Meteorological Satellite-1) launched 5:31 a.m., EDT, ESMC.
May 30:ATS-6 (Applications Technology Satellite-6) launched 9:00 a.m., EDT, ESMC.

25 Years Ago – 1979
May 4: FLTSATCOM-2 launched 2:56 p.m., EDT, ESMC.

15 Years Ago - 1989
May 4: STS-30 (Shuttle Atlantis) launched from KSC at 2:46:59 p.m.,EDT. Astronauts David Walker, Ronald Grabe, Norm Thagard, Mary Cleave, and Mark Lee. Returned to Edwards AFB, CA, May 8th. Mission duration 4 days, 57 minutes.
May 4: Magellan spacecraft launched from Shuttle Atlantis (STS-30). Rendezvoused with Venus on Aug. 10, 1990 to begin planetary mapping mission.

10 Years Ago – 1994
May 9: MSTI 2 (Miniature Sensor Technology Integration 2), a U.S.A. defense spacecraft, was launched from Vandenberg AFB by the last of the now discontinued Scout series.

5 Years Ago - 1999
May 18: TERRIERS (Tomographic Experiment using Radiative Recombinative Ionsopheric EUV and Radio Sources) launched by a Pegasus XL rocket carried by a L-1011 cargo plane flying out of Vandenberg AFB intended to monitor the solar (not ionospheric) extreme ultraviolet (EUV) spectrum.
May 27: STS 96 (Shuttle Discovery) launched from KSC at 6:49 a.m. EDT as a logistics and resupply mission for the International Space Station. Astronauts Kent V. Rominger, Rick D. Husband, Ellen Ochoa, Tamara E. Jernigan, Daniel T. Barry, Julie Payette, and cosmonaut Valery Tokarev. Landed at KSC on June 6, 1999, at 2:02 a.m, EDT. Mission duration 9 days, 19 hours, 13 minutes.