Two milestones are recorded on the STS-8 space shuttle mission: The oldest astronaut, William E. Thornton, 54, and the first black American astronaut, USAF Lt. Col. Guion S. Bluford Jr., are sent aloft on the space shuttle Challenger with three others.
The Air Force is on track to reach its annual goal of graduating 1,500 new pilots that had proved elusive to this point, one year after the service launched a sweeping overhaul of its undergraduate pilot training program, Air Education and Training Command said Sept. 14.
