Author Archives: Gray Rinehart

The Beginning of Space-Based X-Ray Astronomy

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Forty years ago today — December 12, 1970 — NASA launched Explorer-42, the first of a series of small observatories, from the San Marco launch platform off the coast of Kenya.


(The Uhuru satellite in pre-flight checkout, with Dr. Marjorie Townsend [who named the spacecraft] and Dr. Bruno Rossi. NASA image.)

Also called Uhuru, the spacecraft was built to scan the celestial sphere for X-ray sources. In fact, the catalog of sources developed from its data is still in use. Other spacecraft in the series were built to survey the sky in other energy regimes, e.g., in the gamma-ray and ultraviolet parts of the spectrum.

According to this page of Goddard Space Flight Center “Facts and Firsts,” Uhuru “catalogued more than 200 X-ray sources and found the first evidence for a black hole” at Cygnus X-1.

This NASA “Imagine the Universe!” page points out that Uhuru means “freedom” in Swahili, and the spacecraft was so named in honor of its Kenyan hosts. It was also launched on the seventh anniversary of Kenya’s independence.

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New Agency's First Satellite

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Forty years ago today — December 11, 1970 — the newly-formed National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) launched its first satellite.


(Graphic of ITOS satellite, from Wikimedia Commons. NOAA image.)

NOAA-1, also known as Improved TIROS Operational Satellite-A (ITOS-A),* launched from Cape Canaveral on a Thor-Delta rocket. It was the first satellite to carry the NOAA designation, since NOAA had just come into being as part of the U.S. Department of Commerce on October 3, 1970. (Though they just completed their 40th year, at the time of this writing this page celebrates their 30th anniversary.)

For those interested in such things, here’s an August 1968 Technical Memorandum on the ITOS satellite.

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*Got to love the acronym-within-an-acronym: the full name would be the Improved Television and Infrared Observation Satellite Operational Satellite.

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On Reaching the Semi-Finals For the First Time

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Yesterday the Writers of the Future contest folks posted the list of 3rd quarter semi-finalists and finalists, on which you’ll find yours truly … marking the first time I’ve made it to that level of the contest.

It feels good to have made it past the “Honorable Mention” hurdle, at least this once, though my critical self has had trouble putting it in perspective. Those who know me well won’t be surprised that this milestone produced a variety of thoughts — most of them negative — in my addled brain. Listed here in the approximate order in which they occurred to me:

  • “Even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then”
  • “Maybe I’m getting better at telling a good story”
  • “The competition must’ve been fairly weak this quarter”
  • “If the best story I ever wrote only rates a semi-finalist slot, maybe I should give up this writing stuff”
  • “I wish I’d made one more editing pass over the new story I just sent to them”

But, as I posted on Twitter and Facebook and have told anyone who would listen, I liken this to a great drive off the tee that makes up for dozens of hooks and slices and keeps the weekend golfer coming back for more. Even a minor writing triumph like this is enough to keep me coming back.

To take that metaphor a little further, I left this story on the green and need to make a good putt to finish well. The nice thing is that every semi-finalist story is critiqued by the contest director, and her comments were direct and insightful. Now I just have to figure out how to fix the problem she found in such a way that the story has a more satisfying ending — though I wish that was going to be as easy as it sounds. But if I read the green correctly and stroke the ball well, I might yet make something of this story.

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Gemini-VII: Another Step Toward the Moon

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Forty-five years ago today — December 5, 1965 — astronauts Frank Borman and James A. Lovell, Jr. were orbiting the earth in their Gemini capsule.


(The full Moon seen above the limb of the Earth, taken from Gemini-7 on December 8, 1965. NASA image.)

Gemini-7 actually launched 45 years ago yesterday, from Cape Canaveral atop a Titan launch vehicle. (It’s also known as Gemini-Titan-7.)

Borman and Lovell spent 2 weeks in orbit, and performed the first space rendezvous with Gemini-6, which was supposed to launch first but was delayed by a problem with its Titan booster.

Stationkeeping maneuvers involving the spacecraft circling each other and approaching and backing off continued for 5 hours 19 minutes over three and a half orbits. During the maneuvers, all four astronauts on both spacecraft took turns in the formation flying activities and photographs were taken from both spacecraft. This marked the first time two spacecraft were maneuvered with respect to each other by their crews.

Read more about the program at this Gemini history page.

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Congratulations to the X-37B Team!

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A little over 7 months after its launch, this morning the X-37B landed successfully at Vandenberg AFB, according to this VAFB press release.


(Artist’s conception of the X-37. NASA image.)

This program has elicited some interesting commentary in the press. As I wrote in the Space Warfare Forum the day after the launch,

I find it interesting that the news outlets make such frequent use of the word “secret” to describe something that a) they’ve been given pictures of and written articles about, and b) they knew ahead of time was going to launch. Fox News, “a mission shrouded in secrecy,” really? Metro UK, “secret military robot shuttle”? They don’t know what secrecy is.

What a far cry from the days when only the launch and payload crews knew what was on top of the rocket, and the first time most other people found out about the launch was when it thundered away in the distance. And most people never knew what the payload was.

For the curious, here’s more on the X-37 itself.

And again, congratulations to everyone involved — well done!

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Two Observatories on 12/02

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Twenty years ago today — December 2, 1990 — the Space Shuttle Columbia launched from the Kennedy Space Center carrying seven astronauts and a space observatory.

STS-35 astronauts Vance D. Brand, Guy S. Gardner, Jeffrey A. Hoffman, John M. “Mike” Lounge, Robert A. R. Parker, Samuel T. Durrance and Ronald A. Parise surveyed the sky in the ultraviolet and x-ray frequencies using the ASTRO-1 observatory.

ASTRO-1 combined the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope, Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment, Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope, and Broad Band X-Ray Telescope into a single observatory. Between problems with the data display units used to point and operate the instruments, and bad weather at the primary landing site that cut the mission short, only about 70% of the planned observations took place.

And then 5 years later, on this date in 1995, another observatory was launched: the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) flew from Cape Canaveral Air Station atop an Atlas-IIAS launch vehicle. SOHO consisted of twelve different instruments — three from the U.S. and nine from Europe — that have produced stunning images of the Sun and the solar corona, like the one below, over the last 15 years.


(SOHO close-up image of a large solar prominence, taken with the 304A filter on 07/01/02, with Earth superimposed for scale. NASA image.)

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Space Station Assembly Flight Four-Alpha

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Ten years ago today — November 30, 2000 — the Space Shuttle Endeavour launched from Kennedy Space Center on ISS Assembly Flight 4A.


(STS-97 on ascent. NASA image.)

Also known as STS-97, the mission carried a crew of five astronauts: Brent Jett, Michael J. Bloomfield, Joseph R. I. Tanner, and Carlos Noriega of the U.S., plus Marc Garneau of Canada. The shuttle crew visited the ISS residents (the “Expedition One” team) and installed solar arrays and other equipment on the space station.

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Four International Space Launches

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This day in space history — November 26 — has a very international flair, with space activities involving countries around the world.

Forty-five years ago today, in 1965, France joined the “space launch club” by launching its first satellite, Asterix-1, on a Diamant-A launch vehicle out of Hammaguir, Algeria. (According to this Wikipedia article, the satellite was originally designated simply “A-1,” and later renamed after the famous French cartoon.) With this launch, France became the only nation other than the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. to launch a satellite with its own rocket.

On the same day, the U.S.S.R. launched Cosmos-97, a DS-type (Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik) military satellite, on a Kosmos-2 rocket out of Kapustin Yar.

And 35 years ago today, in 1975, the Peoples Republic of China launched the military photoreconnaissance satellite China-4 on a Long March CZ-2 launch vehicle out of Shuang Cheng-Tzu. China-4 was the PRC’s first retrievable satellite; its photo canister returned to earth ten days after launch and was recovered successfully.

And 25 years ago today — November 26, 1985* — the Space Shuttle Atlantis launched from the Kennedy Space Center on an international mission of its own.


(During STS-61B, astronaut Jerry Ross, on the Remote Manipulator System, works on the ACCESS [Assembly Concept for Construction of Erectable Space Structure] truss. NASA image.)

STS-61B included U.S. astronauts Brewster H. Shaw, Bryan D. O’Connor, Mary L. Cleave, Sherwood C. Spring, Jerry L. Ross, and Charles D. Walter, along with the first Mexican-citizen astronaut, Rudolfo Neri Vela. The crew launched three international communications satellites: Morelos-B for Mexico, Aussat-2 for Australia, and Satcom KU-2 for the U.S.

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* The National Space Science Data Center lists the launch on November 27th, because the Zulu data had already changed when the shuttle lifted off at 7:29 p.m. EST on the 26th.

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Lifting Body Powered Flight: M2-F3

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Forty years ago today — November 25, 1970 — test pilot Bill Dana flew the M2-F3 lifting body on its first powered flight.


(M2-F3 on the lakebed at Edwards AFB. NASA image.)

The M2-F3 was an upgraded model of the M2-F2 lifting body, which had control problems resulting in a crash. The F3 version added a central vertical fin, and the result improved the control so much that only three few unpowered glide flights were needed before Dana’s powered flight.

Dana later flew the M2-F3 on its fastest-ever flight, reaching Mach 1.6 (1064 mph) on December 13, 1972.

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Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

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First New Millennium Program Earth Observer

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Ten years ago today — November 21, 2000 — the EO-1 (Earth Observing mission 1), was launched from Vandenberg AFB on a Delta-II rocket.


(EO-1 image of the island of Oahu. NASA image.)

EO-1 was the first earth-observing spacecraft in the New Millennium Program, a NASA program to use low-cost spacecraft to test new technologies.

The same Delta-II rocket also launched the Swedish Munin nanosatellite designed to research the formation of aurarae, and the SAC-C remote sensing satellite built by a coalition of the U.S., Argentina France, Italy, Denmark, and Brazil.

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Update: Edited to note that EO-1’s status not as the first spacecraft in the NMP, but as the first earth-observing spacecraft in the NMP.

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