Category Archives: Space

The Era of Mir Begins

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Twenty-five years ago today — February 19, 1986 — the core module of the Mir space station was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.


(Mir space station. NASA image.)

The first piece of Mir was launched atop a Proton rocket — an earlier model of the same type of rocket I saw being processed at Baikonur in 2002 — and over the years was joined to other modules to form the complete station.

As of the date of this post, the National Space Science Data Center page on Mir references a 1993 European Space Agency information page, but still presents some good information about the station. In contrast, this Wikipedia page has the full story on the space station, from this first launch until its re-entry in 2001.

“Mir” is usually translated as “peace.”

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NEAR-Shoemaker Launched

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Fifteen years ago today — February 17, 1996 — the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft launched on a Delta-II rocket out of Cape Canaveral.


(NEAR-Shoemaker spacecraft. NASA image.)

The spacecraft was renamed NEAR-Shoemaker in honor of astronomer Gene Shoemaker, and was sent on its way to the asteroid Eros.

NEAR-Shoemaker flew by the asteroid 253 Mathilde on June 27, 1997, made a gravity-assist maneuver around Earth on January 23, 1998, flew by Eros on 23 December 1998, and finally entered into a tight orbit around Eros on (appropriately enough) Valentine’s Day 2000. As we noted a few days ago, after a year of observations NEAR-Shoemaker landed on Eros on February 12, 2001.

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Explorer-9

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Hat tip to J Michael Antoniewicz II, for calling this one to my attention:

Fifty years ago today — February 16, 1961 — the Explorer-9 inflatable sphere was launched into orbit on a Scout rocket from Wallops Island, Virginia.

Explorer-9 was the first spacecraft orbited from the Virginia launch facility, and the first placed in orbit by an all-solid-fuel launch vehicle.

Thanks for flagging this for me!

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Venus and Eros in Space History

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Fifty years ago today — February 12, 1961 — the Soviet Union launched the Venera-1 probe from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.


(Venera-1. Image from NASA’s National Space Science Data Center.)

Venera-1, or the “Venus-1 Automatic Interplanetary Station,” was the first spacecraft to fly by Venus. Even though telemetry contact with the spacecraft was lost on March 4th, making the mid-course corrections impossible, around May 19th Venera-1 flew within 100,000 km (62,000 mi) of the cloud-shrouded planet.

From Venus to Eros …

Forty years later, on this date in 2001, the NEAR spacecraft — i.e., the Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous spacecraft — touched down successfully on the asteroid Eros (even though the vehicle was not designed as a lander). On its way to touchdown, NEAR sent back high-resolution close-up images of the asteroid’s surface.

The Roman goddess of love, and the Greek god of love — a good day in space history for this Valentine’s weekend!

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Rocket Mail

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Eighty years ago today — February 2, 1931 — Friedrich Schmiedl launched the first official “rocket mail,” sending 102 covers (i.e., envelopes)* and postcards to Radegund, Austria.

Several old photographs of rocket mail attempts are found on this Scienceray page.

At least one source listed the official date as being in May, but sources such as The Rocket Mail Page (which includes a photograph of Schmiedl later in life) and this astrophilately site agree that Schmiedl’s launch occurred on this date in space history. (The Rocket Mail Page does note, however, that rockets were used to send mail from ships to islands in Fiji as early as 1902.)

Wonder how much a stamp would cost today, if we were still sending mail by rocket ….

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*Postal covers are envelopes or other outer wrappings that have been through the mail, usually with cancelled postage, and are often collected and valued for their historical significance.

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Space History: Once More to the Moon!

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Actually, twice more, a few years apart: once for the Soviets, once for us.

Today was quite a busy day in space history: 50 years ago — on January 31, 1961 — the reconnaissance satellite Samos-2 launched from the Navy’s Pacific Missile Range (now part of Vandenberg AFB) , while a few hours earlier Mercury Redstone-2 had launched from Cape Canaveral, carrying Ham the chimpanzee. Ham performed well despite enduring higher g-forces than planned and an accidental cabin depressurization.

But as for the lunar missions …

Five years later, on this date in 1966, the Soviet Union launched Luna-9 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Luna-9 was the first craft to successfully make a “soft landing” on the Moon, and sent back several panoramic images of the lunar surface.

But the main event on this day in space history occurred 40 years ago today — January 31, 1971 — when Apollo-14 launched from the Kennedy Space Center carrying astronauts Alan B. Shepard Jr., Stuart A. Roosa, and Edgar D. Mitchell.


(Alan Shepard, during the Apollo-14 mission to the Moon. NASA image.)

Roosa stayed aboard the Command and Service Module “Kitty Hawk” while Shepard and Mitchell descended to the surface in the Lunar Module “Antares”. They landed in the Fra Mauro highlands, where Apollo-13 was supposed to land, and spent over 30 hours there — including over 9 hours exploring the surface.

I could go into various personal science fictional tie-ins to today’s space history, but I get tired of self-promotion. So I think today it’s best to let the day’s accomplishments stand on their own.

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A Voyage[r] to Uranus

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Twenty-five years ago today — January 24, 1986 — the Voyager-2 spacecraft made its closest approach to the planet Uranus.


(Oberon, one of Uranus’s moons, photographed by Voyager-2. NASA image.)

Its flyby carried Voyager-2 to within 50,600 miles (81,500 km) of Uranus. In addition to taking images of the planet’s rings and known moons, Voyager-2 discovered ten previously unseen moons and two previously unknown rings.

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New Horizons: Launch to Pluto

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Five years ago today — January 19, 2006 — we sent a deep space probe from Cape Canaveral to rendezvous with Pluto and study the Kuiper Belt.


(Artist’s conception of the New Horizons spacecraft in the vicinity of Pluto. NASA image from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute.)

New Horizons launched atop an Atlas-5 rocket on its way to Pluto and Charon (Pluto’s moon). It will reach Pluto in July 2015, where it will map Pluto, study its atmosphere and other characteristics, and continue on to other objects in the Kuiper Belt.

This page has compelling details about the mission, including a countdown to the rendezvous and the mission’s Twitter feed.

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Hermes, Messenger of the Gods … in Space

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Thirty-five years ago today — January 17, 1976 — a Delta launch vehicle out of Cape Canaveral launched the Communications Technology Satellite into geosynchronous orbit.


(Artist’s conception of the Hermes satellite. Canadian Space Agency image.)

Also called Hermes, after the messenger god of Greek mythology, CTS was an international mission to test new global communications techniques and equipment. According to this informative Online Journal of Space Communication article:

Under the agreement with NASA, Canada designed and built the spacecraft. NASA provided an experimental 200W traveling-wave-tube amplifier (TWTA) and environmental test support. In 1972, DOC/CRC [Canada’s Communications Research Centre] signed an agreement with the European Space Agency (ESA), under which ESA agreed to provide 20W TWTAs, a SHF parametric amplifier and to develop the solar blanket.

NASA provided the launch vehicle, launch and operational support to place the spacecraft in the geostationary satellite orbit. Following the handover from NASA to DOC/CRC of the satellite in orbit at 116 [degrees] W longitude, DOC/CRC configured the satellite for its operational mission, and operated the satellite for U.S. and Canadian communications and spacecraft technology experiments.

The Hermes operations proved very successful, and led to much-improved geosynchronous satellite communications that we all enjoy today.

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First Congressman in Space, a Quarter Century Ago

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Twenty-five years ago today — January 12, 1986 — the Space Shuttle Columbia launched from Kennedy Space Center carrying into orbit the first member of U.S. House of Representatives to fly in space.


(In-flight portrait of the STS-61C crew. NASA image.)

The entire STS-61C crew consisted of astronauts Robert L. “Hoot” Gibson, Charles F. Bolden, Franklin R. Chang-Diaz, George D. “Pinky” Nelson, Steve A. Hawley, and Robert J. Cenker, plus Congressman William C. Nelson. In addition to being the first time a sitting Representative flew in space, it was the first flight for Bolden, who is the current NASA Administrator, and for Chang-Diaz, the first Costa Rica-born astronaut.

The crew deployed the SATCOM KU-1 communications satellite and conducted a number of different experiments. Their landing was originally moved up one day, then had to be delayed because of weather.

The NASA mission summary doesn’t mention how much concern they had over seeing a piece of thermal insulation in orbit alongside the shuttle:


(One of the shuttle’s thermal insulation tiles photographed from inside Columbia. NASA image.)

I imagine that sort of thing, even if not uncommon, would increase the “pucker factor” when it came time for landing. But such is the life of the “steely-eyed missile men.”*

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*And women, of course, but there weren’t any on this mission.

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