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!
by 
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!
by Ten years ago today — February 7, 2001 — the Space Shuttle Atlantis launched from Kennedy Space Center, on its way to the International Space Station.
(Destiny module being installed on the International Space Station. NASA image.)
STS-98 astronauts Kenneth D. Cockrell, Mark L. Polansky, Robert L. Curbeam, Thomas D. Jones, and Marsha S. Ivins transported the U.S. laboratory module “Destiny” and installed it on the ISS.
And, speaking of destiny, 20 years ago today the Salyut-7 space station was de-orbited after nearly nine years of operations. The main character in my story, “The Rocket Seamstress,”* bemoaned its loss:
Where are Salyut and Mir, Mother Russia’s glorious outposts? Rusting homes to fish instead of men.
May we one day have outposts in space that are not in any danger of falling from the sky.
___
*The story appeared in Zahir in 2007, and is available now on Anthology Builder.
by Fifty years ago today — February 1, 1961 — an SM-80 Minuteman-IA intercontinental ballistic missile was successfully launched, marking the first test flight of the full-up solid-fueled ICBM.
(Minuteman-I missile. USAF image.)
Of more interest to me, this Air Force fact sheet notes that in April 1959 “Boeing launched the first Minuteman mockup at Edwards AFB, California. Test flights of mockup missiles continued into May 1960, all of which were successful.”
Why does that historical tidbit interest me so? Because many years later my first assignment was to the Air Force Rocket Propulsion Laboratory at Edwards, where those test flights had taken place. What made them remarkable was that those test flights at the Rock were tethered, meaning that after the missile left the silo* it was still shackled to the ground. I wish I had one of the images to post, of the missile trying to get away while sturdy lines held it fast.
Many of my friends spent tours of duty as missileers and missile maintainers, on later versions of the Minuteman as well as other ICBM systems. To each of them, and others whom I don’t know, I say: I’m grateful for your quiet diligence and your deterrent power which kept (and keeps) us secure. I salute you all.
___
*Which I visited many times, at Area 1-100.
by 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.
by The date may not register with all of us every year, but few space enthusiasts — and probably few U.C. citizens — over thirty will ever forget the mishap that destroyed the Space Shuttle Challenger.
It’s hard to believe that it was 25 years ago today — January 28, 1986 — that the Challenger lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on mission STS-51L, and exploded a little over a minute into the launch profile.
To this day, I find it almost painful to watch the video of the explosion. Indeed, I find it hard to compose this post, even though I’ve known it was coming for a long time.
So I will just post this picture of the Challenger astronauts — Francis R. “Dick” Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Ellison S. Onizuka, Judith A. Resnik, Ronald E. McNair, Sharon Christa McAuliffe, and Gregory Jarvis — the way I like to remember them:
(STS-51L crew, leaving the Operations & Checkout Building. NASA image.)
Hopeful. Enthusiastic. Fearless.
by 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.
by 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.
by Thirty-five years ago today — January 15, 1976 — a Titan-IIIE rocket with Centaur upper stage launched from Cape Canaveral carrying the Helios-B spacecraft on a unique deep-space mission.
Helios-B was developed by the Federal Republic of Germany, but as a cooperative program with NASA it carried both German and U.S. experiments. Its mission was to characterize the “interplanetary medium” inward from Earth’s orbit. Within only a few months, Helios-B had reached perihelion — the closest point in its orbit to the Sun — at a distance of 43.432 million kilometers (26.987 million miles, or 0.29 astronomical units), meaning that it was closer to the Sun than the planet Mercury. That’s the closest any space probe has ever gotten to the Sun.
From sending probes into space to welcoming them home …
Fast forward 30 years, to January 15, 2006, when the Stardust capsule returned to Earth with samples taken around the vicinity of Comet Wild-2.
(Microscopic view of one of the “Calcium Aluminum Inclusion” particles returned to Earth by the Stardust mission. NASA image.)
Scientists have been studying the materials trapped in Stardust’s aerogel, with surprising results including “a remarkable set of minerals that form at extremely high temperature” and the amino acid, glycine. Pretty amazing, considering the capsule entered the Earth’s atmosphere at over 28,000 miles per hour: the fastest-ever reentry of anything we’ve ever sent into space.
[BREAK, BREAK]
In other news, the first day of the MarsCon science fiction & fantasy convention went well. (Nothing like showing up at a panel to provide moral support and being invited to participate.) Today I’m sequestering myself, trying to finish writing a short story before I venture back out. That’s my next task, as soon as this post is live … wish me luck.
by 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.”*
___
*And women, of course, but there weren’t any on this mission.
by 
