Tag Archives: launch

Two Obscure Space Anniversaries

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Today we offer two space anniversaries that are a bit more obscure than usual:

Fifty years ago today — April 13, 1959 — the Discoverer-2 satellite launched from Vandenberg AFB on a Thor Agena rocket. Discoverer was the cover name for the CORONA photoreconnaissance program. Here’s a fascinating page about CORONA on the National Reconnaissance Office web site.

And thirty-five years ago today — April 13, 1974 — Westar-1, the first domestic communication satellite, launched from Cape Canaveral on a Delta rocket.

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Space History: Space Radar on the Shuttle

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Fifteen years ago today — April 9, 1994 — the Space Shuttle Endeavour launched from Kennedy Space Center on mission STS-59. Astronauts Sidney M. Gutierrez, Kevin P. Chilton,* Linda M. Godwin, Jerome “Jay” Apt, Michael R. Clifford, and Thomas D. Jones operated the Space Radar Laboratory (SRL-1) on this mission.

You would think, 15 years after it was demonstrated on a shuttle flight, that the U.S. would have a more robust space-based radar capability. Alas, no: when I was on active duty, serving on the Air Staff, the Air Force was still advocating for that program. (Here’s a 2005 Space Review article about it.) I doubt there will be any room for it in the Pentagon budget any time soon.

___
*Now a USAF General. He commanded AF Space Command and is the current Commander of US Strategic Command.

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Challenger Launch, 25 Years Ago

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Twenty-five years ago today — April 6, 1984 — the Space Shuttle Challenger launched from the Kennedy Space Center on mission STS-41C. , 8:58 a.m., EST, KSC. Astronauts Robert L. Crippen, Francis R. Scobee, Terry J. Hart, George D. Nelson, and James Van Hoften launched the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF)-1 launched and performed the first in-orbit spacecraft repair on the Solar Max satellite.


(NASA image of STS-41C launch.)

[BREAK, BREAK]

The past few days, I’ve seen a lot of space-related news stories — the North Korean launch failure, the possibility that Congress might start letting U.S. companies sell militarily critical space technology, etc. — so I posted some of them in the Space Warfare Forum for anyone who might be interested.

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Apollo Prep Mission, 40 Years Ago Today

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On March 3, 1969, a Saturn-V rocket lofted the Apollo-9 mission into earth orbit from the Kennedy Space Center, carrying astronauts James A. McDivitt, David R. Scott, and Russell L. Schweickart. This mission accomplished a number of objectives in advance of the first manned mission to the moon:

  • It was the first launch of the complete Apollo configuration, including the Command Service Module and the Lunar Module, aboard a Saturn V.
  • It was the first time a human crew tested the lunar module in space, with the first docking between the CSM and LM and the first time astronauts fired the LM ascent and descent engines in space.
  • On this mission, LM pilot Rusty Schweickart made the first EVA by an astronaut without being attached to spaceship life support equipment.
  • The mission tested the Portable Life Support System in space for the first time.

Apollo-9 was a great success, and paved the way for all the moon missions to come.

And in more space history with a lunar component: Ten years before Apollo-9, on March 3, 1959, the U.S. launched Pioneer-4 from Cape Canaveral in an International Geophysical Year launch. Pioneer-4 was the country’s first sun-orbiting space probe, and marked the first successful flyby of the Moon en route to another destination.

Now, if we could only get back there ….

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Recent Space History: Cometary Explorer Launched

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Five years ago today — March 2, 2004 — the European Space Agency launched their Rosetta space probe on an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana. Rosetta is headed toward comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which it should reach in 2014. Its study of the comet will include releasing the “Philae” lander.

(And, because I missed posting yesterday because of a raucous headache: 85 years ago yesterday, NASA astronaut “Deke” Slayton was born. I wrote an alternate history story which referenced an Apollo mission that never happened, but because of which Deke Slayton was a hero and inspiration to the main character. No one’s read that little story, because no one’s published it yet. But that’s how it goes.)

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Space History (That Repeats Again and Again)

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Fifty years ago today — February 28, 1959 — the Discoverer-1 satellite was launched by a Thor Agena rocket from Vandenberg AFB. It was the first joint U.S. Air Force/Advanced Research Projects Agency launch of a reconnaissance satellite — what would eventually become the CORONA satellite program.

Unfortunately, the Agena upper stage apparently malfunctioned and the satellite is believed to have landed near the South Pole. And fifty years later, the OCO satellite earlier this week also failed to make orbit — and ended up in the ocean near Antarctica.

I look forward to the day when space launch is routine and reliable — and if it can be affordable, too, so much the better.

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Angst Over North Korean Launch Prep

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So now the North Koreans are planning to get into space, and their preparations seem to be generating much higher levels of concern and much deeper analysis than the Iranian space launch the other day.

Here’s the Spaceflight Now story, which refers to the “105 ft. Taepo-Dong-2 Intercontinental Ballistic Missile disguised as a satellite launch vehicle.” Disguised? That’s an editorial comment, which is fine as far as it goes, but where was the same editorializing in reports of the Iranian launch? I don’t remember any. And why didn’t articles about the Iranian launch include quotes from Congresswoman Harmon about the dangers it represented?

(By the way, in case you’re wondering: yes, most of this rant is cross-posted in the Space Warfare Forum.)

The article discusses the link between ICBM technology and space launch technology in the first few paragraphs, whereas every article I saw about the Iranian launch buried that information at the end. It mentions that Iranian satellite technology may be involved, but not whether Iranian rocket technology may have been shared with the North Koreans. And the article goes into terrific detail about all the intelligence preparation for this launch — which may or may not be accurate, and I’m not telling — that again was absent in articles about the Iranian launch.

I hope — emphasis on hope — that these and other writers are waking up to the danger these launches in general present. I wonder, though.

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Lots of Launch Activity on This Day in Space History

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Several notable launches on January 30th in years prior:

30 Years Ago (1979): The “Spacecraft Charging at High Altitude,” or SCATHA satellite, launched from the Eastern Space & Missile Center on a Delta rocket. SCATHA was the first spacecraft with a primary mission to study the space environment near the earth, “to obtain information about the processes and effects of spacecraft charging, a phenomenon known to have contributed to several on-orbit satellite failures.”

40 Years Ago (1969): ISIS-1, the International Satellite for Ionospheric Studies, launched from the Western Space & Missile Center. ISIS-1 was a Canadian-built satellite on a joint U.S./Canadian mission to monitor the Earth’s ionosphere.

45 Years Ago (1964): Ranger-6 launched from ESMC on its way to the Moon. As this NASA page explains,

On February 2, 1964, 65.5 hours after launch, Ranger 6 impacted the Moon on the eastern edge of Mare Tranquillitatis (Sea of Tranquility). The orientation of the spacecraft to the surface during descent was correct, but no video signal was received and no camera data obtained. A review board determined the most likely cause of failure was due to an arc-over in the TV power system when it inadvertently turned on for 67 seconds approximately 2 minutes after launch during the period of booster-engine separation.

That launch on January 30, 1964, was the second launch in as many days from ESMC. I think about those heady days, when on one day you had a test launch of a Saturn rocket and the next a launch of a small satellite as one of the pathfinders to the moon … and I weep that we have gone no further, and done no more.

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Today's Space Anniversary: the Last Skylab Launch

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Thirty-five years ago today, the last manned flight of the Skylab program — Skylab-4 — launched from the Kennedy Space Center. The three crewmembers were Gerald Carr, Edward Gibson, and William Pogue, who would spend 84 days in space.

This NASA page has links to more information about the Skylab program; this Wikipedia page has details about Skylab-4.

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