Tag Archives: space history

Space History Today: First European Navigation Satellite Launch

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Five years ago today — December 28, 2005 — the European Space Agency launched its first navigation satellite.

The Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element-A (GIOVE-A) spacecraft launched on a Soyuz-Fregat rocket out of the Baikonur Cosmodrome. It was the first of the planned European navigation constellation modeled after (and intended to be independent from) the U.S. Global Positioning System. Designed to operate an estimated 2 years, GIOVE-A is still operational today.

The European system, named Galileo, was to be complete by the end of this year, with all 30 satellites (27 active and 3 spares) on orbit and operational. To date, however, only GIOVE-A and GIOVE-B are in orbit, with the first four operational satellites (serving also as In-Orbit Validation spacecraft) set to be launched in 2011.

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And, in unrelated Galileo space history, 10 years ago today the Galileo spacecraft flew by Jupiter’s largest moon, Ganymede, for the sixth time. The flyby was timed while Ganymede was in Jupiter’s shadow, to look for any auroral activity. Otherwise, it just gives me an excuse to link to this cool image:


(Ganymede, taken by the Galileo spacecraft on its first flyby. NASA image.)

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Discoverer-19: CORONA Meets Missile Detection

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Fifty years ago today — December 20, 1960 — the Discoverer-19 satellite launched from Vandenberg AFB.


(Discoverer-19 “launch cover” postcard, cancelled the day of launch. From the “Unmanned Satellite Philately” site created by Don Hillger and Garry Toth at Colorado State University.)

Part of the CORONA program and listed as an Air Force photoreconnaissance satellite, Discoverer-19 “did not carry a film capsule,” but was launched “as a test for the MIDAS missile-detection system.” MIDAS, the “Missile Detection Alarm System,” was an infrared detection system and precursor to the Defense Support Program and Space-Based Infrared systems.

The National Reconnaissance Office produced an interesting history of MIDAS, declassified in the late 1990s. That history points out that Discoverer-19 carried instruments to measure the background IR radiation emitted by the Earth “to confirm the technical feasibility of the MIDAS concept.”

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Mercury-Redstone-1A

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Fifty years ago today — December 19, 1960 — the first Mercury-Redstone capsule was sent into space.


(Mercury-Redstone-1A launch. NASA image.)

MR-1A was a suborbital flight from Cape Canaveral, designated “1A” because MR-1 had failed its launch attempt in November. This flight was intended to qualify the systems for eventual orbital flights, and it achieved all the mission objectives.

This particular launch — and especially the name of that launch vehicle — presents a good opportunity for a plug for Redstone Science Fiction, the new online magazine that published my story, “Memorial at Copernicus.” Shameless, I know … but I can live with that.

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Gemini Titan VI

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Forty-five years ago today — December 15, 1965 — astronauts Walter M. Schirra, Jr. and Thomas P. Stafford launched from Cape Canaveral on the Gemini VI-A mission.


(The Gemini-VI capsule, taken from Gemini-VII. NASA image. Note the “Beat Army” message.)

Gemini-6A was originally scheduled to launch on October 25th, but that launch was cancelled because the rendezvous target vehicle — an Agena, launched an hour before the scheduled Gemini-6 liftoff — did not reach orbit. The mission was recycled and another attempt was made on December 12th, but “the launch was aborted one second after engine ignition because an electrical umbilical separated prematurely. This was the first time an astronaut mission was aborted after ignition start.”

As we noted a few days ago, Gemini-VII was already in orbit, and rendezvoused with Gemini-VI while the two spacecraft were in orbit together:

First radar lock indicated a distance of 396 km. Two more major thruster burns preceded the final braking maneuver at 2:27 p.m. EST. Rendezvous was technically achieved and stationkeeping begun at 2:33 with the two Gemini spacecraft in zero relative motion at a distance of 110 meters. 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.

I find it interesting that this launch occurred five years to the day after the Pioneer-31 (or Pioneer-Z, or Atlas Able 5B) mission, to place a satellite in orbit around the Moon, failed when the booster exploded a minute after liftoff. Especially in the early days, no doubt our astronauts were all “steely-eyed missile men.”

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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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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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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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