Tag Archives: space history

Space History Yesterday — Clementine

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A day late and a dollar short, as my Dad says, but I couldn’t leave out a launch I actually saw, could I?

Yesterday — January 25, 2009 — was the 15th anniversary of the launch of the Clementine mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA. In 1994 I was stationed at Vandy as part of the Titan (launch vehicle) System Program Office, and we watched the Titan-II launch from the parking lot of our building. One of my office-mates — Deb Fort, with whom I was stationed years earlier at the Rocket Lab — worked facilities support for the mission.

Clementine, for those who don’t remember it, was also known as the Deep Space Program Science Experiment, and was “designed to test lightweight miniature sensors and advanced spacecraft components by exposing them, over a long period of time, to the difficult environment of outer space.” So says this Naval Research Lab page, and they should know since they built the thing.

The Clementine mission plays an important role in my novel, MARE NUBIUM, as it was the first mission to return data that indicated ice in craters at the lunar south pole. Even though subsequent data show the ice probably isn’t as plentiful as once thought, it still makes (in my opinion) a good prop for a story.

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Status Report, and a Space History Tidbit

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For the few people who have offered to help me clean up the rough spots in my novel, it’ll be another week or so before I get it in your hands. I’m up to chapter 11 in my quick editing pass … editing which is not going as quickly as I hoped.

In space history, today is the 40th anniversary of the launch of Relay-2, a small communications and scientific spacecraft. It was launched on a Delta rocket out of Cape Canaveral, and mapped some of the radiation belt around the earth.

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Space History, and Something of a Space Mystery

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Today is the 40th anniversary of the launch of Soyuz-5 by the Soviet Union, a mission that was more dramatic for its near-disastrous landing than for its liftoff and the in-space docking maneuver performed with Soyuz-4. This page has a wealth of details about the mission.

The “space mystery” is more contemporary, and political: i.e., why is the front-runner for the NASA Administrator post a retired Air Force Major General with almost no space experience? (See, e.g., this Washington Post story.) Maybe it’s not so mysterious after all, since he’s been a close advisor to the President-Elect. He’s an accomplished fighter pilot with deep experience in international affairs, and I have no doubt that running a large agency would come easily to him — I say this having never, to my knowledge, met him — but I wonder if the NASA science types might try to baffle him with bulls*** (technologically-speaking, of course). We’ll see if this pans out, or if one of the other candidates gets the nod.

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Fifty Years Ago in Space History — Luna-1

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Fifty years ago today, on January 2, 1959, the Soviet Union launched its Luna-1 mission from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. It was the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon, and the first to escape Earth’s gravity and go into orbit around the Sun as an “artificial planet.”

You can read more about Luna-1 at this NASA page.

[BREAK, BREAK]

With lunar exploration in mind, do you know of any editors or agents looking for a novel about lunar exploration and survival? If so, let me know or point them my way … I’ll be shopping my new novel around soon.

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Forty Years After: The Flight of Apollo-8

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In our continuing but intermittent series of space anniversaries,* today — 21 December — is the 40th anniversary of the launch of Apollo-8.

On this date in 1968, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on the first-ever circumlunar flight. They were the first human beings to leave the Earth’s “sphere of influence” (i.e., its gravity), and the first people to see the far side of the Moon with their own eyes.

Not only were they the first people to take pictures of the Earth from the vicinity of the Moon, but they were also the first crew to spend Christmas in space. In their Christmas Eve television broadcast, they took turns reading from Genesis:

William Anders:

“For all the people on Earth the crew of Apollo 8 has a message we would like to send you.

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
“And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
“And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
“And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.”

Jim Lovell:

“And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
“And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
“And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
“And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.”

Frank Borman:

“And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
“And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.”

Borman then added, “And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you – all of you on the good Earth.”

They returned to earth on 27 December. You can learn more about their mission here.

I consider it a shame that today, 40 years after their pathfinding mission, we don’t have people living on the moon and have only a tiny contingent living in space. I think it’s a shame because I want to be one of them; but since I can’t, I content myself with writing about people colonizing that frontier.

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*If you’re new to the series, we primarily only do big anniversaries, i.e., those in multiples of 5.

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The First Broadcast from Space: 50 Years Ago

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Today’s installment in our recurring series of space anniversaries is the launch of Project SCORE, fifty years ago today.

On December 18, 1958, the Project SCORE — Signal Communication by Orbiting Relay Equipment — satellite was launched on a USAF Atlas rocket from the Eastern Space & Missile Center in Florida. The US Army Signal Research and Development Laboratory at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, designed the payload.

The mission featured the first messages broadcast from space, including the voice of President Eisenhower saying,

This is the President of the United States speaking. Through the marvels of scientific advance, my voice is coming to you from a satellite circling in outer space. My message is a simple one. Through this unique means I convey to you and all mankind America’s wish for peace on earth and good will to men everywhere.

You can read more about Project SCORE here and here.

I think back to ten years ago at this time, and I had just come off a tour in which I helped operate two of the most sophisticated and secure communications satellites ever built — the first two Milstar satellites — and started a tour in which I would be using Milstar for nuclear command and control. In terms of space communications, we’ve certainly come a long way in a relatively short time.

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The Real Aviation Day

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National Aviation Day is supposedly August 19th, because that’s Orville Wright’s birthday, but I submit that today is the real Aviation Day.

One hundred five years ago today — December 17, 1903 — the Wright flyer made its first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.* Up until that day, August 19th was destined only to be National Bicycle Day.

In honor of Aviation Day, take a second to say a special prayer for the passengers and crew of an aircraft you see flying overhead. Or maybe listen to “Jet Airliner” or “Leaving on a Jet Plane” or something by the Jefferson Airplane. đŸ˜‰

And for those interested, today also qualifies for another installment of our “This Day in Space History” series. Five years ago today, UHF Follow-On Flight 11 became the first U.S. military payload to be launched by a Russian-designed rocket engine. Its Atlas-3B booster used a Russian RD-180 engine to launch the spacecraft.

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*Where, if all goes well and the money holds out, we will vacation this summer.

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The First Observatory in Space: 40 Years Ago Today

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Today is Pearl Harbor Day, the day that lives in infamy and spurred a generation of U.S. citizens we have called our greatest generation — who fought and won a wide-ranging and brutal war and ushered this nation into its role as a world leader. What a shame that today, because it is harder to put names, faces, and places to the enemy that confronts us, we are not united in the cause of victory for freedom. Let us never forget.

Today is also the 40th anniversary of the launch of Orbiting Astronomical Observatory 2 (OAO-2), the first functioning space observatory, launched from the Eastern Space & Missile Center on 7 December 1968. The OAO mission was a series of space observatories; the first attempt, OAO-1, was launched in April 1966 but a power failure kept it from making any observations.

OAO-2 …

made significant contributions to ultraviolet astronomy by studying high energy environments such as novae and super-novae, and it discovered that comets have a huge hydrogen haloes. OAO-2 carried 11 ultra-violet telescopes aloft and for the first time, scientists were able to observe in the ultraviolet region of the spectrum with no intervening atmosphere to block the light.

We’ve come a long way from OAO-2 to HST, but that’s still pretty impressive for the early days of spaceflight.

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Ten Years Ago in Space: The Birth of ISS

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Ten years ago today — December 4th, 1998 — Space Shuttle Endeavour launched from Kennedy Space Center on mission STS-88. The shuttle rendezvoused with the already launched Zarya Control Module and attached the Unity Node; together the two provided the foundation for future International Space Station components and the current ISS. Robert D. Cabana, Frederick W. Sturckow, Nancy J. Currie, Jerry L. Ross, James H. Newman , and Sergei K. Krikalev were part of that historic mission.

And now you know.

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Space Anniversaries, 2 December: 2 Shuttle Launches

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Continuing our series of space anniversaries,*

Twenty-five years ago today, Space Shuttle Atlantis launched from Kennedy Space Center on mission STS-27. Astronauts “Hoot” Gibson, Guy Gardner, Mike Mullane, Jerry Ross, and Bill Shepherd deployed a DoD payload. I think this was one of the missions my old boss worked on when he was stationed at the Cape.

And fifteen years ago today, STS-61 lifted off from Kennedy Space Center for the first mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. Aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour were astronauts Richard O. Covey, Kenneth D. Bowersox, F. Story Musgrave, Kathryn C. Thornton, Claude Nicollier, Jeffrey A. Hoffman, and Thomas D. Akers.

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* Using only 5-year increments, for the most part.

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