This Day in Spaceflight History

[WinkAllKerb'']

speaking of classroom i had this in mind as well

June 24, 2011
The first publicly available version was released as a digital download on Squad's Kerbal Space Program storefront

a small step for the kerbal a big step for the younger generations (and sry if anyone mentionned it already but 16 pages tldr)

[The Raging Sandwich]

January 3

1962: The name for the Gemini program was officially given. Before it had an official name, it was simply known as "Mercury MkII".

1986: Astronomer Steven Synnott discovered Uranus' moons Juliet and Portia.

<Portia

1999: The Mars Polar Lander was launched. It was to land in Mars' south pole in December of the same year to look for frozen water and carbon dioxide. It also had two small probes with it that would land at different points on Mars' surface. After the main lander and the two impactors separated from the cruise stage of the rocket, all communications were lost.

2000: The Galileo spacecraft did a flyby of Jupiter's moon Europa.

2004: The Spirit rover landed on Mars.

[The Raging Sandwich]

January 4

1931: Pilot William Swan flew a rocket-powered glider for over thirty minutes. It was powered by 12 small rocket motors.

1970: The Apollo 20 mission was cancelled. The remaining missions would be stretched out in time.

[The Raging Sandwich]

January 5

1905: Argentinian astronomer discovered Jupiter's moon Elara.

1969: Venera 5 was launched. It was a Soviet Venus orbital and atmospheric spacecraft. The atmospheric probe failed before reaching the surface.

(Sorry, couldn't find anything not from Getty )

 

January 6

1985: A meteor fell in La Criolla, Argentina and hit a house.

 

January 7

1610: Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei discovered Jupiter's moons Io, Europa, and Callisto.

                         Io                                                         Europa                                                        Callisto

1968: Surveyor 7 was launched. it touched-down on the Moon, photographed it, and took a surface sample.

1998: The Lunar Prospector was launched. It was a Moon-orbiting satellite for mapping all the composition areas on its surface including looking for polar ice deposits and gravitational fields.

Edited January 9, 2017 by The Raging Sandwich

[Ten Key]

On 1/7/2017 at 2:42 PM, The Raging Sandwich said:

1969: Venera 5 was launched. It was a Soviet Venus orbital and landing spacecraft. It landed successfully on Venus' surface.

For what it's worth, Venera 5 and 6 were atmospheric probes, not landers. Both failed well above the surface. Venera 7 was the first spacecraft to land successfully.

[The Raging Sandwich]

44 minutes ago, Ten Key said:

For what it's worth, Venera 5 and 6 were atmospheric probes, not landers. Both failed well above the surface. Venera 7 was the first spacecraft to land successfully.

Thanks, I'll fix it.

Edited January 9, 2017 by The Raging Sandwich

[The Raging Sandwich]

January 8

1973: Luna 21 was launched carrying the Lunokhod 2 rover. It landed on the Moon on January 15. Soon after landing, it took pictures of the surrounding surface and rolled off the landing platform. It recharged its batteries until January 18 and set off exploring the Moon. It ceased to operate after the lunar night from May to June after covering over 35 kilometers of hilly terrain.

1994: Soyuz TM-18 and its crew of 3 launched into orbit on a 182-day mission to the Mir space station. It docked to the station on January 10. 

[The Raging Sandwich]

January 9

1986: Steven Synnott discovered Uranus' moon Cressida.

1990: STS-32 and its crew of 5 were launched into orbit on a nearly 11 day mission. It delpoyed Leasat 5, a commerical probe for communications for the U.S. military. It als retrieved the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF), a large probe released into orbit for long-duration experiments in space.

2001: Shenzhou 2, an unmanned test flight of China's first spacecraft, was launched with a dog, monkey, and a rabit into orbit on a 6-day mission. The mission was scheduled to launch for January 5, but the second stage recieved a dent in it after roll-out to the launchpad. An orbit before landing, the orbital module depressurized causing the spacecraft to lose control, only to regain it once all the atmosphere left the module. It landed on January 16. A lack of recovery photos left it to be believed that landing wasn't quite successful.

[Wjolcz]

:C

[The Raging Sandwich]

5 hours ago, Veeltch said:

:C

What, did I get something wrong?

[Wjolcz]

1 hour ago, The Raging Sandwich said:

What, did I get something wrong?

 

7 hours ago, The Raging Sandwich said:

2001: Shenzhou 2, an unmanned test flight of China's first spacecraft, was launched with a dog, monkey, and a rabit into orbit on a 6-day mission. The mission was scheduled to launch for January 5, but the second stage recieved a dent in it after roll-out to the launchpad. An orbit before landing, the orbital module depressurized causing the spacecraft to lose control, only to regain it once all the atmosphere left the module. It landed on January 16. A lack of recovery photos left it to be believed that landing wasn't quite successful.

:C

[The Raging Sandwich]

What about it?

[Ten Key]

20 hours ago, The Raging Sandwich said:

1973: Luna 21 was launched carrying the Lunokhod 2 rover. It landed on the Moon on January 15. Soon after landing, it took pictures of the surrounding surface and rolled off the landing platform. It recharged its batteries until January 18 and set off exploring the Moon. It ceased to operate after the lunar night from May to June after covering over 35 kilometers of hilly terrain.

Of note: Lunokhod 2 set a record for total distance covered on the surface of another planet that stood for 40 years. Opportunity finally broke the record in 2014. 

NASA's LRO was able to locate Lunokhod 2 on the surface. The pictures are pretty neat.

http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/posts/699

[The Raging Sandwich]

January 10

1956: A rocket engine with a thrust of 400,000+ lbs was tested in Santa Susana, California. An iteration of it would eventually be implemented in the Apollo program.

1969: Just days after Venera 5, Venera 6 was launched to Venus. It reached the atmosphere and jettisoned a small probe. The small probe deployed a parachute during descent and landed safely on Venus' surface after collecting atmospheric data.

1975: Soyuz 17 and its crew of 2 launched into orbit on a mission to Salyut 4.

(Couldn't find a good image that wasn't watermarked, so there ya go.)

1978: Soyuz 27 and its crew of 2 launched into orbit on a mission to Salyut 6. The capsule was used to return the crew of Soyuz 26 back to Earth.

2002: The Mars Odyssey finished the aerobraking part of its mission.

2015: SpaceX launched the Dragon CRS-5 spacecraft to the ISS. It carried supplies, experiments, and cubesats to be deployed during EVA. The first stage of its Falcon 9 booster attempted to land back at a separate pad, but it landed a bit too hard and tipped over, but no serious damage was done. The spacecraft was grappled by the SSRMS arm and docked to the Harmony module. It undocked on February 10 and deorbited but landed on February 11 just after midnight. 

[TheEpicSquared]

4 minutes ago, The Raging Sandwich said:

The first stage of its Falcon 9 booster attempted to land back at a separate pad, but it landed a bit too hard and tipped over, but no serious damage was done.

Hah.

[The Raging Sandwich]

January 11

1610: Astronomer Galileo Galilei discovered Jupiter's moon Ganymede 5 days after discovering the rest of the "Galilean" moons Europa, Io, and Callisto.

1787: Astronomer William Herschel discovered Uranus' moons Titania and Oberon.

                      Titania                                                 Oberon

1920: The Smithsonian published Robert Goddard's "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes". It was a paper about the use of multi-stage rocket-powered vehicles to reach space, orbit, and the Moon.

1964: 3 U.S. Air Force test pilots started a 7-day test of being in a simulated lunar-landing mission.

1996: STS-72 and its crew of 7 launched into orbit on a 9-day mission. It deployed the OAST-Flyer. It also retrieved it along with the SFU Space Flyer Unit. Two spacewalks were conducted.

[The Raging Sandwich]

January 12

1820: The Astronomical Society of London was founded. It would later become the Royal Astronomical Society in 1931. 

1907: Sergie Korolev, the Soviet Chief Designer, was born. He was responsible for the first long-range ballistic missiles, launchers, artificial satellite, and first man in space.

1986: STS-61-C and its crew of 7 was launched into orbit on a 6-day mission. It deployed the Satcom KU-1 civilian communications satellite.

1997: STS-81 and its crew of 7 launched into orbit on a 10 day mission to the Mir space station. It docked to the station on January 14. 2,715 kilograms of equipment were transferred to the station. Two American crewmembers were switched out from the station and the shuttle. It separated from the Mir on January 19. After backing up a fair distance, it flew around the Mir 2 times in "orbits." It was the first shuttle mission of 1997.

2005: The Deep Impact satellite was launched. It was placed in a solar orbit to intercept the comet 9P/Tempel-1 on July 3 of the same year. It released a smaller impact probe that hit the comet at about 10 kilometers per second on July 4 so the probe could study the composition of the plume generated.

Edited January 12, 2017 by The Raging Sandwich

[DDE]

Are you sure you haven't forgotten anything? Or anyone?

Spoiler

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Korolev

 

[The Raging Sandwich]

@DDE addin' it.

[The Raging Sandwich]

January 13

1969: The launch of Soyuz 4 was scrubbed. The frigid temperatures (-24 C) was below the limit of the gyroscopes. The launch would have to be made the next day.

1980: EETA 79001, a Mars meteorite, was discovered in the US.

1986: Astronomer Steven Synnott discovered Uranus' moons Desdemonda, Rosalind, and Belinda.

<Belinda

More coming later today!

[FL-T400]

Today, 14-1-12016 SpaceX returns to flight after the explosion with iridium next 1-10.

[The Raging Sandwich]

January 14

1957: The US proposed  to the UN that space be only used for peaceful reasons.

1966: Sergei Korolev, the Soviet Chief Designer and the man who engineered many firsts in space, died.

1969: Soyuz 4 and its one crew member was launched into orbit. The launch was scrubbed a day prior due to the intense cold affecting the gyroscopes. Soyuz 4 was to dock with Soyuz 5 in orbit. After Soyuz 5 docked with Soyuz 4, its two crew members transferred over to Soyuz 4. All 3 returned with Soyuz 4 but Soyuz 5 deorbited and reentered nose-first with the SM still attached.

 

1994: Soyuz TM-17 and its crew of 2 was launched into orbit on a mission to the Mir space station.

2005: The Cassini spacecraft did a flyby of the moon Titan.

2005: The Huygens lander successfully landed on the moon Titan. It was the first thing to land on another planet's moon. It actually returned a few images before losing transmission.

2008: The Messenger spacecraft did its first flyby of Mercury. It would finally come to orbit the planet in 2011 after a few more flybys.

[The Raging Sandwich]

January 15

1908: Edward Teller, the man responsible for the American H-bomb, was born. He was also the man who convinced President Reagan to go ahead with the "Star Wars" program.

1958: The Jupiter missile rocket was first commissioned.

1969: Soyuz 5 and its crew of 2 was launched into orbit just one day after Soyuz 4. It was a joint mission for the two spacecraft to dock together. After docking, the crew transferred to Soyuz 4 to reenter as Soyuz 5 reentered by itself.

 

January 16

1958: The Mercury Little-Joe was first designed by Paul Purser and Maxime Faget. It would become a solid-fuel rocket to test the Mercury manned spacecraft and eventually adapted to test the Apollo spacecraft.

1969: Soyuz 4 and 5 docked with each other. The two crew of Soyuz 5 conducted an EVA to transfer to Soyuz 4.

1971: The Lunokhod 1 rover completed all that it needed to do on the lunar surface.

1978: Soyuz 26 and its crew of 2 landed back at Earth after a mission to the Salyut 6 space station.

2003: STS-107 and its crew of 7 launched into orbit on a 15 day mission. As it reentered at Mach 18, it disintegrated at 63 kilometers altitude. An investigation was held after the tragedy and it was determined a falling piece of the shuttle left a hole in the wing of the shuttle, causing the wing to burn up and cause a chain reaction.

[munlander1]

Thanks for doing this, really interesting to read about!

[The Raging Sandwich]

45 minutes ago, munlander1 said:

Thanks for doing this, really interesting to read about!

Yep, I enjoy learning everyday myself through this.