This Day in Spaceflight History

[The Raging Sandwich]

November 6

1918: Robert Goddard demonstrated his cartridge rockets to the US Army at a proving ground in Maryland. They were about to fund his research for the war effort. However, the next day, Germany surrendered and World War I ended, and so did his funding.

1966: The US Lunar Orbiter 2 probe was launched. It was to photograph possible lunar landing spots for the Apollo landings. It was launched by an Atlas-Agena D into a parking orbit then injected itself into a 4 day drift to the Moon. A course correction on November 8 increased its speed. On November 10, a maneuver allowed the Moon's gravity to pull it in to it's initial orbit trajectory. It was placed into its final orbit on November 15. It began taking pictures of the surface on November 18 and surveyed 13 possible landing spots. It took 208 until November 25.

1970: The 500th satellite launched from Cape Canaveral to successfully placed in orbit, IMEWS 1, was launched.

1985: STS-61-A and its crew of 8 landed back at Edwards AFB after a mission into orbit.

[The Raging Sandwich]

November 7

1963: An Apollo LES test was conducted on the launcpad, called the Apollo Pad Abort Mission 1. The escape tower sent the capsule in a ballisitc trajectory and was brought back to the ground by drogue and pilot chutes.

1967: Surveyor 6 was launched. It was launched by the last Atlas D rocket to be launched from the Vandenburg AFB. It made a soft touchdown, took a surface sample, and lifted off the surface briefly for a propulsion test.

1996: The Mars Global Surveyor was launched. It entered an elliptical polar orbit of Mars on September 12, 1997. It aerobraked to lower itself into a smaller circular orbit. After the long aerobraking phase, it began to photograph and observe changes on Mars' surface in March of 1999. The last signals of the spacecraft were recieved on November 3, 2006.

1998: STS-95 and its crew of 7 landed back at Cape Canaveral after a mission into orbit.

2007: STS-120 and its crew of 8 landed back at Cape Canaveral after a mission to the ISS.

2013: Soyuz TMA-11M and its crew of 3 launched into orbit on a mission to the ISS. It docked with the station on the same day. After it served its purpose at the station, it undocked on May 13, 2014 and deorbited and landed on May 14.

[The Raging Sandwich]

November 8

1958: Pioneer 2 lunar probe was launched by a Thor-Able booster. It failed to reach escape velocity.

1960: The Mercury Little Joe 5 (LJ-5) test was conducted at Wallops Island. It tested the abort system at the most severe conditions during launch. The test was nominal the first 15 seconds of flight, but the LES fired prematurely. Also, the spacecraft failed to detach from the booster. The whole thing crashed to the ground and was completely destroyed. Another identical test was then planned.

1966: The Gemini 12 countdown was postponed because of an inefficient power supply in the secondary computer. It was originally scheduled for November 9. Maintenance on the systems postponed it until November 10.

1982: A meteorite fell into the roof of a house in Wethersfield, Connecticut, without injuring any of its occupants. It was the second meterorite to fall in Wethersfield in its short span of 11 years at that time.

1984: STS-51-a and its crew of 6 was launched into orbit on an 8 day mission. It deployed the Anik D2 (November 9), a Canadian telecommunications satellite; and Syncom IV-1 (November 10), a geosynchronous civilian communications satellite. It was the first mission to retrieve two satellites in one mission, PALAPA B-2 and WESTAR V1, which were both communications satellites.

2011: The Russain Fobos-Grunt satellite was launched. It was to land on Mars' moon Phobos and retrieve a sample of its surface. The propulsion system to boost it out of an Earth parking orbit failed to ignite.

[The Raging Sandwich]

November 9

1967: Apollo 4 was launched. It was the first in-flight test of the Saturn V and a test of the CM heat shield. It was the first use of the Saturn V. It carried with it a LM and a CSM. It was to test the structural and thermal integrity of all the rocket components. It was launched 1 second later than planned. It spent 8 and a half ours in orbit. The SM deorbited the CM and the CM landed near Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean, just 14 kilometers away from its target landing spot.

2005: The ESA's Venus Express was launched after a delay from October 26. It was placed into a parking orbit then boosted towards Venus. It flew by the Moon on November 10 and went on to orbit of the Sun. It reached orbit of Venus on April 11, 2006.

 

Edited November 9, 2016 by The Raging Sandwich

[cubinator]

Was Apollo 4 unmanned?

[DrLicor]

@cubinator, this is what wikipedia says:
 

Quote

'Apollo 4, (also known as AS-501), was the first, unmanned test flight of the Saturn V launch vehicle, which was used by the U.S. Apollo program to send the first astronauts to the Moon....' '....Apollo 4 was an "all-up" test, meaning all rocket stages and spacecraft were fully functional on the initial flight, a first for NASA.....'

 

[The Raging Sandwich]

November 10

1933: US astronaut Ronald Ellwin Evans was born. He was the CM pilot on Apollo 17.

1968: Zond 6 was launched. It was another test flight of the Soviet manned circumlunar spacecraft. It was launched towards the Moon and on November 12 it did a midcourse correction allowing it to loop around the Moon on November 14. While falling back to Earth, a gasket failed leading to complete depressurization in the spacecraft, which would've killed any crew onboard. It completed the first successful double-dip reentry, or coming in the atmosphere at a shallow angle and skip back out to break speed and then come back in for a landing. The parachute failed to open in time, causing the canopy to rip and the spacecraft to impact the ground.

1970: Luna 17 was launched, It achieved a parking orbit around Earth, completed a TLI burn, achieved lunar orbit, and landed the Lunokhod 1 rover. It rolled down a ramp and started exploring the lunar surface. The systems onboard Lunokhod ceased on October 14, 1971.

1997: Sputnik 40, a student-made remake of Sputnik 1, was hand-launched from the Mir space station on an EVA.

2002: Soyuz TM-34 and its crew of 3 landed back at Earth after a mission to the ISS.

2009: The Poisk module for the ISS was launched. It was a research vessel docked to the zenith port of the Zvezda module on November 12.

[The Raging Sandwich]

November 11

1572: Astronomer Tycho Brahe observed the Supernova 1572.

1966: The Agena target vehicle for Gemini 12 was launched. The spacecraft would dock to it during its mission.

1966: Gemini 12 and its crew of Aldrin and Lovell was launched into orbit on a 4 day mission. It was the last Gemini mission. They docked numerous times to the Agena target vehicle and Aldrin proves that the EVA could be done without overloading the suit. The spacecraft first rendezvoused to the Agena 3 hours and 45 minutes after liftoff and docked at 4 hours and 13 minutes. Aldrin performed a two-hour EVA which made him do various tasks. A second EVA laster 55 minutes.

1982: STS-5 and its crew of 4 launched into orbit on a 5 day mission. It was the first mission to deploy commerical communications satellites. It deployed the SBS 3 and the Anik C3.

[The Raging Sandwich]

1961: The launch of Mercury-Atlas 5 was postponed until November 29 due to technical difficulties.

1965: The Soviet Venera 2 probe was launched directly at Venus. It flew by Venus on February 27, 1966 but all systems inside the spacecraft ceased to operate before it reached Venus.

1980: Voyager 1 started its flyby of the planet Saturn, the second stop in its trip.

1981: STS-2 and its crew of 2 was launched into orbit on a 2 day mission. It was the second Shuttle spaceflight.

1995: STS-74 and its crew of 5 was launched into orbit on an 8 day mission to the Mir space station. It docked with the station on November 15. It delivered the Russian-built Shuttle Docking Module among other equipment.

2005: The Japanese Hayabusa probe released the Minerva nano-lander to land on the asteroid Itokawa. The lander missed the asteroid and the probe was placed 5 kilometers from the asteroid.

2014: The Rosetta probe's Philae lander landed on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The thrusters on the lander were barely working and the harpoon to connect it with the comet failed to deploy. The lander bounced twice to another location with one of its three legs sticking up off of the surface. It landed under a crater cliff where it could not recieve enough solar power to keep functioning. [November 12 is not the day to be landing on stuff...]

[The Raging Sandwich]

November 13

2006: Blue Origins launched the first prototype New Shepard spacecraft. It was an 84% subscale of the actual spacecraft. It was nicknamed the Goddard. It launched to an altitude of 285 feet and landed vertically.

November 14

1930: The first American astronaut to go EVA Edward 'Ed' White was born. He flew on Gemini 4 where he did the EVA. He was one of the three crewmembers to die in the Apollo 1 fire.

1933: US astronaut Fred Haise was born. He flew on Apollo 13.

1956: One of the most famous Shuttle era astronauts Kenneth 'Ken' Bowersox was born. He flew on STS-50, 61, 73, 82, and ISS Expedition 6.

1961: Egypt launched its first rocket.

1963: The X-20 Dynasoar program cancellation was proposed in favor of a Gemini space station.

1969: Apollo 12, the second manned mission to the surface of the Moon, and its crew of Alan Bean, Pete Conrad, and Richard Gordon was launched. During its launch in stormy weather, the Saturn V rocket was struck twice by lightning. The Earth orbit, TLI burn, and the translunar coast went as planned. It entered lunar orbit on November 17. One day later, the lander Intrepid and its crew of Bean and Conrad separated from the CM Yankee-Clipper and headed towards the lunar surface and landed on November 19 at 1:55 am at the Suveyor 3 landing sight where they recovered the lander's TV camera. The went back inside the lunar module after a 4 hour excursion on the surface and returned outside the same day. During another 4 hour EVA, they got back inside as the day changed to November 20. It launched off of the lunar surface on the same day after resting. It started its return journey to Earth on November 21.

 

1981: STS-2 and its crew of 2 landed back at Edwards AFB after a mission into orbit.

1994: STS-66 and its crew of 6 landed back at Edwards AFB after a mission into orbit.

2011: Soyuz TMA-22 and its crew of 3 launched into orbit on a mission to the ISS after a two-month launch delay. It docked to the station on November 16 and undocked and landed back at Earth on April 27, 2012.

Edited November 18, 2016 by The Raging Sandwich

[The Raging Sandwich]

November 15

1630: German astronomer Johannes Kepler died.

1966: Gemini 12 and its crew of Aldrin and Lovell landed back at Earth after the last Gemini mission.

1967: Michael Adams, an X-15 test pilot, crashed an X-15 at Edwards AFB when he lost control during reentry.

1988: The unmanned Russian Space Shuttle Buran was launched. The windspeed was 20 m/s, faster than the abort-worthy 15 m/s, but the launch pressed on anyways. It was placed perfectly into orbit. It retrofired 140 minutes into the flight. It landed at the Jubilee runway.

1990: STS-38 and its crew of 5 was launched into orbit on a 5 day mission. It deployed the USA 67 probe, a Navy intelligence satellite, on the same day. It was placed into geostationary orbit by its own fuel source.

2008: STS-126 and its crew of 7 launched into orbit on a 16 day mission to the ISS. It docked to the station on November 16 and delivered the Leonardo module on November 17 to deliver supplies to the station that couldn't be lifted by a Progress ship. It undocked the Leonardo on November 26. It undocked from the station on November 28. It deployed a small satellite and deorbited and landed on November 29.

[DDE]

I propose a rarer photograph for the Buran, Energiya and the "grasshopper" transporter-erector:

On ‎15‎.‎11‎.‎2016 at 2:04 AM, The Raging Sandwich said:

2006: Blue Origins launched the first prototype New Shepard spacecraft. It was an 84% subscale of the actual spacecraft. It was nicknamed the Goddard. It launched to a 90 mile altitude and landed vertically.

When you thought the undertones could not get any more obscene...

[The Raging Sandwich]

November 16

1962: The third test of the Saturn C-1 (Later called the Saturn 1) was conducted. It was a suborbital flight used to test the first stage. The upper stages were filled with water to simulate a fully-loaded payload. It reached its apogee of 104 miles it exploded on command to send the water into the ionosphere. It froze into an ice crystal cloud several miles in diameter as part of "Project Highwater."

1965: The Soviet Venus probe Venera 3 was launched. It was to make a soft touchdown on the surface of Venus. It impacted the surface on March 1, 1966, but the radio communications systems failed before any data could be transmitted.

1969: China launched their first satellite. It ended in failure. It was a Communist propoganda device like Sputnik. It was to play a song in orbit "The East is Red," China's national anthem. They launched an identical one that worked soon after. [When this information was released in 2001, China gave little information, only that it failed.]

1973: Skylab 4 and its crew of 3 was launched into orbit. It was the final mission to Skylab. It was an Apollo CSM launched by a Saturn 1-B. After 2 failed docking attempts, it managed to dock to the station on the same day as launch. The crew completed 4 EVAs during their stay. The mission was originally planned to last 56 days but was extended to 84.

1982: STS-5 and its crew of 4 landed back at Earth after a mission into orbit.

1984: STS-51-A and its crew of 6 landed back at Cape Canaveral after a mission into orbit.

2009: STS-129 and its crew of 6 was launched into orbit on an 11 day mission to the ISS. It was to replace spare components on the outside of the station.

Edited November 18, 2016 by The Raging Sandwich
1984 onward

[The Raging Sandwich]

November 17

1970: Luna 17 and Lunokhod 1 landed on the Moon.

1975: Soyuz 20, an unmanned spacecraft, was launched into orbit. It was a 90 day test in orbit docked to the Salyut 4. It was to test various in-space systems during different conditions. It carried a biological payload. It was recovered on February 16, 1976.

1982: The last launch of a Titan IIID rocket was conducted at Vandenburg AFB.

[tater]

On 11/14/2016 at 4:04 PM, The Raging Sandwich said:

November 13

2006: Blue Origins launched the first prototype New Shepard spacecraft. It was an 84% subscale of the actual spacecraft. It was nicknamed the Goddard. It launched to a 90 mile altitude and landed vertically.

That's not Goddard, and the Goddard craft flew to an altitude of 285 ft, not 90 miles.

This is Goddard:

Edited November 18, 2016 by tater

[The Raging Sandwich]

5 minutes ago, tater said:

That's not Goddard, and the Goddard craft flew to an altitude of 285 ft, not 90 miles.

This is Goddard:

Where did you find that image? I couldn't find anything reliable anywhere.

[tater]

Google blue origin goddard?

 

[The Raging Sandwich]

November 18

1923: Astronaut Alan Shepard was born. He became the first American in space on the Freedom 7 Mercury mission. He also flew on Apollo 14 taking role of Commander. 

1968: The Zond 6 Soviet lunar test spacecraft landed back at Earth. It landed nearly 1,800 km away from its target location and was found the next day.

1969: The Apollo 12 spacecraft entered lunar orbit. A 6-minute burn was conducted to enter an elliptical orbit and a minor course-correction later on circularized it.

[tater]

Can't find any images of Zond 6 recovery, but on Nov 14, it took this image:

Edited November 19, 2016 by tater

[The Raging Sandwich]

43 minutes ago, tater said:

Can't find any images of Zond 6 recovery,

Yeah, I couldn't find any either.

[The Raging Sandwich]

November 19

1969: Apollo 12 landed on the lunar surface. It was a precision touchdown as it needed to be to land at the Surveyor 3. The first EVA was made to explore the area around the LM and set up small experiments.

1996: STS-80 and its crew of 5 launched into orbit on an 18-day mission. It deployed the Orfeus X-ray satellite on November 20 and the Wake Shield Facility materials science satellite on November 22. Four EVAs were planned but cancelled after the shuttle airlock hatch wouldn't open. The WSF was recovered on November 26 and the Orfeus on December 4. The landing was delayed for two days for bad weather at the KSC. It landed on December 7.

1997: STS-87 and its crew of 7 launched into orbit on a 16-day mission. It deployed the Spartan 201 X-ray satellite on November 21. The crew failed to send its maneuver commands. It was recovered by hand on an EVA on November 25 and it was decided not to redeploy it. The Sprint sub-satellite was set into a free-flight inside the payload bay.

1999: The first test flight of the Chinese Shenzhou spacecraft was launched. The spacecraft didn't maneuver at all during the flight because it could not receive any signals from the Beijing control center. On orbit 12, the first attempt at retrofire was made but failed. Another try during the next orbit also failed. It was finally picked up by a ship in the Pacific and commanded its retrofire and it landed.

2005: The Japanese probe Hayabusa landed on the asteroid Itokawa. Its actual lander failed to land. It bounced once then made a firm landing 20 seconds later.

[The Raging Sandwich]

1969: The second and third EVAs of the Apollo 12 lunar landing were conducted. The first one of the day was to recovery Surveyor 3's TV camera. Earth bacteria was found on it which showed some sorts of life could survive in space. The second one of the day and the final one of the mission was to remove excess equipment from the LM (they literally just threw stuff out of the hatch) before liftoff.

1990: STS-38 and its crew of 5 landed back at Cape Canaveral after a mission into orbit. It missed its touchdown point by 430 meters.

1995: STS-74 and its crew of 5 landed back at Cape Canaveral after a mission to the Mir space station.

1998: The production of the International Space Station (ISS) was started with the launch of the Russian Zarya module. It was the first module of the space station. The next component of the station, the American Unity module would arrive via STS-88.

2005: The Japanese Hayabusa probe which landed on the asteroid Itokawa a day before failed to retrieve its surface sample.

[The Raging Sandwich]

November 21

1960: The launch of the first Mercury Redstone, MR-1, was attempted. After only getting 1 inch off the pad, a premature cutoff caused the LES to fire, completely separating itself from the capsule.

1969: Apollo 12 fired its SM engine and burned into a transearth trajectory.

1985: Soyuz T-14 and its crew of 3 landed back at Earth after a mission to the Salyut 7 space station.

Edited November 21, 2016 by The Raging Sandwich

[The Raging Sandwich]

November 22

1967: The unmanned Soyuz 7K-L1 s/n 5L spacecraft launch was attempted. Three seconds after the second stage of the Proton rocket was activated, the SAS abort tower pulled the spacecraft away from the rocket because engine 4 failed to fire. The spacecraft was detected 250 km from the launch site.

1998: The Galileo Jupiter spacecraft did a flyby of the moon Europa.

[The Raging Sandwich]

November 23

1970: Lunokhod was released and was ready for its first drive on the Moon.

1983: Soyuz T-9 and its crew of 2 landed back at Earth after a mission at the Salyut 7 space station.

1989: STS-33 and its crew of 5 launched into orbit on a 5 day mission. It deployed a classified satellite on the same day. Orbited Earth 78 times.

2014: Soyuz TMA-15M and its crew of 3 launched into orbit on a mission to the ISS. It docked to the station on November 24. It undocked on June 11, 2015 a month after schedule because of the explosion of a Progress vehicle on the launchpad.