This Day in Spaceflight History

[Eklykti]

8 hours ago, The Raging Sandwich said:

It undocked on June 11, 2015 a month after schedule because of the explosion of a Progress vehicle on the launchpad

WHAT?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_M-27M

Some info on Russian

Explosion was already in space just before uncontrolled reentry.

[The Raging Sandwich]

November 24

1969: Apollo 12 and its crew of 3 landed back in the Pacific after a manned mission to the surface of the Moon.

1991: STS-44 and its crew of 6 was launched into orbit on a 7 day mission. They deployed the USA 75 Defense Support Program satellite on November 25. 

2002: STS-113 and its crew of 7 was launched into orbit on a 14 day mission to the ISS. It carried a truss to the station to be installed for structural support for radial panels. It also deployed 2 Picosats.

[The Raging Sandwich]

November 25

Nothin'

[The Raging Sandwich]

November 26

1958: The Mercury program was given its name.

1959: Pioneer 3 was launched. It was a tiny lunar flyby probe. Its booster disintegrated 45 seconds after launch.

1988: Soyuz TM-7 and its crew of 3 was launched to the Mir space station. It docked with Mir on November 28.

1999: The Galileo Jupiter spacecraft did a flyby of the moon Io.

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

For some reason, the images for Pioneer 3 and the Rhea flyby aren't showing up. Pioneer 3 was 530x678 and Rhea was 4920x4920.

Edited November 27, 2016 by The Raging Sandwich
Images didn't show up

[The Raging Sandwich]

10,000 views on this thread!

[The Raging Sandwich]

November 27

1980: Soyuz T-3 and its crew of 3 was launched on a 13 day mission to the Salyut 6 space station.

1985: STS-61-B and its crew of 7 was launched into orbit on a 7 day mission. It deployed four satellites, Morelos 2 (civilian communications), Aussat 2 (military communications), Satcom K2 (civilian communications), and the OEX target vehicle, a target for the new autopilot docking program.

2005: After the failure of retrieving any samples from the last touchdown, the Japanese Hayabusa probe attempted another surface sample from the asteroid Itokawa. It was unsure whether the probe got any samples because of the attitude control jets stopped the high-gain antenna from being pointed towards Earth.

[The Raging Sandwich]

1963: The Kennedy Space Center got its name in honor of President Kennedy after his assassination six days earlier.

1964: Mariner 4 was launched. It was the first probe to provide up-close images of Mars. It flew by Mars on July 14 and 15, 1965.

1965: The last Thor/Agena rocket was launched from Vandenburg AFB.

1983: STS-9 and its crew of 6 was launched into orbit on a 10 day mission. They carried with them the ESA's Spacelab, an orbital laboratory that stayed in the shuttle's payload bay for the entire mission. The crew was separated into two groups and conducted experiments onboard the Spacelab throughout the mission.

November 29

1961: Astronaut John Glenn was selected for the first Mercury orbital flight. Scott Carpenter was selected as backup pilot.

1961: Mercury MA-5 was launched. It was the last qualification mission for an orbital flight. It carried with it Enos, a chimpanzee used to test human survival in orbit. After its only two orbits out of three, it was retrofired back to Earth after a roll reaction failure and heating of some electrical units. Enos was found to be in great condition.

[tater]

Marking Glenn's selection and showing the launch is very confusing since the launch was not until February.

[The Raging Sandwich]

8 hours ago, tater said:

Marking Glenn's selection and showing the launch is very confusing since the launch was not until February.

Should I show a picture of him instead?

[The Raging Sandwich]

November 30

1964: The Soviet Mars 2 spacecraft was launched. It was to provide images of Mars during a flyby. The communications system failed in April 1965, ultimately making the Mars flyby on August 6 undocumentable.

[tater]

12 hours ago, The Raging Sandwich said:

Should I show a picture of him instead?

Seems like a press release from that day is the way to go.

Edited December 1, 2016 by tater

[The Raging Sandwich]

December 1

1958: The designs for the Mercury Little Joe rocket were completed. It was made to test the Mercury spacecraft in short suborbital flights.

1960: Korabl Sputnik III was launched. It was an unmanned probe version of the upcoming Vostok spacecraft that would start manned flight the next year. It carried with it two dogs by the names of Pcheka and Mushka. It also carried other animals such as insects and various plants. It deorbited on December 2 and unfortunately burned up on reentry due to too steep of an angle.

1987: US astronaut Donn Eisele died. He flew on Apollo 7 as Command Module Pilot.

2000: The NWA 817 Mars asteroid was found in Morocco.

2000: STS-97 and its crew of 5 was launched into orbit on an 11 day mission. It was an assembly mission to the ISS. It delivered a large solar wing to be docked to the Unity module among other trusses and small modules. It docked to the station on December 2. It undocked after multiple spacewalks and many hours of station assembly on December 9. 

2005: The Japanese Hayabusa probe departed asteroid 25143 Itokawa after a surface harvesting attempt.

2013: The Chang'e 3 Chinese lunar rover was launched. It entered a polar lunar orbit on December 6. It landed on December 14. It also carried with it a much smaller rover called the Yutu. It was the first soft touchdown on the Moon since Luna 24 in 1976.

[The Raging Sandwich]

December 2

1974: Soyuz 16 and its crew of 2 was launched into orbit on a 6 day mission. It was to test the new spacecraft on-board systems.

1988: STS-27 and its crew of 6 was launched into orbit on a 4 day mission. It deployed a classified military satellite.

1990: STS-35 and its crew of 7 was launched into orbit on a 9 day mission. It carried with it the Ultraviolet Astronomy Telescope (Astro), Broad-Band X-Ray Telescope (BBXRT), the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX), and the Air Force Maui Optical Site (AMOS).

1990: Soyuz TM-11 and its crew of three launched into orbit on a mission to the Mir space station.

1991: STS-44 and its crew of 6 landed back at Edwards AFB after a mission into orbit.

1992: STS-53 and its crew of 5 launched into orbit on a 7 day mission. It deployed the classified USA 89 military satellite. Its other payload, the ODERACS, was unable to be deployed because of failures in its systems.

1993: STS-61 and its crew of 7 launched into orbit on an 11 day mission. It was a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope, a failure for NASA. It conducted 5 EVAs during the mission, the most in one shuttle mission at the time. 

[The Raging Sandwich]

December 3

1904: Argentinian astronomer Charles Perrine discovered Jupiter's moon Himalia.

1958: President Eisenhower transferred the government owned Jet Propulsion Laboratory to NASA.

1965: Luna 8, a Soviet Moon probe, was launched. It was an attempted soft-lunar landing. It had a late retrofire causing it to crash into the Sea of Storms.

1973: Pioneer 10 flew by Jupiter.

1985: STS-61-B landed back at Edwards AFB after a mission into orbit.

2000: The Y000749 Mars meteorite was found in Japan.

2014: Hayabusa 2, a Japanese deep-space probe, was launched. It was to rendezvous with the asteroid 1999 JU3, orbit it, collect a surface sample, and return the sample to Earth. It carried three tiny Minerva landers to be ejected onto the asteroid's surface. 

[The Raging Sandwich]

December 4

1959: Mercury Little Joe 2 (LJ-2) was launched. It was a Little Joe-Mercury test vehicle launched to test the LES at high-altitudes, the effects of acceleration on a living being (primate), drogue chute systems, and recovery systems. The LES fired perfectly, the spacecraft was recovered, and the onboard rhesus monkey Sam was in great condition.

1965: Gemini 7 and its crew of Frank Borman and Jim Lovell was launched into orbit on a 14 day mission. It was the longest U.S. spaceflight to date. During the mission, they completed the first complete rendezvous of two spacecraft with Gemini 6 and its crew of Walter Schirra and Tom Stafford on December 15, the day of Gemini 6's launch. The mission was to test the long-term affects of the human body during the time of a lunar mission and to rendezvous two spacecraft in orbit. 

1996: The Pathfinder Mars lander and its tiny rover the Sojourner was launched.

1998: STS-88 and its crew of 6 was launched into orbit on an ISS assembly mission.

[The Raging Sandwich]

 

December 5

1997: STS-87 and its crew of 7 landed back at Cape Canaveral after a mission into orbit.

2001: STS-108 and its crew of 7 was launched on a 12 day ISS logistics mission. It docked with the station on December 7. The Raffaello logistics module was unloaded from the shuttle cargo bay on December 8 and docked to the Unity module. At the end of the mission on December 14, the Raffaello module was transferred back into the cargo bay. The shuttle undocked from the station on December 15, deployed a small satellite on December 16, and returned to Earth on December 17.

2014: Orion EFT-1 was launched. It was a Orion Crew Module with a dummy Service Module on top of a Delta IV heavylift booster. It boosted its orbit to make it the farthest crew-rated spacecraft since Apollo 17. It landed four hours after launch off the coast of Baja California and was recovered by the USS Anchorage.

  

[The Raging Sandwich]

December 6

1957: Vanguard 1A was launched. It was the first US orbital attempt. The three-stage Vanguard rocket failed to send the tiny probe into orbit.

1958: The Pioneer 3 was launched. It was an attempt to launch a small probe on a flyby trajectory of the Moon but failed to reach it.

1988: STS-27 and its crew of 6 landed back at Edwards AFB after a mission into orbit.

[Ten Key]

6 hours ago, The Raging Sandwich said:

Vanguard 1A was launched. It was the first US orbital attempt. The three-stage Vanguard rocket failed to send the tiny probe into orbit.

Stayputnik! 

[The Raging Sandwich]

December 7

1961: The Gemini spacecraft was announced. MSC Director Robert Gilruth described it as a two-manned Mercury capsule but bigger, two-three times heavier, and launched by a modified Titan II missile, but didn't address it by its name.

1972: Apollo 17 and its crew of Cernan, Evans, and Schmitt. It was the final planned lunar landing. It was the first manned night launch by the US. It was placed into a parking orbit then completed the Trans-lunar Injection burn (TLI). It achieved lunar orbit on December 10. Cernan and Schmitt landed in the Taurus-Littrow valley on the Moon on December 11. The rover was unloaded and the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package was set up near the lander. The crew made three EVAs over the span of two days, the last being on December 13. The lander lifted off the Moon on December 14 after the crew rested and docked to the CSM in orbit. The spacecraft and the crew landed back at Earth on December 19.

1995: The Galileo Jupiter probe injected itself into Jovian orbit by aerobraking into its atmosphere.

1996: STS-80 and its crew of 5 landed back at Cape Canaveral after a mission into orbit.

2002: STS-113 and its crew of 7 landed back at Earth after a mission to the ISS.

[Wolfair corp.]

@The Raging Sandwich

It is great you continue to make that.

[The Raging Sandwich]

1 hour ago, Wolfair corp. said:

@The Raging Sandwich

It is great you continue to make that.

All year long 

[The Raging Sandwich]

1974: Soyuz 16 and its crew of 2 landed back at Earth after a mission into orbit.

1983: STS-9 and its crew of 6 landed back at Edwards AFB after a mission into orbit.

1992: The Galileo Jupiter spacecraft did its second flyby of Earth to gain speed on its way to Jupiter.

[The Raging Sandwich]

December 9

1944: The Wallops Island base was founded.

1978: Pioneer 13 released 4 tiny landing probes to land at Venus, followed by the spacecraft bus.

1992: STS-53 and its crew of 6 landed back at Earth after a mission into orbit.

[The Raging Sandwich]

December 10

1950: A meteor fell to Earth in St. Louis, hitting a car.

1977: Soyuz 26 and its crew of 2 was launched into orbit on a mission to the Salyut 6 space station.

1980: Soyuz T-3 and its crew of 3 landed back at Earth after a mission to the Salyut 6 space station.

1982: Soyuz T-7 and its crew of 2 landed back at Earth after a mission to the Salyut 7 space station.

1984: A meteorite fell in Claxton and hit a mailbox.

1990: Soyuz TM-10 and its crew of 3 landed back at Earth after a mission to the Mir space station.

1992: A meteor called Mihonoseki fell in Japan through the roof of a house.

2006: STS-116 and its crew of 7 launched into orbit on a 13 day mission to the ISS. It docked to the station on December 11. It was to complete installation of the P5 truss, repair a solar wing, and activate a truss cooling system. 

[The Raging Sandwich]

December 11

1990: STS-35 and its crew of 7 landed back at Earth after a mission into orbit.

1998: The Mars Climate Orbiter satellite was launched. It entered an elliptical polar orbit on September 23, 1999. It then had to aerobrake to lower the orbit by November 1999. The probe went too low in the atmosphere and burnt up.

2000: STS-97 and its crew of 5 landed back at Earth after a mission to the ISS.

2002: The maiden flight of the Ariane 5 EC-A rocket was made to launch two European geosynchronous satellites Hotbird 7 and Stentor into orbit. The launch ended in failure.

December 12   v

Spoiler

December 12

1965: Gemini 6 aborted on the launchpad. The engines were shut off a second after ignition because an electrical umbilical connector separated.

1972: The lunar crew of Apollo 17 made their first EVA.

1994: Apollo 14 astronaut Stuart Roosa died.

2012: The first successful North Korean satellite launch of Kwangmyongsong-3F2. The spacecraft started tumbling after orbital insertion and the communications systems failed shortly after.

 

Edited December 13, 2016 by The Raging Sandwich