This Day in Spaceflight History

[Kerwood Floyd]

How long was it before news of Bondarenko's death and its manner was known in the West?

[The Raging Sandwich]

10 hours ago, Kerwood Floyd said:

How long was it before news of Bondarenko's death and its manner was known in the West?

Good question, after his sudden disappearance in Soviet cosmonaut footage, it was rumored that he died in a launch. It wasn't until 1980-81 that the West actually found out. 

[Kerwood Floyd]

Which makes me wonder whether, if the Soviets hadn't been so frickin' secretive, and had shared their experience with pure oxygen environments, NASA wouldn't have lost Grissom, Chaffee and White. I know, there's no way to answer that question, but I still have to wonder what might have been. 

[The Raging Sandwich]

February 17

1959: Vanguard 2 was launched into orbit to study cloud cover. It was operational for 18 days.

1965: Ranger 8 was launched. It was a lunar impactor launched by an Atlas-Agena B. It reached the Moon on February 20. Before impact, over 7,000 images were received from the probe.

 

1996: Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) was launched. It was to rendezvous with near-Earth asteroid Eros and achieve orbit. A flyby of Earth on January 23, 1998 caused a problem so that it could not do its maneuver burn. The probe had to be rescheduled but eventually achieved orbit of Eros on February 14, 2000 and landing on the surface on February 12, 2001.

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

Edited February 20, 2017 by The Raging Sandwich

[TheEpicSquared]

SpaceX launched a successful mission from historic Pad 39A.  

[The Raging Sandwich]

February 18

1930: Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto.

2002: Mapping of Mars began with the Mars Odyssey probe.

 

February 19

1932: Joseph Kerwin was born. He flew on Skylab 2, the first US manned mission in a space station. He was also the CAPCOM for Apollo 11 before the landing.

1952: Rodolfo Vela was born. He flew on STS-61-B as the first Mexican astronaut.

1970: Nikolai Kamanin rules that Valentina Tereshkova won't fly into space again due to her rude behavior towards him.

1986: The first core of Russia's new space station Mir was launched.

1990: Soyuz TM-8 landed back at Earth after a mission to the Mir.

1996: Soyuz TM-26 landed back at Earth after a mission to the Mir.

2017: A Falcon 9 was launched to the ISS for the first time after an explosion in 2016. The first stage landed successfully.

More later today 

Edited February 20, 2017 by The Raging Sandwich

[The Raging Sandwich]

 

 

February 20

1962: Mercury MA-6 Freedom 7 and its crew of John Glenn was launched into orbit. It was the first US manned orbital flight. Glenn orbited 3 times in the capsule. During flight, a warning light indicated that the heatshield had come loose and only the retro straps were holding it together. Mission control ordered that the retro package was to be left on during reentry. During reentry, the retro package and the straps burned off, leaving flying chunks going past the window. Upon landing, it was revealed that the warning was false. 

1963: A year after its flight, the Friendship 7 capsule was presented to the Smithsonian. John Glenn also presented himself his flight suit, gloves, boots, and American flag patch for the mission.

1964: It was ruled that the last 3 Gemini capsules would make a water landing like the previous ones instead of the planned paraglider landing.

1997: The Galileo spacecraft did a flyby of the moon Europa.

1999: Soyuz TM-29 and its crew of 3 launched into orbit on a mission to the Mir space station. It docked to the station on February 22.

2001: STS-98 and its crew of 5 landed back at Earth.

2008: STS-122 and its crew of 7 landed back at Earth.

Edited February 21, 2017 by The Raging Sandwich
Forum being flaky

[DDE]

18 hours ago, The Raging Sandwich said:

1970: Nikolai Kamanin rules that Valentina Tereshkova won't fly into space again due to her rude behavior towards him.

Can confirm by second-hand testimony, the instant fame did not do her character well. She tried to get a free trip with the first Soviet diplomatic mission to South Korea, because preaching, and had to be threatened by taking the matter to CPSU Central Committee.

[The Raging Sandwich]

1931: The first liquid-fuel rocket in Europe is flown in Germany. The small Winkler HW-1 rocket flies only 3 meters after malfunctioning.

1946: German rocket scientists from the Peenenmünde arrive at White Sands.

1961: Mercury MA-2 was launched. It was to test excessive and dangerous reentry conditions. It flew a suborbital flight and was recovered after flying for 17 minutes.

1964: Twin astronaut brothers Mark and Scott Kelly were born. They both flew on several space missions, including Scott Kelly flying almost a year on a single stay on the ISS.

1969: The first N1 rocket was launched. It was the massive Soviet Moon rocket to beat Americans to the Moon. A fire broke out in the tail compartment, shutting down the engines a little over a minute after launch. The Soviets claimed that when christening it for flight, their champagne bottle hit the transporter and not the rocket.

1996: Soyuz TM-23 and its crew of 2 launched into orbit on a mission to the Mir space station. It docked to the station on February 23.

1997: STS-82 and its crew of 7 landed back at Earth.

More later today

[The Raging Sandwich]

February 22

1978: Navstar 1, an early GPS satellite, was launched into orbit. It paved the way for future GPS satellites in orbit now. It was working successfully once in orbit.

1996: STS-75 and its crew of 7 launched into orbit on a 16-day mission. It's main mission was to deploy the Tethered Satellite System (TSS) 1R. A similar shuttle mission in 1992 tried this as well, but could not deploy it. The Italian satellite was released from the shuttle payload bay on a 24-kilometer-long tether. During release of the probe, the tether snapped, unintentionally leaving the probe in orbit to reenter in March.

2000: The Galileo spacecraft did a flyby of the moon Io.

2000: STS-99 and its crew of 6 landed back at Earth.

[The Raging Sandwich]

February 23

1949: Dr. Joseph Garneau, the first Canadian astronaut, was born.

[The Raging Sandwich]

February 24

1968: The first pulsar star, PSR B1919+21, was discovered by Jocelyn Burnell and Antony Hewish.

1997: A fire broke out on the Mir space station. An oxygen tank caught on fire and smoke spread throughout the space station. The crewmembers fought the fire with fire extinguishers and all the crewmembers had to wear gas masks. The fire was put out and the news was revealed after a mission that was docking to the station that day received radio contact with the Mir.

2011: The Discovery flew for the last time as STS-133 launched to the ISS with its crew of 6. It carried the Leonardo, a permanent multipurpose module. The shuttle docked to the station on February 26. The Leonardo was unloaded from the shuttle and docked to the station on March 1. It undocked from the station on March 6 and landed back at Earth on March 7.

 

Edited February 24, 2017 by The Raging Sandwich

[The Raging Sandwich]

February 25

1969: Mariner 6 was launched. Before its launch, its original Atlas-Centaur booster depressurized and started to crumple up. The probe was then fitted to another Atlas-Centaur for launch. It was put into a Mars flyby, flying by the planet on July 31.

1977: Soyuz 24 and its crew of 2 landed back at Earth.

1979: Soyuz 32 and its crew of 2 launched into orbit on a mission to Salyut 6.

 

February 26

1962: John Glenn's orbital flight on February 20 was celebrated at the White House with a parade, reception, and his address to Congress.

[The Raging Sandwich]

February 27

1994: Laurence Craigie, the first American to fly a jet aircraft, died. He flew the XP-59.

2006: The Cassini spacecraft did a flyby of the moon Titan.

[The Raging Sandwich]

February 28

1959: Discoverer 1 was launched. It was the first space launch of a Thor booster and the first satellite in polar orbit. It was launched with a Thor/Agena booster. It was also the first test of the Agena A upper stage. 

1966: Gemini 9 astronauts Elliot See, Jr. and Charles Bassett II were killed. They died in a crash of their T-38 training craft while attempting to land in rain and fog at the St. Louis Municipal Airport. The backup crew (which landed safely a few minutes later), Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan, would fly the mission.

1990: STS-36 and its crew of 5 launched into orbit on a 4-day mission. They deployed a classified military payload dubbed USA 53 or "Misty." It was possible that it was a maneuverable reconnaissance satellite, as amateur observers found it in orbit several times with different plane changes.

1999: Soyuz TM-28 and its crew of 2 landed back at Earth after a mission to the Mir space station.

[The Raging Sandwich]

March 1

1924: Donald "Deke" Slayton was born. He was one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts but was grounded due to medical reasons. He later flew on the Apollo-Soyuz joint spaceflight.

1962: A parade was held in New York for John Glenn, with 4 million people surrounding the streets.

1966: Venera 3 impacted the surface of Venus.

1980: French astronomers Laques and Lechaceux discovered Saturn's moon Helene.

1982: Venera 13 landed on Venus.

2001: Three Mars meteorites, NWA 856, 1669, and 1950 were discovered in Morocco.

2002: STS-109 and its crew of 7 launched into orbit on an 11 day mission. It was a Hubble Space Telescope refurbishing mission. In 5 spacewalks, two new solar arrays, new reaction wheels, a new power-control unit, a new camera, and a cryocooling unit.

2013: SpaceX launched the Dragon CRS-2 to the ISS. Problems with the thrusters and solar panels delayed the rendezvous by one day, but it was grappled by the Canadarm on March 3. After delivering equipment and supplies, it was released on March 26 and returned to Earth.

[The Raging Sandwich]

March 2

1968: Zond 4 was launched. It achieved a simulated moon-transfer orbit successfully, but the guidance system failed coming back down to Earth. The spacecraft would not be able to reenter into the Soviet Union and was self-destructed after the reentry phase.

1978: Soyuz 28 and its crew of 2 was launched to the Salyut 6. 

1995: STS-67 and its crew of 7 launched into orbit on a 16 day mission. It carried an attached payload of 3 UV telescopes. 

1997: Soyuz TM-24 and its crew of 3 landed back at Earth.

2004: The Rosetta probe was launched. It was to rendezvous with the comet 46P/Wirtanen but was unable to launch during its window. Instead, it was launched towards comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko during its launch window 14 months later. It had to be put in numerous flybys to make it to the comet, an Earth flyby in March 2005, a Mars flyby in March 2007, and two more Earth flybys in November 2007 and 2009. In May 2014, it rendezvoused with the comet and entered orbit. It released its Philae lander to land on the comet in November 2014 but the lander failed to attach itself to the ground and ended up underneath a cliff where it couldn't receive any light.

 

March 3

1915: The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics was founded.

1959: Pioneer 4 was launched. It was an early US Moon probe designated for a flyby. It achieved a flyby but it wasn't as low as it was supposed to be, resulting in a failure of one of the experiments.

1969: Apollo 9 and its crew of 3 was launched into Earth orbit by a Saturn V rocket. It carried with it the Lunar Module to test. On March 5, James McDivitt and Rusty Schweickart entered the LM and undocked from the CSM which David Scott was piloting. There, they tested the descent stage and returned to the CSM. On March 7, they undocked from the CSM again and tested a rendezvous between the two spacecraft in lunar orbit.

1972: Pioneer 10 was launched. It flew by Jupiter in December 1973. After that, it proceeded to leave the solar system, eventually becoming the first man-made object to leave the solar system.

 

March 4

1990: STS-36 and its crew of 5 landed back at Earth.

 

1994: STS-64 and its crew of 5 launched into orbit on a 14-day mission. It carried with it numerous in-orbit scientific modules.

2005: The Rosetta spacecraft completed its first Earth flyby.

Edited March 6, 2017 by The Raging Sandwich

[The Raging Sandwich]

March 5

1953: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin died.

1958: Explorer 2 was launched. It was to be a repeat mission of Explorer 1 but failed to reach orbit.

1979: Voyager 1 started its flyby of Jupiter.

1982: Venera 14 landed on Venus. 

 

[Ten Key]

17 hours ago, The Raging Sandwich said:

1959: Pioneer 4 was launched. It was an early US Moon probe designated to impact the Moon but only achieved a flyby instead.

Just a slight correction here-- Pioneer 4 was never meant to be an impactor. But it didn't come as close to the Moon as it was supposed to and one of the experiments failed as a result.

[The Raging Sandwich]

17 hours ago, Ten Key said:

Just a slight correction here-- Pioneer 4 was never meant to be an impactor. But it didn't come as close to the Moon as it was supposed to and one of the experiments failed as a result.

Fixed

 

[DDE]

On ‎05‎.‎03‎.‎2017 at 5:06 AM, The Raging Sandwich said:

1997: Soyuz TM-24 and its crew of 3 landed back at Earth.

FYI, that radiation marker is from the gamma-ray backscatter altimeter.

On ‎05‎.‎03‎.‎2017 at 4:37 PM, The Raging Sandwich said:

1953: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin died.

What is this guy even doing here? Do you want to cause another deadly stampede?

[The Raging Sandwich]

7 hours ago, DDE said:

What is this guy even doing here? Do you want to cause another deadly stampede?

Well, he was the Soviet Leader at the beginning of the Cold War (which the Space Race was apart of), so I thought it would be appropriate to include him.

[munlander1]

1 hour ago, The Raging Sandwich said:

Well, he was the Soviet Leader at the beginning of the Cold War (which the Space Race was apart of), so I thought it would be appropriate to include him.

Did he ever do a Kennedy sort of thing with a speech and all? 

[SuperFastJellyfish]

Edit:  meh

Edited March 7, 2017 by SuperFastJellyfish

[The Raging Sandwich]

51 minutes ago, munlander1 said:

Did he ever do a Kennedy sort of thing with a speech and all? 

No, he died before the Space Race started.