This Day in Aviation and Spaceflight History

[Mars-Bound Hokie]

May 21st, 1927 - Charles Lindbergh completes his 33.5-hour flight from New York to Paris in his plane, Spirit of St. Louis. This marked the completion of the first solo, nonstop transatlantic flight.

 

• Photograph of the Spirit of St. Louis right after landing in Paris.
• Source: https://www.mnhs.org/lindbergh/learn/aviation/famous-flight

 

 FIVE YEARS LATER 

 

May 21st, 1932 - Amelia Earhart completes her solo, nonstop transatlantic flight in her Lockheed Vega. Not only was she the first woman to do so, she was the only person to do so after Charles Lindbergh did his in 1927.

 

• Amelia Earhart arriving in Northern Ireland after completing her flight.
  • Her flight took 15 hours, while Lindbergh's took over twice that.
• Source: https://pioneersofflight.si.edu/content/amelia-earhart-solos-atlantic

[Mars-Bound Hokie]

July 20th, 1969 - "The Eagle has landed." After four days in space, NASA astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first men to walk on the moon.

• Meanwhile, Michael Collins is still in lunar orbit taking pictures of the surface and serving as a communications link.

 

• Neil Armstrong disembarking the Apollo 11 lander on the moon's surface.
  • "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
• Source: https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/how-we-saw-armstrongs-first-steps

 

• Buzz Aldrin's famous boot print.
  • This photograph is often mistaken for Armstrong's.
• Source: https://www.nasa.gov/history/55-years-ago-apollo-11s-one-small-step-one-giant-leap/

 

And here we are, 55 years later, sending little green men to take more small steps and plant stiff flags on bodies beyond their homeworld's SOI (on the regular, I might add).

[Kerbalsaurus]

Today, Walter "Wally" Schirra would fly into LEO aboard the Sigma 7 spacecraft, on the Mercury-Atlas 6 mission. It was the second American orbital spaceflight, and the fourth American manned spaceflight.

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury-Atlas_8?useskin=vector
https://www.nasa.gov/mission/mercury-atlas-8-sigma-7/

Edited October 3, 2024 by Kerbalsaurus
Grammatical fixes

[Mr. Kerbin]

Just now, Kerbalsaurus said:

Sigma

I understand that is what is was named but 

 

[darthgently]

1 hour ago, Mr. Kerbin said:

I understand that is what is was named but 

 

It’s a letter of the Greek alphabet and has been in use long before current slang became trendy.  It is also used a lot in statistics related to hypothesis testing 

[Mr. Kerbin]

4 hours ago, darthgently said:

It’s a letter of the Greek alphabet and has been in use long before current slang became trendy.  It is also used a lot in statistics related to hypothesis testing 

Ah. That makes sense.

[Kerbalsaurus]

Two years ago today, Artemis I launched at 1:47am EST. It was the first major mission of the Artemis Program, and the maiden flight of the SLS Rocket.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_I?useskin=vector

https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/view-the-best-images-from-nasas-artemis-i-mission/

Edited November 16, 2024 by Kerbalsaurus

[Mr. Kerbin]

1 hour ago, Kerbalsaurus said:

maiden flight

Also likely the only flight.

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