This day in Space History

[Macsen]

50 years ago today, the first Titan IIIC rocket was launched from Pad 40, Cape Kennedy.

It was the first use of large-scale solid-rocket boosters to augment a liquid-fueled rocket. It was also the third test of the Transtage upper stage.

Its only payload was a 21,000-lb lead ballast. Placed in a roughly 110-mile orbit, it re-entered 11 days later.

It would be the beginning of 40 years as a space exploration and military payload workhorse. Five different versions would be used: The Titan IIIC, the Titan IIID (which lacked the Transtage), the Titan IIIE (which replaced Transtage with the Centaur liquid hydrogen-fueled upper stage), Titan 34D (upgraded version of Titan IIID), and the Titan IV.

They would be used for reconnaissance satellites, with the occasional launch of NASA deep space probes. A limited run in the early 1990s, called the Commercial Titan III, would be used for some heavier commercial payloads with mixed success. Of four launches, two suffered failures.

One, the comsat Intelsat 603, would fail to separate from its launch vehicle, necessitating intervention from the Space Shuttle (STS-49) to send it to its intended orbit.

The other one, Mars Observer, launched successfully but failed right before arriving at Mars.

[Macsen]

50 years ago today, NASA announced the selection of Astronaut Group 4, "The Scientists".

The Scientists were selected to join later, more complicated lunar landings, to have an actual scientifically-trained eye on the Moon. Still, five of the six selectees were at least former military.

Those selectees were (in the picture, L-R) physicist Dr. Curtis Michel, physicist Dr. Owen Garriott, geologist Dr. Harrison "Jack" Schmitt, medical doctor Dr. Joseph Kerwin, and physicist Dr. Edward Gibson.

Not pictured is medical doctor Dr. Duane Graveline, who left the program quickly. He did conduct long-duration spaceflight simulation experiments before leaving, though. Dr. Michel would not fly, either.

Dr. Schmitt was ultimately assigned to Apollo 18. When that was canceled, he was swapped into Apollo 17 in place of Joe Engle, making him the last human thus far to walk on the moon. In addition, he oversaw the training of Apollo 15 and Apollo 16 in geological disciplines, so they would at least know what they're doing.

Drs. Kerwin, Garriott and Gibson would fly to Skylab as their respective missions' designated scientist astronauts. Dr. Garriott would get a second flight in 1983 on STS-9.

[Macsen]

This is the best image New Horizons will ever have of one side of Pluto. It was taken just yesterday.

Pluto has a length of day just over 6 Earth days, and rotates the opposite direction of Earth, so this entire side of Pluto will be in darkness during the closest fly-by this coming Tuesday.

[Macsen]

46 years ago today, the Soviet Union launched Luna 15 on a Proton K-Blok D rocket from Site 81/24, Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Their first attempt at a sample return mission from the Moon, it was the Soviets' last gasp attempt to extract any modicum of a propaganda victory over the Americans in the Moon Race, with Apollo 11 set to launch three days later.

It was initially placed in orbit, then de-orbited to land in Mare Crisium on July 21. By the time it was sent to land, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had already landed on, and walked on, the Moon at Mare Tranquilitatis.

Shortly after retrofire, contact was lost at an elevation of 3 km over the surface. It is believed Luna 15 crashed into a cliff.

[Macsen]

40 years ago today was the beginning of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.

Soyuz 19 was launched from Site 1/5, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, at 8:20am EDT with commander Alexei Leonov and engineer Valeri Kubasov on-board.

The Apollo spacecraft with the universal docking module (it was not officially classified; some refer to it as Apollo 18) was launched from Pad 39B, Kennedy Space Center, Florida, at 5:18pm EDT with commander Tom Stafford, docking pilot Deke Slayton and CM pilot Vance Brand on-board.

[Macsen]

46 years ago today, Eagle, the LM of Apollo 11, landed at on the Moon at Mare Tranquilitatis.

Undocking from CSM Columbia took place at 1:11pm EDT. The descent was smooth until shortly before landing, when the intended landing site was found to be far too rocky. Neil Armstrong took manual control of Eagle, and nearly spent all descent stage fuel before finding a good landing point, and touching down at 4:17pm EDT.

During preparation for their sole EVA, Buzz Aldrin took a moment of reflection. He reported a non-denominational prayer to Mission Control, then quietly self-administered Presbyterian holy communion. Any public display of religion had been quieted by a lawsuit by an Atheist following the reading of Genesis by Apollo 8.

The actual moonwalk occured late at night EDT. Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon at 10:56pm EDT. The astronauts set up a few experiments, and received a phone call from president Richard Nixon.

During the moonwalk, NASA insisted the astronauts stray no further than 60 metres from the LM, as they were unsure how well the cooling system would work. The full EVA lasted 2 hours, 32 minutes, collecting over 20 kg of lunar material.

The capsule communicator (CAPCOM) during the landing was Charlie Duke. The CAPCOM during the EVA was Bruce McCandless.

[Macsen]

56 years ago today, NASA contracted with B.F. Goodrich to manufacture the spacesuits to be worn by the astronauts of Project Mercury.

The spacesuit was based on the Navy Mark IV pressure suit, which had been introduced a few years earlier for Navy test pilots in high-altitude aircraft and balloons. It was originally designed by Russell Colley, who invented the first aviation pressure suit, used by aviation pioneer Wiley Post.

Several modifications were made for the spacesuit version, including changing the breathing system from open-loop to closed-loop, connections for biomedical feedback equipment, and more dexterous gloves.

Further modifications were added as the program went along, most notably the addition of a waste collection unit after Alan Shepard notably had to urinate in his spacesuit before the launch of Freedom 7.

Colley was hailed as the "first tailor of the Space Age". The spacesuit was scrapped in favor of a modification of the X-15 pressure suit for the Gemini program. The X-15 suit was better suited for EVA, and the size concerns that moved NASA to choose the Navy Mark IV for Mercury were not as urgent in the larger Gemini capsule.

[Macsen]

You didn't think I'd forgotten about this, did you?




11 years ago today, NASA launched the MESSENGER probe on a Delta II 7925 rocket from Pad 17B, Cape Canaveral.

MESSENGER stands for "MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging". It would make one fly-by Earth, two of Venus, then three of Mercury, to slow its momentum before entering orbit around Mercury in March 2011.



Orbiting with an initial perihermion of 200 km and an apohermion of 15,000 km, its original mission received two extensions. Its solar panels were relatively small, but could produce 450 watts of power that close to the Sun. Naturally, the probe required a massive shield to protect its instrumentation from the heat.

During the mission, revolutionary discoveries were made. Even as close as 27 million miles from the Sun, Mercury has permanently-shaded craters where water ice exists. Large amounts of water vapor were found in its tenuous atmosphere, as well. Much of the planet was mapped at resolutions up to 250 metres/pixel, with individual features as high as 25 metres/pixel. They also found that Mercury may have had geological activity in its past, something that was previously believed not to have been possible.

It would remain in orbit around Mercury for four years before running out of fuel. At that point, it was allowed to crash into Mercury on April 30, 2015, ending its mission.

[Macsen]

This is probably the coolest image you're ever going to see.

[Macsen]

46 years ago today, NASA awarded a contract to McDonnell Douglas (now part of Boeing) to convert two S-IVB stages, serial numbers 212 and 515, into the Apollo Applications Programs (AAP) Orbital Workshop.

With all of Apollo's milestone missions completed without needing to repeat any, NASA was able to proceed with the AAP's goals on an assumption of using the S-IVB-based dry workshop design.

212 would eventually be used as Skylab (ironically, since it was the one designed for a Saturn IB). The other one, nicknamed Skylab B, did have some ideas for use. As part of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, there was an idea to launch Skylab B and actually have some long-term science missions with both Apollo astronauts and Soyuz cosmonauts, a minimum of two joint missions.

Skylab would've been plenty large enough to accommodate five visitors at the same time, having far greater volume by itself than any individual module of the current International Space Station. It also might've survived long enough to accommodate the Space Shuttle, as they hoped the original Skylab would, but ultimately didn't.

Skylab B currently sits on display at the National Air and Space Museum on DC's National Mall as one of their centerpiece exhibits.

[Macsen]

37 years ago today, the U.S. launched ISEE 3 (International Sun-Earth Explorer) on a Delta 2914 rocket from Pad 17B, Cape Canaveral.

The probe was a joint mission between NASA and the European Space Agency's predecessor organization, ESRO. It was placed into one of the most eccentric initial orbits ever, with a perigee of 181 km and an apogee just over 1 million km above Earth. The two previous ISEE probes were only placed in LEO. From there, it was deposited into the L1 Sun-Earth Lagrangian point, a point of gravitational equilibrium between Earth and the Sun. It was the first spacecraft placed in such an orbital location.

After about 4 years studying interaction between the solar wind and Earth's magnetic field, ISEE 3 was re-purposed into the International Cometary Explorer (ICE). A series of maneuvers knocked ICE out of its Lagrangian point, and a close fly-by of the Moon sent it into solar orbit. It would target Comet Giacobini-Zinner in 1985, then participate in the Halley Armada.

After the Halley mission, ICE was used to study the Sun again until its mission ended in 1997. It has since been contacted successfully on occasion, as recently as 2008, when a status check revealed all but one of its 13 experiments still functioning and enough propellant for 150 m/s of delta-V.

In 2014, a private initiative was started in an attempt to recover ICE when it flew by Earth that August. The plan was to re-establish contact with the probe, evaluate its condition and the amount of its consumables, and attempt a fly-by of the Moon that would place the probe back in a high Earth orbit, or perhaps even return it to a Lagrangian point.

Although they were able to re-establish contact, they found that while ICE still had its propellant, it had run out of pressurant to use that propellant. In microgravity environments, fuel tanks have to be pressurized to operate properly, usually with helium or nitrogen.

ICE flew by the Moon on August 10, 2014, at a distance of about 10,000 miles. They were able to keep contact until September 16, when the probe was knocked into safe mode. It is now believed to be lost.

ICE will return to Earth again in 2031. If it is ever brought home, it has been promised to the Smithsonian Institution.

[Macsen]

53 years ago today, Mariner 2 was launched on an Atlas-Agena rocket from Pad 12, Cape Canaveral.



The first two Mariner probes used a bus model similar to the design used for the Ranger program, which sent impactor probes to the Moon. Mariner 2 did not carry a camera, but did carry a cadre of remote sensing instruments, including a magnetometer, two radiometers, and a spectrometer.

Its attitude control system used a unique monopropellant system of anhydrous hydrazine. It was ignited using nitrogen tetroxide and aluminum oxide pellets to provide the oxidizer.

Mariner 1 was launched a month earlier, but a programming error in the rocket led to its destruction. Mariner 2 reached Venus on December 14, 1962, becoming the first probe to reach another planet.

One of the two solar panels suffered a short circuit on the way there. By the time it reached Venus, the other solar panel was sufficient to power all instruments. The probe confirmed the presence of the solar magnetic field, and determined Venus had an extremely weak magnetic field (if it had one at all). The Pioneer Venus Orbiter in 1980 would later confirm that Venus does have its own weak magnetic field.

The probe would pass a perihelion of 105 million km on December 27, 1962. Its last transmission was picked up on January 3, 1963.

[Macsen]

22 years ago today, Galileo flew by the Main Belt asteroid 243 Ida.

During the fly-by, they discovered it was orbited by a small moon, which was eventually named Dactyl. While Ida is 60 km down its longest axis, Dactyl is only 1.4 km across, and surprisingly circular. It is believed to have coalesced from ejecta from an impact on Ida.

Galileo did not get a good enough vantage point to determine the characteristics of Dactyl's orbit around Ida, beyond an inclination of 8°. It has to have a distance at least 65 km from Ida to maintain structural integrity. But it's not more than 700 km away; that's the closest it can be for the Hubble Space Telescope to distinguish it from Ida, and Hubble has never been able to see it.

[Macsen]

32 years ago today, Challenger launched on STS-8 from Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center. It was the first nighttime launch of the Space Shuttle program.

Among the crew was Guion Bluford, the first Black man to fly in space. Also on the flight was Dr. William Thornton. At 54 years old, he was the oldest rookie astronaut at the time.

In addition to various manufacturing and medical experiments, it deployed the INSAT-1B comsat for India. It also carried the Payload Flight Test Article, which was moved forward in the launch manifest from 1984 after further launches in the TDRSS system were delayed by the issues in the launch of TDRS-1 from STS-6.

The PFTA was an 8,500-pound dummy payload designed to give astronauts real-world experience in manipulating payloads with the Canadarm remote manipulator while in orbit.

[Macsen]

New Horizons is in the middle of its massive data dump. It's sending gigabytes of images and scientific data at a blazing-fast 1 kbps. They might finish by the time 2016 is over.

I remember when my dad's first Windows PC had a 9600-baud modem. That was 24 years ago.

And yesterday, the science team revealed one of the coolest images of the mission. This was taken 15 minutes after closest approach, and shows excellent relief detail of Norgay Montes. Hillary Montes is near the horizon to the left.

[CosmicCoyote]

Ah, the joys of interplanetary data comms. Still, it is something like 4-5 light hours away from us.

Absolutely beautiful photo, though.

[Macsen]

It's always nice to see someone comment on occasion. :3

And yes, interplanetary communication can be very difficult. They have to string together multiple gigantic radio telescopes to pick up the signals from that far out. I heard that when Voyager 2 was at Neptune, the power of its signal when it reached Earth was ludicrously tiny. About 10^-16 watts. A basic calculator is billions of times more powerful.

********



12 years ago today, the Galileo mission ended, and the probe met its demise when it dove into Jupiter, burning up on entry.

The mission officially terminated at 2:57pm EDT when its predicted orbit would have re-emerged from the other side of Jupiter had it not entered the atmosphere. To their surprise, it was not put into safe mode by the intense radiation around Jupiter, and loss of signal (LOS) occured as it went behind the planet, still about 9,000 km above the 1 bar level of its atmosphere.

The final orbit began on November 5, 2002, with a fly-by of Amalthea at the end of its 34th and penultimate orbit. Its camera having failed (why the mission was terminated), it was still able to get a decently accurate measure of Amalthea's mass.

The final orbit took it to an apojove of 26 million km, its farthest since it arrived nearly 8 years before, and placed its perijove to a point nearly 10,000 km below the 1-bar level of its atmosphere. It is believed to have entered Jupiter's atmosphere at about 48 km/s.

[Macsen]

14 years ago today, the NASA probe Deep Space 1 flew by Comet 19P/Borrelly.

Deep Space 1 was a technology satellite primarily intended to refine advances in ion propulsion for use in deep space probes. As such, it was targeted at several comets and asteroids.

The first target was asteroid 4105 Wilson-Harrington. Originally believed to be a comet and given the designation 107P, that distinction is now questioned. But that's irrelevant to this mission, as a malfunction in its star tracker kept it from knowing where it was, and as a result this encounter never happened.

The second planned target was asteroid 9969 Braille. The plan was to fly very close to the asteroid, within a quarter of a kilometre of its surface. But a software crash during the approach caused DS1 to miss an important burn, and it only passed about 25 km away. Since Braille turned out to have a much lower albedo than expected, DS1 was never able to focus on it, and never got any good pictures.

The lessons from the first two attempts at an object fly-by were used in the fly-by of Comet Borrelly, allowing it to get good information. After the encounter, it ran out of reaction control fuel, but the mission team was able to re-program the ion thrusters to use for reaction control instead.

The probe is currently on stand-by in case NASA figures out another use for it.

[Macsen]

Happy 85th birthday to astronaut John Young.

Born in San Francisco and raised in Orlando, he graduated from Georgia Tech's Navy ROTC in 1952. He entered flight school after Korea, and acted as a test pilot, checking out the F-4.

He was chosen by NASA in 1962 and flew Gemini 3, the first two-astronaut mission. During that mission, commander Gus Grissom got him to smuggle a corned beef sandwich on-board the spacecraft. He would then command Gemini 10, the first successful docking mission, with Michael Collins.

He would be placed in the Apollo rotation as backup CM pilot for the second manned Apollo mission, which was to follow Apollo 1, with LM pilot Gene Cernan and commander Tom Stafford. That became backup for Apollo 7, and ultimately flew Apollo 10, the lunar landing dress rehearsal.

After that, he became commander for the Apollo 13 backup crew, with LM pilot Charlie Duke and CM pilot Jack Swigert. Swigert was swapped into Apollo 13 when CM pilot Ken Mattingly was suspected of contracting German measles (which he didn't). The crew (especially Mattingly) played a pivotal role in saving Apollo 13's bacon. Following the mission, he gave the first commencement address at what is now the University of Central Florida.

The 13 backup crew ultimately flew to the Moon in Apollo 16, with Young becoming the ninth man to walk on the Moon, and the second of three to visit the Moon twice (after Jim Lovell, before Gene Cernan). Notable points of the mission include the "lunar grand prix", where Young tested the limits of the lunar rover, and LM pilot Charlie Duke's astoundment over the geological feature "House Rock".

Young was named Chief Astronaut, succeeding Alan Shepard, in 1974. He would ultimately be chosen to command the first Space Shuttle flight, STS-1, in 1981 with pilot Robert Crippen. He would also command STS-9, the first Spacelab module flight and six-man crew, in 1983.

He was training for a seventh flight, STS-61-J, which would've deployed the Hubble Space Telescope, when the Challenger disaster occurred. In the wake of the disaster, he stepped down as Chief Astronaut in 1987, but would remain in advisory roles in the manned spaceflight division of NASA until his retirement in 2004.

[Macsen]

23 years ago today, Mars Observer was launched on the last Commercial Titan III rocket from Pad 40, Cape Canaveral.

The probe, NASA's first Mars mission launch in 17 years, was originally intended to be launched from a Space Shuttle in 1990, but was delayed by the Challenger disaster. With the Titan III, it was placed on a leisurely 11-month cruise to Mars.

However, two days before its orbit insertion, on August 22, 1993, the probe dropped contact suddenly and permanently. Analysis of the probe's construction resulted in the revelation that its reaction control system was not actually designed for a long-term space mission. They believe its hydrazine tank exploded.

[CosmicCoyote]

Speaking of Mars, NASA has something important to say about the red planet on Monday. As for why they haven't just gone and announced it, apparently something to do with syncing it with the European Planetary Science Congress. From what speculation I've read, it might have to do with some find of liquid water on the Mars surface, which would be very intriguing indeed. Guess we'll wait till after the weekend to see.

[CosmicCoyote]

So the aforementioned speculation was correct - there is indeed liquid water on Mars. The evidence is from the residue of perchlorate salt flows - those salts in the water allow it to stay in liquid form despite the incredibly low temperature of Mars. These streaks of salt appear to be seasonal, meaning that the water is still flowing from time to time depending on the season.

[Macsen]

That actually wasn't really news. We've known for years that there are occasional flows of liquid water on Mars. This only revealed the hypothesized mechanism for the flows, the perchlorate salts you mentioned.

They did bend over backwards to stipulate that this is not evidence that life currently exists, or ever did exist, on Mars.

********



51 years ago today, the Soviet Union launched Voskhod 1 from Site 1/5, Baikonur Cosmodrome, with commander Vladimir Komarov, engineer Konstantin Feoktistov and medical specialist Dr. Boris Yegorov on-board. It was the first space mission with more than one crew member.

It's fairly amazing that they were able to cram three cosmonauts into the Vostok capsule. But it also meant there was no provision for escape in case of a launch incident. In addition, a solid-fuel rocket was placed on the parachute line to allow for a softer landing that humans could escape injury from. This is similar in concept to the landing system used by the Curiosity rover which NASA launched to Mars in 2012, though far more rudimentary.

The mission lasted a day, and was primarily dedicated to biomedical research. It landed the next day, about 100 miles NW of Astana, Kazakhstan.

[Macsen]

40 years ago today, the lander for the Soviet probe Venera 9 touched down on Venus. It would return the first complete pictures transmitted from the surface of another planet.

It was intended to return panoramic images, but half of the camera cover failed to come off, so only half of the full panorama could be seen. The same issue would befall its sister probe, Venera 10, which would land three days later.

With an innovative fluid-based heat distribution system, the lander survived on the surface for 53 minutes.

[Macsen]

17 years ago today, Discovery was launched on STS-95 from Pad 39B, Kennedy Space Center.



Among the seven-person crew was John Glenn, on his second flight 36 years after his first. At age 77 at the time, he remains the oldest person ever to fly in space.

The nine-day mission was a SpaceHab mission with biomedical experiments, many of which were aimed at geriatrics. It also briefly deployed the SPARTAN satellite, which took solar astronomy measurements that would be used to recalibrate the SOHO solar astronomy probe.

The launch was the only Space Shuttle launch attended in person by a sitting president, as Bill and Hillary Clinton watched from the roof of the Vehicle Assembly Building. It was also the only launch in the history of American manned spaceflight to receive a 100% weather favorability forecast from the Air Force 45th Space Wing.

[Macsen]

30 years ago today, Challenger was launched on STS-61-A from Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center. It was Challenger's final successful mission.

It carried Spacelab with the only eight-person Shuttle crew. The mission, Spacelab D-1, was funded specifically by West Germany.

Commanding the mission was Henry Hartsfield, his second command and last flight. Also on-board were Dutchman Wubbo Ockels for ESA, and two Germans: Ernst Messerschmid and Reinhard Furrer. The others in the crew were pilot Steven Nagel and mission specialists Guy Bluford, Bonnie Dunbar and James Buchli.

The mission would last a week. Prior to the Challenger disaster, at least two more eight-person crews were planned: STS-61-H (satellite deployment, with first British and Indonesian astronauts), and STS-61-K (exact plan unknown, likely a Spacelab flight as it had at least two ESA astronauts).

[Macsen]

49 years ago today, the last Gemini mission, Gemini 12, launched from Pad 14, Cape Kennedy, with commander Jim Lovell and pilot Buzz Aldrin on-board.

Once docked with their Agena Target Vehicle, Aldrin would get out of the capsule and proceed to mount handholds around the vicinity. He would use the various restraints to work around the vehicles in a way none of the previous spacewalkers were able to do.

It was really a very simple solution to a problem they'd been having all program long. They just couldn't reconcile that they would need clever restraints in order to get around the whole zero-g thing.

While the previous two Gemini missions involved using the ATV to boost the orbit of the Gemini spacecraft, the engine on this mission's ATV malfunctioned, precluding such an orbit boost.

[Macsen]

44 years ago today, Mariner 9 became the first probe to enter orbit around another planet when it arrived at Mars. The American probe beat the Soviet Mars 2 probe by a few weeks.

Mariner 9 took a lightning-quick 5 1/2 month trip to the Red Planet. It arrived while Mars was enshrouded in a planet-wide dust storm. It cleared up in early January 1972. Once in the clear, the probe was able to take the first close-up global survey of the planet, revolutionizing extraterrestrial geography forever.

Previous fly-bys had extraordinarily bad timing, missing major features discovered by Mariner 9. Although the idea of Mars being inhabited by intelligent life was forever defeated by this mission, it was replaced by some of the grandest geographical features yet discovered on another celestial body.

The photo above was one of the first of Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano in the Solar System. Originally an albedo feature named Nix Olympica, the enormous volcano is three times taller than Mount Everest, and it's shield is almost as large as France.

Mariner 9 worked until October 1972 when it depleted its attitude control fuel. It's expected to enter the atmosphere of Mars in 2022.

[tychoaussie]

I really like these days in space histories you do!

Today I saw the ISS fly over my house at 6:30 AM. However my repeated calls on 144.490 Mhz went unanswered by the ISS crew.

[Macsen]

17 years ago today, construction of the International Space Station began when Zarya, the Functional Cargo Block (FGB in romanized Russian), was launched into orbit by a Proton-K rocket from Site 81/23, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.

Zarya was originally designed to be placed on Mir, but was never fully fleshed out. It was retooled for the ISS, with NASA funding its construction.

Zarya was designed to last at least 15 years, and remains the nerve center of the ISS to this day. In the next few years, Russia will be launching two new modules: Nauka and Uzlovoy. Uzlovoy is intended to operate as the core module of a future Russian station, currently codenamed OPSEK, if NASA ever decides to abandon use of the ISS.

If they ever go ahead with it (which wouldn't happen until at least 2024), they would detach Nauka, Uzlovoy and Zvezda, while Zarya and Rassvet would remain with the ISS (Zarya is owned by NASA, while Rassvet requires connection to Zarya).

The Pirs docking port was replaced by the Poisk port in 2009. Nauka is intended to go where Pirs is currently located, at the Zvezda nadir port. However, Nauka has been severely delayed due to issues in recent years delaying Russia's launch manifest. It is currently scheduled to launch in 2017, with Pirs being undocked and de-orbited shortly before.

[Macsen]

22 years ago today, Endeavour was launched on STS-61 from Pad 39B, Kennedy Space Center. It was the first Hubble Space Telescope service mission.

Over five EVAs (a single-mission record), two teams--Story Musgrave and Jeffrey Hoffman, and Tom Akers and Kathy Thornton--swapped various parts in the telescope. The most important addition was the replacement of the High Speed Photometer with COSTAR, essentially a set of glasses for the equipment they were not yet replacing to correct for a flaw in the primary mirror. They also replaced the Wide-Field and Planetary Camera (WF/PC) with WFPC2, which had its own corrective optics. The telescope's solar arrays were also replaced.



Future equipment replacements would come with their own corrective optics. COSTAR was removed on STS-125 in 2009 and returned to Earth, where it is currently on display with the correctly-shaped backup mirror at the National Air and Space Museum. It was replaced by the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, a high-power ultraviolet spectrograph.

[Macsen]

50 years ago today, Gemini 7 was launched from Pad 19, Cape Kennedy.



On-board were pilot Jim Lovell and commander Frank Borman.

The mission was entirely a life sciences flight, and would be the first two-week manned mission. Eventually, they would be approached by Gemini 6A in the first up-close rendezvous of two manned spacecraft.

One of the more interesting experiments on the flight was the difference between being in space with the spacesuit, or without. Once NASA was confident the capsule's environmental control systems were stable, Jim Lovell became the first American astronaut to be in his capsule without a spacesuit on Day 2. While he was comfortable, Frank Borman was not, sweating profusely in his spacesuit. Eventually, they switched, with Borman out of suit and Lovell in suit. By Day 10, both astronauts were out of their suits.

The provision of sanitation wipes for the mission greatly improved hygiene over previous flights. Odors were only a problem when the bins used to store excrement for post-flight biochemical analysis were opened.

By Day 6, they were in a stable 300-km circular orbit, enabling the rendezvous with Gemini 6A.

By Day 12, the capsule was beginning to malfunction, with thruster issues cropping up, and the fuel cells beginning to fail. Fortunately, by then, the batteries had enough power to sustain the remainder of the mission.

The retrorockets did work after two weeks, and the capsule splashed down 265 miles NE of the Turks and Caicos, about 7 miles off-target. They joked about getting married at the end of the long mission.

[CosmicCoyote]

Fun trivia fact about Gemini 7 - both crewmembers would fly together again on Apollo 8, one of three Gemini pairs that would work together again on the same spaceflight. Those were Borman's only two flights to space, which makes the marriage comment just a bit more funny. Lovell would also fly Gemini 11 with Buzz Aldrin, and most famously, Apollo 13.

The other pairs were Pete Conrad and Richard Gordon (Gemini 11 and Apollo 12), and Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan (Gemini 9 and Apollo 10).

There's another fun bit of trivia on Gemini 7 that Kitch hasn't mentioned, but I have a feeling he'll get to it in a couple weeks when the anniversary hits. If not, I'll try to remember to make a note of it myself.

[Macsen]

50 years ago today, Gemini 6A finally got off the ground from Pad 19, Cape Kennedy.



Within 4 hours of launch, Gemini 6A had caught up to Gemini 7. They would spend the next five hours maneuvering about each other. Gemini 6A approached as close as a foot away from Gemini 7, and at one point they were stationkeeping so well that neither spacecraft needed to use their reaction control thrusters for 20 minutes.

That evening EST, the Gemini 6A astronauts suggested they had caught sight of Santa Claus in a polar orbit. They then played "Jingle Bells" on a harmonica and some bells they brought with them. They are believed to be the first musical instruments played in space. The harmonica is on display at the National Air and Space Museum.

Gemini 6A would splash down the next day, landing 250 miles NE of the Turks and Caicos. It was the first spacecraft landing televised live.

[CosmicCoyote]

The trivia fact I'd brought up earlier is that Gemini 6A and 7 was the first time that the United States had two manned spacecraft operating simultaneously. The Soviets had performed this earlier - Vostok 3 and 4 in 1962, as well as Vostok 5 and 6 in 1963. However, for those missions, the two spacecraft would never come anywhere near as close as Gemini 6A and 7 - the closest Vostok came to each other was to the tune of 6 1/2 kilometers or so as opposed to the mere feet the two Gemini were apart. After 6A was rescheduled so that 7 would be the target of the rendezvous, plans were drawn up for the two ships to exchange crew (Lovell for Stafford), but since 7 was a long-duration mission and such an exchange would have required bulkier EVA suits, they were eventually scrapped. The Soviets would eventually pull off a crew exchange in Soyuz 4/5, in 1969.

It was also the first time that the US broke numerical order with their spacecraft launches (while the Mercury program capsules all went by callsigns like 'Freedom 7' and 'Friendship 7', the official flight numbers were in sequence. Alan Shepard's 'Freedom 7' was officially Mercury-Redstone 3, John Glenn's 'Friendship 7' was officially Mercury-Atlas 6, et cetera) They'd do it with a bit more frequency during the shuttle program (not helped by the fact that they changed mission numbering protocols mid-program, then switched back).

[Macsen]

As I noted last year, rank was broken this time because Gemini 6 was originally supposed to be the first docking mission. But their Agena Target Vehicle failed to orbit, so they scrubbed it. This mission was a result of that cancellation. They didn't have enough time to build another ATV, so they went with rendezvous with another mission instead.

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50 years ago today, NASA launched Pioneer 6 on a Thor-Delta E rocket from Pad 17A, Cape Kennedy.

The mission was the first in a long and successful series of solar orbit-based probes to study the solar wind and cosmic radiation. Of five attempted launches, the first four all succeeded, and the probes all lasted far longer than originally planned.

Pioneer 9 failed in 1983. Operations of the other three ended in the 1990s. Pioneer 6 was contacted as recently as 2007. The three remaining probes are believed to still be reachable. NASA frequently notes this particular program as one of the most valuable programs in proportion to its cost that they have ever undertaken.

[Macsen]

Last night (early morning today UTC), SpaceX completed is return to flight, launching eleven Orbcomm G2 satellites into LEO from Pad 41, Cape Canaveral.

The first stage then landed successfully at Landing Complex 1, Cape Canaveral. The landing location was formerly a launch site for early Atlas rockets, being the starting point for Lunar Orbiter 1 and several reconnaissance satellites.

Video here: https://youtu.be/O5bTbVbe4e4

[Macsen]

15 years ago today, Cassini swung by Jupiter, and got the most detailed photos of the planet yet. This resulted in epiphanies regarding the nature of the planet's meteorology.

It did not make detailed observations of the major moons, as New Horizons would six years later. But it was able to observe Jupiter's tenuous ring and enable hypotheses on its origin.

[Macsen]

10 years ago today, New Horizons was launched atop an Atlas V 551 rocket from Pad 41, Cape Canaveral.

The launch was the first to use five SRM's with the Atlas V rocket. Its thrust at launch was around 2.7 million pounds-force. It's the biggest of Atlas' big guns, only used for outer Solar System probes (Juno) and the absolute heaviest of geostationary payloads (The DOD's MUOS military comsats).

The probe arrived at Cape Canaveral for the launch in September 2005. During preparations, one of the SRM's was damaged when Hurricane Wilma passed over Florida on its way to Texas. It was swapped out for another one.

The actual launch was delayed a total of eight days for a combination of due diligence and weather delays. The launch window was only the first 23 days of 2006. Any delay beyond that would've precluded the Jupiter encounter, pushing the encounter with Pluto potentially as far back as far as 2019.

In addition to its most powerful rocket configuration, New Horizons was further augmented with an ATK Star 48B PAM upper stage. It achieved an outward speed of over 58,000 km/h relative to the Earth, the fastest speed ever achieved at launch. It passed the orbit of the Moon in under seven hours.

This is faster than even Voyager 1, though its fly-bys of Jupiter and Saturn would give it far more momentum. New Horizons will not pass Voyager 1 at any time in the future.

[Ezaz]

Rest In Scrap SRM #?.