Timeline of NASA, the Space Shuttle and
Near Earth Space Flights
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1899 Aug 31, Paul E. Garber, US founder and 1st curator of National Air & Space Museum, was born.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1912 Mar 23, Werner von Braun, rocket expert (I Aim at the Stars), was born in Wirsitz, Germany. He led the development of the V-2 rocket during World War II.
(HN, 3/23/99)(SS, 3/23/02)
1914 Jul 14, 1st patent for liquid-fueled rocket design was granted to Dr. R. Goddard.
(MC, 7/14/02)
1915 Mar 3, The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), a NASA forerunner, was created. It was the first US government sponsored organization in support of aviation research and development.
(SC, 3/3/02)(NPub, 2002, p.9)
1915 Apr 23, ACA becomes National Advisory Council on Aeronautics (NACA), the forerunner of NASA.
(HN, 4/23/99)
1920 Jan 13, A NY Times editorial excoriated Dr. Robert H. Goddard, and reported that rockets can never fly. In 1969 the NY Times belatedly apologized.
(WSJ, 8/7/03, p.A1)
1925 May 1, Malcolm Scott Carpenter, astronaut (Mercury 7-Aurora 7), was born in Boulder, Colo.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1926 Mar 16, The first liquid-fuel rocket was launched by physicist Robert H. Goddard. It went 184' (56 meters). [see Mar 26]
(HN, 3/16/98)(MC, 3/16/02)
1926 Mar 26, Pioneer physicist and engineer Dr. Robert H. Goddard launched the first successful liquid-fuel rocket in Auburn, Massachusetts. Goddard’s rocket, launched from a homemade pipe frame, rose 41 feet and in a 2.5-second flight reached a speed of about 60 miles per hour, proving the practicality of liquid-propelled rocketry. [see Mar 16]
(HNPD, 3/14/99)
1926 Apr 3, Virgil Grissom (d.1967), Lt. Col. USAF, astronaut (Mercury 4, Gemini 3), was born in Mitchell, Ind. He was the Mercury and Gemini astronaut who was killed in a fire while preparing for the first Apollo flight.
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/Apollo204/grissom.html
(MC, 4/3/02)
1926 Apr 3, Robert Goddard launched his 2nd flight of a liquid-fueled rocket.
(MC, 4/3/02)
1926 Apr 23, Virgil I (Gus) Grissom, was born. He was the Mercury and Gemini astronaut who was killed in a fire while preparing for the first Apollo flight.
(HN, 4/23/99)
1927 Mar 6, Leroy Gordon Cooper Jr. (d.2004), USAF astronaut (Mer 9, Gem 5), was born in Shawnee, Okla.
(SFC, 10/5/04, p.B7)
1928 Mar 14, Frank Borman, astronaut (Gem 7, Ap 8), CEO (Eastern Airline), was born in Gary, Ind.
(MC, 3/14/02)
1930 Mar 17, James Benson Irwin, Col. USAF, astronaut (Apollo 15), was born in Pittsburgh, Penn.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1930 Jun 2, Charles Conrad (d.1999), astronaut, was born in Philadelphia. He walked on the moon during the Apollo XII mission in 1969.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.A6)
1932 May 25, Georgi Mikhailovich Grechko, USSR cosmonaut (Soyuz 17, 26, T-14), was born.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1932 Jul 25, Paul J. Weitz, astronaut (Skylab 2, STS 6), was born in Erie, Pennsylvania.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1933 Jan 16, Oleg Grigoryevich Makarov (d.2003 at 70), USSR cosmonaut (Soyuz 12, 18A, 27, T-3), was born.
(MC, 1/16/02)(SFC, 5/31/03, p.A21)
1934 Mar 14, Eugene Cerna, American Astronaut who was the last man on the moon, was born.
(HN, 3/14/00)
1935 Mar 28, Goddard used gyroscopes to control a rocket.
(MC, 3/28/02)
1939 Jul 3, Ernst Heinkel demonstrated an 800-kph rocket plane to Hitler.
(MC, 7/3/02)
1940 Jul 2, Georgi Ivan Ivanov, 1st Bulgarian space traveler (Soyuz 33), was born.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1942 Jun 13, 1st V-2 rocket launch from Peenemunde, Germany, reached 1.3 km.
(MC, 6/13/02)
1942 Oct 3, In Germany the rocket-development team of Werner von Braun conducted the 1st successful test flight of an A-4/V-2 missile from the Peenemunde test site. It flew perfectly over a 118-mile course to an altitude of 53 miles (85 km). The 13-ton, 46-foot long V2 rocket was the world’s 1st long-range ballistic missile.
(HN, 10/3/98)(AM, 5/01, p.63)(WSJ, 2/21/09, p.A5)
1944 Jun 11, James "Ox" D A Van Hoften, astronaut (STS 41C, STS 51I), was born in Fresno, Calif.
(SC, 6/11/02)
1945 May 25, Arthur C. Clark proposed relay satellites in geosynchronous orbit.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1945 Jul 10, Robert Goddard (b.1882), American rocket scientist, died. He received 214 patents for rocket systems and components. In 2003 David Clary authored "Rocket Man," a biography of Goddard.
(HN, 10/5/98)(ON, 1/01, p.5)(WSJ, 8/7/03, p.W8)(MC, 7/10/02)
1946 Mar 22, First U.S. built rocket to leave the earth's atmosphere reached a 50-mile height.
(HN, 3/22/97)
1946 Apr 16, 1st US launch of captured V-2 rocket was at White Sands, NM. It reached 8 km.
(MC, 4/16/02)
1946 Jun 24, Lt. Col. Ellison S. Onizuka (astronaut: mission specialist aboard ill-fated Space Shuttle Challenger), was born.
(MC, 6/24/02)
1949 Feb 24, A V-2 WAC-Corporal was the 1st rocket to outer space. It was fired at White Sands, NM, and reached 400 km.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1950 German physicist and engineer Wernher von Braun and a team of some 118 German scientists, described as “prisoners of peace," began arriving in Huntsville, Alabama, to work on the US space program at Redstone Arsenal.
(WSJ, 11/10/04, p.A1)(Econ, 3/13/10, p.34)
1951 May 26, Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, was born in LA, Calif. She flew on the Space Shuttle Challenger.
(HN, 5/26/99)(MC, 5/26/02)
1952 Jul 2, Linda M. Godwin, PhD, astronaut (STS 37), was born in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1953 Aug 21, Marion Carl in Douglas Skyrocket reached a record 25,370 m.
(SC, 8/21/02)
1954 Mar 19, The 1st rocket-driven sled on rails was tested in Alamogordo, NM.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1956 Mar 11, Curtis L. Brown Jr., astronaut (STS 47, STS 66, 77, 85, sk:95), was born in NC.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1956 Sep 27, The U.S. Air Force Bell X-2, the world's fastest and highest-flying plane, crashed, killing the test pilot.
(HN, 9/27/98)
1957 Jul 26, USSR launched the 1st intercontinental multistage ballistic missile.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1957 Oct 4, The Space Age and "space race" began as the Soviet Union launched Sputnik (traveler), the first man-made space satellite. The satellite, built by Valentin Glushko, weighed 184 pounds and was launched by a converted Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). Sputnik, developed under the chief scientist Sergei Korolyov, orbited the earth every 96 minutes at a maximum height of 584 miles. The event was timed to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution. In 1958, it reentered the earth's atmosphere and burned up. It was followed by 9 other Sputnik spacecraft.
(WSJ, 10/7/96, p.B4)(SFC, 8/2/97, p.A12)(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)(WSJ, 10/3/97, p.A8)(AP, 10/4/97)(HN, 10/4/98)(AP, 10/1/07)
1957 Nov 3, The Soviet Union launched into orbit Sputnik Two, the second manmade satellite; a dog on board named Laika, the first animal in space, was sacrificed in the experiment. Sputnik 2 remained in orbit another 162 days before burning up. Safe reentry process had not yet been developed.
(TMC, 1994, p.1957)(AP, 11/3/97)(HN, 11/3/98)
1957 Dec 6, America's first attempt at putting a satellite into orbit failed as Vanguard TV3 rose only about four feet off a Cape Canaveral, Fla., launch pad before crashing back down and exploding.
(AP, 12/6/08)
1957 Dec 17, The United States successfully test-fired the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time.
(AP, 12/17/97)
1958 Jan 31, Explorer 1, the first successful US satellite, was launched by a Jupiter-C rocket and the United States entered the Space Age. It discovered the "Van Allen radiation belts" around Earth named after James Van Allen. Radio signals from the transmitter aboard the 30.8 pound satellite were picked up in California within a few minutes after the launch. Two months earlier, the first attempt to launch a satellite had failed.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)(AP, 1/31/98)(MC, 1/31/02)
1958 Mar 17, The U.S. Navy launched the Vanguard 1 satellite.
(AP, 3/17/02)
1958 Mar 26, The U.S. Army launched America's third successful satellite, Explorer 3.
(AP, 3/26/97)
1958 Apr 2, National Advisory Council on Aeronautics was renamed NASA.
(HN, 4/2/98)
1958 Apr 14, Sputnik 2 (with dog Laika) burned up in the atmosphere.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1958 May 15, Sputnik III, the first space laboratory, was launched in the Soviet Union.
(HN, 5/15/99)
1958 Jul 29, President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which created NASA.
(AP, 7/29/97)
1958 Aug 17, World's 1st Moon probe, US's Thor-Able, exploded at T +77 sec.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1958 Aug 27, USSR launched Sputnik 3 with 2 dogs aboard.
(MC, 8/27/01)
1958 Oct 1, America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was inaugurated [See Apr 2, Jul 29].
(SFC, 10/2/07, p.A6)
1959 Jan 27, NASA selected 110 candidates for the first U.S. space flight.
(HN, 1/27/99)
1959 Feb 6, The United States successfully test-fired for the first time a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile from Cape Canaveral.
(AP, 2/6/97)
1959 Feb 17, The U.S. launched its first weather station in space, Vanguard II.
(HN, 2/17/98)
1959 Mar 3, Pioneer 4, the 1st US probe to enter solar orbit, was launched.
(SFC, 10/2/07, p.A6)
1959 Mar 16, Michael J. Bloomfield, Major USAF, astronaut (STS 86), was born in Flint, Mich.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1959 Apr 9, NASA announced the selection of America's first seven astronauts for the US first orbital flight in 1962 under the Mercury program: Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard and Donald Slayton.
(SFC, 3/10/97, p.A16)(AP, 4/9/97)
1959 May 28, Monkeys Able & Baker zoomed 300 mi (500 km) into space on Jupiter missile and became the 1st animals retrieved from a space mission.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1959 Jun 8, The NASA rocket powered X-15 made its first glide flight.
(http://history.nasa.gov/x15/chrono.html)
1959 Jul 2, Wendy B. Lawrence, USN Lt Commander, astronaut, was born in Jacksonville, Fla.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1959 Aug 7, The United States launched Explorer 6, which sent back a picture of the Earth. The satellite, popularly known as the "paddlewheel satellite," featured a photocell scanner that transmitted a crude picture of the earth's surface and cloud cover from a distance of 17,000 miles
(HFA, '96, p.36)(AP, 8/7/97)(MC, 8/7/02)
1959 Sep 15, Scott Crossfield (1921-2006) flew the rocket-powered X-15 faster and higher than any aircraft in history.
(NPub, 2002, p.19)
1959 Sep 17, The North American Aviation X-15 rocket plane, piloted by Scott Crossfield, made its first powered flight.
(SFC, 4/21/06, p.B9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Scott_Crossfield)
1960 Mar 11, Pioneer 5 was launched into solar orbit between Earth & Venus.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1960 Mar 23, Explorer 8 failed to reach Earth orbit.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1960 Apr 1, The first weather satellite, TIROS 1, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
(AP, 4/1/98)
1960 Apr 13, The first navigational satellite was launched into Earth's orbit.
(HN, 4/13/98)
1960 May 13, The 1st US launch of the Delta satellite launching vehicle failed.
(SS, Internet, 5/13/97)
1960 Aug 12, USAF Major Robert M White takes X-15 to 41,600 m.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1960 Aug 12, The first balloon satellite, the Echo 1, was launched by the US from Cape Canaveral, Fla. It bounced phone calls from JPL in California to the Bell Labs in New Jersey.
(AP, 8/12/97)(SFC, 4/9/02, p.A18)
1960 Aug 19, Korabl-Sputnik-2 (Spaceship Satellite-2), also known as Sputnik 5, was launched. On board were the dogs Belka (Squirrel) and Strelka (Little Arrow). Also on board were 40 mice, 2 rats and a variety of plants. After a day in orbit, the spacecraft's retrorocket was fired and the landing capsule and the dogs were safely recovered. They were the first living animals to survive orbital flight.
(www.spacetoday.org/Astronauts/Animals/Dogs.html)
1960 Nov 12, Discoverer XVII was launched into orbit from California’s Vandenberg AFB. The Discoverer Program (1959-1962) was a ruse to conceal the Corona Program, a series of photoreconnaissance spy satellites. Corona was the first photoreconnaissance program, and a precursor of the military and civilian space imaging programs of today.
(HN, 11/12/98)(http://spacecovers.com/pricelists/categories/category_satellites.htm)
1961 Jan 31, Chimpanzee Ham landed safely and became the 1st primate in space after a 16 minute flight aboard a Mercury-Redstone 2 rocket.
(AH, 2/06, p.14)
1961 Feb 16, The United States launched the “Explorer Nine" satellite.
(AP, 2/16/01)
1961 Mar 9, Korabl-Sputnik-4, also known as Sputnik 9, was launched with a dog named Chernushka (Blackie) on a one orbit mission. Also onboard the spacecraft was a dummy cosmonaut, mice and a guinea pig.
(www.spacetoday.org/Astronauts/Animals/Dogs.html)
1961 Mar 25, Sputnik 10 carried a dog into Earth orbit; later recovered.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1961 Apr 12, Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin, Russian cosmonaut, experienced the weightlessness of space for 108 minutes. He orbited the Earth once before making a safe landing. The Russians rocketed Yuri Gagarin, the first man into space. His ship, Vostok I, was guided entirely from the ground.
(SFEC, 2/16/97, Z1 p.6)(AP, 4/12/97)(HN, 4/12/98)(NPub, 2002, p.20)
1961 Apr 20, American Harold Graham made 1st rocket belt flight.
(MC, 4/20/02)
1961 Apr 25, Mercury-Atlas rocket lifted off with an electronic mannequin. An unmanned Mercury test exploded on launch pad.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1961 May 5, Astronaut Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. (d.1998 at 74), a Navy commander, became the first American in space as he made a 15-minute suborbital flight in the Freedom 7 Project Mercury capsule launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla. The spacecraft reached a maximum altitude of 116.5 miles.
(AP, 5/5/97)(HN, 5/5/98)(SFC, 7/23/98, p.A1)(HNQ, 7/11/99)
1961 May 25, President Kennedy summoned a joint session of Congress and asked the nation to work toward putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade. In 2011 John Logsdon authored “John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon."
(AP, 5/25/97)(Econ, 5/21/11, p.36)
1961 May 25, NASA civilian pilot Joseph A. Walker took the X-15 to 32,770 meters.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1961 Jul 21, Capt. Virgil "Gus" Grissom became the second American to rocket into a suborbital pattern around the Earth, flying on the Mercury 4 Liberty Bell 7. The Mercury capsule sank in the Atlantic, 302 miles from Cape Canaveral and Grissom was rescued by helicopter. The space capsule was recovered in 1999.
(AP, 7/21/97)(OGA, 11/24/98)(SFC, 4/17/99, p.A6)(WSJ, 7/21/99, p.A1)
1961 Jul 28, Scott E. Parazynski, MD, astronaut, was born in Little Rock, Ark.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1961 Aug, The Soviets launched Vostok-2 with cosmonaut Gherman Titov (d.2000 at 65). He circled the planet 17 times in a 25-hour flight.
(SFC, 9/22/00, p.D7)
1961 Sep 13, An unmanned Mercury capsule was orbited and recovered by NASA in a test for the first manned flight.
(AP, 9/13/98)
1961 Oct 27, The 1st Saturn launch vehicle made an unmanned flight test.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1961 Ham, the first astro chimpanzee, was named for the Holloman Aeromedical Laboratory. He proved space travel was safe for humans when he flew aboard a Mercury capsule.
(WSJ, 12/30/97, p.A1)
1961-1972 The NASA space program of this period was later portrayed in the $65 mil 12-part 1998 TV documentary “From the Earth to the Moon."
(WSJ, 4/2/98, p.A20)
1962 Feb 20, U.S. Marine Lieutenant Colonel John H. Glenn, Jr. (1921-2016), became the first American to orbit the earth. Launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., Glenn made three 90-minute orbits of the earth in Friendship 7, radioing down to Earth, "Oh, that view is tremendous!" When the ship's automatic altitude control system began to fail, Glenn, a decorated WW II pilot, took manual control for the rest of the flight. During Friendship 7's approach to Earth, Glenn saw some flaming material breaking off the capsule, but the parachute opened and the capsule landed safely in the Atlantic Ocean. It was some time later that NASA mission control determined that the sparks were crystallized water vapor released by Friendship 7's air-conditioning system. Friendship 7's flight lasted four hours and 56 minutes.
(AP, 2/19/98)(HNPD, 2/20/99)(SFC, 12/9/16, p.A12)
1962 Apr 5, NASA civilian pilot Neil A. Armstrong took the X-15 to 54,600 m.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1962 Apr 20, NASA civilian pilot Neil A. Armstrong took the X-15 to 63,250 m.
(MC, 4/20/02)
1962 May 24, Astronaut Scott Carpenter became the second American to orbit the Earth as he flew aboard Aurora 7.
(AP, 5/24/97)
1962 Apr 25, U.S. Ranger spacecraft crash landed on the Moon.
(HN, 4/25/98)
1962 Jun 7, Joseph A. Walker, NASA civilian test pilot, took the X-15 to 31,580 meters.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1962 Jun 27, NASA civilian pilot Joseph Walker took the X-15 to 6,606 kph, 37,700 m.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1962 Jul 10, The experimental communications satellite Telstar I was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, beaming live television from Europe to the United States.
(AP, 7/10/97)(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telstar)
1962 Jul 11, The first transatlantic TV transmission was made via satellite Telstar I.
(PGA, 12/9/98)
1962 Jul 11, Cosmonaut Micolaev set longevity space flight record -- 4 days.
(PGA, 12/9/98)
1962 Jul 17, Air Force pilot Robert White (1924-2010) flew the rocket-powered X-15 to an altitude of 314,750 feet (59.6 miles).
(SFC, 3/24/10, p.C4)
1962 Jul 28, Mariner I, launched to Mars, fell into the Atlantic Ocean.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1962 Aug 12, A day after launching Andrian Nikolayev into orbit, the Soviet Union also sent up cosmonaut Pavel Popovich; both men landed safely on Aug 15.
(AP, 8/12/02)
1962 Aug 27, The United States launched the Mariner 2 space probe with an Atlas D booster. On December 14, 1962, Mariner 2 passed within just over 20,000 miles of Venus, reporting an 800F surface temperature, high surface pressures, a predominantly carbon dioxide atmosphere, continuous cloud cover, and no detectable magnetic field.
(AP, 8/27/97)(SFEM, 8/22/99, p.9)(http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/tmp/1962-041A.html)
1962 Sep 17, U.S. space officials announced the selection of nine new astronauts, including Neil A. Armstrong, who became the first man to step onto the moon.
(AP, 9/17/02)
1962 Dec 19, Transit 5A1, the 1st operational navigational satellite, was launched.
(MC, 12/19/01)
1962 NASA ended its Mercury 13 program. In 2003 Martha Ackermann authored "The Mercury 13: The Untold Story of the Thirteen American Women and the Dream of Space Flight."
(SSFC, 6/15/03, p.M4)
1963 Feb 14, NASA launched Syncom 1 with the Delta B #16 launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral. It was intended to be the first geosynchronous communications satellite, but was lost on the way to geosynchronous orbit due to an electronics failure.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syncom)
1963 May 7, The United States launched the Telstar II communications satellite. It made the first public transatlantic broadcast.
(HNQ, 5/3/99)(AP, 5/7/00)
1963 May 15, U.S. astronaut L. Gordon Cooper blasted off atop an Atlas rocket aboard Faith 7 on the final mission of the Project Mercury space program. He orbited Earth 22 times and manually piloted his craft to a pinpoint splashdown.
(AP, 5/15/97)(WSJ, 11/7/97, p.A1)(HN, 5/15/98)
1963 May 16, After 22 Earth orbits Gordon Cooper returned to Earth in Friendship Seven, ending Project Mercury.
(HN, 5/16/98)
1963 Jun 27, USAF Major Robert A. Rushworth reached an altitude of 53.9 miles in the X-15.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_X-15)
1963 Jul 26, NASA launched Syncom 2, the world's first successful geosynchronous communications satellite. Syncom 3, launched in 1964, was the world's first geostationary satellite.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syncom)
1963 Aug 22, The X-15 aircraft set an altitude record of 67 miles.
(NPub, 2002, p.20)
1963 Nov 21, India launched its first rocket from Thumba in Kerala state.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thumba_Equatorial_Rocket_Launching_Station)
1964 Jul 28, Ranger 7 was launched toward the Moon. It sent back 4308 TV pictures.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1964 Oct 12, The Soviet Union launched a Voskhod space capsule with a three-man crew on the first manned mission involving more than one crew member. Spaceship designer Konstantin Feoktistov (1926-2009), the only non-Communist space traveler in the history of the Soviet space program, traveled aboard the Voskhod as part of the first group space flight in history.
(AP, 10/12/97)(AP, 11/22/09)
1965 Feb 20, The Ranger 8 spacecraft crashed on the moon after sending back 7,000 photos of the lunar surface.
(HN, 2/20/98)(AP, 2/20/98)
1965 Mar 21, The U.S. launched Ranger 9, last in a series of lunar explorations.
(HN, 3/21/98)
1965 Mar 18, The first spacewalk took place as Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov (30) left his Voskhod 2 capsule and remained outside the spacecraft for 20 minutes, secured by a tether.
(SFC, 5/27/00, p.A26)(AP, 3/18/97)
1965 Mar 23, America's first two-person space flight began as Gemini 3 blasted off from Cape Kennedy with astronauts Virgil I. Grissom and John W. Young aboard for a nearly five-hour flight. Young sneaked a corned beef sandwich on board, for which he was later reprimanded.
(AP, 3/23/08)
1965 Apr 6, The United States launched the Intelsat I, also known as the "Early Bird" communications satellite.
(AP, 4/6/08)
1965 May 1, USSR launched Luna 5; later lands on Moon.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1965 May 2, Intelsat 1, also known as the Early Bird satellite, was used to transmit television pictures across the Atlantic.
(AP, 5/2/08)
1965 Jun 3, Astronaut Edward White became the first American to "walk" in space, during the flight of Gemini 4.
(AP, 6/3/97)(SFC, 7/15/00, p.A2)
1965 Jun 7, Gemini 4 completed 62 orbits.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1965 Jul 15, US scientists displayed close-up photographs of the planet Mars taken by "Mariner Four." It passed over Mars at an altitude of 6,000 feet.
(AP, 7/15/00)
1965 Aug 21, Gemini 5 was launched into Earth orbit atop Titan V with Cooper and Conrad.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.A6)
1965 Aug 29, Gemini 5, carrying astronauts Gordon Cooper and Charles ("Pete") Conrad, splashed down in the Atlantic after eight days in space.
(AP, 8/29/97)
1965 Dec 4, The United States launched Gemini 7 with Air Force Lt. Col. Frank Borman and Navy Comdr. James A. Lovell aboard.
(AP, 12/4/97)
1965 Dec 15, Two U.S. manned spacecraft, Gemini 6 and Gemini 7, maneuvered to within 10 feet of each other while in orbit.
(AP, 12/15/97)
1965 Dec 18, The Borman and Lovell splash down in the Atlantic ended a 2 week Gemini VII mission.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1966 Jan 31, The Soviets launched Luna 9, the first spacecraft to land softly on the moon.
(HC, 2003, p.64)
1966 Feb 3, The Soviet probe Luna 9 became the first manmade object to make a soft landing on the moon.
(AP, 2/3/08)
1966 Mar 16-1966 Mar 17, US astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott performed the first orbital docking.
(NPub, 2002, p.20)
1966 Jun 8, Gemini astronaut Gene Cernan attempted to become the first man to orbit the Earth untethered to a space capsule, but was unable to when he exhausts himself fitting into his rocket pack.
(HN, 6/8/99)
1966 Jul 21, Gemini X returned to Earth.
(OGA, 11/24/98)
1966 Aug 17, Pioneer 7 launched into solar orbit.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1966 Sep 18, Gemini XI, a 3-day mission, was launched with Charles Conrad in command.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.A6)
1966 Sep 20, Nasa's Centaur upper rocket stage successfully propelled the Surveyor 2 lander to the moon before it was discarded. The lander ended up crashing into the moon after one of its thrusters failed to ignite on the way there. The rocket, meanwhile, swept past the moon and into orbit around the sun as intended junk. In 2020 it was identified as asteroid 2020 SO.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveyor_2)(AP, 10/11/20)
1966 Dec 21, USSR launched Luna 13. It soft-landed on the Moon’s Oceanus Procellarum.
(MC, 12/21/01)
1966 Dec 24, Soviet research station Luna 13 soft-landed on the moon.
(HN, 12/24/98)(MC, 12/24/01)
1966 NASA was spending 4.4% of the American government’s budget providing jobs for some 400,000 people.
(Economist, 9/1/12, p.90)
1967 Jan 27, The US signed a space treaty with Russia. More than 60 nations signed a treaty banning the orbiting of nuclear weapons. All weapons of mass destruction were banned from orbit, as was military activity on the moon and other celestial bodies. On October 10 the Outer Space Treaty went into effect.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty)(SFC, 1/28/67, p.A1)(AP, 1/27/98)(SSFC, 7/15/07, p.D1)
1967 Jan 27, During a launch pad test of the Apollo I (AS-204) mission at Cape Kennedy, a flash fire suddenly broke out in the vehicle's command module and killed its crew, Lt. Col. Edward White, II (U.S. Air Force), Lt. Col. Virgil "Gus" Grissom (U.S. Air Force) and Lt. Cmdr. Roger Chaffee (U.S. Navy), pictured above. The fire consumed the command module mere seconds after the crew had reported it. Although the Apollo I test ended in tragedy, subsequent modifications to safety and planning contributed to the success of later Apollo missions--including the first landing on the moon and the first time a man walked on the moon.
(AP, 1/27/98)(HNPD, 1/27/99)
1967 Mar, Ten Minuteman missiles were mysteriously deactivated at a Montana missile base as an alleged UFO hovered overhead.
(http://www.wanttoknow.info/ufos/ufos_national_press_club_witness_testimony)
1967 Apr 23, Soyuz 1 was launched, and Vladimir Komarov became the first in-flight casualty.
(AP, 4/23/98)
1967 Jun 12, Venera 4, a space probe of the Soviet Union, was launched. It transmitted information on the atmosphere of Venus.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera_4)
1967 Nov 9, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) launched Apollo 4 into orbit from Cape Kennedy with the first successful test of a Saturn V rocket.
(AP, 11/9/97)(HN, 11/9/98)
1967 Venera 4, A space probe of the Soviet Union, was launched. It transmitted information on the atmosphere of Venus.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)
1968 Jan 22, Apollo 5 was launched to the Moon from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_5)
1968 Mar 2, The USSR launched space probe Zond 4. It failed to leave Earth orbit.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zond_4)
1968 Mar 4, NASA launched its Orbiting Geophysical Observatory 5.
(http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/heasarc/missions/ogo.html)
1968 May 6, Neil Armstrong was nearly killed in a lunar module trainer accident.
(HNQ, 7/20/99)
1968 Aug 21, William Dana reached 80 km. in the last high-altitude X-15 flight.
(SC, 8/21/02)
1968 Oct 11, Apollo 7, The first manned Apollo mission, was launched from Cape Kennedy with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Fulton Eisele and R. Walter Cunningham aboard. It made 163 orbits in 260 hours.
(AP, 10/11/97)(www.apollomissionphotos.com/index_AP7.html)
1968 Oct 14, The first live telecast from a manned US spacecraft was sent from Apollo 7.
(AP, 10/14/98)
1968 Dec 7, The first orbiting astronomical observatory, OAO-2, was launched.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)
1968 Dec 21, Apollo 8 with astronauts Borman, Lovell & Anders was launched on the 1st mission to orbit the moon.
(AP, 12/21/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_8)
1968 Dec 24, The 3 Apollo 8 astronauts, orbiting the moon, read passages from the Old Testament Book of Genesis during a Christmas Eve television broadcast. The first pictures of an Earth-rise over the Moon are seen as the crew of Apollo 8 orbits the moon.
(TL, 1988, p.117)(AP, 12/24/97)(HN, 12/24/99)
1968 Dec 27, Apollo 8, the 1st manned mission to the moon, and its three astronauts made a safe, nighttime splashdown in the Pacific.
(AP, 12/27/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_8)
1968 Kourou, French Guiana, launched its 1st commercial satellite. A space center opened there in 1970.
(AP, 8/27/02)
1969 Jan 15, The Russian Soyuz 5 went into orbit. The crew then maneuvered to dock with Soyuz 4 and Yevgeny Khrunov (d.2000 at 67) became the first astronaut to transfer between linked capsules.
(SFC, 5/27/00, p.A26)
1969 Mar 3, Apollo 9 blasted off from Cape Kennedy on a mission to test the lunar module. It carried astronauts James McDivitt, Russell Schweickart and David Scott and made 151 Earth orbits over 10 days.
(AP, 3/3/98)(SSFC, 3/8/09, p.B2)
1969 Mar 13, The Apollo 9 astronauts splashed down, ending a mission that included the successful testing of the lunar module.
(AP, 3/13/97)
1969 May 16, Russia’s Venera 5 landed on Venus and returned data on atmosphere.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera_5)
1969 May 18, Astronauts Eugene A. Cernan, Thomas P. Stafford and John W. Young blasted off aboard Apollo 10.
(AP, 5/18/97)
1969 May 22, The lunar module of Apollo 10 separated from the command module and flew to within nine miles of the moon's surface in a dress rehearsal for the first lunar landing.
(AP, 5/22/97)
1969 May 26, The Apollo 10 astronauts returned to Earth after a successful eight-day dress rehearsal for the first manned moon landing.
(AP, 5/26/97)(HN, 5/26/98)
1969 Jul 16, Apollo XI set out from Cape Canaveral (Cape Kennedy), Florida, with Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, and Michael Collins on the first manned mission to the surface of the moon. Engineer George Mueller (1918-2015) served as head of manned space flight at NASA.
(V.D.-H.K.p.182, 341)(AP, 7/16/97)(SFC, 10/22/15, p.D3)
1969 Jul 19, Apollo 11 and its astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins, went into orbit around the moon.
(AP, 7/19/99)
1969 Jul 20, Astronaut Neil Armstrong took his legendary "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." He and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin made the first successful landing of a manned vehicle on the moon when they touched down in Apollo 11. Armstrong stepped down from the ladder of the landing module Eagle to become the first man ever to walk on the moon. The two astronauts explored the moon's surface for 2 1/2 hours, with amazed TV audiences looking on. Armstrong was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his accomplishments and his contributions to the space program. Edwin Aldrin became the second man to step foot on the moon shortly after Neil Armstrong hopped off the lunar lander Eagle at 10:56 p.m. Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the moon for about two hours during their 22-hour lunar stay. Thomas Kelly (d.2002 at 72) was the engineer who had overseen the building of the lunar module.
(V.D.-H.K.p.182, 341) (TMC, 1994, p.1969)(AP, 7/20/97)(HNPD, 7/20/98)(HNQ, 9/14/00)(SFC, 3/29/02, p.A24)
1969 Jul 21, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin blasted off from the moon aboard the lunar module.
(AP, 7/21/99)
1969 Jul 24, The Apollo XI astronauts, two of whom had been the first men to set foot on the moon, splashed down safely in the Pacific. They were picked up by the 42,000 ton USS Hornet. The Hornet was decommissioned in 1970 and set up as a museum in 1998 in Alameda, Ca.
(V.D.-H.K.p.182, 341)(AP, 7/24/97)(SFC, 8/17/98, p.A22)
1969 Nov 14, The United States launched Apollo 12 for the moon from Cape Kennedy.
(AP, 11/14/97)(HN, 11/14/98)
1969 Nov 19, Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean made man's second landing on the moon.
(AP, 11/19/97)(HN, 11/19/98)
1969 Nov 24, Apollo XII returned to Earth.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.A6)
1970 Feb 11, Japan launched its first satellite, Ohsumi-1. That launch made Japan the fourth nation with a space rocket powerful enough to launch satellites to Earth orbit, after the USSR, the US and France.
(www.spacetoday.org/Japan/Japan/History.html)
1970 Apr 11, Apollo 13 blasted off on a mission to the moon, commanded by Jim Lovell. The mission was disrupted on April 13, when an oxygen tank ruptured and crippled the spacecraft. The astronauts managed to return safely on April 17.
(AP, 4/11/97)(AWAM, Dec. 94, p.79)(SFC, 4/10/20, p.A3)
1970 Apr 13, Apollo 13, four-fifths of the way to the moon, was crippled when a tank containing liquid oxygen burst: "Houston, we've got a problem!" The incident preventing a planned moon landing. The three-man crew managed to return safely.
(AP, 4/13/97)(HN, 4/13/98)(HN, 4/13/99)
1970 Apr 17, The Apollo 13 crew splashed down safely in the Pacific, four days after a ruptured oxygen tank crippled their spacecraft. A film was made in 1995 that depicted the mission.
(WSJ, 3/22/96, p.A-12)(SFEC, 11/10/96, Par p.5)(AP, 4/17/97)
1970 Apr 24, China launched its first satellite, known as China 1 or Mao 1, to orbit on a Long March rocket. It was the fifth nation able to launch its own satellite to orbit.
(www.spacetoday.org/Satellites/Iran/IranianSat.html)
1970 Jun 19, A. Nikolayev and V. Sevastyanov returned after 18 days in Russia’s Soyuz 9.
(www.astronautix.com/flights/soyuz9.htm)
1970 Aug 17, Venera 7 was launched by USSR for a soft landing on Venus.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1970 Sep 12, The Soviet Union launched its unmanned Soviet Luna 16. It was the first robotic probe to land on the Moon and return a sample to Earth.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_16)
1970 Sep 20, The Soviet Luna 16 landed on Moon’s Mare Fecunditatis and drilled a core sample.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_16)
1970 Sep 24, The Soviet Luna 16 landed in Kazakhstan, completing the first unmanned round trip to the moon.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_16)
1970 Oct 24, The X24A lifting body exceeded Mach 1. The X-24A was the Martin Corporation's subsonic test version of the US Air Force's preferred manned lifting body configuration. The lifting bodies were used to demonstrate the ability of pilots to maneuver and safely land wingless vehicles designed to fly back to Earth from space and be landed like an airplane at a predetermined site.
(NPub, 2002, p.22)(www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Movie/X-24A/index.html)
1970 Nov 17, The Soviet Union landed an unmanned, remote-controlled vehicle on the moon, the Lunokhod 1. The spacecraft which carried Lunokhod 1 was named Luna 17.
(AP, 11/17/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunokhod_1)
1971 Feb 4, Apollo 14 lander Antares landed on Moon with Shepard & Mitchell.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1971 Feb 9, The "Apollo 14" spacecraft returned to Earth after man's third landing on the moon.
(AP, 2/9/99)
1971 Apr 19, The Soviet Union launched Salyut 1, the world’s first space station into orbit.
(HN, 4/19/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salyut_1)
1971 Apr 23, The Soviet Union launched Soyuz 10; the cosmonauts became the first in Salyut 1 space station.
(HN, 4/23/02)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_10)
1971 May 10, The KOSMOS 419 Probe failed to leave Earth orbit.
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.B1)
1971 May 19, The Mars 2 Orbiter and Lander made it to Mars but the Lander crashed when braking rockets failed. The orbiter returned in 1972.
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.B1)
1971 May 28, The Mars 3 Orbiter and lander was launched successfully.
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.B1)
1971 Jun 7, Soviet Soyuz 11 crew completed the 1st transfer to orbiting Salyut.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salyut_1)
1971 Jun 30, A Soviet space mission ended in tragedy when three cosmonauts (Georgi Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev) aboard Soyuz 11 were found dead inside their spacecraft after it returned to Earth.
(AP, 6/30/97)(SFC, 10/2/07, p.A6)
1971 Jul 26, Apollo 15 was launched from Cape Kennedy.
(AP, 7/26/97)
1971 Jul 30, US Apollo 15 with astronauts Scott and Irwin landed at Mare Imbrium on the Moon.
(http://history.nasa.gov/SP-362/app.b.htm)
1971 Jul 31, Apollo 15 astronauts (Dave Scott) took a drive on the moon in their land rover.
(HN, 7/31/98)(MC, 8/31/01)
1971 Nov 13, The US space probe Mariner 9 went into orbit around Mars. NASA's Mariner 9 circled Mars and revealed dried beds of rivers that flowed billions of years ago.
(SFC, 8/7/96, p.A9)(TMC, 1994, p.1971)(AP, 11/13/01)
1971 The US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) branded ammonium perchlorate composite propellant (APCP) as a low explosive. The substance, used as a rocket propellant by NASA, was also used by rocket hobbyists.
(WSJ, 5/7/04, p.A1)(http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/113159_rockets19.shtml)
1972 Mar 2, Pioneer 10 was launched from Cape Kennedy. It carried a plaque designed by Carl Sagan and Frank Drake showing some details of human civilization on Earth. The craft headed to Jupiter and then continued into deep space long past expectations. In 2001 contact was re-established with the craft 7.29 billion miles distant and enroute toward the constellation Taurus. Contact was again made in 2002. Pioneer was expected to reach the red star Aldebaran in Taurus in about 2 million years.
(SFC, 3/4/96, p.A5)(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)(SFC, 4/30/01, p.A7)
1972 Apr 16, Apollo 16 blasted off on a voyage to the moon.
(AP, 4/16/97)
1972 Apr 20, The manned lunar module from Apollo 16 landed on the moon.
(AP, 4/20/97)
1972 Jul 23, NASA launched the Landsat-1 satellite. It viewed Earth at different wavelengths and opened a new era in sensing the planet’s resources and environment.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)
1972 Aug 21, US orbiting astronomy observatory Copernicus was launched.
(SC, 8/21/02)
1972 Apr 21, Apollo 16 astronauts John Young and Charles Duke explored the surface of the moon with Boeing Lunar Rover #2.
(AP, 4/21/97)
1972 Apr 27, Apollo 16 returned to Earth.
(www.solarviews.com/eng/apo16.htm)
1972 Dec 7, America's last moon mission to date was launched as Apollo 17 blasted off from Cape Canaveral at 12:33 a.m. It landed on the moon December 11 at 3:15 p.m. and took a historic photo of the Earth that showed our "isolated blue planet."
(AP, 12/7/97)(SFC, 3/13/98, p.A19)(HNQ, 7/21/99)
1972 Dec 11, Challenger, the Lunar Lander for Apollo 17, touched down on the Moon's surface. It was the last time that men visited the Moon. The last two men to walk on the surface of the moon were Harrison Schmitt and Eugene Cernan. Cernan and Schmitt conducted the longest lunar exploration of the Apollo program (75 hours), driving the lunar rover about 36 kilometers (22 miles) in all, ranging as far as 7.37 kilometers (4.5 miles) from the lunar module Challenger and collecting some 243 pounds of soil and rock samples.
(HNQ, 7/21/99)(HN, 12/11/99)
1972 Dec 14, Astronauts Schmitt and Cernan blasted off from the moon to join the command module America in lunar orbit, thus ending America’s manned lunar exploration for the 20th century. Apollo 17 astronauts blasted off from the moon after three days of exploration on lunar surface.
(HNQ, 7/21/99)(AP, 12/14/02)
1972 Dec 19, Apollo 17 splashed down in the Pacific, ending the Apollo program of manned lunar landings.
(AP, 12/19/97)
1973 Apr 5, Pioneer 11, built to be a backup if Pioneer 10 failed, was launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on an Atlas-Centaur rocket, on a trajectory similar to Pioneer 10. After Pioneer 10 completed the first ever successful encounter with Jupiter, Pioneer 11 was re-targeted, even while it was flying outward, for an eventual encounter with Saturn after its visit to Jupiter in December, 1973.
(http://www.spacetoday.org/SolSys/ThePioneers.html)
1973 May 14, The United States launched the 85-ton Skylab 1, its first manned space station with crew Kerwin, Conrad and Paul J. Weitz (1932-2017).
(AP, 5/14/97)(SFC, 10/25/17, p.D7)
1973 Jul 21, The Russian Mars 4 Orbiter braking engine malfunctioned and it failed to go into orbit around Mars.
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.B1)(http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/masterCatalog.do?sc=1973-047A)
1973 Jul 25, Russia launched its Mars 5 Orbiter.
(http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/masterCatalog.do?sc=1973-049A)
1973 Jul 28, Astronauts Alan Bean, Owen Garriott & Jack Lousma) launched to continue maintenance at Skylab 3.
(www.astronautix.com/flights/skylab3.htm)
1973 Aug 23, The Intelsat communications satellite was launched.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1973 Sep 25, The three-man crew of the U.S. space laboratory Skylab Two splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean after spending 59 days in orbit.
(AP, 9/25/98)
1973 Dec 3, Pioneer 10 passed Jupiter in the 1st fly-by of an outer planet.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_10)
1973 Dec 25, Skylab astronauts took a seven hour walk in space and photographed the comet Kohoutek.
(HN, 12/25/98)
1974 Feb 8, The three-man crew of "Skylab" space station returned to Earth after spending 84 days in space.
(AP, 2/8/99)
1974 Sep 21, US Mariner 10 made a 2nd fly-by of Mercury.
(NH, 5/01, p.38)(www.astronautix.com/craft/marner10.htm)
1974 Dec 4, Pioneer II made its closest approach to Jupiter.
(www.astronautix.com/project/pioneer.htm)
1974 Taser, a voltage emitting handgun, was created. In 2004 the handheld device fired 2 probes up 21 feet with a peak load of 50,000 volts. Jack Cover, a NASA researcher, began developing the Taser in 1969.
(USAT, 7/4/04, p.2A)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taser)
1975 Apr 19, India announced it had launched its 1st satellite, from the Soviet Union atop a Soviet rocket.
(AP, 4/19/05)
1975 Jul 15, Three American astronauts blasted off aboard an Apollo spaceship hours after two Soviet cosmonauts were launched aboard a Soyuz spacecraft for a mission that included a linkup of the two ships in orbit.
(AP, 7/15/97)
1975 Jul 17, A US Apollo spaceship docked with a Soyuz spacecraft in orbit in the first superpower linkup of its kind. Soviet cosmonauts Valery Kubasov (1935-2014) and lt. Col. Alexei A. Leonov spent 44 hours with Brig. Gen. Thomas P. Stafford, Deke Slayton and Vance D. Brand.
(AP, 7/17/97)(SFC, 3/3/14, p.D2)
1975 Jul 19, The Apollo and Soyuz space capsules that were linked in orbit for two days separated.
(AP, 7/19/97)
1975 Jul 24, An "Apollo" spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific, completing a mission which included the first-ever docking with a "Soyuz" capsule from the Soviet Union.
(AP, 7/24/00)
1975 Aug 20, Viking 1, the first of 2 unmanned Viking landers, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a mission to Mars. It reached Mars in the summer of 1976.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)
1975 A Russian SL3 rocket body began orbiting the Earth. It re-entered the atmosphere in 2001.
(SFC, 9/7/01, p.A12)
1976 Jan 7, Eleanor Helin of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab. discovered the first near Earth asteroid which she named Aten. The orbits of these asteroids lie mostly inside that of the Earth and could at some date collide with the Earth.
{NASA, Asteroid, USA}
(SFC, 2/1/97, p.A8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_F._Helin)
1976 Jul 20, The Viking I robot spacecraft made a successful, first-ever landing on Mars and began taking soil samples.
(AP, 7/20/97)(HN, 7/20/98)
1976 Aug 7, Scientists in Pasadena, Calif., announced that the Viking 1 spacecraft had found the strongest indications to date of possible life on Mars.
(AP, 8/7/97)
1976 Aug 22, A Soviet probe called Luna 4 brought back to Earth 170 grams of lunar matter. It was the third Soviet mission to return lunar soil samples from the Moon (the first two sample return missions were Luna 16 and Luna 20).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_24)(Econ., 11/21/20, p.74)
1976 Sep 17, NASA publicly unveiled the space shuttle Enterprise at ceremonies in Palmdale, Calif.
(AP, 9/17/97)(HN, 9/17/98)
1976 Baruch S. Blumberg (1925-2011) of NASA Ames Astrobiology Inst. won the Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology. He had discovered a virus that caused hepatitis and a vaccine to prevent it.
(SFC, 10/8/01, p.A17)(Econ, 4/30/11, p.92)
1977 Feb 18, The space shuttle Enterprise, sitting atop a Boeing 747, went on its maiden "flight" above the Mojave Desert.
(AP, 2/18/98)
1977 Jun 16, Werner von Braun (65), German-born Nazi and American rocket scientist (V1/V2), died of smoking. In 2005 Bob Ward authored “Dr. Space," a biography of von Braun.
(www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/sputnik/braun.html)(WSJ, 6/16/05, p.D8)
1977 Aug 12, The space shuttle Enterprise passed its first solo flight test by taking off atop a Boeing 747, separating and then touching down in California's Mojave Desert.
(AP, 8/12/97)
1977 Aug 12, NASA launched the High Energy Astronomy Observatory 1 into Earth orbit. It continued operating until January 9, 1979.
(http://heasarc.nasa.gov/docs/heao1/heao1.html)
1977 Aug 20, The United States launched Voyager 2, an unmanned spacecraft carrying a 12-inch copper phonograph record containing greetings in dozens of languages, samples of music and sounds of nature. It was scheduled to pass Jupiter and Saturn.
(V.D.-H.K.p.388)(MofE, 1978, p.41)(AP, 8/20/97)(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)
1977 Sep 5, The United States launched the Voyager 1 spacecraft two weeks after launching its twin, Voyager 2.
(AP, 9/5/97)
1977 Sep 18, Cosmos, a Soviet nuclear-powered satellite, was launched. It fell onto Northern Canada on Jan. 24, 1978.
(SSFC, 3/18/01, p.A1)
1977 Oct 26, The experimental space shuttle Enterprise glided to a bumpy but successful landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
(AP, 10/26/97)
1978 Jan 16, NASA named 35 candidates to fly on the space shuttle, including Sally K. Ride, who became America's first woman in space, and Guion S. Bluford Jr., who became America's first black astronaut in space. Six women, out of some 3,000 original applicants, graduated from NASA's rigorous training program to become the 1st female astronauts in the space program.
(AP, 1/16/98)(www.astronautix.com/astrogrp/nas81978.htm)
1978 Jan 24, Cosmos 954, a 4-month-old nuclear-powered Soviet satellite plunged through Earth's atmosphere and disintegrated, scattering radioactive debris over parts of northern Canada.
(SSFC, 3/18/01, p.A1)(AP, 1/24/08)
1978 Feb 22, The US Dept. of Defense launched the 1st of a constellation of satellites that later made the backbone of the Global Positioning System (GPS). Ivan A. Getting (1912-2003), a military scientist, conceived the idea and Bradford Parkinson of Stanford helped implement the system.
(SFC, 10/18/03, p.A22)(http://msl.jpl.nasa.gov/Programs/gps.html)
1978 Mar 2, Soyuz 28 carried 2 cosmonauts to Salyut 6. Czech pilot Vladimir Remek became the first non-Russian, non-American in space.
(HN, 3/2/99)(SC, 3/2/02)
1978 Jun 27, US Seasat 1, the 1st oceanographic satellite, was launched into polar orbit.
(www.n2yo.com/satellite.php?s=10967)
1978 Jun 27, Soyuz 30 carried 2 cosmonauts (1 Polish) to the Salyut 6 space station.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_30)
1978 Aug 8, The United States launched Pioneer Venus II, which carried scientific probes to study the atmosphere of Venus.
(HFA, '96, p.36)(AP, 8/8/99)
1978 Aug 26, Sigmund Jahn became the first German in space when he blasted off aboard Russia’s Soyuz 31.
(RTH, 8/26/99)
1978 Oct 24, The weather satellite Nimbus-7 was launched with a Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) as one of its instruments.
(NOHY, 3/90, p.142)(http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/earth/nimbus.html)
1978 Dec 5, The American space probe Pioneer Venus I, orbiting Venus, began beaming back its first information and picture of the planet to scientists in Mountain View, Calif.
(AP, 12/5/98)
1978 NASA scientist Donald J. Kessler proposed a theoretical scenario in which the density of objects in low Earth orbit (LEO) due to space pollution is high enough that collisions between objects could cause a cascade in which each collision generates space debris that increases the likelihood of further collisions. This came to known as the Kessler syndrome.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome)
1979 Jun 7, Bhaskara 1, an Indian Earth resources meteorology satellite, was launched.
(www.csre.iitb.ac.in/isro/bhaskara1.html)
1979 Jul 9, Voyager II made its closest approach to Jupiter. Both Voyager I and II probes spotted volcanoes erupting on the Jupiter’s moon, Io.
(www.solarviews.com/eng/vgrjup.htm)
1979 Jul 11, The abandoned 78-ton US space station Skylab made a spectacular return to Earth, burning up in the atmosphere and showering debris over the Indian Ocean and Western Australia. Solar storms were blamed for Skylab’s premature fall back.
(AP, 7/11/97)(SFC, 6/3/00, p.A6)(SFC, 3/7/06, p.A5)
1979 Sep 1, Pioneer 11 made the 1st fly-by of Saturn and discovered new moon rings. Ring F of Saturn was discovered by Lonny Baker at NASA's Ames Research Center from data sent by Pioneer 11.
(Ind, 7/27/99, p.1A)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_11)
1979 Nov 9, Robert Taylor (d.2002), British forester, allegedly encountered a UFO in the woods of Dechmont Law. He took police to the scene 2 days later and evidence was gathered that gave some support to his claims.
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.95)
1980 Feb 14, The Solar Max satellite was launched by NASA to monitor the sun and its flares at an orbit of some 400 miles above Earth.
(NOHY, 3/90, p.126)(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)
1980 Apr 11, NASA’s Viking 2 Mars Lander ended communications.
(http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/viking.html)
1980 May 18, China People's Republic launched its 1st intercontinental rocket.
(www.astronautix.com/articles/chidoors.htm)
1980 Jul 18, India became the eighth country to demonstrate it could send a satellite to orbit above Earth with the launch of the satellite Rohini 1 on a Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV) rocket in the state of Andhra Pradesh.
(www.spacetoday.org/Satellites/Iran/IranianSat.html)(NG, 5/88, p.598)
1980 Sep 18, Cosmonaut Arnoldo Tamayo, a Cuban, became the first black to be sent on a mission in space.
(HN, 9/18/98)
1980 Nov 12, The US space probe Voyager 1 came within 77,000 miles of Saturn.
(AP, 11/12/97)(http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/science/saturn.html)
1981 Feb 20, Space shuttle Columbia cleared the final major hurdle to its maiden launch by firing fired its three engines in a 20-second test.
(AP, 2/20/00)
1981 Mar 19, One technician was killed and two others were injured during a routine test on space shuttle Columbia.
(HN, 3/19/98)
1981 Apr 10, The long-awaited maiden launch of the space shuttle “Columbia" was scrubbed because of a computer malfunction.
(AP, 4/10/01)
1981 Apr 12, The first space shuttle, Columbia, carrying astronauts Robert L. Crippen and John W. Young, blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on its first test flight. It was designated STS-1 (space transportation system).
(WSJ, 4/24/95, p.R-5)(AP, 4/12/97)(SSFC, 2/2/03, p.A6)
1981 Apr 14, The first test flight of America's first operational space shuttle, the Columbia 1, ended successfully with a landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
(AP, 4/14/97)(HN, 4/14/98)
1981 May 26, Russia’s Soyuz T-4, launched on March 12, landed.
(http://space.kursknet.ru/cosmos/english/machines/st4.sht)
1981 Jun 19, European Space Agency's Ariane carried two satellites into orbit.
(www.arianespace.com/site/news/feature_12_19_05.html)
1981 Aug 25, The US spacecraft Voyager 2 came within 63,000 miles of Saturn's cloud cover, sending back pictures and data about the ringed planet and its moons.
(AP, 8/25/97)(http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/science/planetary.html)
1982 Mar 4, NASA launched Intelsat V.
(www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/exploration/main/this_month_march.html)
1982 Apr 19, Astronauts Sally K. Ride and Guion S. Bluford Jr. became the first woman and first African-American to be tapped by NASA for U.S. space missions.
(AP, 4/19/97)(HN, 4/19/97)
1982 May 13, Soyuz T-5 was launched at Baikonur. Berezovoi & Lebedev spent the next 211 days in space.
(http://space.kursknet.ru/cosmos/english/machines/st5.sht)
1982 Jun 27, The 4th Space Shuttle, Mission-Columbia 4, was launched.
(http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-4/mission-sts-4.html)
1982 Jul 2, Soyuz T-6 returned to Earth.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_T-6)
1982 Jul 4, The space shuttle Columbia 4 concluded its fourth and final test flight with a landing at Edwards AFB.
(http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-4/mission-sts-4.html)(AP, 7/4/02)
1982 Aug 19, Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the second woman to be launched into space.
(AP, 8/19/07)
1982 Nov 11, Space shuttle Columbia launched for its first operational flight. The 4-man crew successfully used a remote manipulator arm.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Columbia)
1982 Nov 16, The Space Shuttle Columbia completed its first operational flight.
(HN, 11/16/98)
1982 Orbital Sciences, a Virginia-based company, was founded by David Thompson, Bruce Ferguson and Scott Webster. It later built the first private space rocket. In 1990, the company successfully carried out eight space missions, highlighted by the initial launch of the Pegasus rocket, the world's first privately-developed space launch vehicle.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_Sciences_Corporation)(Econ, 8/23/08, p.69)
1982 Scaled Composites was founded by aerospace engineer Burt Rutan. In 2007 it was acquired by Northrop Grumman. The company later developed SpaceShipTwo, a rocket-plane intended to carry paying passengers to 100km above Earth.
(Econ, 12/21/13, p.121)
1983 Jan 23, Cosmos 1402, a Russian nuclear powered satellite launched in 1982, fell into the Indian Ocean.
(www.space.com/news/spacehistory/dangerous_reentries_000602.html)
1983 Jan 25, The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) space probe, sponsored by the United Kingdom, the US, and the Netherlands, was launched. It studied infrared radiation from across the cosmos and exposed stars as they were born from clouds of gas and dust.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)
1983 Apr 4, The space shuttle Challenger roared into orbit on its maiden voyage and the first US female into space was Sally Ride.
(TMC, 1994, p.1983)(AP, 4/4/97)
1983 Apr 7, Specialist Story Musgrave and Don Peterson took the first US space walk in almost a decade as they worked in the open cargo bay of Challenger for nearly four hours.
(HN, 4/7/97)(AP, 4/7/03)
1983 Apr 9, The space shuttle Challenger, commanded by Astronaut Paul J. Weitz (1932-2017), ended its first mission with a safe landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
(AP, 4/9/97)(SFC, 10/25/17, p.D7)
1983 Jun 13, The US space probe Pioneer 10, launched in 1972, became the first spacecraft to leave the solar system as it crossed the orbit of Neptune.
(AP, 6/13/97)(HN, 6/13/98)
1983 Jun 18, Astronaut Sally K. Ride became America's first woman in space as she and four colleagues blasted off aboard the space shuttle Challenger.
(AP, 6/18/97)(HN, 6/18/98)
1983 Jun 20, The crew of the space shuttle Challenger, including America's first woman in space, Sally K. Ride, launched the Indonesian-owned Palapa B communications satellite into orbit.
(http://tinyurl.com/2uu2fj)
1983 Jun 24, The space shuttle "Challenger," carrying America's first woman in space, Sally K. Ride, coasted to a safe landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
(AP, 6/24/03)(http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-7/mission-sts-7.html)
1983 Jun 27, The Russian Soyuz T-9 spacecraft launched from Baikonur carrying 2 cosmonauts to the Salyut 7 space station.
(http://space.kursknet.ru/cosmos/english/machines/st9.sht)
1983 Jul 24, The Space Shuttle Challenger landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, making Sally Ride the first American woman in space.
(HN, 7/24/98)
1983 Aug 30, Lieutenant Colonel Guion S. Bluford Jr. became the first black American astronaut to travel in space, blasting off aboard the Challenger.
(AP, 8/30/97)(HN, 8/30/98)
1983 Sep 26, Cosmonauts Titov and Strekalov were saved by their escape system when the rocket that was to carry their Soyuz T-10-1 mission into space caught fire on the launchpad.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_disaster)
1983 Oct 13, The Space Shuttle Challenger, carrying seven, the largest crew to date, landed safely at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
(HN, 10/13/98)
1983 Nov 28, The space shuttle Columbia blasted into orbit, carrying six astronauts who conducted experiments using the $1 billion Spacelab in the shuttle's cargo bay.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-9)
1984 Jan 25, President Reagan endorsed the development of the first U.S. permanently manned space station.
(HN, 1/25/99)
1984 Feb 7, Space shuttle astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart went on the first untethered space walk.
(AP, 2/7/97)
1984 Mar 1, NASA launched Landsat-D Prime (Landsat 5) to map the Earth.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1984 Apr 6, 1st time 11 people in space.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaceflight_records)
1984 Jul 25, Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to walk in space. She carried out more than 3 hours of experiments outside the orbiting space station Salyut 7.
(AP, 7/25/97)
1984 Aug 27, President Reagan announced the Teacher in Space project.
(www.challenger.org/teachers/history/index.cfm)
1984 Aug 30, In Florida NASA launched the US space shuttle Discovery on its 1st mission.
(www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/shuttleoperations/orbiters/discovery-info.html)
1984 Oct 11, Space shuttle Challenger astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan (b.1951) became the first American woman to walk in space.
(AP, 10/11/97)(www.astronautix.com/astros/sullivan.htm)
1984 Nov 12, Space shuttle astronauts Dale Gardner and Joe Allen snared a wandering satellite in history's first space salvage. The Palapa B-2 satellite was secured in Discovery's cargo bay for return to Earth.
(AP, 11/12/04)
1984 Nov 14, The Space Shuttle Discovery crew rescued a second satellite.
(HN, 11/14/98)
1984 Dec 14, The maiden flight of NASA’s X-29, a forward swept wing aircraft, took place.
(NPub, 2002, p.24)
1985 Jan 24, The space shuttle Discovery was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on the first secret, all-military shuttle mission.
(AP, 1/24/05)
1985 Jan 27, A secret three-day military-satellite mission of the space shuttle Discovery ended with a smooth landing in Florida.
(AP, 1/27/05)
1985 Feb 15, The STS 51-E vehicle was moved to the launch pad. Deployment of the vehicle aboard the Challenger was cancelled in March.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)(www.astronautix.com/flights/sts51e.htm)
1985 Apr 12, Sen. Jake Garn of Utah became the first senator to fly in space as the shuttle Discovery lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
(AP, 4/12/97)
1985 Jul 2, The European Space Agency launched the Giotto space probe for a close-up of Halley’s Comet. It made its closest approach to the comet on March 13, 1986.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)(http://tinyurl.com/2hnfnw)
1985 Jul 19, Christa McAuliffe of New Hampshire was chosen to be the first schoolteacher to ride aboard the space shuttle. McAuliffe and six other crew members died (1/28/96) when the Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff.
(SFC, 12/18/96, p.A3)(TMC, 1994, p.1986)(AP, 7/19/97)
1985 Jul 29, The space shuttle Challenger began an eight-day mission that got off to a shaky start. The spacecraft achieved a safe orbit even though one of its main engines shut down prematurely after lift-off.
(AP, 7/29/05)
1985 Aug 27, Dr. Fisher was a mission specialist on STS 51-I which launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
(www.astronautix.com/astros/fislliam.htm)
1985 Oct 30, The launch of the space shuttle “Challenger" was witnessed by schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, who was fated to die when the spacecraft exploded after liftoff the following January.
(AP, 10/30/00)
1986 Jan 12, Space shuttle Columbia blasted off with a crew that included the first Hispanic-American in space, Dr. Franklin R. Chang-Diaz.
(AP, 1/12/98)
1986 Jan 24, The Voyager 2 space probe swept past Uranus, coming within 50,679 miles of the seventh planet of the solar system.
(AP, 1/24/98)
1986 Jan 28, Just 73 seconds into its 10th launch, Americans watched in horror as the space shuttle Challenger (STS-51L) exploded in midair, killing its crew of seven: Navy pilot Michael J. Smith, Commander Francis Scobee and mission specialist Ronald McNair, mission specialist Ellison Onizuka, first teacher in space Christa McAuliffe, payload specialist Gregory Jarvis and mission specialist Judith Resnik. President Ronald Reagan spoke to the nation from the Oval Office that afternoon, explaining the tragedy to the nation's schoolchildren: "The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted. It belongs to the brave.... The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them nor the last time we saw them this morning as they prepared for their journey and waved good-bye and 'slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God.'" Space shuttle flights were suspended until 1988. An independent U.S. commission blamed the disaster on unusually cold temperatures that morning and the failure of the O-rings, a set of gaskets in the rocket boosters. Rocket engineer Bob Ebeling (d.2016 at 89) and Rocco Petrone (1926-2006), former Apollo program manager and Rockwell chief shuttle engineer, had cautioned against the launch fearing that low temperatures might have damaged the shuttle’s thermal protection tiles.
(SFC, 12/18/96, p.A3)(AP, 1/28/98)(HNPD, 1/28/00)(SFC, 9/1/06, p.B8)(SFC, 3/25/16, p.D7)
1986 Feb 19, The Soviet Union launched the first component of its Mir space station. Mir meant peace.
(WSJ, 6/27/97, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/5/98, p.W14)(SFC, 8/26/99, p.A12)
1986 Mar 9, Navy divers found the crew compartment of the space shuttle Challenger along with the remains of the astronauts.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1986 Jun 9, The Rogers Commission released its report on the “Challenger" disaster, criticizing NASA and rocket-builder Morton Thiokol for management problems leading to the explosion that claimed the lives of seven astronauts. The Space Shuttle Challenger blew up as a result of a failure in a solid rocket booster joint.
(AP, 6/9/00)(HN, 6/9/99)
1986 Jul 28, NASA released the transcript from the doomed Challenger. Pilot Michael Smith could be heard saying, "Uh-oh!" as spacecraft disintegrated.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1987 Feb 26, NASA launched GOES-H (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite). It carried experimental search and rescue equipment.
(http://goespoes.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/timeline.html)
1987 Mar 26, NASA launched Fltsatcom-6, but it failed after 51 seconds due to lightning.
(http://www.astronautix.com/craft/fltatcom.htm)
1987 May 15, The Soviet space booster Energia took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying a black container labeled Polyus with the Skif-DM inside. The Skif-DM was a model a future weapon. Energia performed flawlessly, but the Polyus, which was supposed to fire engines to reach a higher orbit, shot back down to Earth and into the Pacific Ocean. The Skif project came to a halt and Pres. Gorbachev did not renew it.
(SSFC, 9/27/09, p.A24)
1987 Jul 25, USSR launched Kosmos 1870, a 15-ton Earth-study satellite.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1987 Dec 29, NASA delayed the planned June launch of the space shuttle -- the first since the Challenger disaster -- because a motor component failed during a test-firing of the shuttle's redesigned booster rocket.
(AP, 12/29/97)
1988 Apr 25, NASA launched space vehicle S-211.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1988 Jul 7, Russia’s PHOBOS 1 Mars Orbiter and lander was launched. Contact was lost on September 2, 1988.
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.B1)(www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/mars/space_missions.html)
1988 Jul 12, Russia’s PHOBOS 2 Flyby and lander was launched. It failed within 480 miles of Mar’s moon Phobos.
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.B1)(www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/mars/space_missions.html)
1988 Jul 29, NASA officials delayed a critical test-firing of the space shuttle Discovery's main engines another three days. The test on Aug. 10 was judged a success.
(AP, 7/29/98)
1988 Aug 25, Challenger Center opened its classroom doors in Houston.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1988 Aug 25, NASA launched space vehicle S-214.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1988 Sep 6, A 25-hour drama began as technical problems kept a two-man Soviet space crew from returning to Earth aboard a Soyuz space capsule. The problems were cleared up, and the crew landed safely the next day.
(AP, 9/6/98)
1988 Sep 29, The space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., marking America's return to manned space flight following the Challenger disaster.
(AP, 9/29/98)
1988 Oct 3, Discovery completed a four-day mission, the first American shuttle flight since the Challenger disaster.
(AP, 10/3/98)
1988 Oct 29, The maiden voyage of the Soviet Union's space shuttle was delayed because of problems with ground equipment.
(AP, 10/29/98)
1988 Nov 15, The Soviet Union launched its first space shuttle, Buran, on an unmanned, 3 1/2 hour flight. It was designed by Gleb Lozino-Lozinsky (d.2001 at 97). The Buran orbited Earth twice, landed, and never flew again. Russia built about a dozen shuttles, mostly test models, and later scrapped the program.
(AP, 11/15/98)(SFC, 12/5/01, p.A23)(WSJ, 4/11/05, p.A18)
1988 Dec 2, The space shuttle Atlantis was launched on a secret four-day mission.
(AP, 12/2/98)(http://tinyurl.com/gjp7w)
1988 Dec 5, The US Space Shuttle Atlantis continued its classified mission.
(http://www.astronautix.com/craft/atlantis.htm)
1988 Dec 6, The space shuttle Atlantis landed in California.
(AP, 12/6/98)
1989 Mar 13, The space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a five-day mission.
(AP, 3/13/99)
1989 Mar 18, The space shuttle Discovery landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California, completing a five-day mission.
(AP, 3/18/99)
1989 May 4, The US launched its Magellan spacecraft to Venus.
(www.solarviews.com/eng/magellan.htm)
1989 Jul 12, The European Space Agency launched an experimental communications satellite named Olympus. It malfunctioned in 1991 and was lost for a year before communication was re-established. It was damaged during a Perseid meteor shower in 1993 and was taken out of service.
(Econ, 6/1/13, TQ p.17)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympus-1)
1989 Jul 20, President Bush called for a long-range space program to build an orbiting space station, establish a base on the moon and send a manned mission to the planet Mars.
(AP, 7/20/99)
1989 Aug 2, NASA confirmed Voyager 2's discovery of 3 more moons of Neptune designated temporarily 1989 N2 (Larissa), 1989 N3 (Despina) and 1989 N4 (Galatea).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galatea_(moon))
1989 Aug 8, The space shuttle Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a secret, five-day military mission to deploy a new Pentagon spy satellite.
(AP, 8/8/99)(SSFC, 2/2/03, p.A6)
1989 Aug 13, The space shuttle Columbia returned from a secret military mission.
(AP, 8/13/99)
1989 Aug 27, Chuck Berry performed his tune Johnny B. Goode for NASA staff in celebration of Voyager II's encounter with the planet Neptune.
(HN, 8/27/98)
1989 Aug 27, The first U.S. commercial satellite rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., a Delta booster carrying a British communications satellite.
(AP, 8/27/99)
1989 Sep 4, The Air Force launched its last Titan 3 rocket, which reportedly carried a reconnaissance satellite. Since 1964, the Titan 3 had sent more than 200 satellites into space.
(AP, 9/4/99)
1989 Oct 18, The space shuttle Atlantis was launched on a five-day mission that included deployment of the Galileo space probe on a course for Jupiter.
(SFC, 6/28/96, p.A2)(AP, 10/18/99)
1989 Nov 17, The Cosmic Background Explorer Satellite was launched. It provided evidence for the “Big Bang" that spawned the universe 10-20 billion years ago. Dr. David T. Wilkinson (1935-2002) was the driving force behind the launch.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)(SFC, 9/16/02, p.A20)
1989 Nov 22, The space shuttle Discovery blasted off at night.
(AP, 11/22/99)
1990 Jan 9, The space shuttle Columbia was launched on a 10-day mission that included retrieving a drifting scientific satellite.
(AP, 1/9/00)
1990 Jan 12, Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Columbia retrieved an 11-ton floating science laboratory in a rescue mission that kept the satellite from plunging to Earth.
(AP, 1/12/00)
1990 Jan 20, The space shuttle Columbia returned from an 11-day mission.
(AP, 1/20/00)
1990 Feb 14, Space probe Voyager 1 took photographs of entire solar system.
(www.nmm.ac.uk/server/show/conMediaFile.4331)
1990 Feb 28, Space shuttle Atlantis blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla. on a secret mission to place a spy satellite in orbit.
(AP, 2/28/00)
1990 Mar 4, US 65th manned space mission STS 36 (Atlantis 6) returned from space.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1990 Apr 24, The space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., carrying the $1.5 billion Hubble Space Telescope. It cost $2 billion. The orbital period of the telescope was 97 Minutes. In 2008 Robert Zimmerman authored “The Universe in a Mirror: The Saga of the Hubble Space Telescope and the Visionaries Who Built It."
(AP, 4/24/97)(NG, 1/’94, p.23)(WSJ, 2/14/97, p.A1)(SFC, 3/21/98, p.E3)(WSJ, 6/16/08, p.A13)
1990 Apr 25, The Hubble Space Telescope was deployed from the space shuttle "Discovery."
(AP, 4/25/00)
1990 Apr 27, The aperture door of the Hubble Space Telescope was opened by ground controllers as the space shuttle Discovery, which had carried the Hubble into orbit, prepared to return home.
(AP, 4/27/00)
1990 Apr 29, The space shuttle Discovery landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California after a mission which included deploying the Hubble Space Telescope.
(AP, 4/29/00)
1990 Jun 27, NASA announced that a flaw in the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope was preventing the instrument from achieving optimum focus.
(AP, 6/27/00)
1990 Oct 6, The space shuttle “Discovery" blasted off on a four-day mission. NASA launched the Ulysses solar probe, an American and European spacecraft, aboard the space shuttle Discovery. It ceased operations in 2008.
(AP, 10/6/00)(SFC, 6/13/08, p.A5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_probe)
1990 Oct 10, The space shuttle “Discovery" landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California, ending a virtually flawless four-day mission.
(AP, 10/10/00)
1990 Nov 15, The space shuttle “Atlantis" was launched on a secret military mission.
(AP, 11/15/00)
1990 Nov 20, The space shuttle “Atlantis" landed at Cape Canaveral, Florida, after completing a secret military mission.
(AP, 11/20/00)
1991 Apr 5, The space shuttle “Atlantis" blasted off on a mission that included the deploying of the second of “NASA’s" Great Observatories. NASA launched the $670 million Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. It was directed to a suicide plunge in 2000.
(SFC, 3/24/00, p.A5)(SFC, 6/3/00, p.A6)(AP, 4/5/01)
1991 Apr 11, The space shuttle “Atlantis" landed safely after an extended, 93-orbit mission that included deployment of an observatory.
(AP, 4/11/01)
1991 Apr 23, NASA scrubbed the launch of the space shuttle “Discovery" after a sensor on one of the main engines failed during fueling.
(AP, 4/23/01)
1991 Jun 5, The space shuttle “Columbia" blasted off with seven astronauts on a nine-day mission.
(AP, 6/5/01)
1991 Aug 8, James B. Irwin (b.1930), Col USAF, astronaut (Apollo 15), died. He was the 8th person to walk on the moon.
(www.astronautix.com/astros/irwin.htm)
1991 Aug 11, The space shuttle “Atlantis" returned safely from a nine-day journey.
(AP, 8/11/01)
1991 Sep 12, The space shuttle Discovery blasted off on a mission to deploy an observatory designed to study the Earth's ozone layer.
(AP, 9/12/01)
1991 Sep 18, The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite was deployed from the space shuttle Discovery. It measured the ozone hole for the next decade. Operations of the satellite ceased in 2001 due to NASA economics.
(SFC, 8/24/01, p.A13)
1991 Sep 18, The space shuttle Discovery landed in California, ending a five-day mission.
(AP, 9/18/01)
1991 Britain's Helen Sharman flew to Russia's Mir Space Station as a tourist as part of a lottery system called Project Juno.
(AP, 9/18/06)
1992 Jan 22-30, Roberta Bondar was the first Canadian woman in space. She rode the shuttle Discovery and performed life and material-science experiments.
(USAT, 7/26/99, p.14A)
1992 Jan 30, The space shuttle Discovery landed in California, ending an eight-day mission.
(AP, 1/30/02)
1992 Mar 24, The space shuttle Atlantis blasted off with seven astronauts on the first shuttle mission devoted to the environment.
(AP, 3/24/97)
1992 Apr 2, The space shuttle Atlantis returned from a nine-day mission.
(AP, 4/2/02)
1992 May 10, Astronaut Pierre Thuot tried but failed to snag a wayward satellite during a spacewalk outside the shuttle Endeavour. A trio of astronauts succeeded in capturing the Intelsat-Six three days later.
(AP, 5/10/97)
1992 May 13, A trio of astronauts from the space shuttle Endeavour captured a wayward Intelsat-6 communications satellite during the first-ever three-person spacewalk.
(AP, 5/13/97)
1992 Jul 9 The space shuttle Columbia landed at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, ending a two-week mission.
(AP, 7/9/97)
1992 Jul 31, The space shuttle Atlantis blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a problem-plagued scientific mission.
(AP, 7/31/97)
1992 Aug 8, The space shuttle Atlantis returned from a problem-plagued mission.
(AP, 8/8/97)
1992 Sep 25, The Mars Observer blasted off on a $980 million mission to the red planet. The probe disappeared just before entering Martian orbit in August 1993.
(AP, 9/25/97)
1992 Pres. Bush appointed Daniel Goldin (51) as head of NASA. Goldin retired in 2001.
(SFC, 10/18/01, p.C4)
1992 The Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer was launched. It surveyed the entire Milky Way and beyond and transmitted date until Jan 31 2001. It broke up in Earth’s atmosphere Jan 30, 2002.
(SFC, 1/30/02, p.A2)
1993 Jan 13, The space shuttle Endeavor blasted off from Cape Canaveral.
(AP, 1/13/98)
1993 Mar 22, The launch of the space shuttle Columbia was scrubbed with three seconds left in the countdown.
(AP, 3/22/97)
1993 Aug 12, The launch of space shuttle Discovery was scrubbed at the last second.
(AP, 8/12/98)
1993 Sep 12, The space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral on a 10-day mission.
(AP, 9/12/98)
1993 Sep 22, The space shuttle "Discovery" and its five astronauts landed at Kennedy Space Center, ending a 10-day mission.
(AP, 9/22/98)
1993 Oct 30, Martin Fettman, America's first veterinarian in space, chopped the heads off six rats and performed the world's first animal dissections in space, aboard the shuttle Columbia.
(HN, 10/30/98)
1993 Nov 1, The space shuttle Columbia landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California, ending a two-week mission.
(AP, 11/1/98)
1993 Dec 2, The space shuttle Endeavour blasted off on a mission to fix the Hubble Space Telescope.
(AP, 12/2/98)
1993 Dec 4, Astronauts aboard space shuttle Endeavour captured the near-sighted Hubble Space Telescope for repairs.
(AP, 12/4/98)
1993 Dec 5, Astronauts began the repair of Hubble telescope in space.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-61)
1993 Dec 9, Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Endeavour completed repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope.
(AP, 12/9/98)
1993 Dec 10, The crew of the space shuttle Endeavour deployed the repaired Hubble Space Telescope into Earth orbit.
(AP, 12/10/98)
1993 Dec 13, The space shuttle Endeavour returned from its mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
(AP, 12/13/98)
1993 A NASA study said: “While no single food can supply all the essential life-sustaining nutrients, quinoa comes as close as any other in the plant or animal kingdom."
(Econ, 5/21/16, p.65)
1994 Feb 3, The space shuttle Discovery lifted off, carrying Sergei Krikalev, the first Russian cosmonaut to fly aboard a U.S. spacecraft.
(AP, 2/3/99)
1994 Feb 11, The space shuttle "Discovery" returned from an eight-day mission.
(AP, 2/11/99)
1994 Mar 4, The space shuttle STS-62 (Columbia 16) blasted off on a two-week mission.
(AP, 3/4/99)(SC, 3/4/02)
1994 Apr 9, The space shuttle Endeavour blasted off on an 11-day mission that included mapping the Earth's surface in three dimensions.
(AP, 4/9/99)
1994 May 4, India made its 4th developmental launch of ASLV. The 113 kg Stretched Rohini Satellite Series (SROSS-C2) was launched by fourth developmental flight of ASLV-D4 from Sriharikota.
(www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080048779)
1994 Jul 4, Russian manned space craft TM-18, landed.
(Maggio)
1994 Jul 8, The space shuttle "Columbia" blasted off on a two-week mission.
(AP, 7/8/99)
1994 Jul 23, Space shuttle Columbia returned to Earth after a 15-day mission which included experiments on the effects of weightlessness on aquatic animals.
(AP, 7/23/99)
1994 Sep 9, The space shuttle Discovery blasted off on an 11-day mission.
(AP, 9/9/99)
1994 Sep 30, The space shuttle Endeavour and its six astronauts roared into orbit on an 11-day mission.
(AP, 9/30/99)
1994 Nov 3, The space shuttle Atlantis blasted into orbit on a mission to survey Earth's ozone layer.
(AP, 11/3/99)
1994 Fresh water fish from Japan, known as Medaka, became the first vertebrate creatures to successfully mate in space.
(SFC, 9/15/00, p.A12)
1995 Feb 3, The space shuttle Discovery blasted off with a woman, Air Force Lt. Col. Eileen Collins, in the pilot's seat for the first time in NASA history.
(AP, 2/3/00)
1995 Feb 6, The space shuttle Discovery flew to within 37 feet of the Russian space station Mir in the first rendezvous of its kind in two decades.
(AP, 2/6/00)
1995 Feb 11, The space shuttle Discovery landed at Cape Canaveral, Fla., ending a historic rendezvous mission with Russia's Mir space station.
(AP, 2/11/00)
1995 Mar 2, The space shuttle STS-67 (Endeavour 8) blasted off to study the far reaches of the universe.
(AP, 3/2/00)(SC, 3/2/02)
1995 Mar 14, American astronaut Norman Thagard became the first American to enter space aboard a Russian rocket as he and two cosmonauts blasted off aboard a Soyuz spacecraft, headed for the Mir space station.
(AP, 3/14/00)
1995 Mar 16, NASA astronaut Norman Thagard was welcomed aboard the Russian space station Mir as the first American to visit the orbiting outpost.
(AP, 3/16/97)
1995 May 4, India launched the fourth ASLV-D4 from Sriharikota, successfully placing the SROSS-C2 satellite in orbit.
(www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080048779)
1995 May 19, NASA's administrator unveiled plans to slash thousands of aerospace jobs and to overhaul virtually every part of the agency.
(AP, 5/19/00)
1995 Jun 6, US astronaut Norman Thagard broke NASA’s space endurance record of 84 days, one hour and 16 minutes, aboard the Russian space station “Mir."
(AP, 6/6/00)
1995 Jun 27, The space shuttle “Atlantis" blasted off on a historic flight to link up with Russia’s space station “Mir" and bring home American astronaut Norman Thagard.
(AP, 6/27/00)
1995 Jun 29, The shuttle Atlantis and the Russian space station Mir docked, forming the largest man-made satellite ever to orbit the Earth.
(AP, 6/29/97)
1995 Jul 4, The space shuttle “Atlantis" and the Russian space station “Mir" parted after spending five days in orbit docked together.
(AP, 7/4/00)
1995 Jul 13, Just six days after the space shuttle “Atlantis" returned, the shuttle “Discovery" blasted off on a nine-day mission.
(AP, 7/13/00)
1995 Sep 7, The space shuttle “Endeavour" thundered into orbit with five astronauts on a mission to release and recapture a pair of science satellites.
(AP, 9/7/00)
1995 Oct 20, Space shuttle “Columbia" was launched on a research flight that had been delayed six times.
(AP, 10/20/00)
1995 Nov 12, The space shuttle “Atlantis" blasted off on a mission to dock with the Russian space station “Mir."
(AP, 11/12/00)
1995 Nov 15, The space shuttle “Atlantis" docked with the orbiting Russian space station “Mir."
(AP, 11/15/00)
1995 Dec 2, NASA launched a US-European observatory on a one billion-dollar mission to study the sun. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, SOHO, later detected rivers of charged particles flowing over the surface of the sun and sunquakes. In 2003 a motor failure crippled a high-gain antenna.
(SFC, 9/4/98, p.A3)(AP, 12/2/00)(BS, 6/26/03, 3A)
1995-1997 American cosmonauts worked on the Russian space station Mir. In 1998 Bryan Burrough authored “Dragonfly: NASA and the Crises Aboard Mir."
(WSJ, 11/6/98, p.W14)
1996 Jan 11, The space shuttle “Endeavour" blasted off on a nine-day mission.
(AP, 1/11/01)
1996 Feb 21, The Space Telescope Science Institute announced that photographs from the Hubble Space Telescope confirmed the existence of a “black hole" equal to the mass of two billion suns in a galaxy some 30 million light-years away.
(AP, 2/21/01)
1996 Feb 22, The space shuttle “Columbia" blasted into orbit on a mission to unreel a satellite on the end of a 12.8-mile cord.
(AP, 2/22/01)
1996 May 19, The Endeavour Shuttle rocketed into orbit with six astronauts. One task was to deploy an experimental antennae that would inflate and swell to the size of a tennis court.
(SFC, 5/20/96, p.A-2)
1996 May 29, The Endeavor space shuttle landed after a 10-day mission. It went be overhauled for a space-station assembly mission in 1997.
(SFC, 5/30/96, p.A5)
1996 Jul 8, The Shuttle Columbia landed after a record flight of 16 days, 21 hours, 48 minutes and 30 sec.
(SFC, 7/8/96, p.A2)
1996 Aug 6, NASA scientists presented evidence that a meteorite from Mars (ALH 84001) that was found in Antarctica in 1984 contained organic minerals such as carbonate globules, magnetite, iron sulfide and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. In 2001 Imre Friedmann (1921-2007), extreme microbiologist, led a team of researchers to study the same meteorite and claimed conclusive evidence that Mars had been teeming with life 3.5 billion years ago.
(SFC, 8/8/96, p.A6)(Econ, 6/30/07, p.96)
1996 The $10 million Ansari X Prize was offered to encourage the development of space tourism. The winner was required to make the 1st private launch of 3-people to an altitude of 62.5 miles twice in 2 weeks.
(SFC, 4/19/03, p.A2)(WSJ, 6/14/04, p.B1)
1997 Mar 2, The Russian Soyuz TM-24 returned to Earth.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1997 Mar 4, Russia launched Zeya Start-1, a test satellite, aboard a modified SS-25 ballistic missile from the new Svobodny cosmodrome in the Amur region of eastern Siberia.
(WSJ, 3/5/97, p.A1)(SC, 3/4/02)
1997 Mar 11, Ashes of Star Trek creator, Gene Roddenberry were launched into space, along with those of drug guru Timothy Leery.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1997 Apr 6, NASA officials announced they were cutting short the 16-day mission of space shuttle Columbia by 12 days because of a deteriorating and potentially explosive power generator.
(AP, 4/6/02)
1997 Apr 29, Astronaut Jerry Linenger and cosmonaut Vasily Tsibliyev went on the first U.S.-Russian space walk.
(AP, 4/29/98)
1997 May 15, Space shuttle Atlantis blasted off on a mission to deliver urgently needed repair equipment and a fresh American astronaut to Russia's orbiting Mir station.
(AP, 5/15/98)
1997 May 16, The space shuttle Atlantis docked with Russia's Mir station.
(AP, 5/16/98)
1997 May 17, The first flight of NASA’s subscale remotely piloted X-36 Tailless Fighter Agility Research Aircraft took place.
(www.dfrc.nasa.gov/gallery/Photo/X-36/index.html)
1997 May 17, Russia's Mir space station received a new oxygen generator and a fresh American astronaut, courtesy of space shuttle Atlantis.
(AP, 5/17/98)
1997 May 21, The space shuttle Atlantis undocked from the Russian Mir space station.
(AP, 5/21/98)
1997 May 24, The space shuttle Atlantis returned to Earth, bringing with it NASA astronaut Jerry Linenger, who had spent four months aboard the Russian Mir space station.
(AP, 5/24/98)
1997 Jul 4, The Mars Pathfinder landed and began to broadcast pictures of the red rocky landscape. The landing site was later named the Carl Sagan Memorial Station.
(SFC, 7/5/97, p.A1)
1997 Jul 17, The Columbia space shuttle and it crew of 7 returned after a 16-day mission. On the Mir space station, the 3-man crew struggled to stabilize a free-spin after a cable to a key computer system was mistakenly pulled.
(SFC, 7/18/97, p.A1,9)(AP, 7/17/98)
1997 Jul 18, All key systems on the Russian space station Mir returned to near-normal, about 24 hours after the already disabled spacecraft had lost power.
(HN, 7/18/98)
1997 Aug 7, The space shuttle Discovery was launched with a crew of six. A satellite was dropped off to study the Earth’s ozone layer.
(SFC, 8/8/97, p.A3)
1997 Aug 7, A Russian capsule on a fix-it mission docked gingerly with the crippled Mir space station, bringing a new crew to salvage the orbiting outpost.
(AP, 8/7/98)
1997 Aug 16, Two cosmonauts just returned from Mir (Vasily Tsibliyev and Alexander Lazutkin) rejected criticism that they were to blame for troubles aboard the aging, problem-plagued space station.
(AP, 8/16/98)
1997 Aug 22, A $64.8 million 890- lb. Lewis satellite was launched by NASA on a hoped-for 5-year mission. It went into an uncontrolled spin on Aug 22 and was expected to fall and burn up in Earth’s atmosphere in Sep.
(SFC, 9/27/97, p.A3)
1997 Aug 25, NASA sent a Delta rocket aloft with the Ace solar observatory, Advanced Composition Explorer. The 5-year $110 million project will go into orbit at a point 1 million miles from Earth and 92 million miles from the Sun where the gravity of Earth and Sun balance.
(SFC, 8/26/97, p.A2)
1997 Sep 25, The space shuttle Atlantis was launched. Astronaut David Wolf scheduled to replace Michael Foale on the Mir space station.
(www.cnn.com/TECH/9709/25/shuttle.mir/)(SFC, 9/27/97, p.A3)
1997 Sep 27, The space shuttle Atlantis, docked with the problem-plagued Russian Mir station to drop off American David Wolf and pick up Michael Foale.
(AP, 9/27/98)
1997 Nov 24, Space-walking astronauts from the shuttle Columbia grabbed a spinning satellite with their hands, enabling the cockpit crew to use the shuttle's robot arm to return it to the cargo bay.
(AP, 11/24/07)
1997 Nov 27, Japan launched the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite (TRMM) in a joint venture with NASA. Funding ended in 2004 a controlled de-orbit was planned.
(SFC, 7/19/04, p.A4)
1997 Dec 5, The space shuttle Columbia returned from a 16-day mission that had been marred by the bungled release of a satellite.
(AP, 12/5/98)
1997 Dec 24, The world’s first civilian spy satellite, EarlyBird I, was launched from Russia. It was built by EarthWatch Inc. of Longmont, Colo.
(SFC, 12/25/97, p.A6)
1997 The US began upgrading its GPS system with the deployment of a new generation of satellites known as GPS-3 with accuracy to 30cm.
(Econ., 7/18/20, p.34)
1998 Jan 16, NASA officially announced that John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, would fly aboard the space shuttle later in the year.
(AP, 1/16/99)
1998 Jan 22, The Endeavour space shuttle shot up on its way to meet with the Mir space station. Astronaut Andrew Thomas traded places with David Wolf for a 4-month stint.
(SFC, 1/23/98, p.A5)
1998 Jan 31, The space shuttle Endeavour returned from Mir with its crew of 7.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.A2)
1998 Mar 5, NASA officials announced that the Lunar Prospector probe found the presence of water on the moon at the north and south poles. As much as 100 million tons of water was estimated. They said that the water frozen in the loose soil of the moon might support a lunar base and a human colony.
(SFC, 3/6/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/6/98, p.A1)(AP, 3/5/99)
1998 Jun 2, Space Shuttle Discovery was launched and it planned to pick up astronaut Andrew Thomas from the Mir space station.
(WSJ, 6/3/98, p.A1)
1998 Jun 8, Discovery completed its 9th and final visit to Mir. Russian astronaut Talgat Musabayev passed a 2-foot wrench to Andrew Thomas to take to the new int’l. space station.
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A3)
1998 Jun 8, In New Mexico the $77 million Sloan Digital Sky Survey was reported to be about to start probing the universe.
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A3)
1998 Jun, The first module of an int’l. space station, US funded and Russian-built, was to be launched at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. [it didn’t make it]
(SFC, 1/29/98, p.A7)
1998 Aug 12, A Lockheed Martin Titan 4A rocket exploded after takeoff at Cape Canaveral. The $300 million rocket carried a spy satellite for the Air Force valued at $800 to $1 billion. The explosion was blamed on a momentary loss of power.
(SFC, 8/13/98, p.A2)(SFC, 9/3/98, p.A3)
1998 Aug 26, A $225 million rocket and communication satellite exploded after take-off at Cape Canaveral.
(SFC, 8/27/98, p.A3)
1998 Oct 29, The shuttle Discovery blasted off with 6 crew mates including John Glenn (77), the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962.
(SFC, 10/30/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct, The Deep Space I mission was launched. It would make a 2-year tour of the outer solar system propelled by an ion-propulsion system.
(SFC, 8/28/97, p.A2)(www.space.com)
1998 Nov 7, The shuttle Discovery landed in Cape Canaveral, Fla. After 9 days in space.
(SFEC, 11/8/98, p.A2)
1998 Nov 20, Phase 2 began in the construction of the int’l. space station. It would take 5 years, 43 flights and 16 nations to assemble the outpost. The first human crew arrived in November 2000.
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A3)(CSM, 11/22/18)
1998 Nov 20, In Kazakhstan a Russian Proton booster rocket lifted up the first stage of the new int’l. space station called Zarya (Sunrise).
(SFC, 11/20/98, p.A18)(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A13)
1998 Dec 4, The shuttle Endeavour was launched with a crew of 6 from Cape Canaveral. It contained the 2nd component of the new int’l. space station.
(SFC, 12/4/98, p.A2)
1998 Dec 6, The astronauts of the Endeavour space shuttle attached Node 1 of the new space station to the cargo block Zarya.
(SFC, 12/7/98, p.A2)
1998 Dec 15, The Endeavour shuttle and crew returned to Cape Canaveral in a night time landing following NASA’s first space station-building mission.
(SFC, 12/16/98, p.A7)
1999 Feb 6, The Stardust spacecraft lifted off aboard a Delta II rocket for its 7-year journey to gather particles from the Wild-2 comet.
(SFC, 2/6/99, p.A8)(SFC, 2/8/99, p.A2)
1999 May 1, The Liberty Bell 7 Mercury capsule, which sank in 1961, was found 300 miles offshore from Cape Canaveral in 3 waters 3 miles deep.
(SFC, 5/3/99, p.A2)
1999 May 21, The Mir space station was to be allowed to burn up in the atmosphere later this year, but Pres. Yeltsin signed permission to keep the Mir space station aloft pending private financing.
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A3)(SFC, 5/25/99, p.A8)
1999 May 27, The space shuttle Discovery was launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida with 7 astronauts from the US, Canada and Russia. The shuttle was on a 10-day mission to stock the new space station. Julie Payette of Canada flew on the 10-day mission.
(SFC, 5/28/99, p.A2)(USAT, 7/26/99, p.14A)
1999 May 30, Astronauts from the space shuttle “Discovery" rigged cranes and other tools to the exterior of the international space station during a spacewalk; then, the astronauts entered the orbiting outpost for three days of making repairs and delivering supplies.
(AP, 5/30/00)
1999 Jun 6, The Shuttle Discover landed at Kennedy Space Center just after 2 a.m. following the first docking with the new int'l. space station.
(SFEC, 6/6/99, p.A19)
1999 Jul 8, Astronaut Charles "Pete" Conrad Junior, the third man to walk on the moon, died after a motorcycle accident near Ojai, California; he was 69.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.A1)(AP, 7/8/00)
1999 Jul 16, A Russian supply ship for Mir was launched from Baikomur in Kazakstan. It proceeded to successfully dock with Mir.
(WSJ, 7/19/99, p.A1)
1999 Jul 20, After 38 years at the bottom of the Atlantic, astronaut Gus Grissom’s "Liberty Bell Seven" Mercury capsule was lifted to the surface.
(AP, 7/20/00)
1999 Jul 23, After a 2 day delay the Chandra X-ray Observatory was launched from Cape Canaveral aboard the shuttle Columbia led by Commander Eileen Collins, the first woman to command a US space flight.
(SFC, 7/23/99, p.A3)(AP, 7/23/00)
1999 Jul 27, The Columbia space shuttle landed at Cape Canaveral after a 3 day mission to deploy the Chandra X-ray telescope.
(SFC, 7/28/99, p.A3)
1999 Jul 31, NASA controllers planned to send the $63 million Lunar Prospector crashing into the Mawson crater located in the Moon’s south pole. They hoped to churn up some water vapor for possible detection. Evidence of the crash at 2:51 PDT was not detected.
(SFC, 6/3/99, p.A4)(SFEC, 8/1/99, p.A3)
1999 Aug 27, The Russian Mir space station was closed down as the last crew undocked.
(SFC, 8/28/99, p.A10)
1999 Sep 3, NASA temporarily grounded its space shuttle fleet after inspections had uncovered damaged wires that could endanger a mission.
(AP, 9/3/00)
1999 Nov 20, China completed its first unmanned test of a spacecraft. The Shenzhou 1, or "Divine Vessel," was launched at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu province.
(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.A1)
1999 Dec 19, The shuttle Discovery was launched following 9 delays from Cape Canaveral with 7 astronauts on a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
(SFC, 12/20/99, p.A3)
1999 Dec 27, Space shuttle Discovery landed at Cape Canaveral, Fla., following a successful repair of the Hubble Space Telescope.
(SFC, 12/28/99, p.A3)
2000 Feb 11, The space shuttle Endeavour lifted into orbit with a crew of six under commander Kevin Kregel and a mission to map the Earth.
(SFC, 2/12/00, p.A4)
2000 Feb 22, The space shuttle Endeavour and its crew of 6 returned to Cape Canaveral with over a weeks worth of radar images to map Earth.
(SFC, 2/23/00, p.A2)
2000 Apr 6, Two Russian cosmonauts docked with Mir. The destruction of the space station was delayed after MirCorp. of Amsterdam agreed in Feb. to pay $10-20 million to lease commercial rights.
(SFC, 4/7/00, p.D2)(SFEC, 6/11/00, p.T12)
2000 May 19, The shuttle Atlantis lifted off with 7 astronauts on a mission to fix the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 5/20/00, p.A7)
2000 May 29, The space shuttle Atlantis landed at Cape Canaveral in the early morning dark after a successful overhaul of the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 5/30/00, p.A3)
2000 Jun 4, The $670 million, 17-ton, Compton Gamma Ray Observatory was directed to a suicide plunge.
(SSFC, 1/27/08, p.A4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compton_Gamma_Ray_Observatory)
2000 Jul 12, The Russian-made Zvezda service module for the Int’l. Space Station was launched from the Baikonur site in Kazakstan.
(SFC, 7/11/00, p.A8)(SFC, 7/12/00, p.A8)
2000 Sep 8, The space shuttle Atlantis blasted into orbit to deliver supplies to the new int’l. space station.
(SFC, 9/9/00, p.A3)
2000 Sep 20, The space shuttle Atlantis returned after hauling in 3 tons of equipment for the int’l. space station.
(WSJ, 9/21/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 24, The space shuttle Discovery landed at Edwards Air Force Base following the 100th shuttle flight and work on the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 10/25/00, p.A3)
2000 Oct 31, American astronaut Bill Shepherd and Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev of Russia rocketed into orbit aboard a Soyuz rocket for the Int’l. Space Station for a 4-month stay. They would become the first residents of the international space station.
(www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/shepherd.html)(SFC, 10/31/00, p.A12)(AP, 10/31/01)
2000 Nov 30, The space shuttle Endeavour took off to the Int’l. Space Station with a crew of 5 to install new solar panels.
(SFC, 12/1/00, p.A14)
2000 Dec 11, The space shuttle Endeavour landed in Florida following its mission to install solar panels on the int’l. space station.
(WSJ, 12/12/00, p.A1)
2001 Feb 7, The space shuttle Atlantis took off with the Destiny module, a laboratory compartment, for the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 2/8/01, p.A3)
2001 Feb 20, Space Shuttle Atlantis landed at Edwards Air Force Base following a 13-day mission to the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 2/21/01, p.A5)
2001 cMar 1, NASA announced the cancellation of the X-33, a new heavy-lift orbiting spacecraft. The X-34, a reusable vehicle, and the X-38, a rescue vehicle, were also cancelled due to budget constraints.
(WSJ, 3/7/01, p.A22)
2001 Mar 8, The space shuttle Discovery lifted off with supplies for the int’l. space station in a new Italian module named Leonardo. The 12-day mission also included a fresh crew of 3 for the station.
(SFC, 3/9/01, p.A2)(WSJ, 3/9/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 23, Russia's orbiting 135-ton Mir space station ended its 15-year odyssey with a fiery plunge into the South Pacific between Chile and New Zealand.
(SFC, 3/23/01, p.A1)(AP, 3/23/02)
2001 Apr 18, India launched a rocket carrying a communications satellite.
(SFC, 4/19/01, p.A11)
2001 Apr 19, The space shuttle Endeavour went into orbit with 7 astronauts on an 11-day mission to install a billion-dollar robot arm on the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 4/20/01, p.A6)
2001 Apr 28, A Russian Soyuz rocket lifted off for the Int’l. Space Station with Dennis Tito (60), who paid some $20 million, for the experience. Tito was the founder of the Wilshire Associates investment firm.
(SSFC, 4/29/01, p.A15)
2001 Apr 29, NASA scientists reported that they had contacted the Pioneer 10 spacecraft, launched in 1972, after 8 months of no communication.
(SFC, 4/30/01, p.A7)
2001 Apr 30, The Soyuz-32, carrying multimillionaire Dennis Tito and 2 Russian astronauts, docked with the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 5/1/01, p.B3)
2001 May 1, The space shuttle Endeavour landed at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mohave Desert following the installation of the billion-dollar robot arm on the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 5/2/01, p.A4)
2001 Jun 30, NASA launched its 16-foot, 1,800-pound Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) to orbit the Sun and to scan the universe for the faint afterglow of Creation by measuring variations in radiation temperature of up to 20 millionths of a degree. In 2003 it allowed scientists to calculate the age of the universe at 13.7 billion years.
(WSJ, 6/28/01, p.A16)(AP, 6/30/02)(SFC, 2/12/03, p.A4)
2001 Jul 12, The US space shuttle Atlantis took off with a crew of 5 to deliver a portal for spacewalks to the Int’l. Space Station Alpha.
(SFC, 7/13/01, p.A3)(SFC, 7/14/01, p.C1)
2001 Jul 14, NASA launched an unmanned solar-powered plane named Helios over Hawaii.
(WSJ, 7/16/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 10, Space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral with supplies and a fresh crew for the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 8/11/01, p.A4)
2001 Aug 22, The space shuttle Discovery returned and brought home 3 crew members, Yuri Usachev, Susan Helms, and Jim Voss, who had spent nearly 6 months on the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 8/23/01, p.A7)
2001 Sep 16, A Russian module docked with space station Alpha 2 days after its launch from Kazakstan.
(SFC, 9/17/01, p.A18)
2001 Sep 21, A US Taurus rocket, made by Orbital Sciences, carrying a NASA satellite failed to launch and probably plunged into the Indian ocean.
(SFC, 9/22/01, p.A20)
2001 Oct 21, In Kazakstan a 3-person Russian-French crew blasted off for the Int’l. Space Station in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The crew included Claudie Haignere, who in 1996 became the 1st Frenchwoman in space.
(SFC, 10/22/01, p.B2)
2001 Dec 5, NASA launched space shuttle Endeavour to deliver a new 3-man crew to the Alpha space station. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Onufrienko flew to replace Doug Culbertson as skipper.
(WSJ, 12/6/01, p.A1)(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A2)
2001 Dec 7, Jason-1, a satellite for tracking rising sea levels, was launched as a joint US and French effort. Its useful life ended in 2013.
(SFC, 7/4/13, p.D3)
2001 Dec 11, NASA agreed in principle to let Russia’s space agency send Mark Shuttleworth, a South Africa Internet tycoon, to the space station in April for some $20 million.
(WSJ, 12/12/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 17, Space shuttle Endeavour returned to Cape Canaveral following A 12-day mission for a crew change at the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 12/18/01, p.A4)(WSJ, 12/18/01, p.A1)
2002 Jan 30, The 3.5-ton satellite Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUNE), launched in 1992, broke up in Earth’s atmosphere over Egypt. It had surveyed the entire Milky Way and beyond and transmitted date until Jan 31 2001.
(SFC, 1/30/02, p.A2)(www.cbc.ca/health/story/2002/01/31/satellite020131.html)
2002 Mar 1, The space shuttle Columbia with 7 astronauts blasted into orbit on an 11-day mission that included work on the Hubble Space Telescope.
(SFC, 3/2/02, p.A3)
2002 Mar 1, Envisat ("Environmental Satellite"), an Earth-observing satellite, was launched aboard an Ariane 5 from the Guyana Space Center in Kourou, French Guyana. After losing contact with the satellite on 8 April 2012, the European Space Agency formally announced the end of Envisat's mission on 9 May 2012.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Envisat)
2002 Mar 6, Astronauts successfully replaced a power-control unit on the Hubble space telescope.
(WSJ, 3/7/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 8, The space shuttle Atlantis took off for an 11-day mission to the ISS carrying latticework and a rail car.
(SFC, 4/9/02, p.A3)
2002 Mar 9, The space shuttle Columbia's astronauts released the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit after five days of repairs.
(AP, 3/9/07)
2002 Apr 19, The space shuttle Atlantis returned to Earth after installing the first girder in what eventually will be a giant framework at the international space station.
(AP, 4/19/03)
2002 Apr 30, Striking new images from the upgraded Hubble Space Telescope were unveiled.
(SFC, 5/1/02, p.A9)
2002 May 6, Elon Musk founded SpaceX with the goal of reducing space transportation costs to enable the colonization of Mars.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX)
2002 Jun 5, The space shuttle Endeavour launched from Cape Canaveral carrying 7 new residents for the int’l. space station.
(SFC, 6/6/02, p.A7)
2002 Jun 19, The space shuttle Endeavour returned to Earth with one Russian and two American crewmen who'd spent six and a-half months aboard the international space station.
(AP, 6/19/03)
2002 Jun, Moon rocks were stolen from a NASA safe. They were recovered in July at a hotel in Orlando, Fl. 4 men were later convicted and sentenced to prison terms. 3 young NASA employees, led by Thad Roberts (25) had stolen a quarter pound of moon rocks and tried selling them online to a Belgian collector, who alerted the FBI. In 2011 Ben Mezrich authored “Sex on the Moon: The Amazing Story Behind the Most Audacious Heist in History."
(SSFC, 7/17/11, p.F5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolen_and_missing_moon_rocks)
2002 Aug 21, A new Lockheed Martin Atlas V rocket launched a 4-ton French communications satellite into orbit.
(WSJ, 8/23/02, p.A1)
2002 Oct 7, Space shuttle Atlantis carried 6 astronauts and a 14-ton girder for installation on the int’l. space station.
(ADN, 10/8/02, p.A4)
2002 Oct 9, The space shuttle "Atlantis" arrived at the international space station, bringing with it a 14-ton girder.
(AP, 10/9/03)
2002 Oct 15, In northern Russia a Soyuz-U rocket carrying an EU research communications satellite exploded several seconds after liftoff from a launch pad, killing one soldier.
(AP, 10/16/02)(WSJ, 10/17/02, p.A1)
2002 Oct 18, Space shuttle Atlantis returned to Earth following an 11-day mission to the int’l. space station.
(SFC, 10/19/02, p.A16)
2002 Nov 25, Space shuttle Endeavour arrived at the international space station, delivering one American and two Russians, and another girder for the orbiting outpost.
(AP, 11/25/03)
2002 Nov 26, The Astra-1K satellite was launched atop a Russian Proton rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan. The world's largest communications satellite, manufactured by France's Alcatel Space corporation for Societe Europeene des Satellites of Luxembourg, was lost after it went into the wrong orbit.
(AP, 11/26/02)(WSJ, 11/27/02, p.A1)
2002 Dec 7, Space shuttle Endeavour returned to Earth along with space station voyagers Peggy Whitsun, Valery Korzun and Sergei Treschev.
(SSFC, 12/8/02, p.A14)
2002 Dec 30, China launched its Shenzhou IV spacecraft in a test launch to prepare for manned space voyages.
(SFC, 12/30/02, p.A8)
2002 NASA removed 5 of 9 safety panel members and 2 consultants following a report that safety problems loomed if the agency’s budget was not increased.
(SSFC, 2/3/03, p.A1)
2002 NASA said yes to a $2.5 billion plan for a successor to the Hubble space telescope, launched in 1990, that would use infra-red, rather than visible light, to be ready in 2010. By 2011 the James Webb space telescope, now costing $8.8 billion, was still in the workshop with an estimated launch in 2018.
(Econ, 11/12/11, p.94)
2002 Gary McKinnon was caught in London and after breaking into 97 US military and NASA computers, while allegedly searching for UFO’s. His hacking from 2001-2002 caused an estimated $700,000 of damage. In 2008 McKinnon (42) was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome. He also lost an appeal against being extradited to the US to face charges. In 2009 he offered to plead guilty to a criminal charge in Britain to avoid extradition to the United States.
(SFC, 7/31/08, p.A14)(AP, 1/12/09)(Econ, 8/8/09, p.51)
2003 Jan 16, The shuttle Columbia carried a crew of 7 for a 16-day mission. Col. Ilan Ramon was aboard as Israel's 1st astronaut. The mission ended in tragedy on Feb. 1, when the shuttle broke up during its return descent, killing all seven crew members.
(SFC, 1/17/03, p.A2)(AP, 1/16/04)
2003 Jan 25, NASA launched a spacecraft into orbit to measure all the radiation streaming toward Earth from the sun. The small satellite is called Sorce — for Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment.
(AP, 1/25/04)
2003 Feb 1, Space shuttle Columbia broke apart in flames over Texas, killing all 7 astronauts just 16 minutes before they were supposed to glide to ground in Florida. The astronauts included Michael P. Anderson (b.1959), David M. Brown (b.1956), Laurel Clark (b.1962), Kalpana Chawla (b.1962), Rick Husband (b.1957), William C. McCool (b.1961) and Ilan Ramon (b.1954).
(AP, 2/1/03)(SSFC, 2/2/03, p.A8)
2003 Feb 2, In Kazakstan Progress M-47 lifted off atop a Soyuz-U rocket to deliver supplies to the int’l. space station.
(SFC, 2/3/03, p.A5)
2003 Feb 13, An investigative panel found that superheated air almost certainly seeped through a breach in space shuttle Columbia's left wing and possibly its wheel compartment during the craft's fiery descent, resulting in the deaths of all seven astronauts.
(AP, 2/13/04)
2003 Feb 28, NASA released video taken aboard Columbia that had miraculously survived the fiery destruction of the space shuttle with the loss of all seven astronauts; in the footage, four of the crew members can be seen doing routine chores and admiring the view outside the cockpit.
(AP, 2/28/04)
2003 Apr 18, Burt Rutan, aircraft designer, unveiled SpaceShipOne, a rocket-powered spacecraft. He hoped to win the $10 million 1996 X Prize, offered for the 1st private launch of 3-people to an altitude of 62.5 miles twice in 2 weeks.
(SFC, 4/19/03, p.A2)
2003 Apr 26, Russia lunched a Soyuz rocket with a 2-man crew to keep the space station operating while Shuttle flights are suspended.
(WSJ, 4/28/03, A1)
2003 Jun 10, NASA launched a Mars Exploration Rover named Spirit, the 1st of 2. Spirit arrived on Mars in January 2004.
(WSJ, 6/11/03, p.A1)(SFC, 6/12/03, p.A1)(AP, 6/10/08)
2003 Jul 7, A chunk of foam insulation fired at shuttle wing parts blew open a gaping 16-inch hole, yielding what one member of the Columbia investigation team said was the "smoking gun" proving what brought down the spaceship on Feb 1.
(AP, 7/7/04)
2003 Jul 7, NASA's 2nd Mars lander, named Opportunity, was launched.
(SFC, 7/8/03, p.A1)
2003 Aug 10, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, aboard the international space center, married his earthbound bride, Ekaterina Dmitriev, who was at Johnson Space Center in Houston, in the first wedding ever conducted from space.
(AP, 8/11/08)
2003 Aug 25, NASA launched the largest-diameter infrared telescope ever in space. NASA showed the 1st images from the $670 million Spitzer Space Telescope on Dec 18.
(WSJ, 8/26/03, p.A1)(SFC, 12/19/03, p.A2)
2003 Sep 8, NASA presented a "return to flight" plan for the shuttle fleet.
(WSJ, 9/8/03, p.A1)
2003 Sep 21, NASA’s $1.5 billion Galileo mission ended a 14-year exploration of the solar system's largest planet and its moons with the spacecraft crashing by design into Jupiter at 108,000 mph.
(SFC, 9/22/03, p.B8)(AP, 9/21/04)
2003 Oct 15, In China Shenzhou 5 launched into orbit with air force Lt. Col. Yang Liwei (38) aboard, making China the third nation to put a human in space on its own, after the former Soviet Union and the United States. The launch was made from the space center at Jiuquan. His capsule landed in Mongolia the next day.
(AP, 10/15/03)(SFC, 10/16/03, p.A3)(SSFC, 7/15/07, p.D5)(Econ, 10/24/09, SR p.13)
2003 Oct 18, Russia launched a Soyuz capsule from Kazakhstan with a 3-man crew for the int'l. space station. Aboard were an American, a Russian and a Spaniard.
(SSFC, 10/19/03, p.A2)
2003 Oct 28, The seven astronauts who died in the February 1 Columbia shuttle disaster were honored with the unveiling of their names carved into the national Space Mirror Memorial in Florida.
(AP, 10/28/08)
2003 Oct 28, A Soyuz space capsule with 3 astronauts landed in Kazakhstan.
(SFC, 10/28/03, p.A1)
2003 Dec 25, The British Beagle 2 spacecraft landed on Mars. The 73-pound lander was launched by the European Space Agency June 2. Contact with the Charles Darwin probe was lost soon after it separated from its European Space Agency Mars Express mother ship on Dec 19. The mother ship went into orbit for a planned 2 years of photography.
(SFC, 12/25/03, p.A1)(SFC, 12/26/03, p.A2)(SFC, 12/27/03, p.A2)
2003 Dec, The expected completion date of the $17.4 billion int’l. space station. The cost was estimated up in 1998 to $24.7 billion, and possibly delayed by 3 years.
(SFC, 4/24/98, p.A10)
2004 Jan 8, Pressure in the Int'l. Space Station continued to drop.
(WSJ, 1/9/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 14, Pres. Bush proposed a new space program that would send humans back to the moon by 2015 and establish a base to Mars and beyond. Bush said he would seek $12 billion for the initial stages of the plan.
(SFC, 1/15/04, p.A1)(WSJ, 1/15/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 15, The NASA Spirit rover rolled onto the surface of Mars for the first time since the vehicle bounced to a landing nearly two weeks earlier.
(AP, 1/15/05)
2004 Jan 16, NASA said it would not send another shuttle mission to service and repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
(SFC, 1/17/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 22, NASA said it lost contact with the Mars spirit rover.
(WSJ, 1/23/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 24, A 2nd NASA rover was set to land on Mars.
(SFC, 1/23/04, p.A14)
2004 Mar 2, The European Space Agency launched its Rosetta lander. It was intended to land on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in May, 2014.
(SFC, 7/18/05, p.A4)
2004 Mar 24, A NASA unpiloted X-43A jet, part of its Hyper-X program, reached a record speed of 5,200 mph, Mach 6.83, after a rocket boosted it to 3,500 mph. It used a new engine called a supersonic-combustion ramjet, or scramjet.
(SSFC, 3/28/04, p.A3)(Econ, 3/27/04, p.80)(SFC, 11/10/04, p.A2)
2004 Apr 19, A Russian rocket roared into space carrying an American, a Russian and a Dutchman to the international space station on the 3rd manned mission since the halt of the US shuttle program.
(SFC, 4/19/04, p.A5)(AP, 4/19/05)
2004 Apr 20, The NASA Gravity Probe B satellite, designed by Stanford researchers, was launched to test Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.
(SFC, 4/21/04, p.A7)
2004 Jun 21, SpaceShipOne lifted off from the Mojave Desert in the initial stage of the world's first attempted commercial space flight. SpaceShipOne reached 62.21 miles. It was designed by legendary aerospace designer Burt Rutan and was built with more than $20 million in funding by billionaire Paul Allen. It was piloted by Michael Melvill.
(AP, 6/21/04)(WSJ, 6/22/04, p.A1)
2004 Jul 1, The Cassini spacecraft sent back photographs of Saturn's shimmering rings.
(AP, 7/1/05)
2004 Sep 8, NASA’s $260 million Genesis space capsule crashed in the Utah desert after its parachute failed to open. It carried a cargo of solar wind particles.
(SFC, 9/9/04, p.A1)
2004 Sep 29, Mike Melvill piloted SpaceShipOne, designed by Burt Rutan, climbed to 337,500 feet in the 1st leg of an attempt to capture the $10 million X Prize. The prize required a 2nd success within 2 weeks.
(SFC, 9/30/04, p.A4)
2004 Oct 4, Mike Melvill piloted SpaceShipOne, designed by Burt Rutan, climbed to 367,442 feet in a 2nd leg and captured the $10 million Ansari X Prize.
(SFC, 10/5/04, p.A1)(Econ, 10/9/04, p.75)
2004 Oct 4, Gordon Cooper (b.1927), US astronaut in the Mercury program, died in Ventura, Ca. He piloted Faith 7 around Earth on May 15-16, 1963.
(SFC, 10/5/04, p.B7)
2004 Oct 13, A Russian rocket lifted off in Kazakhstan carrying 2 Russians and an American to replace the crew of the int’l. space station.
(SFC, 10/14/04, p.A2)
2004 Oct 24, A Soyuz capsule, carrying 2 Russians and an American, landed in Kazakhstan. The crew had spent 6 months at the int’l. space station.
(SSFC, 10/24/04, p.A7)
2004 Dec 23, Russia launched an unmanned cargo ship to the int’l. space station.
(WSJ, 12/24/04, p.A1)
2004 Dec 26, The Russian unmanned cargo ship, Progress M-51, docked at the int’l. space station with fresh supplies.
(SFC, 12/25/04, p.A5)
2004 Greg Klerkx authored “Lost in Space: The Fall of NASA and the Dream of a Space Age.
(SSFC, 12/12/04, p.E6)
2005 Jan 12, NASA launched its Deep Impact spacecraft from Cape Canaveral, Fla. It was scheduled to launch an 820-poind impactor vehicle at Comet Tempel-1 on July 4.
(WSJ, 1/13/05, p.D8)
2005 Jan 14, The European space probe Huygens landed on Saturn's moon Titan, sending back images of what scientists were calling the strangest landscape in the solar system. Pictures showed a pale orange surface covered by a thin haze of methane and what appears to be a methane sea complete with islands and a mist-shrouded coastline.
(AP, 1/15/05)(http://huygens.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=36280)
2005 Mar 11, Pres. Bush picked Johns Hopkins physicist Michael Griffin to lead NASA.
(SFC, 3/12/05, p.A8)
2005 Apr 15, A Russian Soyuz-FG rocket lifted off at Baikonur, Kazakhstan, carrying 3 men to the int’l. space station.
(SFC, 4/15/05, p.A3)
2005 Apr 25, A 3-man crew from the Int’l. Space Station landed in northern Kazakhstan.
(SFC, 4/25/05, p.A3)
2005 Jul 3, A NASA spacecraft collided with a comet half the size of Manhattan, creating a brilliant cosmic smashup that capped a risky voyage to uncover the building blocks of life on Earth.
(Reuters, 7/4/05)
2005 Jul 13, A fuel gauge that mistakenly read full instead of empty forced NASA to call off the first shuttle launch in 2½ years.
(AP, 7/13/06)
2005 Jul 26, Discovery and seven astronauts blasted into orbit on America's first manned space shot since the 2003 Columbia disaster, ending a painful, 2 1/2-year shutdown devoted to making the shuttle less risky and NASA more safety-conscious. Its mission was to resupply the space station and deliver a new gyroscope and storage platform.
(AP, 7/26/05)(SFC, 7/27/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 9, Discovery and its crew of seven glided back to Earth ending a 14-day test of space shuttle safety. NASA’s STS 114 flight was shadowed by the ghosts of Columbia
(AP, 8/9/05)(Econ, 8/13/05, p.68)
2005 Oct 3, A Russian space capsule with American tourist Gregory Olsen aboard docked with the international space station.
(AP, 10/4/06)
2005 Oct 11, US millionaire scientist Gregory Olsen and a two-man, Russian-American crew returned from the international space station to Earth in a swift, bone-jarring descent in Kazakhstan.
(AP, 10/11/05)
2005 Dec 28, The EU launched the first satellite in its Galileo navigation program, which officials expect one day will end the continent's reliance on the US Global Positioning System. A Soyuz rocket, launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, carried the 1st of an expected 30 satellites.
(AP, 12/28/05)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.53)
2006 Jan 15, The NASA space capsule, Stardust, returned safely to Earth in a desert near Salt Lake City with the first dust ever fetched from a comet, a cosmic bounty that scientists hope will yield clues to how the solar system formed.
(http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/photo/er.html)(AP, 1/15/06)
2006 Jan 19, NASA launched its New Horizons spacecraft on a mission to Pluto following a 2-day delay. Scientists won't be able to receive data on Pluto until at least July 2015, the earliest date the mission is expected to arrive. The spacecraft carried ashes of Clyde Tombaugh (1906-1997), the man who discovered Pluto.
(SFC, 1/20/06, p.A5)(SFC, 7/13/15, p.A7)
2006 Jul 4, The US space shuttle Discovery took off at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, with 7 astronauts. Up to six pieces of debris that could be foam insulation fell off Discovery's troublesome external fuel tank minutes after liftoff. News arrived that North Korea had launched test missiles [see July 5].
(AFP, 7/5/06)(SFC, 7/5/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 5, North Korea test-fired a long-range missile that may be capable of reaching America, but it failed seconds after launch. North Korea also tested shorter range missiles in an exercise the White House termed "a provocation" but not an immediate threat. The early morning tests came as the US celebrated the Fourth of July and just minutes ahead of the US launch of the space shuttle Discovery.
(AP, 7/4/06)(AP, 7/5/06)(SFC, 7/5/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 6, The space shuttle Discovery docked with the international space station, bringing with it European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter, who began a six-month stay aboard the station.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2006 Jul 8, Discovery astronauts Piers Sellers and Michael Fossum went on a 7 1/2-hour spacewalk to test a repair technique for space shuttles.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2006 Jul 15, The space shuttle Discovery undocked from the international space station.
(AP, 7/15/07)
2006 Sep 18, Anousheh Ansari (40), an Iranian-American telecommunications entrepreneur, took off on a Russian rocket bound for the international space station, becoming the world's first paying female space tourist. Aboard the space station, an oxygen generator overheated and spilled a toxic irritant, forcing the crew to don masks and gloves in the first emergency ever declared aboard the 8-year-old orbiting outpost.
(AP, 9/18/07)
2006 Dec 11, After a two-day journey, space shuttle Discovery reached the international space station for a weeklong stay.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2006 Dec 22, Space shuttle Discovery and its seven-member crew landed in Florida after a smooth, 13-day flight to rewire the International Space Station.
(AFP, 12/23/06)(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Jan 11, China destroyed its Feng Yun 1-C, an aging weather satellite launched in 1999, with a ballistic missile 537 miles above the Earth. The impact created about 28% of the junk currently floating in space. The US halted such tests in 1985 for fear of creating debris deadly to spacecraft.
(WSJ, 1/19/07, p.A1)(Econ, 1/27/07, p.38)(Econ, 1/19/08, p.26)
2007 Feb 5, NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak was arrested in Orlando, Fla., accused of trying to kidnap a perceived rival for the affections of a space shuttle pilot.
(AP, 2/5/08)
2007 Apr 7, A Russian rocket carrying the American billionaire who helped develop Microsoft Word roared into the night skies over Kazakhstan, sending Charles Simonyi and two cosmonauts soaring into orbit on a two-day journey to the international space station.
(AP, 4/7/07)
2007 Apr 9, Two Russian cosmonauts and US billionaire Charles Simony bringing a gourmet meal arrived at the international space station, to a warm welcome from current crewmen.
(AP, 4/10/07)
2007 Apr 17, Egypt launched EgyptSat 1, its first remote sounding satellite, from Baikonur Cosmodrome. The spacecraft was jointly developed by Egypt's National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences and the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau in Ukraine. Israeli officials suspected it to be a spy satellite. In 2010 ground-controllers lost it.
(http://claudelafleur.qc.ca/Spacecrafts-2007.html)(Econ, 10/30/10, p.50)
2007 Apr 21, Charles Simonyi, an American billionaire who paid $25 million for a 13-day trip to outer space, returned to Earth in a space capsule that also carried a cosmonaut and an American astronaut, making a soft landing on the Kazakh steppe.
(AP, 4/21/07)
2007 May 14, A Chinese rocket blasted a Nigerian communications satellite into orbit, marking an expansion of China's commercial launching services for foreign space hardware. The NIGCOMSAT-1 ceased functioning on November 11, 2008, due to a power failure.
(AP, 5/14/07)(AP, 11/13/08)
2007 Jun 8, A patched-up Atlantis blasted off with seven astronauts on the first space shuttle flight of 2007, an 11-day space station-building mission.
(AP, 6/8/07)(WSJ, 6/9/07, p.A1)
2007 Jun 22, The space shuttle Atlantis landed in California to avoid rain in Florida, ending a two-week, five-million-mile mission for its crew of seven. While docked at the International Space Station, the astronauts successfully installed a new truss segment, expanding the station's laboratory with a new set of power-generating solar arrays.
(AP, 6/23/07)
2007 Aug 4, NASA launched its Phoenix Mars Lander, a robotic dirt and ice digger, scheduled to land on Mars on May 25, 2008.
(SSFC, 8/5/07, p.A10)
2007 Aug 8, The US space shuttle Endeavour and a crew of 7 took off from Cape Canaveral, Fl., on a special mission. Teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan was part of the crew.
(SFC, 8/9/07, p.A7)
2007 Aug 14, Teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan transformed the space shuttle Endeavour and space station into a classroom for her first educational session from orbit, fulfilling the legacy of Christa McAuliffe, who died in the 1986 Challenger disaster.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2007 Aug 19, The US space shuttle Endeavour departed hastily from the International Space Station, ending a construction mission a day early in order to land before Hurricane Dean threatens its Houston control center.
(AP, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 21, The US shuttle Endeavour landed in Florida following a 13-day assembly mission on the international space station.
(SFC, 8/22/07, p.A3)
2007 Sep 20, NASA released satellite data that showed sea ice in the Arctic had shrunk one million square miles more this summer that the average melt over 24 years. This represented an area larger that Alaska and Texas combined.
(SFC, 9/21/07, p.A1)
2007 Sep 27, In Florida a spacecraft named Dawn blasted off aboard an unmanned Delta rocket on a mission to explore two giant asteroids between Mars and Jupiter. Dawn was powered by a trio of solar-powered electric engines that ionize and expel xenon gas. It could serve as a blueprint for future interplanetary transport.
(Reuters, 9/27/07)
2007 Oct 10, A Russian rocket blasted off from Kazakhstan's Baikonur launch pad, carrying 3 astronauts to the international space station. Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, an orthopedic surgeon and university lecturer from Kuala Lumpur, left Earth alongside Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and American astronaut Peggy Whitson. Shukor was selected from among 11,000 Malaysian candidates to fly aboard the ISS in a deal his government arranged with Russia as part of a $1 billion purchase of Russian fighter jets. Whitson will be the first woman to command the outpost.
(Reuters, 9/20/07)(AP, 10/10/07)(SFC, 10/11/07, p.A8)
2007 Oct 23, The US space shuttle Discovery launched from Cape Canaveral with a 7-person crew for a 14-day mission to the int’l. space station.
(SFC, 10/24/07, p.A9)
2007 Nov 7, The space shuttle Discovery returned to Kennedy Space Center after a 15-day mission building and repairing the international space station.
(SFC, 11/8/07, p.A7)
2007 Dec 16, Argentina and Brazil successfully launched a rocket into space in the first joint space mission by the two South American nations. The VS30 rocket, which carried experiments from both countries, blasted off from Brazil's Barreira do Inferno launch center in northern Rio Grande do Norte state.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 26, An unmanned Russian cargo ship carrying 2 tons of supplies including holiday gifts, docked at the international space station.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2008 Jan 14, The NASA space probe Messenger skimmed 124 miles above Mercury in the first of 3 passes before it settles into orbit in 2011.
(SFC, 1/14/08, p.A20)
2008 Jan 14, A 30-year-old Boeing 747, outfitted by NASA with a telescope, stopped at Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Ca. The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) was expected to begin scientific flights in 2009.
(SFC, 1/15/08, p.B3)
2008 Feb 11, A US defense official, an ex-Boeing engineer and two others were charged in 2 separate spy cases with spying for China involving sensitive military and aerospace secrets, including on the space shuttle. Dongfan Chung, a longtime aerospace worker in Southern California, was indicted for allegedly passing classified documents to China in an elaborate espionage endeavor that spanned two decades and exposed trade secrets from the space shuttle, the Delta IV rocket and the C-17 military transport aircraft. In 2010 Chung was sentenced to over 15 years in prison.
(http://articles.latimes.com/2008/feb/12/nation/na-espionage12)(SFC, 2/12/08, p.A3)(SFC, 2/9/10, p.A4)
2008 Feb 23, Japan's space agency launched an experimental communications satellite designed to enable super high-speed data transmission at home and in Southeast Asia.
(AP, 2/24/08)
2008 Mar 11, The US space shuttle Endeavour blasted off from a seaside Florida launch pad to deliver part of a long-awaited Japanese space laboratory and a Canadian-built robotic system to the International Space Station.
(AP, 3/11/08)
2008 Mar 18, NASA reported that the thickest Arctic ice is melting according to satellite data.
(WSJ, 3/19/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 26, The NASA space shuttle Endeavour and its crew of seven made a night landing in Florida following a 16 day mission to the ISS.
(SFC, 3/27/08, p.A3)
2008 Apr 8, A Russian capsule carrying South Korea's first astronaut and two cosmonauts blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, en route to the international space station.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 19, In northern Kazakhstan a Soyuz capsule, carrying South Korean bioengineer Yi So-yeon, American astronaut Peggy Whitson and Russian flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko, landed 260 miles off its mark.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 May 15, An unmanned Russian cargo ship blasted off with supplies, equipment and gifts for the international space station.
(AP, 5/15/08)
2008 May 25, NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander landed safely and began sending images home after a 10-month, 422 million-mile journey.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 31, The US shuttle Discovery made a successful launch from Florida. It carried a Japanese research laboratory and key parts to fix a broken toilet in the International Space Station.
(AP, 6/1/08)
2008 Jun 11, NASA's Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, or GLAST, successfully launched aboard a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The telescope was soon named after Enrico Fermi.
(www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/jun/HQ_08141_GLAST_Launch.html)(SFC, 8/27/08, p.B7)
2008 Jun 20, NASA scientists reported that the Mars Phoenix spacecraft had uncovered chunks of ice.
(SFC, 6/21/08, p.A2)
2008 Jun 28, Dr. Robert C. Seamans, former NASA administrator (1960-1968) and MIT professor, died in Massachusetts. In 1968 Pres. Nixon named him secretary of the Air Force and in 1974 Pres. Ford named him the first administrator of the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA), which along with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, had replaced the Atomic Energy Commission.
(SFC, 7/4/08, p.B5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Seamans)
2008 Jul 24, NASA released findings that indicate magnetic explosions about one-third of the way to the moon cause the northern lights, or aurora borealis, to burst in spectacular shapes and colors, and dance across the sky.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Sep 6, The $500 million GeoEye-1, a super-sharp Earth-imaging satellite, was launched into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the Central California coast. GeoEye Inc. said that in black-and-white mode, the satellite can distinguish objects on the Earth's surface as small as 16 inches.
(AP, 9/7/08)
2008 Sep 10, An unmanned Russian cargo ship blasted off successfully carrying supplies, equipment and gifts for the international space station.
(AP, 9/10/08)
2008 Sep 25, China successfully launched a three-man crew into space to carry out the country's first spacewalk, beginning the nation's most challenging space mission since it first sent a person into space in 2003. The Shenzhou VII spacecraft was launched on a Long March II-F rocket in western Inner Mongolia.
(AP, 9/25/08)(Econ, 9/27/08, p.60)
2008 Sep 27, Mission commander Zhai Zhigang floated, a Chinese astronaut, performed the nation's first-ever spacewalk, the latest milestone in an ambitious program that is increasingly rivaling the United States and Russia in its rapid expansion. Fellow astronaut Liu Boming also emerged briefly from the capsule to hand Zhai a Chinese flag that he waved for an exterior camera filming the event. The third crew member, Jing Haipeng, monitored the Shenzhou 7 from inside the re-entry module.
(AP, 9/27/08)
2008 Sep 28, Three Chinese astronauts made a jubilant return to Earth after successfully completing the country's first-ever spacewalk, an event the premier said was "a stride forward" in China's space history.
(AP, 9/28/08)
2008 Sep 28, Space Explorations Technologies (SpaceX) successfully launched its 2-stage Falcon 1 rocket into orbit with a dummy payload. The South Pacific launch was its 4th attempt following 3 earlier failures.
(SFC, 9/29/08, p.A5)
2008 Sep 29, Scientists reported that NASA's Phoenix spacecraft has discovered evidence of past water at its Martian landing site and spotted falling snow for the first time. Soil experiments revealed the presence of two minerals known to be formed in liquid water. Scientists identified the minerals as calcium carbonate, found in limestone and chalk, and sheet silicate.
(AP, 9/30/08)
2008 Oct 12, A Soyuz spacecraft with two Americans and a Russian on board lifted off from Kazakhstan for the international space station. The Soyuz TMA-13 capsule carried American computer game millionaire Richard Garriott, US astronaut Michael Fincke and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov.
(AP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 16, The Hubble Space Telescope went into the final stages of recovery after NASA successfully bypassed a faulty computer and resurrected an 18-year-old spare from orbital hibernation.
(Reuters, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 22, India launched its first mission to the moon, rocketing the Chandrayaan 1 satellite up into the pale dawn sky in a two-year mission to redraw maps of the lunar surface. On board was the Mono Mineralogy Mapper, a NASA spectroscope.
(AP, 10/22/08)(Econ, 10/25/08, p.96)
2008 Oct 24, A Soyuz capsule carrying an American and two Russians touched down on target in Kazakhstan after a descent from the international space station, safely delivering the first two men to follow their fathers into space.
(AP, 10/24/08)
2008 Nov 10, NASA ended the Phoenix Mars mission. The lander last communicated on Nov 2 after more than 5 months on the planet.
(WSJ, 11/11/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 14, An Indian probe landed on the moon, in a milestone for the country's 45-year-old space program.
(AFP, 11/14/08)
2008 Nov 14, Space shuttle Endeavour and 7 astronauts made a night time launch and raced toward the international space station for a home makeover job.
(AP, 11/15/08)
2008 Nov 19, NASA flight controllers were revamping plans for the remaining spacewalks planned during space shuttle Endeavour's visit to the international space station, after a crucial tool bag floated out to space during a repair trip.
(AP, 11/19/08)
2008 Nov 28, Space shuttle Endeavour and its crew of seven departed the international space station, ending a 12-day visit.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Nov 30, The US space shuttle Endeavour ended a 16-day trip to the int’l. space station landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California after storms hit the main landing site in Florida.
(SFC, 12/1/08, p.A4)
2008 Dec 16, NASA said satellite data indicated that more than 2 trillion tons of land ice have melted in Alaska, Antarctica and Greenland since 2003. The satellite data showed the latest signs of what scientists say is global warming. A scientist from America’s National Snow and Ice Data Center said the shrinking of Arctic ice (and exposure of extra sea to radiation) was warming the world at an accelerating pace.
(http://tinyurl.com/uxl8tm8)(Econ, 12/20/08, p.109)
2009 Jan 23, Japan’s space agency (JAXA) launched Ibuki (breath), the first satellite dedicated to monitoring carbon dioxide emissions. Officials hoped to gather information on climate change and help the country compete in the lucrative satellite-launching business.
(AP, 1/23/09)(Econ, 2/14/09, p.90)
2009 Feb 2, Iran successfully launched a missile carrying Omid (hope in Farsi), its first domestically made satellite into orbit. In 2005, Iran launched its first commercial satellite on a Russian rocket in a joint project with Moscow, which appears to be the main partner in transferring space technology to Iran.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 10, An unmanned Russian cargo ship lifted off from Kazakhstan carrying supplies and a space suit to the international space station and its three-member crew. American astronauts Michael Fincke and Sandra Magnus are aboard the station along with Russian Yuri Lonchakov. The crew size will be doubled to six members later this year.
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 10, The first-ever collision between two satellites occurred over Siberia when a derelict Russian military communications satellite, Cosmos 2251, crossed paths with a US Iridium satellite.
(AP, 2/12/09)(Econ, 8/21/10, p.65)
2009 Feb 24, A rocket carrying a NASA satellite crashed near Antarctica after a failed launch, ending a $280 million mission to track global warming from space.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Mar 6, NASA's planet-hunting telescope, Kepler, rocketed into space on a historic voyage to track down other Earths in a faraway patch of the Milky Way galaxy. The $600 million satellite experienced a communication failure in 2013. It continued limited operations until 2018.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler_space_telescope)(AP, 3/7/09)(Econ, 10/18/14, p.83)
2009 Mar 15, The space shuttle Discovery and its crew of 7 launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fl., bound for the Int’l. Space Station. It carried the last set of solar wings to boost the station to full power.
(SFC, 3/16/09, p.A7)(SFC, 3/18/09, p.A5)
2009 Mar 26, In Kazakhstan a Soyuz capsule carrying a Russian-American crew and US billionaire space tourist Charles Simonyi blasted off for the international space station.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 28, The space shuttle Discovery landed in Florida following a 13-day mission to the Int’l. Space Station (ISS).
(SFC, 3/28/09, p.A12)
2009 Mar 29, The mysterious boom and flash of light seen over parts of Virginia was not a meteor, but actually exploding space junk from the second stage of a Russian Soyuz rocket, launched March 26, falling back to Earth.
(www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,511501,00.html)
2009 Apr 8, A Russian spacecraft carrying a crew of three including US billionaire space tourist Charles Simonyi landed safely in Kazakhstan.
(AP, 4/8/09)
2009 Apr 15, China fired into orbit its second satellite in a program to build an alternative to the global positioning system based on U.S. satellites.
(AP, 4/15/09)
2009 May 7, Russian Mission Control said the unmanned Progress M-02M lifted off from Kazakhstan on schedule and should dock with the int’l. space station on May 12.
(AP, 5/7/09)
2009 May 11, The space shuttle Atlantis and 7 astronauts blasted off from Cape Canaveral on a mission to repair the Hubble telescope.
(SFC, 5/12/09, p.A6)
2009 May 13, Russian news agencies reported that Russia, in agreement with the US, will charge US astronauts $51 million per return trip to the International Space Station (ISS) from 2012 and will resume selling seats to space tourists. In 2006 Russia charged the US $21.8 million per return flight to the ISS. Since then the price for of a space tourist ticket to the ISS has climbed to $35 million from $20 million.
(Reuters, 5/13/09)
2009 May 14, A French rocket carrying the largest space telescope ever was launched into space on a mission that European scientists hope will help unravel the mystery of the universe's creation. The Ariane-5 rocket was loaded with the Herschel space telescope and the Planck spacecraft, carrying a payload of 5.3 tons (4.81 metric tons) when it launched from the city of Kourou near the jungles of French Guiana.
(AP, 5/15/09)
2009 May 24, The space shuttle Atlantis and its 7 astronauts landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California ending a 13-day mission that repaired and enhanced the Hubble Space Telescope. Stormy weather in Florida prevented a return to NASA's home base.
(AP, 5/24/09)(SFC, 5/25/09, p.A5)
2009 May 27, A Russian space capsule, carrying Canadian Bob Thirsk, Russian Roman Romanenko and Belgian Frank De Winne, blasted off from Kazakhstan for a 2 day journey to the ISS.
(SFC, 5/28/09, p.A2)
2009 Jun 18, NASA launched its Lunar Crater Observation and sensing Satellite (LCROSS). The Mission Objectives LCROSS included confirming the presence or absence of water ice in a permanently shadowed crater at the Moon’s South Pole.
(AP, 6/18/09)(http://lcross.arc.nasa.gov/)
2009 Jun 19, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson took part in a ceremonial groundbreaking at the remote site of Spaceport America, about 45 north of Las Cruces. The spaceport was being constructed for commercial space development.
(SFC, 6/20/09, p.A4)
2009 Jul 15, Space shuttle Endeavour rocketed toward the international space station as engineers on Earth pored over launch pictures that showed debris breaking off the fuel tank and striking the craft.
(AP, 7/16/09)
2009 Jul 28, At the EAA AirVenture air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Aabar Investments, an Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund, and Virgin Galactic signed a strategic partnership in which Aabar would take a 32% stake in Virgin Galactic for $280 million. To date Virgin Galactic has been wholly owned and funded by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group.
(Econ, 9/12/09, p.87)(http://tinyurl.com/y8gtjad)
2009 Jul 29, An unmanned Russian cargo ship has docked successfully at the international space station to deliver supplies for its six-member crew.
(AP, 7/29/09)
2009 Jul 30, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata described his test of new underwear, called J-Wear, as the shuttle Endeavour prepared to come home after over 2 weeks aloft. Wakata tested the high-tech underwear for a month at a time during his 4½ months aboard the ISS.
(SFC, 7/31/09, p.A9)
2009 Jul 31, The space shuttle Endeavour returned to Florida after over 2 weeks aloft and a successful construction job that boosted the size and power of the international space station.
(AP, 8/1/09)
2009 Aug 25, South Korea launched its first rocket, just months after rival North Korea's launch drew international anger, but space officials said the satellite it carried failed to enter its intended orbit.
(AP, 8/25/09)
2009 Aug 28, The space shuttle Discovery with 7 astronauts blasted off from Cape Canaveral just before midnight to bring supplies to the int’l. space station.
(SFC, 8/29/09, p.A4)
2009 Sep 3, SpaceX signed a contract worth $50 million with ORBCOMM, a satellite communications firm, to launch 18 satellites.
(Econ, 9/12/09, p.87)
2009 Sep 8, A review committee on NASA, led by Norman Augustine, delivered a summary report saying the agency does not have enough money to return to the moon. The Augustine report also said that NASA should stop traveling to the Int’l. Space Station and to low Earth orbit in general, leaving these to the private sector.
(Econ, 9/12/09, p.87)
2009 Sep 10, NASA made a successful first test of its Ares I rocket at promontory, Utah. It was created as part of a plan to return to the moon, but a recent panel said there isn’t enough money for the moon project.
(SFC, 9/11/09, p.A13)
2009 Sep 10, The Japanese space agency successfully launched a new rocket carrying an unmanned cargo ship on a $680 million maiden voyage to the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 9/11/09, p.A9)
2009 Sep 14, China broke ground on its fourth space center. The new port on the southern island province of Hainan, slated to go into use in 2013, highlights the country's soaring space ambitions six years after it sent its first man into orbit.
(AP, 9/14/09)
2009 Sep 19, NASA launched the Black Brant XII to gather data on the highest clouds in the Earth's atmosphere.
(AP, 9/20/09)
2009 Sep 30, In Kazakhstan Canadian circus billionaire Guy Laliberte blasted off in a Russian Soyuz spaceship to become the world's seventh space tourist.
(Reuters, 9/30/09)
2009 Oct 6, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said the Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered the biggest but never-before-seen ring around the planet Saturn. The diffuse ring doesn't reflect much visible light and is so huge it would take 1 billion Earths to fill it.
(AP, 10/6/09)
2009 Oct 9, NASA smacked two spacecraft into the lunar south pole in a search for hidden ice. Instruments confirm that a large empty rocket hull barreled into the moon at 7:31 a.m., followed four minutes later by a probe with cameras taking pictures of the first crash.
(AP, 10/9/09)
2009 Oct 11, The Russian Soyuz capsule carrying Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte and two other space travelers landed safely in Kazakhstan, ending the entertainment tycoon's mirthful space odyssey.
(AP, 10/11/09)
2009 Oct 18, Russia's unmanned Progress M-03M docked with the orbital station after a three-day trip up from Earth. It delivered food, fuel, oxygen and other supplies to the International Space Station.
(AP, 10/18/09)
2009 Oct 28, NASA launched its 327-foot Ares I-X, its new prototype moon rocket, skyward from Cape Canaveral on a suborbital test flight at a cost of $445 million.
(SFC, 10/29/09, p.A7)
2009 Oct 31, Qian Xuesen (b.1911), a rocket scientist known as the father of China's space technology program, died in Beijing. Qian left for the US after winning a scholarship to graduate school in 1936. He studied at MIT and later at the California Institute of Technology, where he helped start the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Qian, also known as Tsien Hsue-shen, was regarded as one of the brightest minds in the new field of aeronautics before returning to China in 1955, driven out of the US at the height of anticommunist fervor.
(AP, 10/31/09)
2009 Nov 13, NASA said a "significant amount" of frozen water has been found on the moon heralding a giant leap forward in space exploration and boosting hopes of a permanent lunar base.
(AFP, 11/13/09)
2009 Nov 16, NASA’s shuttle Atlantis lifted off from Cape Canaveral with 6 astronauts on a mission to supply the international with spare parts and experimental equipment.
(SFC, 11/17/09, p.A17)
2009 Nov 27, Space shuttle Atlantis and its 7 astronauts returned to Earth with a smooth touchdown at Cape Canaveral, Fla., to end an "amazing" flight that resupplied the International Space Station.
(AP, 11/28/09)
2009 Nov, The Planetary Skin Institute (PSI), set up by Cisco Systems and NASA to study the extent and health of forests and other ecosystems, was registered as an independent non-profit organization.
(Econ, 12/18/10, p.153)(www.planetaryskin.org/institute/background)
2009 Dec 1, In Kazakhstan astronauts from Canada and Belgium and a Russian cosmonaut landed safely, wrapping up a six-month stint on the International Space Station.
(AP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 7, Virgin Galactic unveiled its first commercial spaceship, the VSS Enterprise, at the Mohave Air and Space Port in California. Initial trips to the edge of space were expected to cost $200,000 per person.
(Econ, 12/12/09, p.91)
2009 Dec 20, A Russian Soyuz TMA-17 rocket blasted off from a cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying an American, a Russian and a Japanese astronaut to the int’l. space station.
(SFC, 12/21/09, p.A2)
2010 Jan 4, NASA scientists reported that the new Kepler space telescope has discovered 5 fiery-hot planets in the depths of the Milky Way, each far larger than Earth.
(SFC, 1/5/10, p.A5)
2010 Feb 1, NASA’s back-to-the-moon program, Constellation, fell victim to budget cuts.
(Econ, 2/6/10, p.86)
2010 Feb 3, Iran announced it has successfully launched a research rocket carrying a mouse, two turtles and worms into space. The launch of the rocket Kavoshgar-3, which means Explorer-3 in Farsi, was announced by Defense Minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi to mark the National Day of Space Technology.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 8, At Cape Canaveral, Florida, Endeavour and six astronauts rocketed into orbit on what's likely the last nighttime launch for the shuttle program, hauling a new room and observation deck for the International Space Station.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 15, Astronauts successfully attached a fancy new observation deck to the International Space Station after a long, frustrating night spent dealing with stuck bolts and wayward wiring.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 21, The US space shuttle Endeavour returned to Florida following an assembly mission to the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 2/22/10, p.A6)
2010 Mar 18, Astronauts from the US and Russia landed safely in northern Kazakhstan's chilly steppes after spending almost six months on the International Space Station.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 22, The radio of Spirit, NASA’s Mars rover, fell silent. In 2011 engineers gave up trying to re-establish contact.
(SFC, 5/26/11, p.A10)
2010 Apr 2, In southern Kazakhstan a Russian rocket carrying 2 Russian and one American astronauts blasted off, kicking off a tightly packed schedule at the International Space Station in the coming days.
(AP, 4/2/10)
2010 Apr 4, A US-Russian space team sent their Easter greetings down to Earth after their Soyuz spacecraft docked flawlessly at the International Space Station. The rotating calendars of the Christian West and the Christian East agreed on the same date for Easter.
(AP, 4/4/10)(Econ, 4/3/10, p.85)
2010 Apr 5, The Discovery space shuttle launched with 7 astronauts, including 3 women, for a rendezvous with the int’l. space station.
(SFC, 4/6/10, p.A6)
2010 Apr 13, US officials said President Barack Obama is reviving the NASA crew capsule concept that he had canceled with the rest of the moon program earlier this year, in a move that will mean more jobs and less reliance on the Russians. The space capsule, called Orion, will go unmanned to the International Space Station to stand by as an emergency vehicle to return astronauts home.
(AP, 4/14/10)
2010 Apr 15, President Barack Obama set a goal to visit an asteroid by 2025. Obama outlined NASA's new path during a visit to the Kennedy Space Center.
(AP, 4/16/10)
2010 Apr 20, The space shuttle Discovery landed in Florida ending its 15-day voyage to the int’l. space station.
(SFC, 4/21/10, p.A8)
2010 Apr 24, A Russian Proton rocket carrying a US AMC 49 telecommunications satellite was launched into orbit from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
(AFP, 4/25/10)
2010 Apr 29, A giant NASA science balloon crashed during take-off in Australia, destroying its multi-million-dollar payload, toppling a large car and narrowly missing frightened observers.
(AFP, 4/29/10)
2010 May 14, The space shuttle Atlantis blasted off from Cape Canaveral for its final voyage with a crew of 6 heading to the Int’l. space station.
(SFC, 5/15/10, p.A5)
2010 May 26, The US space shuttle Atlantis returned from its final voyage bringing back 6 astronauts from a mission to the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 5/27/10, p.A9)
2010 Jun 4, The Falcon 9, a SpaceX test rocket, blasted off from Cape Canaveral on its maiden voyage and reached orbit. Space Exploration Technologies was founded by Elon Musk, an Internet entrepreneur who co-founded PayPal. NASA hoped to use the rocket to haul cargo.
(SFC, 6/4/10, p.A9)
2010 Jun 16, In Kazakhstan 2 US and a Russian crewmate blasted off for the int’l. space station in a Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft. A woman in the US crew doubled the ISS female crew to an all time high.
(SFC, 6/16/10, p.A2)(SFC, 6/18/10, p.A10)
2010 Jun 22, Israel launched a spy satellite called "Ofek 9" increasing Israel's capacity to keep an eye on enemies like Iran.
(AP, 6/22/10)
2010 Jul 2, An unmanned Russian space capsule carrying supplies to the International Space Station failed in a docking attempt. The Progress space capsule was carrying more than two tons of food, water and other supplies for the orbiting laboratory. NASA said the failure was due to an antenna problem. Space station commander Alexander Skvortsov reported the Progress was "rotating uncontrollably" as it neared the space station. The capsule docked successfully with the ISS on July 4.
(AP, 7/2/10)(SFC, 7/5/10, p.A2)
2010 Sep 25, A Russian Soyuz space capsule landed in Kazakhstan returning 3 astronauts from a 6-month mission to the Int’l. Space Station.
(SSFC, 9/26/10, p.A5)
2010 Sep 27, Six US Air Force officers and one researcher assembled at the prestigious National Press Club in Washington, DC, to give their intriguing testimony of personal involvement in a major UFO cover-up. The officers planned to discuss UFOs and nuclear missiles, including an alleged incident in March, 1967, at a Montana missile base where 10 Minuteman missiles were mysteriously deactivated as a UFO allegedly hovered overhead.
(http://www.wanttoknow.info/ufos/ufos_national_press_club_witness_testimony)
2010 Oct 7, In Kazakhstan a Russian Soyuz TMA-01M rocket blasted off for the Int’l. Space Station carrying one American and 2 Russian astronauts.
(SFC, 10/8/10, p.A2)
2010 Oct 10, Virgin Galactic’s space tourism rocket, SpaceShip Two, achieved its first solo glide flight. Manned by 2 pilots it flew for 11 minutes before landing in Mojave, Ca.
(SFC, 10/11/10, p.A5)(Econ, 10/16/10, p.100)
2010 Oct 11, President Obama signed a major NASA act that turns his vision for US space exploration of asteroids and Mars into law.
(http://tinyurl.com/26w555z)
2010 Oct 30, A Russian unmanned cargo ship manually docked with the International Space Station, bringing 2.5 tons of food, water, oxygen and fuel for the orbiting laboratory and its US-Russian crew.
(AP, 10/30/10)
2010 Nov 10, A NASA study said it would cost at least $6.5 billion to launch and run a replacement for the Hubble Space Telescope.
(SFC, 11/11/10, p.A8)
2010 Dec 2, NASA researcher Felisa Wolfe-Simon (33) reported that a strange bacterium, Halomonadaceae, found in California's Mono Lake, thrives on arsenic and redefines life as we know it. She said the bacterium does not merely eat arsenic, but incorporates the toxic element directly into its DNA. Her finding stirred much controversy. In 2012 scientists reported that the bacteria is just resistant to arsenic and actually dependent for life on phosphorous.
(Reuters, 12/2/10)(SFC, 5/28/11, p.C1)(SFC, 7/10/12, p.C3)
2010 Dec 3, The US Air Force's secrecy-shrouded X-37B unmanned spaceplane returned to Earth after more than seven months in orbit on a classified mission.
(AP, 12/3/10)
2010 Dec 5, Russian news reported that a Proton rocket and its payload of three GLONASS-M navigation satellites has fallen into the Pacific Ocean after failing to reach orbit. They were to be part of Russia's satellite navigation system competing with the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS). The mishap eventually cost space chief Anatoly Perminov his job.
(AP, 12/5/10)(AP, 8/18/11)
2010 Dec 8, Space Explorations Technologies, aka SpaceX, successfully launched its Falcon 9 test rocket from Cape Canaveral. Its Dragon capsule was retrieved in the Pacific ocean 3 hours later after it had circled the globe 2 times.
(SFC, 12/9/10, p.A18)
2010 Dec 16, Astronauts from the US, Russia and Italy blasted off in a Soyuz spacecraft from Kazakhstan on a mission to the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 12/16/10, p.A2)
2011 Jan 10, NASA said it has spotted a tiny, rocky planet about the size of Earth doing a speedy orbit of a star outside our solar system. Named Kepler-10b its scorching temperatures are too hot for life.
(AFP, 1/12/11)
2011 Jan 22, A Japanese rocket carrying supplies for the International Space Station lifted off from a remote island on a mission designed to help fill a hole left by the retirement of NASA's space shuttle program.
(AP, 1/22/11)
2011 Jan 30, Israel signed an agreement with the European Space Agency for cooperation on space technology and exploration of the solar system.
(AFP, 1/30/11)
2011 Jan 30, An unmanned Russian cargo spacecraft docked at the Int’l. Space Station delivering 2.6 tons of supplies to the US-Russian-Italian crew.
(SFC, 1/31/11, p.A2)
2011 Feb 2, NASA scientists reported that the Kepler spacecraft, launched in 2009, has found over 1,000 possible planets with at least 54 of them within their suns’ habitable zones.
(SFC, 2/3/11, p.A1)
2011 Feb 6, A US rocket carrying a national security payload launched from Vandenberg air Force Base in southern California.
(SFC, 2/7/11, p.A4)
2011 Feb 7, Iran unveiled four new domestically produced “research" satellites as part of a space program that's worrying other nations. Commander Mohammad Ali Jafari said Iran is mass-producing a ballistic missile which can travel at more than three times the speed of sound and hit targets on the high seas.
(AP, 2/7/11)(AFP, 2/7/11)
2011 Feb 24, The space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with 6 astronauts on its last mission to the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 2/25/11, p.A4)
2011 Mar 3, Dr. Richard B. Hoover, an astrobiologist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, said he has found conclusive evidence of alien life, fossils of bacteria found in an extremely rare class of meteorite called CI1 carbonaceous chondrites. (There are only nine such meteorites on planet Earth.) His findings were published today in the Journal of Cosmology, a peer-reviewed scientific journal. Scientists inside and outside NASA distanced themselves from Hoover saying he does not have expertise in astrobiology.
(http://tinyurl.com/4t485yy)(SFC, 3/8/11, p.A4)
2011 Mar 4, A NASA rocket carrying an Earth-observation satellite plummeted into the Pacific Ocean, the second-straight blow to NASA's weakened environmental monitoring program. The Taurus XL rocket carrying NASA's Glory satellite lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, but fell to the sea several minutes later.
(AP, 3/4/11)
2011 Mar 5, An Atlas 5 rocket blasted off with the X-35B unmanned space plane from Cape Canaveral. The Air Force said the newest craft will serve as a test platform for satellite sensors and systems. It's the second of its type to be launched.
(AP, 3/6/11)
2011 Mar 9, The US space shuttle Discovery landed at Kennedy Space Center in Florida completing its 39th and final voyage.
(SFC, 3/10/11, p.A5)
2011 Mar 16, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and two Russian cosmonauts landed safely in central Kazakhstan after a five-month stint on the International Space Station. They left behind Russian cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev, Italy's Paolo Nespoli and NASA astronaut Catherine Coleman, who are due to return to earth in about three months.
(AP, 3/16/11)
2011 Mar 17, The US spacecraft Messenger went into orbit around Mercury after a 6-year, 4.9 billion mile journey. Messenger was expected to crash on April 30, 2015.
(SFC, 3/19/11, p.A5)(Econ., 4/25/15, p.75)
2011 Mar 17, Iran sent the country's first space capsule that is able to sustain life into orbit as a test for a future mission that may carry a live animal.
(AP, 3/17/11)
2011 Mar 28, NASA's Swift spacecraft, while trolling the universe for gamma ray bursts, spied a monster black hole that shredded a Sun-like star, producing a strangely long-lasting flash of gamma rays that probably won't be seen again in a million years.
(Reuters, 6/17/11)
2011 May 16, Endeavour blasted off on NASA's next-to-last shuttle flight, thundering through clouds into orbit as the mission commander's wounded wife, Gabrielle Giffords, watched along with an exhilarated crowd estimated in the hundreds of thousands.
(AP, 5/16/11)
2011 May 31, The official newspaper Neutral Turkmenistan reported that Pres. Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov has signed a decree authorizing the creation of the National Space Agency. Earlier this month, US space transportation company SpaceX vice president Christophe Bauer announced that his company would launch a satellite for the Central Asian nation in 2014.
(AP, 5/31/11)
2011 Jun 1, Space shuttle Endeavour and its 6 astronauts landed at Cape Canaveral following a 2-week mission to the Int’l Space Station. This was Endeavour’s last mission. It will now go to the California Science Center in Los Angeles.
(SFC, 6/2/11, p.A6)
2011 Jun 7, A Russian Soyuz spacecraft took off from Kazakhstan, bound for the International Space Station. In the three-man crew were Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov, American astronaut Michael Fossum, and Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa of Japan's JAXA space agency. The trio will spend six months on the space station.
(AP, 6/7/11)(Reuters, 6/7/11)
2011 Jun 15, Iran launched a satellite into earth orbit, in a feat that is likely to raise concerns among those who fear Iran's intentions and nuclear development program.
(AP, 6/15/11)
2011 Jul 8, At Cape Canaveral, Florida, Atlantis and four astronauts rocketed into orbit on NASA's last space shuttle voyage.
(AP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 19, NASA made available the first image of the asteroid Vesta shot from its Dawn spacecraft, 117 million miles from Earth.
(SFC, 7/20/11, p.A7)
2011 Jul 20, NASA said that the Hubble Space Telescope has found a 4th moon circling Pluto. It was named Kerberos.
(SFC, 7/21/11, p.A6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moons_of_Pluto)
2011 Jul 21, The space shuttle Atlantis glided home to the Kennedy Space Center through a clear moonlit sky to complete a 13-day cargo run to the International Space Station and a 30-year odyssey for NASA's shuttle program.
(Reuters, 7/21/11)
2011 Aug 4, NASA scientists said they have detected the first clear signs that water may be flowing on Mars. Evidence came from the HiRISE camera aboard the Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been circling Mars for 5 years.
(SFC, 8/5/11, p.A11)
2011 Aug 10, NASA said its Mars rover Opportunity reached the rim of a 14-mile-wide crater where it will examine rocks older than any it has seen in its 7 years on the surface of the planet.
(SFC, 8/11/11, p.A6)
2011 Aug 18, Russia lost contact with its Express-AM4 communications satellite shortly after its launch, the latest in a series of failures that has dogged the nation's space program. Failure of the upper stage, the Briz-M, resulted in the loss of communications.
(AP, 8/18/11)
2011 Aug 24, A Russian unmanned supply spaceship, launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, crashed and exploded in a forested area in Siberia. It was the 44th launch of a Progress supply ship to the int’l. space station, and the first failure in the nearly 13-year life of the complex.
(AP, 8/25/11)
2011 Sep 10, NASA launched 2 near identical probes, named Grail-A and Grail-B, aboard a relatively small Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fl. The pair rocketed toward the moon on the first mission dedicated to measuring lunar gravity and determining what's inside Earth's orbiting companion, all the way down to the core.
(AP, 9/10/11)
2011 Sep 16, A Russian Soyuz capsule carrying 3 astronauts, an American and two Russians, landed in Kazakhstan following a stay at the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 9/17/11, p.A2)
2011 Sep 24, NASA’s 20-year-old, 6-ton Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) fell back to Earth. NASA calculations later showed the satellite entered Earth's atmosphere generally above American Samoa. But falling debris as it broke apart didn't start hitting the water for another 300 miles to the northeast, southwest of Christmas Island, just after midnight.
(AP, 9/24/11)(AP, 9/28/11)
2011 Sep 29, China launched an experimental module into space, taking its first step towards building a space station. Tiangong-1, or "Heavenly Palace", took off from the Gobi desert in the northwest, propelled by a Long March 2F rocket.
(AFP, 9/29/11)
2011 Oct 4, It was reported that NASA has awarded a Pennsylvania company, Pipistrel-USA.com of State College, a $1.35 million prize for developing an ultra-efficient electric airplane. Wired Magazine reported that the winning airplane "was developed and built in Slovenia as a technology demonstrator for the airplane maker."
(http://tinyurl.com/3nk4ndh)
2011 Oct 19, The German Aerospace Center said its retired ROSAT satellite, the size of a minivan, is hurtling toward the atmosphere and pieces of it could crash into the Earth as early as Oct 21. The 2.69-ton (2.4 metric ton) satellite was launched in 1990 and retired in 1999 after being used for research on black holes and neutron stars and performing the first all-sky survey of X-ray sources with an imaging telescope.
(AP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 21, A Russian rocket launched the first 2 satellites of the EU’s Galileo navigation system from French Guiana, in an ambitious bid to rival the American GPS network.
(SFC, 10/22/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 30, An unmanned Russian cargo ship headed for the Int’l. Space Station after it launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
(SFC, 10/31/11, p.A2)
2011 Nov 1, China launched an unmanned Shenzhou 8 spacecraft, the latest step in its efforts to place a permanent space station in orbit. The Shenzhou 8 docked with the Tiangong 1 module on Nov 3.
(SFC, 11/1/11, p.A2)(SFC, 11/4/11, p.A3)
2011 Nov 4, In Russia an international crew of researchers walked out of a set of windowless modules in Moscow after a grueling 520-day simulation of a flight to Mars. The all-male crew consisted of three Russians, a Frenchman, an Italian-Colombian and a Chinese.
(AP, 11/4/11)
2011 Nov 9, A Russian space probe aiming to land on a Mars moon was stuck circling the Earth after equipment failure. Scientists raced to fire up its engines before the whole thing came crashing down. The unmanned Phobos-Ground craft was successfully launched by a Zenit-2 booster rocket just after midnight. On Dec 2 the European Space Agency said it had abandoned efforts to contact the probe.
(AP, 11/9/11)(SFC, 12/3/11, p.A2)
2011 Nov 14, Two Russians and an American blasted off from Kazakhstan to the ISS orbiting laboratory on a Soyuz-FG rocket, Russia's first manned mission since the failed launch of the unmanned Progress supply ship in August temporarily grounded its Soyuz rockets.
(AFP, 11/14/11)
2011 Nov 16, A court in Romania ordered the arrest of a Romanian man accused of hacking into NASA's servers in December, 2010, causing NASA losses of about $500,000 (euro371,000). A court spokesman said Robert Butyka (26) would be arrested for 29 days as he awaits trial.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 17, China's unmanned spacecraft Shenzhou VIII returned to Earth, state media reported, after completing two space dockings that have pushed forward the nation's ambitious space program.
(AFP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 21, A Russian Soyuz capsule with 3 astronauts returned from the Int’l. Space Station landed in Kazakhstan after spending 165 days in space.
(SFC, 11/22/11, p.A2)
2011 Nov 26, NASA launched a rover of "monster truck" proportions toward Mars on an 8½-month, 354 million-mile journey, the biggest, best equipped robot ever sent to explore another planet. Curiosity will reach Mars next summer.
(AP, 11/26/11)
2011 Nov, A large metallic ball fell out of the sky on a remote grassland in Namibia, prompting baffled authorities to contact NASA and the European space agency. Several such balls have dropped in southern Africa, Australia and Latin America in the past twenty years, authorities found in an Internet search.
(AFP, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 14, In Russia Boris Chertok (99), a rocket designer who played a key role in engineering Soviet-era space programs, died in Moscow. He was closely involved in putting the world's first satellite in orbit on Oct. 4, 1957, and preparing the first human flight to space by Yuri Gagarin on April, 12 1961.
(AP, 12/14/11)
2011 Dec 16, A Soyuz rocket carrying six satellites launched from French Guiana in the Russian-built rocket model's second mission this year. It was to first release a French Earth observation satellite, Pleiades 1. Next to come would be four French micro-satellites and a Chilean Earth observation satellite was to be released last.
(AP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 23, A Russian Soyuz spacecraft arrived at the Int’l. Space Station delivering a Russian, an American and a Dutchman, restoring the permanent crew to six.
(SFC, 12/24/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 31, A NASA spacecraft, the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, slipped into orbit around the moon. A 2nd Grail probe was expected to enter orbit the next day. Both were launched last September aboard the same rocket to measure lunar gravity.
(SSFC, 1/1/12, p.A10)
2011 The US passed legislation forbidding NASA from cooperating with China or any Chinese company and hosting official Chinese visitors at any NASA facility. The legal language was inserted into a funding bill by Congressman Frank Wolf, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies.
(http://tinyurl.com/n568kkz)(Econ, 10/12/13, p.95)
2011 NASA announced the development of the Space Launch System (SLS), a US super heavy-lift expendable launch vehicle. The first launch was expected in 2021.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Launch_System)
2012 Jan 15, A failed $170 million Russian space probe, Phobos-Ground, crashed into the southern Pacific, 770 miles off the southern coast of Chile.
(SFC, 1/16/12, p.A2)
2012 Mar 25, Russian spacecraft controllers intentionally plunged a defunct communications satellite, called Express-AM4, into the ocean. The $265 million satellite was launched into the wrong orbit on Aug 18, 2011, and had been languishing in space ever since. The company Polar Broadband Systems Ltd. tried in vain to save and recycle the Russian satellite.
(SPACE.com, 3/28/12)
2012 Apr 3, A US rocket carrying a top-secret payload for the National Reconnaissance Office blasted off from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base.
(AP, 4/4/12)
2012 Apr 8, Envisat, Europe’s largest Earth-observing satellite, stopped talking to its users after 10 years of operation.
(Econ, 5/12/12, p.14)
2012 Apr 16, The space shuttle Discovery was flown on its final journey to Washington’s Smithsonian Institution.
(SFC, 4/17/12, p.A6)
2012 Apr 27, In Kazakhstan a Soyuz space capsule landed with 2 Russians and an American ending their 163-day stay at the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 4/28/12, p.A2)
2012 May 15, In southern Kazakhstan a three-man crew, NASA astronaut Joseph Acaba and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin, blasted off from the Baikonur space center on board a Soyuz craft for a four-and-half-month stay at the International Space Station. Russian charges for use of the Soyuz were $450 million per year.
(AP, 5/15/12)(Econ, 5/5/12, p.77)
2012 May 22, Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) launched a private space capsule called Dragon on a history-making trip to the International Space Station.
(Space.com, 5/22/12)
2012 May 25, The privately held SpaceX Dragon capsule docked with the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 5/26/12, p.A7)
2012 May 31, The SpaceX Dragon capsule splashed down in the Pacific to conclude the first private delivery to the Intl. Space Station.
(SFC, 6/1/12, p.A6)
2012 Jun 16, China launched its most ambitious space mission yet carrying its first female astronaut and two male colleagues on a Shenzhou 9 capsule in an attempt to dock with an orbiting module and work on board for more than a week.
(AP, 6/16/12)
2012 Jun 18, Three Chinese astronauts entered an orbiting module for the first time, in a key step towards the nation's first space station.
(AFP, 6/18/12)
2012 Jul 1, A Russian Soyuz space capsule landed in Kazakhstan bringing an end to a 193-day mission for American astronaut Donald Petit, Dutchman Andre Kuipers and Russian Oleg Kononenko.
(SFC, 7/2/12, p.A2)
2012 Jul 15, A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off from Kazakhstan with an international crew of three toward the International Space Station in a mission testing the reliability of Russia's crisis-prone space program. On board were NASA's Sunita Williams, Japan's Akihiko Hoshide and Yury Malenchenko of Russia.
(AFP, 7/15/12)
2012 Jul 21, A Japanese H-IIB rocket blasted off from the southern island of Tanegashima to deliver an unmanned supplies vessel to the International Space Station.
(AFP, 7/21/12)
2012 Jul 23, Sally Ride (61), the first US woman to travel into space and an advocate for science education, died in Florida after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer. Her death made it public that her surviving partner of 27 years was a woman. Ride first launched into space in 1983 aboard Challenger on the 7th mission of US space shuttle program. In 2014 Lynn Sherr authored “Sally Ride: America’s First Woman in Space."
(Reuters, 7/24/12)(SSFC, 7/13/14, p.N3)
2012 Aug 6, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory and Curiosity rover landed successfully on the Red Planet.
(AFP, 8/6/12)
2012 Aug 6, Russia launched an unmanned Proton-M rocked carrying Russian and Indonesian communications satellites. A secondary booster module failed shortly after launch from Kazakhstan.
(SFC, 8/8/12, p.A2)
2012 Aug 9, A NASA test model planetary lander crashed seconds after liftoff from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
(SFC, 8/10/12, p.A5)
2012 Aug 15, Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-Ray telescope reported the discovery of a galaxy cluster, nicknamed Phoenix, that creates 740 stars a year. It was estimated to be 6 billion years old.
(SFC, 8/16/12, p.A7)
2012 Aug 25, Neil Armstrong (82), commander of Apollo 11 mission and first human to set foot on the moon, died. He left NASA in 1971, taught engineering at the University of Cincinnati, and later became chairman of electronic systems companies.
(AP, 8/25/12)
2012 Aug 29, NASA scientists reported the discovery of a solar system called Kepler 47 with 2 stars orbiting each other every 7.5 days. The system some 5,000 light-years away, was orbited by two planets.
(SFC, 8/30/12, p.A9)
2012 Aug, NASA’s Voyager 1 probe, launched in 1977, entered interstellar space.
(SFC, 9/13/13, p.A1)
2012 Oct 7, In Cape Canaveral, Florida, the SpaceX company launched a Falcon rocket carrying a Dragon capsule with some 1,000 pounds of gear and supplies for the Int’l. Space Station. An engine problem left a small communications satellite unable to reach its proper orbit. The Dragon capsule successfully returned in a splashdown off the Baja California coast on Oct 28.
(SFC, 10/8/12, p.A4)(Economist, 10/13/12, p.96)(SFC, 10/29/12, p.A6)
2012 Oct 23, A Russian Soyuz spacecraft launched in Kazakhstan carrying a 3-man crew, including an American and 2 Russians, to the Intl. Space Station.
(SFC, 10/24/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 11, The US Air Force launched an unmanned X-37B, a secret military version of the space shuttle, atop an Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral.
(SFC, 12/12/12, p.A5)
2012 Dec 12, North Korea launched its Unha rocket, named after the Korean word for "galaxy." The 3-stage rocket blasted off from the Sohae launch pad in Tongchang-ri, northwest of Pyongyang, and put a satellite into orbit.
(AP, 12/12/12)
2012 Dec 17, NASA space probes EBB and Flow expired as they crashed into a lunar mountainside. They were initially named “GRAIL A" and “GRAIL B," but were renamed by a class of schoolchildren in Bozeman, Montana.
(Econ, 12/22/12, p.124)
2012 Dec 18, Astronomers reported that North Korea’s new satellite, launched on Dec 12, is most likely dead.
(SFC, 12/18/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 19, In Kazakhstan a Soyuz spacecraft carrying an American, a Russian and a Canadian lifted off for the Int’l. Space Station for a 2-day journey and 4-month stay.
(SFC, 12/20/12, p.A2)
2013 Jan 28, Iran said it has successfully sent a monkey into space, describing the launch as another step toward Tehran's goal of a manned space flight.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 30, South Korea launched a satellite into space from its own soil for the first time. The satellite is designed to analyze weather data, measure radiation in space, gauges distances on earth and test how effectively South Korean-made devices installed on the satellite operate in space.
(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Mar 1, The SpaceX commercial craft ran into thruster trouble shortly after liftoff. The Dragon capsule bound at the Int’l. Space Station arrived on March 3 delivering a ton of supplies.
(SFC, 2/2/13, p.A4)(SFC, 2/4/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 16, A Soyuz space capsule carrying an American and 2 Russians landed in Kazakhstan. The men had spent 144 days on the Int’l. Space Station. 3 astronauts remained on the ISS.
(SSFC, 2/17/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 29, A Soyuz capsule carrying 3 astronauts docked with the Int’l. Space Station (ISS) after traveling just 6 hours from launch in Kazakhstan.
(SFC, 3/30/13, p.A3)
2013 May 15, NASA reported that the Kepler telescope, launched in 2009, was in trouble.
(Econ, 6/8/13, p.83)
2013 May 29, A Soyuz capsule carrying an American, Russian and Italian successfully docked with the International Space Station, where the new crew will spend six months conducting a variety of experiments.
(AP, 5/29/13)
2013 Jun 13, China’s state media reported that automated controls guided the Shenzhou 10 space capsule in its successful docking with the Tiangong-1 space lab. The astronauts will enter the module next week to conduct experiments.
(AP, 6/13/13)
2013 Jun 25, Three former NASA scientists unveiled Planet Labs, a new company that planned to hire out CubaSats, tiny satellites for taking images of Earth from space.
(SSFC, 6/30/13, p.G2)(http://tinyurl.com/mxbujyt)
2013 Jul 2, A Russian Proton rocket carrying navigation satellites crashed a few seconds after takeoff from the Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome. This was the 4th Proton failure at Baikonur in 14 years.
(SFC, 7/3/13, p.A2)(Econ, 11/8/14, p.45)
2013 Jul 3, NASA announced that Jason-1, a satellite that tracked rising sea levels, has ended its useful life. The joint US and French satellite was launched on Dec 7, 2001.
(SFC, 7/4/13, p.D3)
2013 Sep 7, NASA launched the unmanned LADEE spacecraft from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. It aimed to study the Moon's atmosphere was the US space agency's third lunar probe in five years.
(AP, 9/7/13)(SSFC, 9/8/13, p.A8)
2013 Sep 11, A Russian Soyuz capsule carrying three astronauts touched down in Kazakhstan after undocking from the International Space Station following 166 days in space.
(AP, 9/11/13)
2013 Sep 22, The Orbital Sciences Cygnus capsule experienced a navigation system delay on its debut arrival at the Int’l. Space Station. The delivery was made on Sep 29.
(SFC, 9/23/13, p.A5)(SFC, 9/30/13, p.A4)
2013 Sep 26, A Soyuz capsule carrying three astronauts successfully docked with the International Space Station, bringing the size of the crew at the orbiting outpost to six.
(AP, 9/26/13)
2013 Sep 29, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket to carry Cassiope, a Canadian communications and weather satellite, into orbit.
(Econ, 10/5/13, p.86)
2013 Sep 29, The Cygnus capsule of Orbital Sciences, carrying hundreds of kilograms of supplies, successfully docked with the ISS.
(Econ, 10/5/13, p.86)
2013 Nov 2, Europe's heaviest-ever cargo carrier to the International Space Station burned up in Earth's atmosphere in a controlled manoeuver after a five-month mission. It was filled with about six tons of garbage and waste produced on board the ISS.
(AFP, 11/2/13)
2013 Nov 5, India launched its Mngalyaan (Mars Vehicle), its first spacecraft bound for Mars.
(AP, 11/5/13)(Econ, 11/2/13, p.46)
2013 Nov 11, The European Space Agency says one of its research satellites re-entered the Earth's atmosphere early today on an orbit that passed over Siberia, the western Pacific Ocean, the eastern Indian Ocean and Antarctica. The Gravity field and Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) was launched in 2009. Most of the 2,425 lb satellite disintegrated, but about 25% slammed into the Atlantic Ocean a few hundred miles from the Falkland Islands.
(AP, 11/11/13)(SFC, 11/12/13, p.A2)
2013 Nov 18, NASA launched the MAVEN spacecraft (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) atop an Atlas V-41 rocket at Cape Canaveral.
(SFC, 11/19/13, p.A7)
2013 Nov 19, Orbital Sciences launched a rocket from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia carrying 29 small satellites and launched them into a low-Earth orbit. Thirty hours later Kosmotros, a Russian-joint venture, carried 32 satellites into a similar orbit.
(Econ, 6/7/14, TQ p.18)
2013 Nov 22, Russia's space agency successfully launched three European Space Agency's satellites intended to study Earth's magnetic field. A Rokot booster rocket at the Plesetsk launchpad in northwestern Russia put the three Swarm satellites into their designated orbits.
(AP, 11/22/13)
2013 Dec 2, NASA said solar observatories saw something emerge from around the sun following the comet ISON’s close approach.
(SFC, 12/3/13, p.A7)
2013 Dec 2, China launched its first moon rover mission, the latest step in an ambitious space program seen as a symbol of its rising global stature.
(AFP, 12/2/13)
2013 Dec 14, China successfully carried out the world's first soft landing of a space probe on the moon in nearly four decades.
(AP, 12/14/13)
2013 Dec 14, Iran said it has successfully sent a monkey into space for a second time, part of an ambitious program aimed at manned space flight.
(AP, 12/14/13)
2013 Dec 19, The European Space Agency launched its star-surveying satellite Gaia into space, hoping to produce the most accurate three-dimensional map of the Milky Way and to better understand the evolution of our galaxy.
(AP, 12/19/13)
2013 Dec 20, Bolivia launched its first telecom satellite.
(SFC, 12/21/13, p.A2)
2013 Dec 24, NASA astronauts wrapped up successful repairs at the International Space Station after a rare Christmas Eve spacewalk to fix an equipment cooling system. Rick Mastracchi (53) and Mike Hopkins (44) floated outside the orbiting lab for seven and a half hours to replace an ammonia pump whose internal control valve failed on December 11.
(AFP, 12/25/13)
2013 Dec 27, Two Russian astronauts began a spacewalk to install cameras and perform other work on the International Space Station. This was the third spacewalk in a week at the orbiting laboratory.
(AP, 12/27/13)
2013 The US passed legislation forbidding NASA from cooperating with China or any Chinese company and hosting official Chinese visitors at any NASA facility.
(Econ, 10/12/13, p.95)
2014 Jan 12, The Cygnus cargo ship from Orbital Sciences delivered Christmas presents along with needed supplies to the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 1/13/14, p.A6)
2014 Mar 11, Two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut landed back on Earth in Kazakhstan after a stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS) of over half a year.
(AFP, 3/11/14)
2014 Mar 26, A Soyuz spacecraft carrying two Russians and NASA’s Steve Swanson blasted off from Kazakhstan. A software glitch delayed their docking with the International Space Station.
(SFC, 3/27/14, p.A2)
2014 Apr 3, The European Space Agency launched its Sentinel 1A satellite on a Russian Soyuz rocket from French Guiana. It was the first of six satellites for a new system designed to better monitor climate change, environmental disasters and catastrophes like floods, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.
(AP, 4/3/14)(SFC, 4/5/14, p.A2)
2014 Apr 17, John C. Houbolt, an engineer whose contributions to the US space program were vital to NASA's successful moon landing in 1969, died in Maine. His efforts in the early 1960s are largely credited with convincing NASA to focus on the launch of a module carrying a crew from lunar orbit, rather than a rocket from earth or a spacecraft while orbiting the planet.
(AP, 4/19/14)
2014 May 6, Bill Dana, one of the test pilots for NASA’s hypersonic X-15 rocket plane, died in Phoenix.
(SFC, 5/9/14, p.D4)
2014 May 12, A NASA study said the West Antarctic ice sheet is starting a slow collapse in an unstopable way.
(SFC, 5/13/14, p.A4)
2014 May 14, A Russian Soyuz space capsule carrying three astronauts landed in Kazakhstan. Russian Mikhail Tyurin, American Rick Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata of Japan had spent 188 days in the ISS.
(SFC, 5/15/14, p.A5)
2014 May 16, Russia's Proton-M booster rocket failed and broke apart during a test launch, just months after a shake-up in the country's space agency that was meant to boost its dented image.
(AP, 5/16/14)
2014 May 29, A Russian spacecraft carrying a three-man crew docked successfully at the International Space Station following a flawless launch.
(AP, 5/29/14)
2014 May 29, In southern billionaire Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, unveiled Dragon V2, a new spacecraft designed to carry up to seven astronauts to the Int’l. Space Station (ISS).
(SFC, 5/30/14, p.A4)
2014 Jul 2, NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 reached orbit after launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base .
(SFC, 7/3/14, p.A7)
2014 Jul 10, Arianespace launched a rocket from French Guiana carrying four satellites that will help provide Internet and mobile connectivity to people in nearly 180 countries.
(AP, 7/11/14)
2014 Jul 13, Orbital Sciences Corp. launched its 3rd space station delivery for NASA from Wallops Island on the Virginia coast.
(SFC, 7/14/14, p.A5)
2014 Jul 16, The United Arab Emirates announced it will create a space agency with the aim of sending the first Arab unmanned probe to Mars by 2021.
(AFP, 7/16/14)
2014 Sep 16, NASA selected Boeing and SpaceX to transport astronauts to the Int’l. Space Station in the next few years.
(SFC, 9/17/14, p.A7)
2014 Sep 21, NASA’s Maven spacecraft entered orbit around Mars to study the planet’s atmosphere.
(SFC, 9/23/14, p.A10)
2014 Sep 25, A US-Russian space crew blasted off from Kazakhstan for a 6-month stint at the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 9/26/14, p.A2)
2014 Oct 16, Argentina launched its first domestically built communications satellite.
(AP, 10/16/14)
2014 Oct 28, An unmanned US supply rocket exploded shortly after lifting off from the Wallops Flight Facility launch pad in Virginia, the first disaster since NASA turned to private operators to run cargo to the Int’l. Space Station. The 14-story Antares rocket was built and launched by Orbital Sciences Corp.
(Reuters, 10/29/14)(Econ, 11/1/14, p.75)
2014 Oct 31, A Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo blew apart over southern California after being released from a carrier aircraft killing one pilot, Michael Alsbury (39) and seriously injuring the other, Peter Siebold (43). The suborbital vehicle was undergoing its first powered test flight since January over the Mojave Desert.
(Reuters, 10/31/14)(SFC, 11/3/14, p.A7)
2014 Nov 1, China successfully recovered an experimental spacecraft that flew around the moon and back in a test run for the country's first unmanned return trip to the lunar surface. The eight-day trip marked the first time in almost four decades that a spacecraft has returned to Earth after traveling around the moon.
(AP, 11/1/14)
2014 Nov 10, A Russian Soyuz space capsule carrying three astronauts from the International Space Station landed safely on the frozen Kazakhstan steppe.
(AP, 11/10/14)
2014 Nov 24, A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to deliver three new crew members to the International Space Station, including Italy's first female astronaut.
(Reuters, 11/24/14)
2014 Dec 3, A Japanese space explorer took off on a six-year journey to blow a crater in a remote asteroid and bring back rock samples in hopes of gathering clues to the origin of Earth. Hayabusa2, is expected to reach the asteroid in mid-2018.
(AP, 12/3/14)
2014 Dec 5, NASA’s Orion spacecraft made its first test flight following liftoff at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The 4.5 hour test flight ended in the Pacific Ocean off Mexico.
(SFC, 12/6/14, p.C1)
2015 Jan 10, The unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket reached orbit with a cargo for the Int’l. Space Station. An attempt to land the rocket’s first stage on a floating platform failed following launch at Cape Canaveral.
(SSFC, 1/11/15, p.A8)
2015 Jan 31, An unmanned Delta 2 rocket lifted off from California carrying a NASA satellite to measure how much water is in Earth’s soil, information that will help weather forecasting and tracking of global climate change.
(Reuters, 1/31/15)
2015 Feb 11, An unmanned Falcon 9 rocket from Elong Musk’s SpaceX blasted off from Cape Canaveral carrying a research satellite. Rough seas forced abandonment of a plan to recover the booster aboard a ship.
(SFC, 2/12/15, p.C4)
2015 Mar 6, NASA confirmed that its Dawn spacecraft has arrived to orbit the dwarf planet Ceres for a 16-month exploration.
(SFC, 3/7/15, p.A4)
2015 Mar 12, In Kazakhstan two Russians and an American landed after nearly six months aboard the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 3/13/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 28, NASA said a Russian Soyuz spacecraft with three crew on board successfully docked with the International Space Station after blasting off from Kazakhstan. An American and two Russians floated into the International Space Station, beginning what is to be a year away from Earth for two of them.
(AFP, 3/28/15)(AP, 3/28/15)
2015 Apr 12, Russia’s head of its space command said in a film broadcast today that specialists have uncovered a group of spy satellites, which warned of "enemy" satellites that could masquerade as space junk.
(AFP, 4/12/15)
2015 Apr 16, Russia plans to build its own orbiting space station by 2023, President Vladimir Putin said during a marathon call-in session with the nation. Russia and NASA recently agreed to keep operating and financing the International Space Station at least until 2024.
(AFP, 4/16/15)
2015 Apr 17, The SpaceX supply ship arrived at the International Space Station, delivering the world's first espresso machine designed exclusively for astronauts.
(AP, 4/17/15)
2015 Apr 22, Russia said an experimental solid-fuel rocket went off trajectory after being launched from the Plesetsk launch pad in the northern Arkhangelsk region.
(AFP, 4/22/15)
2015 Apr 28, Russia’s unmanned Progress vessel, loaded with 3 tons of goods for the Int’l. space Station, began tumbling shortly after its launch from Kazakhstan.
(AP, 4/29/15)
2015 Apr 28, Russia’s unmanned Progress M-27M, loaded with 3 tons of goods for the Int’l. space Station, began tumbling shortly after its launch from Kazakhstan.
(AP, 4/29/15)(SFC, 4/29/15, p.A2)
2015 Apr 30, Blue Origin, a private space company founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, launched an unmanned spaceship. Its New Shepard capsule reached 58 miles and landed in the west Texas desert.
(SFC, 5/1/15, p.C2)
2015 May 6, At Cape Canaveral, Florida, SpaceX completed a successful test of its new launch escape system for astronauts using a dummy in a 1.5 minute test flight.
(SFC, 5/7/15, p.A11)
2015 May 25, The United Arab Emirates laid out a strategic framework for a newly created space agency that aims to integrate various arms of the Gulf federation's burgeoning space industry.
(AP, 5/25/15)
2015 Jun 11, In Kazakhstan NASA astronaut Terry Virts, Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency and Russia's Anton Shkaplerov returned to Earth after 199 days on the Int’l. Space station, nearly a month longer than planned.
(AP, 6/11/15)
2015 Jun 23, The European Space Agency (ESA) launched overnight the second phase of a 4.3-billion-euro ($4.91-billion) program to deploy new-generation satellites to monitor environmental damage and aid disaster relief operations. Sentinel-2A was hoisted by a lightweight Vega rocket from ESA's base in Kourou, French Guiana.
(AFP, 6/23/15)
2015 Jun 28, An unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded minutes after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida, following what was meant to be a routine cargo mission to the International Space Station.
(AFP, 6/28/15)
2015 Jul 3, Russia launched an unmanned cargo ship from Kazakhstan to the Int’l. Space Station. The Progress M-28 ship was set to dock on July 5.
(SFC, 7/4/15, p.A4)
2015 Jul 5, The Russian Progress M-28 cargo ship successfully docked with the Int’l. Space Station after two recent supply missions failed.
(SFC, 7/6/15, p.A2)
2015 Jul 23, A Soyuz space capsule carrying a Russian, an American and a Japanese docked smoothly with the International Space Station.
(AP, 7/23/15)
2015 Aug 19, The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launched an unmanned transport vehicle that is carrying water, parts and other supplies to the International Space Station.
(AP, 8/19/15)
2015 Aug 27, In China debris from a Long March-4 rocket carrying a remote sensing satellite crashed into a villager's home minutes after the launch from Shaanxi province.
(AFP, 8/28/15)
2015 Sep 2, In Kazakhstan the first Dane in space accompanied by 26 custom-made figurines from Danish toymaker Lego blasted off in a Soyuz spacecraft as part of a three-man team on an unusually long two-day mission to the International Space Station.
(AFP, 9/2/15)
2015 Sep 4, A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying three new crew docked at the International Space Station.
(AP, 9/4/15)
2015 Sep 12, A Russian space capsule landed safely in Kazakhstan, bringing home a three-person crew from the International Space Station, including a record-breaking Russian cosmonaut. Gennady Padalka completed his fifth mission for a world record of 879 total days in space.
(AP, 9/12/15)
2015 Sep 28, India successfully launched its first space observatory and six satellites into orbit.
(AP, 9/28/15)
2015 Oct 1, Russia launched its Progress M-29M cargo spacecraft from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, to the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 10/2/15, p.A2)
2015 Nov 24, A rocket from Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin private space company landed upright following a test flight in West Texas.
(SFC, 11/25/15, p.C1)
2015 Nov 24, A Japanese rocket lifted off and successfully put the national space program's first commercial satellite into orbit.
(AFP, 11/24/15)
2015 Dec 6, In Florida an unmanned Atlas V rocket lifted off carrying the Orbital ATK capsule to supply astronauts at the int’l. space station.
(SFC, 12/7/15, p.A4)
2015 Dec 9, Japan's space agency said its "Akatsuki" probe had successfully entered into orbit around Venus after an initial attempt at reaching the second planet from the sun failed five years ago.
(AFP, 12/9/15)
2015 Dec 11, A three-person crew from the International Space Station landed safely in the snowy steppes of Kazakhstan.
(AP, 12/11/15)
2015 Dec 15, In Kazakhstan Tim Peake (43), the first British astronaut to travel to the International Space Station, blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome with Russian space veteran Yury Malenchenko and Tim Kopra of NASA for a six-month mission.
(AFP, 12/15/15)
2015 Dec 21, At Cape Canaveral, Florida, SpaceX successfully landed its powerful Falcon 9 rocket for the first time, a major milestone in the drive to cut costs and waste by making rockets as reusable as airplanes.
(AFP, 12/22/15)
2015 Dec 21, The unmanned Progress cargo spacecraft blasted off from Russia's space launch complex in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on a journey to the International Space Station.
(AP, 12/21/15)
2015 It was estimated that some 3,000 tons of rocket debris were in orbit around Earth.
(Econ., 4/25/15, p.75)
2016 Jan 17, A SpaceX rocket toppled on a barge when a support leg failed to lock upon landing on a barge about 200 miles west of San Diego. A Jason-3 satellite was successfully launched.
(SFC, 1/18/16, p.A4)
2016 Feb 17, A Japanese satellite, developed in collaboration with NASA and various other groups, was launched. It was designed to observe X-rays emanating from black holes and galaxy clusters. On March 27 the director of Japan’s Institute of Space and Astronautical Science said the satellite has disappeared.
(AP, 3/28/16)
2016 Mar 2, US astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko landed in Kazakhstan after almost a year in space in a ground-breaking experiment foreshadowing a potential manned mission to Mars.
(AFP, 3/2/16)
2016 Mar 14, In Kazakhstan a joint European-Russian mission aiming to search for traces of life on Mars blasted off for the start of a seven-month unmanned space journey to the Red Planet.
(AFP, 3/14/16)
2016 Mar 19, A Soyuz space capsule carrying two Russians and an American docked with the International Space Station. Their rocket took off in windy conditions from Russia's space base in Kazakhstan at 2126 GMT March 18.
(AP, 3/19/16)
2016 Mar 26, The six astronauts at the International Space Station got an early Easter treat today with the arrival of a supply ship full of fresh food and experiments via Orbital ATK's Cygnus capsule, named after the swan constellation. The cargo carrier rocketed away from Cape Canaveral on March 22.
(AP, 3/26/16)
2016 Apr 8, SpaceX resumed station deliveries for NASA, and in a double triumph, successfully landed its booster rocket on an ocean platform for the first time.
(AP, 4/9/16)
2016 Apr 10, A SpaceX Dragon cargo ship arrived at the Int’l. Space Station with 7,000 pounds of freight including a soft-sided compartment built by Bigelow Aerospace.
(SFC, 4/11/16, p.A4)
2016 Apr 28, Russia launched its first rocket from the new Vostochny cosmodrome in the remote Amur Region near China's border, a day after a technical glitch forced a postponement of the event to carry three satellites into orbit.
(Reuters, 4/28/16)
2016 May 6, A SpaceX rocket landed on an ocean platform for the 2nd time following the successful launch of a Japanese communications satellite at Cape Canaveral.
(SFC, 5/7/16, p.A6)
2016 May 23, The Indian Space Research Organization launched a small space shuttle on a rocket in southern India and completed a successful 13-minute test flight.
(AP, 5/24/16)
2016 May 28, NASA successfully inflated its new Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) in an operation that took three days to complete at the Int’l. Space Station.
(SSFC, 5/29/16, p.A7)
2016 Jun 1, NASA said researchers in the United States and Canada have located 39 unreported sources of major pollution using a new satellite-based method. The unreported sources of toxic sulfur dioxide emissions are clusters of coal-burning power plants, smelters and oil and gas operations in the Middle East, Mexico and Russia that were found in an analysis of satellite data from 2005 to 2014.
(Reuters, 6/2/16)
2016 Jun 18, In Kazakhstan Tim Peake, the first British astronaut on the ISS, Russia's Yury Malenchenko and NASA's Tim Kopra parachuted down onto the Kazakh steppe in their Soyuz capsule at 0915 GMT after spending 186 days in orbit.
(AFP, 6/18/16)
2016 Jun 19, In Texas the Blue Origin space company completed its fourth successful unmanned rocket launch and safe landing using the same New Shepard vehicle.
(SFC, 6/20/16, p.A4)
2016 Jun 26, China recovered an experimental probe launched aboard a new generation rocket, marking another milestone in its increasingly ambitious space program that envisions a mission to Mars by the end of the decade.
(AP, 6/26/16)
2016 Jul 5, NASA celebrated a key triumph as its $1.1 billion Juno spacecraft successfully slipped into orbit around Jupiter on a mission to probe the origin of the solar system.
(AFP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 7, In Kazakhstan a Russian space capsule was launched beginning a two-day trip to the International Space Station. The Soyuz capsule carried Russian Anatoly Ivanshin, NASA's Kate Rubins and Takuya Onishi of Japan’s space agency JAXA.
(AP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 18, An unmanned Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) rocket blasted off from Florida to send a cargo ship to the International Space Station, then turned around and landed itself back at the launch site.
(AP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, NASA officials said Taiwan is building a $47 million lunar lander as part of the first ever moon-mining project. Chung-shan Institute of Science and Technology (CSIST) will build the lander. The NASA project Resource Prospector and aims to be the first mining expedition on another world.
(AP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 20, SpaceX delivered more than 2 tons of supplies to the International Space Station including a space station docking port needed for future rocket ships.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Aug 16, China launched Micius, the world’s first quantum communication satellite into space from the Jiuquan launch base in the northwestern Gobi desert. It was named after a Chinese philosopher of the 5th century. Experts said this will push forward efforts to develop the ability to send communications that can't be penetrated by hackers.
(AP, 8/16/16)(Econ, 9/2/17, p.67)
2016 Aug 28, In Hawaii six scientists completed a yearlong Mars simulation, where they lived in a dome on a Mauna Loa mountain. NASA funded the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) program.
(AP, 8/29/16)
2016 Sep 1, An unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded during a test in Florida, destroying the Israeli-built and -owned Amos 6 satellite that Facebook planned to use to beam high-speed internet to sub-Saharan Africa.
(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 15, China launched the Tiangong 2, its second space station, atop a Long March 7 rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.
(SFC, 9/16/16, p.A2)
2016 Oct 16, The European Space Agency dispatched an experimental probe on the final leg of its quest to land on Mars, part of a mission aimed at exploring the red planet's atmosphere and searching for signs of life. The ExoMars mission was a joint endeavor by Europe’s and Russia’s space agencies.
(AP, 10/16/16)(Econ, 10/22/16, p.71)
2016 Oct 19, In Kazakhstan two Russian cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut soared into orbit in a Soyuz spacecraft at the start of a two-day journey to the International Space Station.
(AFP, 10/19/16)
2016 Oct 19, Members of the ExoMars team announced the arrival of the project’s craft at Mars. However, their landing craft, called Schiaparelli, went silent on its way to the surface of the planet.
(Econ, 10/22/16, p.71)
2016 Oct 30, A Russian Soyuz space capsule landed in Kazakhstan, bringing astronauts Kate Rubins of NASA, Japan's Takuya Onishi and Anatoly Ivanishin of Russia back to Earth from a 115-day mission aboard the International Space Station.
(AP, 10/30/16)
2016 Nov 18, Two Chinese astronauts returned from a monthlong stay aboard the country's space station, China's sixth and longest crewed mission and a sign of the growing ambitions of its rapidly advancing space program.
(AP, 11/18/16)
2016 Nov 19, The new GOES-R spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral. It will track US weather as part of an $11 billion effort to revolutionize weather forecasting.
(SFC, 11/21/16, p.A6)
2016 Dec 1, In Kazakhstan an unmanned Russian cargo ship blasted with a load of supplies to the International Space Station, but Russian space officials said they weren't getting data from it. The Progress MSD-04 cargo craft broke up over Siberia.
(AP, 12/1/16)(SFC, 12/2/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 9, A Japanese capsule blasted off from the Tanegashima Space Center with much-needed supplies for the International Space Station, a week after a Russian shipment was destroyed shortly after liftoff.
(AP, 12/9/16)
2017 Jan 14, A SpaceX Falcon 9 successfully blasted off from California carrying a payload for Iridium Communications Inc. The rocket’s first stage soon landed upright on a droneship south of Vandenberg Air Force Base.
(SSFC, 1/15/17, p.A7)
2017 Jan 16, US astronaut Eugene Cernan (b.1934), the last man to walk on the moon, died in Houston, Texas. Cernan, James Lovell and John Young were the only three astronauts to voyage twice to the moon.
(Reuters, 1/17/17)(SFC, 1/17/17, p.A5)
2017 Feb 19, In Florida a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched space station supplies from NASA’s launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.
(SFC, 2/20/17, p.A7)
2017 Feb 15, India launched the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, built by the Indian Space Research Organization, carrying a record 104 satellites, 88 of which were made by Planet, a San Francisco-based company founded in 2010.
(Econ, 2/18/17, p.57)
2017 Feb 22, A navigation error forced SpaceX to delay its shipment to the International Space Station (ISS), following an otherwise smooth flight from NASA's historic moon pad. The delivery was completed the next day.
(AP, 2/22/17)(SFC, 2/24/17, p.A12)
2017 Feb 22, Russia successfully launched a cargo ship to the International Space Station (ISS) from Kazakhstan.
(AP, 2/22/17)
2017 Mar 19, The SpaceX Dragon cargo ship returned from the ISS and parachuted into the Pacific with some 5,000 pounds of completed experiments and used equipment.
(SFC, 3/20/17, p.A4)
2017 Mar 21, Pres. Donald Trump signed a bill authorizing $19.5 billion for NASA and updates the agency’s mission to add the exploration of Mars.
(SFC, 3/22/17, p.A6)
2017 Mar 30, SpaceX launched its first recycled rocket. The Falcon 9 hoisted a broadcasting satellite into the sky from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
(SFC, 3/31/17, p.C2)
2017 Apr 8, Russia said cosmonaut Georgy Grechko (85) has died. He made three trips into space (1975 – 1985), spending a total of 134 days off the Earth. His longest was a stay of more than three months aboard the Salyut-6 space station in 1977-78.
(AP, 4/8/17)
2017 Apr 10, In Kazakhstan NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and Russia's Sergei Ryzhikov and Andrei Borisenko touched down after spending 173 days in space.
(AP, 4/9/17)
2017 Apr 18, In Florida an Atlas rocket carried the S.S. John Glenn cargo ship toward the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 4/19/17, p.A12)
2017 Apr 20, China launched its first unmanned cargo spacecraft on a mission to dock with the country's space station, marking further progress in the ambitious Chinese space program.
(AP, 4/20/17)
2017 Apr 24, Astronaut Peggy Whitson broke the US record for most time in space at 534 days. The world record of 879 days is held by Russian Gennady Padalka.
(SFC, 4/25/17, p.A5)
2017 Apr 27, NASA said its unmanned Cassini spacecraft has survived its plunge between the rings of Saturn and, after briefly going dark for the flyby, is communicating again with Earth.
(AP, 4/27/17)
2017 Jun 2, A Russian Soyuz capsule, carrying astronauts Russia's Oleg Novitsky and Thomas Pesquet of France, landed in Kazakhstan after a half-year aboard the International Space Station. NASA's Peggy Whitson's mission aboard the space station has been extended by three months.
(AP, 6/2/17)
2017 Jun 3, SpaceX launched its first recycled cargo ship to the Int’l. Space Station aboard an unmanned Falcon rocket. The first stage booster returned to Cape Canaveral for a successful vertical touchdown.
(SSFC, 6/4/17, p.A7)
2017 Jun 5, India successfully launched its most powerful home-produced rocket, another milestone for its indigenous space program which one day hopes to put a human into orbit. The GSLV Mk III rocket carried a satellite weighing more than three tons into a high orbit above Earth.
(AFP, 6/5/17)
2017 Jul 2, A Chinese rocket launch failed this evening due to abnormality during the flight following what appeared to be a successful liftoff of the Long March-5 Y2.
(AP, 7/2/17)
2017 Jul 27, Iran successfully launched a satellite-carrying rocket into space. The launch involved a "Simorgh" rocket capable of carrying a satellite weighing 250 kg (550 pounds).
(AP, 7/27/17)
2017 Aug 14, A SpaceX capsule rocketed to the Int’l. Space Station from Cape Canaveral, Fl.
(SFC, 8/1517, p.A6)
2017 Aug 17, Spacewalking cosmonauts set free the world’s first satellite made almost entirely with a 3-D printer.
(SFC, 8/18/17, p.A7)
2017 Aug 18, NASA launched the 13th and last of its Tracking and Data Relay Satellite network from Cape Canaveral.
(SFC, 8/19/17, p.A5)
2017 Aug 24, The Earth-observation Formosat-5 satellite for Taiwan's National Space Organization was launched into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
(AP, 8/25/17)
2017 Sep 1, US President Donald Trump announced he plans to appoint James Bridenstine, a former navy pilot and Oklahoma Republican congressman, to head the US space agency NASA.
(AFP, 9/1/17)(SSFC, 9/3/17, p.A8)
2017 Sep 2, Astronaut Peggy Whitson (57) returned to Earth late today, wrapping up a record-breaking flight that catapulted her to first place for US space endurance. Her 665 days off the planet, 288 days on this mission alone, exceeds that of any other American and any other woman worldwide.
(AP, 9/3/17)
2017 Sep 7, SpaceX stuck with its long-planned launch of a super-secret Air Force space shuttle and launched an unmanned Falcon rocket from Florida's Kennedy Space Center. It's the fifth flight for one of these crewless mini shuttles, known as the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle. Officials would not say what the spacecraft are doing up there.
(AP, 9/7/17)
2017 Sep 15, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, launched in 1997, burned up in a fiery dive into Saturn, where it had been circling since 2004.
(SFC, 9/16/17 p.A8)
2017 Oct 13, Russia successfully launched a satellite into orbit that will monitor Europe's atmosphere, helping to study air pollution. The European Space Agency's Sentinel-5P satellite was launched by a Rokot missile from the northwestern Plesetsk launch pad.
(AP, 10/13/17)
2017 Oct 14, An unmanned Russian cargo ship was launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, to take supplies to the six astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
(AP, 10/14/17)
2017 Oct 26, Saudi Arabia announced plans to invest $1 billion in Richard Branson’s portfolio of space companies. Virgin Galactic intends to start flying tourists to the edge of space in the coming months.
(SFC, 10/27/17, p.A6)
2017 Nov 4, NASA Scientists reported that the giant hole in Earth’s protective ozone layer has shriveled to its smallest peak since 1988.
(SSFC, 11/5/17, p.A16)
2017 Nov 12, Orbital ATK launched its Cygnus cargo capsule aboard an unmanned Antares rocket with supplies for the Int’l. Space Station (ISS).
(SFC, 11/13/17, p.A5)
2017 Nov 18, In California the Joint Polar Satellite System-1 was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base. It was the first of four next-generation spacecraft for NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
(SSFC, 11/19/17, p.A8)
2017 Nov 28, Russian weather satellite Meteor M 2-1 and nearly 20 micro-satellites from various nations failed to enter their designated orbits following the launch from Russia's new Vostochny launch pad in the Far East. It wasn't immediately clear if they fell into the ocean or were stranded in low orbit.
(AP, 11/28/17)
2017 Dec 14, Astronomers using NASA’s Kepler space Telescope reported the discovery of an eighth planet (Kepler-90i) circling the star Kepler-90.
(SFC, 12/15/17, p.A8)
2017 Dec 14, Three astronauts returned to Earth from the Int’l. Space Station (ISS) after nearly six month in orbit. A Russian Soyuz capsule landed in Kazakhstan with NASA’s Randy Bresnik, Russia’s Sergey Ryazansky and Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency.
(SFC, 12/15/17, p.A4)
2017 Dec 15, SpaceX racked up another first, launching a recycled rocket with a recycled capsule on a grocery run for NASA to the Int’l. Space Station. Within 10 minutes of liftoff, the first-stage booster was back at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, standing upright on the giant X at SpaceX's landing zone.
(AP, 12/16/17)
2017 Dec 17, In Kazakhstan a Soyuz capsule carrying three astronauts from Russia, Japan and the US blasted off for a two-day trip to the International Space Station. Anton Shkaplerov, Norishige Kanai and Scott Tingle will join Russia's Alexander Misurkin and Joe Acaba and Mark Vandde Hei of NASA, who have been aboard since September.
(AP, 12/17/17)
2017 Dec 21, NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless (80), the first person to fly freely and untethered in space (1984), died in California.
(AP, 12/23/17)
2017 Dec 26, Angola’s Russian-built AngoSat 1 satellite successfully entered orbit after launch from the Baikonur pad in Kazakhstan, but experts couldn't immediately establish contact. By Dec. 29 state-run Energia company engineers established communications with the craft and received data indicating that all its systems are operating properly.
(AP, 12/29/17)
2018 Jan 5, Astronaut John Young (b.1930) died at his home in Houston. He commanded the Apollo 16 lunar voyage and walked on the moon in April, 1972.
(SSFC, 1/7/18, p.C11)
2018 Jan 7, SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket with the classified Zuma satellite from Cape Canaveral. The satellite was reported lost after it failed to separate from a 2nd-stage rocket.
(SFC, 1/10/18, p.C5)
2018 Feb 6, SpaceX's Falcon Heavy, blasted off from Cape Canaveral on its highly anticipated maiden test flight, carrying CEO Elon Musk's cherry red Tesla Roadster toward an orbit near Mars.
(AFP, 2/7/18)
2018 Feb 28, In Kazakhstan NASA's Joe Acaba and Mark Vande Hei, and Russia's Alexander Misurkin returned from the International Space Station to the snowy, bitingly cold flat lands of Central Asia, ending a 5 1/2-month mission. Three astronauts remained behind.
(AP, 2/28/18)
2018 Mar 21, In Kazakhstan two Americans and a Russian cosmonaut blasted off from the Baikonur launch pad on their way to the Int'l. Space Station.
(SFC, 3/22/18, p.A2)
2018 Apr 18, NASA launched its Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), a space telescope for NASA's Explorers program, designed to search for exoplanets.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transiting_Exoplanet_Survey_Satellite)
2018 Apr 2, China's defunct Tiangong 1 space station mostly burned up on re-entry into the atmosphere over the central South Pacific.
(AP, 4/2/18)
2018 May 17, In China a suborbital rocket was launched into space by OneSpace, a Beijing-based start-up in the burgeoning commercial aeronautics industry. The launch aimed to demonstrate an early working model of the company's OS-X series of rockets, designed to conduct research linked to suborbital flights.
(AFP, 5/17/18)
2018 May 21, Orbital ATK launched an Antares rocket with supplies to the Int'l. Space Station from Wallops Island, Va.
(SFC, 5/22/18, p.A8)
2018 May 22, A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched a pair of US-German science satellites and five commercial communications satellites into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in southern California.
(SFC, 5/23/18, p.C6)
2018 Jun 3, In Kazakhstan Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, Scott Tingle of the United States and Norishige Kanai of Japan touched down in a Russian Soyuz space capsule on the Kazakh steppe after a 168-day mission aboard the International Space Station.
(AFP, 6/3/18)
2018 Jun 6, In Kazakhstan a trio of astronauts from Russia, the United States and the European Space Agency blasted off for a mission on the International Space Station. A Russian spacecraft carried Serena Aunon-Chancellor of NASA, Sergey Prokopyev of Russian space agency Roscosmos and the ESA's Alexander Gerst, from Germany, as it lifted off as scheduled from the Russia-leased Baikonur cosmodrome.
(AP, 6/6/18)
2018 Jun 18, US Pres. Donald Trump announced that he is directing the Pentagon to create a new Space Force as an independent service branch aimed at ensuring American supremacy in space.
(SFC, 6/19/18, p.A7)
2018 Jun 27, Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft arrived at an asteroid after a 3 1/2-year journey to undertake a first-ever experiment: blow a crater in the rocky surface to collect samples and bring them back to Earth.
(AP, 6/27/18)
2018 Jul 2, SpaceX's Dragon capsule delivered nearly 6,000 pounds of supplies to the Int'l. Space Station. The supplies included the round AI robot Cimon, slightly bigger than a basketball, from the German Space Agency intended to assist German astronaut Alexander Gerst with science experiments.
(SFC, 7/3/18, p.A7)
2018 Jul 10, A Russian cargo ship delivered a fresh load of fuel, food, and other supplies for the International Space Station, making it in record time. The unmanned spacecraft docked at the station in automatic mode less than four hours after the launch.
(AP, 7/10/18)
2018 Jul 25, Europe launched four more Galileo satellites from French Guiana, taking the number in orbit to 26 and moving a step closer to having its own navigation system, just as the program has become the latest flashpoint in Brexit negotiations. The satellites will be part of the EU's alternative to the US Global Positioning System.
(AP, 7/25/18)
2018 Aug 7, In Florida SpaceX used its newest style booster for a second time at Cape Canaveral to put a communications satellite into orbit for Indonesia.
(AP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 12, NASA blasted off its first-ever spaceship to explore the Sun, the $1.5 billion Parker Solar Probe, on a strategic mission to protect the Earth by unveiling the mysteries of dangerous solar storms. The car-sized probe was launched aboard a massive Delta IV-Heavy rocket early today at Cape Canaveral.
(AFP, 8/12/18)
2018 Sep 15, NASA launched a satellite, designed to measure changes in Earth's ice sheets, into orbit from southern California's Vandenberg Air Force Base.
(SSFC, 9/16/18, p.A10)
2018 Sep 17, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa (42) said that he plans to blast off on the inaugural private commercial trip around the moon and will invite six to eight creative people on the weeklong journey via the SpaceX Big Falcon Rocket scheduled for 2023. Maezawa is the founder of Japan's largest retail website.
(SFC, 9/18/18, p.A5)
2018 Oct 3, The Japan Space Exploration Agency said the Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT), a German-French observation device, was released from the unmanned spacecraft Hayabusa2 and successfully landed on the asteroid Ryugu.
(AP, 10/3/18)
2018 Oct 4, In Kazakhstan the Russian Soyuz MS-08 space capsule carrying Russia's Oleg Artemyev and NASA's Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold landed safely after a six-month mission aboard the International Space Station.
(AP, 10/4/18)
2018 Oct 7, In southern California SpaceX launched a commercial satellite for Argentina from Vandenberg Air Force Base. This was the 17th mission this year for Elon Musk's rocket company.
(SFC, 10/9/18, p.A4D4)
2018 Oct 11, The two-man US-Russian crew of a Soyuz spacecraft en route to the International Space Station was forced to make a dramatic emergency landing in Kazakhstan when their rocket failed in mid-air. The rocket malfunctioned two minutes after liftoff, forcing its two-man crew of Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin to make an emergency landing. Investigators later said the rocket failure was caused by a sensor that was damaged during assembly at the Soviet-era cosmodrome at Baikonur.
(Reuters, 10/11/18)(Reuters, 10/8/19)
2018 Oct 13, NASA said that the Chandra X-ray Obervatory went into safe mode last week due to a gyroscope problem.
(SSFC, 10/14/18, p.A10)
2018 Oct 20, European and Japanese space agencies said an Ariane 5 rocket successfully lifted a spacecraft carrying two probes into orbit for a joint mission to Mercury. The unmanned BepiColombo spacecraft successfully separated and was sent into orbit from French Guiana as planned to begin a seven-year journey to Mercury.
(AP, 10/20/18)
2018 Oct 25, A Russian Soyuz rocket lifted off from the Plesetsk launch facility in Mirny and put a military satellite into orbit.
(SFC, 10/26/18, p.A2)
2018 Oct 27, China's first attempt to deploy a privately developed rocket capable of carrying a satellite failed. Beijing-based Landspace said that the first and second stage of its ZQ-1 rocket worked normally but something went wrong with the third stage.
(AP, 10/28/18)
2018 Nov 11, Electron, a small rocket from the little-known company Rocket Lab, lifted off from the east coast of New Zealand carrying a clutch of tiny satellites. This was the first commercial launch by the US-New Zealand company.
(https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/10/science/rocket-lab-launch.html)
2018 Nov 16, A Russian Soyuz rocket launched its first cargo mission to the International Space Station since a Soyuz rocket carrying astronauts failed last month.
(AFP, 11/17/18)
2018 Nov 17, An unmanned Cygnus cargo ship blasted off from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia toward the International Space Station, marking the second supply mission in 24 hours destined to carry food and supplies to the astronauts living in space.
(AFP, 11/17/18)
2018 Nov 26, A NASA spacecraft designed to burrow beneath the surface of Mars landed on the red planet after a six-month, 300 million-mile (482 million-km) journey and a perilous, six-minute descent through the rose-hued atmosphere.
(AP, 11/26/18)
2018 Dec 3, A Soyuz rocket carrying Russian, American and Canadian astronauts took off from Kazakhstan and reached orbit, the first manned mission since a failed launch in October.
(AFP, 12/3/18)
2018 Dec 8, China launched a Long March 3B rocket carrying a lunar probe from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan Province. It hoped to land the spacecraft on the largely unexplored far side of the moon.
(AP, 12/8/18)
2018 Dec 20, Three astronauts returned to Earth after more than six months aboard the International Space Station. A Russian Soyuz capsule with NASA's Serena Aunon-Chancellor, Russian Sergey Prokopyev and German astronaut Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency landed on the snow-covered steppes in Kazakhstan.
(AP, 12/20/18)
2018 Dec 23, SpaceX launched the US Air Force's most powerful GPS satellite ever constructed. This was the company's 21st and final launch of the year.
(SFC, 12/24/18, p.A4)
2018 Dec 26, Nancy Grace Roman (b.1925), NASA's first chief of astronomy, died in Germantown, Maryland. She took part in the development of the cosmic Background Explorer, launched in 1989, and oversaw the early development of the Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Roman)(SFC, 1/2/19, p.C5)
2019 Jan 1, NASA rang in the New Year with a historic flyby of the farthest, and quite possibly the oldest, cosmic body ever explored by humankind -- a tiny, distant world called Ultima Thule -- in the hopes of learning more about how planets took shape.
(AFP, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 3, A Chinese space probe successfully touched down on the far side of the moon. The Chang'e-4 lunar probe, launched in December, made the "soft landing" and transmitted the first-ever "close range" image of the far side of the moon.
(Reuters, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 11, Russia's space agency lost control of the Spektr-R satellite, an orbiting radio telescope launched in 2011 with an expected useful life of about three years.
(AP, 1/12/19)
2019 Jan 15, An Iranian rocket blasted off into space, but scientists failed to put the Payam satellite into orbit in a launch previously criticized by the United States as helping the Islamic Republic further develop its ballistic missile program.
(AP, 1/15/19)
2019 Feb 6, It was reported that two tiny satellites have fallen silent millions of miles away, after proving new technology at Mars. The twin CubeSats, nicknamed WALL-E and EVE, shadowed NASA's InSight lander to Mars last year. This week, NASA said it hasn't heard from them for more than a month now — and doubts it ever will.
(AP, 2/6/19)
2019 Feb 13, NASA pronounced that its 2004 Mars rover Opportunity was dead.
(SFC, 2/14/19, p.A14)
2019 Feb 21, A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral carried a communications satellite for Indonesia and a lunar lander for Israel. The lunar lander was expected to touch down on the Sea of Serenity on April 11.
(SFC, 2/23/19, p.A4)
2019 Mar 2, SpaceX's new Crew Dragon astronaut capsule was on its way to the International Space Station after it successfully launched from Florida on board a Falcon 9 rocket.
(AFP, 3/2/19)
2019 Mar 3, Elon Musk's SpaceX white Dragon capsule with just a test dummy aboard docked smoothly with the International Space Station in a big step toward putting the US back in the business of launching astronauts.
(AP, 3/3/19)
2019 Mar 27, India shot down one of its satellites in space with an anti-satellite missile. The government said the test was aimed at protecting India's assets in space against foreign attacks. The United States ran the first anti-satellite test in 1959, when satellites themselves were rare and new.
(Reuters, 3/27/19)
2019 Apr 4, The Russian Progress freighter blasted off from a launch facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, and docked with the International Space Station after two orbits. It set a record time for a trip to the ISS, docking in three hours and 21 minutes.
(AP, 4/4/19)
2019 Apr 5, Japan's space agency said an explosive dropped from its Hayabusa2 spacecraft successfully blasted the surface of an asteroid for the first time to form a crater and pave the way for the collection of underground samples for possible clues to the origin of the solar system.
(AP, 4/5/19)
2019 May 4, SpaceX launched a load of supplies to the ISS. A recycled Dragon capsule carried 5,500 pounds of goods.
(SSFC, 5/5/19, p.A6)
2019 May 4, Interstellar Technology Inc., a Japanese aerospace startup funded by a former internet maverick, successfully launched a small rocket into space, making it the first commercially developed Japanese rocket to reach orbit.
(AP, 5/4/19)
2019 May 15, Takafumi Horie, founder of Japan's Interstellar Technology Inc., said his company plans to provide low-cost rocket services and compete with American rivals such as SpaceX.
(SFC, 5/16/19, p.A2)
2019 May 23, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, late today carrying the first 60 satellites of its "Starlink" constellation, which is intended to provide internet from space in an array that could one day contain over 12,000 orbiting transponders.
(AFP, 5/24/19)
2019 Jun 7, NASA announced that it will open the International Space Station to private astronauts with the first visit as early as next year.
(SFC, 6/8/19, p.A5)
2019 Jun 25, SpaceX launched its Falcon Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral. It carried a payload of 24 military and scientific research satellites.
(SFC, 6/26/19, p.D1)
2019 Jun 25, In Kazakhstan NASA astronaut Anne McClain, veteran cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos, and Canadian Space Agency record-holder David Saint-Jacques emerged from the space craft to applause from support crews, after touching down near the Kazakh city of Dzhezkazgan.
(AFP, 6/25/19)
2019 Jul 22, India launched a rocket into space in an attempt to safely land a rover on the moon, its most ambitious mission yet in the effort to establish itself as a low-cost space power.
(Reuters, 7/22/19)
2019 Aug 17, A Chinese government space agency successfully launched its first rocket meant for commercial use. The 23-ton Smart Dragon-1 rocket was developed by a unit of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC).
(Reuters, 8/17/19)
2019 Aug 24, A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying a humanoid robot, the FEDOR (Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research), failed to dock with the International Space Station (ISS). Officials planned to attempt the docking on August 26.
(Reuters, 8/24/19)
2019 Aug 27, An unmanned spacecraft carrying Russia's first humanoid robot docked at the International Space Station following a failed attempt over the weekend.
(AFP, 8/27/19)
2019 Aug 29, Iran conducted a third rocket launch, but satellite imagery of the launch suggested the country's latest attempt to put a satellite in orbit has ended in failure.
(Business Insider, 8/30/19)
2019 Sep 7, India's space agency lost contact with a spacecraft it was trying to land on the moon, in a setback for the nation's ambitious plans to become the first country to probe the unexplored lunar south pole. Communication was lost just as it was about to touch down.
(Reuters, 9/7/19)
2019 Sep 25, In Kazakhstan a Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off carrying an American, a Russian and the first space traveler from the United Arab Emirates to the Int'l. Space Station.
(SFC, 9/26/19, p.A2)
2019 Oct 3, In Kazakhstan American Nick Hague, Russian Alexey Ovchinin and Hazzaa al-Mansoori, the first person from the United Arab Emirates to fly into space, landed safely after a six-hour flight from the International Space Station following an 8-day mission.
(AP, 10/3/19)
2019 Oct 11, NASA announced the death of the world's first spacewalker, Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov (85). His 12-minute spacewalk on March 18, 1965, preceded the first US spacewalk by Ed White by less than three months.
(AP, 10/11/19)
2019 Oct 11, Int'l. space station astronauts ventured out on their second spacewalk this week to swap more batteries.
(AP, 10/11/19)
2019 Oct 22, US billionaire Jeff Bezos said his space company Blue Origin has signed agreements with Lockheed Martin Corp, Northrop Grumman Corp and research and development organization Draper for development of its lunar lander designed to help NASA put humans on the moon by 2024.
(Reuters, 10/22/19)
2019 Oct 27, The US Air Force X-37B landed at NASA's Kennedy Space Center following a 780-day mission. The solar-powered plane was flown by remote control without a crew.
(SFC, 8/30/19, p.A5)
2019 Nov 1, Northrop Grumman launched its Cygnus capsule for NASA from Wallops Island, Virginia. The 8,200-pound shipment (3,700 kg) should reach the Int'l. Space Station on Nov. 4.
(AP, 11/2/19)
2019 Nov 3, China launched a new high-resolution remote sensing satellite capable of providing stereoscopic imagery, marking another important step as Beijing seeks to reduce reliance on foreign technology in topographic mapping.
(Reuters, 11/3/19)
2019 Nov 11, SpaceX launched 60 mini satellites, each weighing 575 pounds, from Cape Canaveral. This was the 2nd batch of an orbiting network meant to provide global internet coverage.
(SFC, 11/12/19, p.A6)
2019 Nov 15, Astronauts launched an extraordinarily complicated series of spacewalks to fix a cosmic ray detector at the International Space Station.
(AP, 11/15/19)
2019 Nov 25, Russian military launched a Soyuz-2-1v/Volga rocket from Site 43 in Plesetsk, delivering a classified cargo into orbit. Russia launched its Kosmos 2542 satellite. 11 days later it disgorged another satellite named Kosmos 2543. On Jul 15, 2020, 2543 spat out another object, which sped off into the void.
(http://www.russianspaceweb.com/cosmos-2542.html)(Econ., 8/15/20, p.68)
2019 Dec 2, Spacewalking astronauts attached new pumps to a cosmic ray detector outside the International Space Station in a bid to extend its scientific life.
(AP, 12/2/19)
2019 Dec 4, Scientists released the first results from NASA's sun-skimming spacecraft, the Parker Solar Probe. They observed bursts of energetic particles never seen before on such a small scale as well as switchback-like reversals in the out-flowing solar magnetic field that seem to whip up the solar wind.
(AP, 12/4/19)
2019 Dec 8, The SpaceX Dragon caqpsule delivered three tons supplies to the Int'l. Space Station.The delivery include 8 of 40 mice genetically engineered with twice the normal muscle mass for a muscle and bone experiment.
(SFC, 12/9/19, p.A6)
2019 Dec 18, A European spacecraft was launched from Kourou, French Guiana, atop a Russian Soyuz rocket. The 3-year mission of Characterising ExoPlanets Satellite (CHEOPS) is to study planets in other solar systems.
(SFC, 12/19/19, p.A2)
2019 Dec 20, A timer error prevented Boeing Co's new astronaut capsule from reaching the orbit it needed to get to the International Space Station, cutting short a critical unmanned test mission. The plan was now for the capsule to head back to Earth, landing at White Sands, New Mexico on Dec. 22.
(AP, 12/20/19)
2019 Dec 21, US Pres. Donald Trump officially launched the US Space Force, America’s first military service in more than 70 years.
(The Telegraph, 12/21/19)
2019 Dec 22, The Boeing Starliner spacecraft successfully landed in New Mexico after a failed mission to the International Space Station.
(Reuters, 12/22/19)
2019 Dec 28, NASA astronaut Christina Koch broke the record set by retired astronaut Peggy Whitson for the longest single spaceflight by a woman with 289 days in space.
(Good Morning America, 12/30/19)
2020 Jan 19, Elon Musk's SpaceX simulated a successful emergency landing off the coast of Cape Canaveral in Florida in a dramatic test of a crucial abort system on an unmanned astronaut capsule, laying the foundation for its mission to fly NASA astronauts for the first time.
(Reuters, 1/19/20)
2020 Jan 25, Space astronauts plugged a leak in the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer outside the Int'l. Space Station. The cosmic ray detector was shut down last year for the repair work.
(SSFC, 1/26/20, p.A6)
2020 Jan 30, NASA pulled the plug on the Spitzer Space Telescope after it spent 16 years scanning the universe with infrared eyes. It had been designed to last 2½ to 5 years.
(SFC, 1/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Feb 6, NASA astronaut Christina Koch, who has spent nearly 11 months in orbit on the longest spaceflight by a woman, landed safely in Kazakhstan along with along with station Commander Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency and the Russian space agency Roscosmos' Alexander Skvortsov.
(AP, 2/6/20)
2020 Feb 9, In Florida Europe and NASA's Solar Orbiter was launched at Cape Canaveral late today to capture the first pictures of the sun's elusive poles.
(SFC, 2/11/20, p.A8)
2020 Feb 15, Northrop Grumman launched its Cygnus capsule from the Virginia seashore. The nearly 4-ton shipment should arrive at the orbiting lab on Feb. 18.
(AP, 2/16/20)
2020 Feb 24, NASA scientists said the InSight lander, which touched down on the surface of Mars in November 2018 to begin the first mission to study the planet's deep interior, has since detected around 450 marsquakes, most of modest strength.
(Reuters, 2/24/20)
2020 Feb 24, Katherine Johnson (101), a mathematician who calculated rocket trajectories and earth orbits for NASA’s early space missions, died in Virginia. She was portrayed in the 2016 hit film “Hidden Figures," about pioneering black female aerospace workers.
(AP, 2/24/20)(Econ., 2/29/20, p.74)
2020 Mar 6, SpaceX successfully lunched a Falcon rocket from Cape canaveral with 4,300 pounds of supplies for the Int'l. Space Station. The booster landed for a 50th successful touchdown.
(SSFC, 3/8/20, p.A9)
2020 Mar 16, NASA said Greenland and Antarctica are losing ice six times faster than they were in the 1990s.
(The Week, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 18, In Texas Apollo 15 astronaut Al Worden (88), who circled the moon alone in 1971 while his two crewmates test-drove the first lunar rover, died at a rehab center in Houston.
(AP, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 26, The newly established US Space Force launched its first national security satellite from Cape Canaveral. The nearly $1 billion satellite is the sixth and final one in the US military's Advanced Extrememly High Frequency series.
(SFC, 3/27/20, p.A3)
2020 Apr 9, Three astronauts flew to the International Space Station. NASA’s Chris Cassidy and Russians Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner arrived at the orbiting lab in their Soyuz capsule six hours after blasting off from Kazakhstan.
(AP, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 17, In Kazakhstan a US-Russian crew landed safely following a stint on the International Space Station and was greeted with extra precautions due to the coronavirus.
(AP, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 25, An unmanned Russian cargo capsule docked at the Int'l. Space Station bringing more that 2 tons of supplies to the three-person crew.
(SSFC, 4/26/20, p.A4)
2020 May 1, Virgin Galactic's spaceship VSS Unity landed in the New Mexico desert marking its first glide flight from Spaceport America. The company was close to actual commercial operations.
(SSFC, 5/3/20, p.A4)
2020 May 5, China successfully launched its largest carrier rocket, which was carrying a new-generation spacecraft. This was the first mission carried out by the Long March-5B.
(Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020 May 15, US Defense Department officials presented President Donald Trump with the Space Force flag during a short Oval Office event. The dark blue and white flag includes elements intended to evoke the vast recesses of outer space.
(AP, 5/16/20)
2020 May 17, The US military’s mystery space plane, the solar-powered X-37B, rocketed into orbit from Cape Canaveral, this time with an extra load of science experiments.
(AP, 5/17/20)
2020 May 30, NASA astronauts lifted off in a SpaceX capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket in the first launch into orbit from American soil with a crew since the space shuttles were retired in 2011. Two American astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, left the same Florida launchpad that once served Apollo missions.
(NY Times, 5/31/20)
2020 May 31, SpaceX delivered two astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA. The SpaceX Dragon capsule pulled up to the station and docked automatically.
(AP, 5/31/20)
2020 Jun 15, Houston-based engineering company KBR Inc said it was awarded a $570.3 million contract by NASA to develop and execute spaceflight operations at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. KBR, until April 2007, was the engineering and construction arm of oilfield services giant Halliburton Co.
(Reuters, 6/15/20)
2020 Jun 23, China successfully put into orbit its final BeiDou satellite, completing a navigation network years in the making and setting the stage to challenge the US-owned Global Positioning System (GPS).
(Reuters, 6/23/20)(Econ., 7/18/20, p.32)
2020 Jul 4, In New Zealand a rocket from small-satellite launch firm Rocket Lab failed to reach orbit minutes after a successful liftoff, losing its payload of seven small satellites it had intended to carry to space.
(Reuters, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 16, It was reported that a solar probe built by the European Space Agency and NASA has delivered the closest photos ever taken of the sun's surface, revealing a landscape rife with thousands of tiny solar flares that scientists dubbed "campfires" and offering clues about the extreme heat of the outermost part of its atmosphere.
(Reuters, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 23, China launched its most ambitious Mars mission yet in a bold attempt to join the United States in successfully landing a spacecraft on the red planet.
(AP, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 30, NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover rode an Atlas V rocket as part of an ambitious, long-range project to bring the first Martian rock samples back to Earth to be analyzed for evidence of ancient life. The rover will descend to the Martian surface on Feb. 18, 2021.
(AP, 7/30/20)
2020 Aug 1, NASA’s Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken bid farewell to the three men left behind as their SpaceX Dragon capsule undocked and headed toward a Sunday afternoon descent by parachute into the Gulf of Mexico.
(AP, 8/1/20)
2020 Aug 2, NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken rode the SpaceX Dragon capsule, dubbed Endeavour back to Earth and splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico.
(SFC, 8/3/20, p.A7)
2020 Sep 6, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported that an experimental reusable spacecraft launched into orbit two days ago has successfully returned to a designated site, marking a breakthrough that could lead to cheaper round-trips to space.
(Reuters, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 15, China successfully sent nine satellites into orbit in its first commercial launch of a rocket from a platform in the Yellow Sea.
(AP, 9/16/20)
2020 Oct 2, Northrup Grumman launched a cargo capsule to the Int'l. Space station from Wallops Island, Va.
(SSFC, 10/4/20, p.A8)
2020 Oct 5, The US Space Development Agency (SDA) said Elon Musk's SpaceX won a $149 million contract to build missile-tracking satellites for the Pentagon, in the company's first government contract to build satellites.
(Reuters, 10/5/20)
2020 Oct 13, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space company launched a New Shepard rocket for a seventh time from a remote corner of Texas, testing new lunar-landing technology for NASA that could help put astronauts back on the moon.
(AP, 10/13/20)
2020 Oct 14, In Kazakhstan a trio of space travelers blasted off to the International Space Station, using for the first time a fast-track maneuver that allowed them to reach the orbiting outpost in just a little over three hours. NASA’s Kate Rubins along with Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos lifted off as scheduled from the Russia-leased Baikonur space launch facility for a six-month stint on the station.
(AP, 10/14/20)
2020 Oct 20, NASA's Osiris-Rex spacecraft descended to the Bennu asteroid and, dodging boulders the size of buildings, momentarily touched the surface to collect a handful of cosmic rubble for return to Earth. On Oct. 23 scientists said the spacecraft was stuffed with so much asteroid rubble from this week’s grab that it’s lid was jammed open and precious particles were drifting away in space.
(AP, 10/20/20)(AP, 10/23/20)
2020 Oct 22, A trio of space travelers safely returned to Earth after a six-month mission on the International Space Station. The Soyuz MS-16 capsule carrying NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, and Roscosmos’ Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner landed on the steppes of Kazakhstan southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan.
(AP, 10/22/20)
2020 Nov 15, A SpaceX rocket launched four astronauts into orbit for a six-month stay on the International Space Station. NASA designated the launch as the first operational flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft built and operated by SpaceX, the rocket company started by Elon Musk.
(NY Times, 11/15/20)
2020 Nov 16, SpaceX’s newly launched capsule with four astronauts arrived at the International Space Station, their new home until spring.
(AP, 11/16/20)
2020 Nov 23, Small launch firm Rocket Lab said it was able to safely recover from the ocean a rocket it sent to space, a key test of the company's strategy to slash rocket launch costs via reusability. California-based Rocket Lab's 16th mission to space using its Electron rocket took off on Nov. 19 from the company's New Zealand launch site, with its four-storey-tall booster stage returning back to Earth under parachutes for the first time instead of burning up in the atmosphere.
(Reuters, 11/23/20)
2020 Nov 24, China's Chang'e 5 mission to the moon began as the four modules of the spacecraft blasted off atop a massive Long March-5Y rocket from the Wenchang launch center on Hainan island. The mission’s main task is to drill 2 meters (about 7 feet) into the moon’s surface and scoop up about 2 kg (4.4 pounds) of rocks and other debris.
(AP, 11/24/20)
2020 Nov 26, The European Space Agency said it is signing a 86 million-euro ($102 million) contract with ClearSpace SA, a Swiss start-up company, to bring a large piece of orbital trash back to Earth.
(AP, 11/26/20)
2020 Dec 2, Beijing and Moscow announced an expansion of their cooperation in space exploration and related technologies, boosting their alliance as the China-US rivalry continues.
(South China Morning Post, 12/4/20)
2020 Dec 6, SpaceX launched a newer, bigger version of its Dragon supply ship to the Int'l. Space Station from NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
(SFC, 12/7/20, p.A5)
2020 Dec 6, A Chinese probe that landed on the moon transferred 4.4 pounds of rocks to an orbiter in preparation for returning samples to Earth.
(SFC, 12/7/20, p.A2)
2020 Dec 9, SpaceX launched its shiny, bullet-shaped, straight-out-of-science fiction Starship several miles into the air from a remote corner of Texas, but the 6 1/2-minute test flight ended in an explosive fireball at touchdown.
(AP, 12/9/20)
2020 Dec 12, A Virgin Galactic test flight ended prematurely as the spacecraft's rocket motor failed to ignite and it then glided down safely to its landing site in southern New Mexico.
(AP, 12/12/20)
2020 Dec 14, Russia successfully test-launched its heavy lift Angara A5 space rocket from the Plesetsk cosmodrome for the second time.
(AP, 12/14/20)
2020 Dec 17, NASA and the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) pledging cooperation in areas of science and technology to support the peaceful use of outer space.
(PR Newswire, 12/18/20)
2020 Dec 17, A Chinese capsule returned to Earth landing in Inner Mongolia with about 4.4 pounds of fresh samples of rock and debris from the moon.
(SFC, 12/17/20, p.A2)
2021 Jan 17, Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit reached space, eight months after the first demonstration flight of its air-launched rocket system failed. The two-stage LauncherOne rocket carried a cluster of very small satellites known as CubeSats developed and built as part of a NASA educational program involving US universities. One small satellite, called CAPE-3, carried a chip designed and built by students at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette to detect radiation, with an eye to keeping astronauts safe. Eight of the other nine were built by students at other schools. The tenth was built by NASA.
(AP, 1/18/21)(AP, 1/23/21)
2021 Feb 1, Iranian state TV aired the launch of the country's newest satellite-carrying rocket, which it said was able to reach a height of 500 km (310 miles). The report did not say when the launch happened.
(AP, 2/1/21)
2021 Feb 2, Astra, a startup that makes small rockets to send satellites into orbit, said it is going public at a valuation of $2.1 billion through a deal with blank-check company Holicity Inc.
(Reuters, 2/2/21)
2021 Feb 18, NASA landed its Perseverance rover on Mars this afternoon, searching for fossils of ancient microbial life.
(NY Times, 2/18/21)
2021 Mar 3,The SpaceX Starship SN10 rocket exploded after landing at the Boca Chica, Florida landing pad. The rocket landed and stood at an angle before exploding.
(SFC, 3/5/21, p.A5)
2021 Mar 4, NASA's Perseverance Mars rover successfully completed its initial test drive on the surface of the red planet, two weeks after touching down.
(CBS News, 3/5/21)
2021 Mar 19, US Pres. Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Bill Nelson (78), a former senator from Florida who flew on the space shuttle just days before the Challenger launch accident, to lead NASA.
(AP, 3/19/21)
2021 Mar 30, Virgin Galactic rolled out its newest spaceship as the company looks to resume test flights in the coming months at its headquarters in the New Mexico desert.
(AP, 3/30/21)
2021 Mar 30, An uncrewed SpaceX Starship prototype rocket failed to land safely after a test launch from Boca Chica, Texas, and engineers were investigating.
(Reuters, 3/30/21)
2021 Apr 15, California and NASA, with the backing of billionaire Michael Bloomberg, unveiled a $100 million effort to pinpoint large emissions of greenhouse gases from individual sources like power plants and oil refineries from space.
(Reuters, 4/15/21)
2021 Apr 16, NASA announced that SpaceX's Starship vehicle will serve as the agency's lunar lander for its Artemis Program, which is focused on returning humans to the moon later this decade.
(NASA, 4/17/21)
2021 Apr 17, A Soyuz space capsule returned from the Int'l. Space Station to the steppes of Kazakhstan with NASA's Kate Rubins and Russians Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov. The three had arrived at the ISS last October 14.
(SFC, 4/17/21, p.A7)
2021 Apr 19, NASA's miniature robot helicopter Ingenuity performed a successful takeoff and landing on Mars early today, achieving the first powered, controlled flight by an aircraft over the surface of another planet.
(Reuters, 4/19/21)
2021 Apr 22, NASA’s little Mars helicopter aced its second test flight, soaring even higher and longer than before.
(AP, 4/22/21)
2021 Apr 23, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida carrying two American, one Japanese and one French astronaut to the International Space Station.
(NY Times, 4/23/21)
2021 Apr 24, A four-astronaut team arrived at the International Space Station aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule Endeavour.
(Reuters, 4/24/21)
2021 Apr 27, The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said it had voted to approve a SpaceX plan to deploy Starlink satellites at a lower earth orbit as part of the company's push to offer space-based broadband internet service.
(Reuters, 4/27/21)
2021 Apr 29, China launched the main module of its first permanent space station that will host astronauts long term. The Tianhe, or “Heavenly Harmony," module blasted into space atop a Long March 5B rocket from the Wenchang Launch Center on the southern island province of Hainan. The first stage of the rocket went into orbit and was expected to fall back to Earth on May 8 at an unknow location.
(AP, 4/29/21)(USA Today, 5/6/21)
2021 May 2, SpaceX safely returned four astronauts from the International Space Station off the coast of Panama City, Florida, making the first US crew splashdown in darkness since the Apollo 8 moonshot.
(AP, 5/2/21)
2021 May 5, Blue Origin, billionaire Jeff Bezos' rocket company, said it is targeting July 20 for its first suborbital sightseeing trip on its New Shepard spacecraft, a landmark moment in a competition to usher in a new era of private commercial space travel. Blue Origin said it will offer one seat on the first flight to the winning bidder of an online auction, the proceeds of which will be donated to the space firm's foundation.
(Reuters, 5/5/21)
2021 May 5, In Texas SpaceX launched and successfully landed its futuristic Starship.
(SFC, 5/6/21, p.A4)
2021 May 9, China's Long March 5B rocket crashed back to Earth this morning, landing in the Indian Ocean just west of the Maldives.
(The Week, 5/9/21)
2021 May 15, California-based Rocket Lab attempted launch of satellites from its facility in New Zealand failed. The rocket was carrying two Earth-observation satellites for BlackSky, a global monitoring company.
(AP, 5/15/21)
2021 May 22, Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc, British billionaire Sir Richard Branson's private spaceship company, completed its first manned space flight from its new home port in New Mexico. Branson founded the company in 2004 and this is the third time his company reported reaching space.
(Reuters, 5/22/21)
2021 May 29, China successfully launched an automated cargo resupply spacecraft to rendezvous with an orbiting module, in the second of a series of missions needed to complete its first permanent space station. Tianzhou-2 is the second of 11 missions needed to complete China's first self-developed space station around 2022.
(Reuters, 5/29/21)
2021 May 30, An automated spacecraft docked with China's new space station carrying fuel and supplies for its future crew. The Tianzhou-2 spacecraft reached the Tianhe station eight hours after blasting off from Hainan.
(AP, 5/30/21)
2021 Jun 1, New Zealand announced that is was the latest country to sign a space agreement with NASA. New Zealand became the 11th signatory to the Artemis Accords.
(SFC, 6/2/21, p.A3)
2021 Jun 8, Venture-backed startup Relativity Space, which aims to build the world's first fleet of 3D-printed rockets, said it has raised $650 million from a raft of new investors including BlackRock, hedge fund Soroban Capital, and the actor Jared Leto.
(Reuters, 6/8/21)
2021 Jun 12, An auction for an 11-minute ride into space with Amazon founder Jeff Bizos and his brother Mark ended with a $28 million bid. The Blue Origin's New Shephard rocket will launch on July 20 from Van Horn, Texas.
(SSFC, 6/13/21, p.A8)
2021 Jun 16, Astronauts ventured out on a spacewalk to outfit the International Space Station with powerful, new solar panels to handle the growing electrical demands from upcoming visitors.
(AP, 6/16/21)
2021 Jun 17, Three Chinese astronauts docked in space to help build a rival to the International Space Station.
(NY Times, 6/17/21)
2021 Jun 22, The Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble Co. announced that it will send a pair of Tide detergent and stain removal experiments to the space station later this year and next, all part of the galactic battle against soiled and sweaty clothes.
(AP, 6/22/21)
2021 Jun 29, Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit delivered satellites from three countries into space over the Pacific near the Channel Islands, its second rocket launch from a plane this year.
(AP, 6/30/21)
2021 Jul 1, Blue Origin said Amazon's billionaire founder Jeff Bezos will be joined by Wally Funk (82), one of the 13 women who passed NASA's astronaut training program in the 1960s, on the first crewed flight into space from his rocket company later this month.
(Reuters, 7/1/21)
2021 Jul 4, Two Chinese astronauts made the first spacewalk outside China’s new orbital station to set up cameras and other equipment using a 15-meter-long (50-foot-long) robotic arm.
(AP, 7/4/21)
2021 Jul 16, A Chinese spacecraft capable of flying to the edge of the atmosphere took off and returned to Earth on the same day in what China said was a big step towards developing reusable space transportation technology.
(Reuters, 7/16/21)
2021 Jul 20, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos lifted off from a site in West Texas with three other people, fulfilling a key goal of his private Blue Origin rocket company. Bezos and the passengers experienced about four minutes of free fall in the New Shepard capsule. The whole flight lasted about 10 minutes.
(AP, 7/20/21)
2021 Jul 21, Russia successfully launched a long-delayed lab module for the Int'l. Space Station intended to provide more room for scientific experiments and space for the crew.
(SFC, 7/22/21, p.A3)
2021 Jul 23, NASA said Elon Musk's private rocket company SpaceX has been awarded a $178 million launch services contract for NASA's first mission focusing on Jupiter's icy moon Europa and whether it may host conditions suitable for life.
(Reuters, 7/23/21)
2021 Jul 26, Gilbert V. Levin (97), whose experiment on NASA’s Viking mission in the 1970s seemed to suggest that there might be life in the soil of Mars, died at a hospital in Bethesda, Md.
(NY Times, 8/4/21)
2021 Jul 29, Russia’s long-delayed lab module successfully docked with the International Space Station, eight days after it was launched from the Russian space launch facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The space station lost control of its orientation for 47 minutes when the Nauka science lab accidentally fired its thrusters a few hours after docking, pushing the orbiting complex from its normal configuration.
(AP, 7/29/21)(AP, 7/30/21)
2021 Aug 13, Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin sued the US government over NASA's decision to award a $2.9 billion lunar lander contract to Elon Musk's SpaceX.
(Reuters, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 29, A SpaceX shipment of ants, avocados and a human-sized robotic arm rocketed toward the International Space Station.
(AP, 8/29/21)
2021 Sep 6, NASA announced that its Perseverance rover on Mars has successfully collected its first rock sample.
(SFC, 9/8/21, p.A6)
2021 Sep 15, A SpaceX rocket lifted off late today from a Kennedy Space Center launchpad in Florida, carrying four Americans on an adventure to orbit the Earth for three days. It was financed by Jared Isaacman (38), a billionaire and founder of Shift4, a payments processing service.
(NY Times, 9/15/21)
2021 Sep 17, A trio of Chinese astronauts returned to Earth after a 90-day stay aboard their nation’s first space station in China’s longest mission yet.
(AP, 9/17/21)
2021 Sep 20, A Chinese robotic resupply cargo spacecraft successfully docked with an orbiting space station module in the fourth of 11 missions needed to finish building China's first permanent space station by the end of next year.
(Reuters, 9/20/21)
2021 Oct 13, Hollywood actor William Shatner (90) and three fellow passengers flew to an altitude of 66.5 miles aboard a Blue Origin ship over the West Texas desert.
(SFC, 10/14/21, p.A9)
2021 Oct 15, China launched a rocket carrying three astronauts, including one woman, to the core module of a future space station where they will live and work for six months, the longest-ever duration in orbit for Chinese astronauts.
(Reuters, 10/15/21)
2021 Oct 16, NASA launched a first-of-its kind mission to study Jupiter's Trojan asteroids, two large clusters of space rocks that scientists believe are remnants of primordial material that formed the solar system's outer planets. The space probe, dubbed Lucy and packed inside a special cargo capsule, lifted off on schedule from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. A solar panel jammed soon after launch.
(Reuters, 10/16/21)(SFC, 10/29/21, p.A4)
2021 Oct 17, A Russian actor and a film director making the first move film in space returned to Earth after spending 12 days on the International Space Station (ISS).
(Reuters, 10/17/21)
2021 Oct 21, South Korea's first domestically built space rocket blasted off, but failed to fully place a dummy satellite into orbit, delivering mixed results for a test launch that represents a major leap for the country's ambitious space plans.
(Reuters, 10/21/21)
2021 Nov 8, Four astronauts inside a SpaceX capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico after almost 200 days in orbit in the ISS.
(NY Times, 11/9/21)
2021 Nov 8, Two Chinese astronauts completed a space walk outside the core module of a future space station, with 41-year-old Wang Yaping becoming the first Chinese woman to perform the maneuver.
(Reuters, 11/8/21)
2021 Nov 10, In Florida a SpaceX rocket carried four astronauts into orbit late today, including the 600th person to reach space in 60 years.
(AP, 11/10/21)
2021 Nov 15, Russia carried out an antisatellite missile test, obliterating one of its own satellites in orbit. The test created a vast cloud of debris that continues to orbit Earth, and some of the material loomed dangerously close to the International Space Station, forcing astronauts to take shelter for hours in a pair of spacecraft capable of returning them to Earth.
(NY Times, 11/15/21)
2021 Nov 24, NASA launched a spacecraft to test a plan to save humanity from killer asteroids. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft could be the first to alter an asteroid’s path, a technique that may be used to defend the planet in the future.
(NY Times, 11/24/21)
2021 Dec 2, Spacewalking astronauts replaced a broken antenna outside the International Space Station after getting NASA’s all-clear for orbiting debris.
(AP, 12/2/21)
2021 Dec 9, SpaceX launched NASA's newset X-ray observatory from Kennedy Space Center. The Imaging X-ray Polarization Explorer (IXPE) rocketed into orbit and was expcted to unveil dramatic and extreme parts of the universe as never before.
(SFC, 12/10/21, p.A4)
2021 Dec 11, A Blue Origin New Shepard rocket blasted off from western Texas carrying four paying customers and two VIP guests on a 10-minute flight into space. Laura Shepard Churchley, the daugher of astronaut Alan Shepard, was one of the two guests.
(SSFC, 12/12/21, p.A8)
2021 Dec 14, Scientists announced that NASA's Parker Solar Probe has officially “touched" the sun, plunging through the unexplored solar atmosphere known as the corona. The probe actually flew through the corona in April during the spacecraft’s eighth close approach to the sun. Scientists said it took a few months to get the data back and then several more months to confirm.
(AP, 12/15/21)
2021 Dec 25, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, built to give the world its first glimpse of the universe as it existed when the earliest galaxies formed, was launched by rocket early today inside the cargo bay of an Ariane 5 rocket in French Guiana, opening a new era of astronomy.
(Reuters, 12/25/21)
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1899 Aug 31, Paul E. Garber, US founder and 1st curator of National Air & Space Museum, was born.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1912 Mar 23, Werner von Braun, rocket expert (I Aim at the Stars), was born in Wirsitz, Germany. He led the development of the V-2 rocket during World War II.
(HN, 3/23/99)(SS, 3/23/02)
1914 Jul 14, 1st patent for liquid-fueled rocket design was granted to Dr. R. Goddard.
(MC, 7/14/02)
1915 Mar 3, The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), a NASA forerunner, was created. It was the first US government sponsored organization in support of aviation research and development.
(SC, 3/3/02)(NPub, 2002, p.9)
1915 Apr 23, ACA becomes National Advisory Council on Aeronautics (NACA), the forerunner of NASA.
(HN, 4/23/99)
1920 Jan 13, A NY Times editorial excoriated Dr. Robert H. Goddard, and reported that rockets can never fly. In 1969 the NY Times belatedly apologized.
(WSJ, 8/7/03, p.A1)
1925 May 1, Malcolm Scott Carpenter, astronaut (Mercury 7-Aurora 7), was born in Boulder, Colo.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1926 Mar 16, The first liquid-fuel rocket was launched by physicist Robert H. Goddard. It went 184' (56 meters). [see Mar 26]
(HN, 3/16/98)(MC, 3/16/02)
1926 Mar 26, Pioneer physicist and engineer Dr. Robert H. Goddard launched the first successful liquid-fuel rocket in Auburn, Massachusetts. Goddard’s rocket, launched from a homemade pipe frame, rose 41 feet and in a 2.5-second flight reached a speed of about 60 miles per hour, proving the practicality of liquid-propelled rocketry. [see Mar 16]
(HNPD, 3/14/99)
1926 Apr 3, Virgil Grissom (d.1967), Lt. Col. USAF, astronaut (Mercury 4, Gemini 3), was born in Mitchell, Ind. He was the Mercury and Gemini astronaut who was killed in a fire while preparing for the first Apollo flight.
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/Apollo204/grissom.html
(MC, 4/3/02)
1926 Apr 3, Robert Goddard launched his 2nd flight of a liquid-fueled rocket.
(MC, 4/3/02)
1926 Apr 23, Virgil I (Gus) Grissom, was born. He was the Mercury and Gemini astronaut who was killed in a fire while preparing for the first Apollo flight.
(HN, 4/23/99)
1927 Mar 6, Leroy Gordon Cooper Jr. (d.2004), USAF astronaut (Mer 9, Gem 5), was born in Shawnee, Okla.
(SFC, 10/5/04, p.B7)
1928 Mar 14, Frank Borman, astronaut (Gem 7, Ap 8), CEO (Eastern Airline), was born in Gary, Ind.
(MC, 3/14/02)
1930 Mar 17, James Benson Irwin, Col. USAF, astronaut (Apollo 15), was born in Pittsburgh, Penn.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1930 Jun 2, Charles Conrad (d.1999), astronaut, was born in Philadelphia. He walked on the moon during the Apollo XII mission in 1969.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.A6)
1932 May 25, Georgi Mikhailovich Grechko, USSR cosmonaut (Soyuz 17, 26, T-14), was born.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1932 Jul 25, Paul J. Weitz, astronaut (Skylab 2, STS 6), was born in Erie, Pennsylvania.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1933 Jan 16, Oleg Grigoryevich Makarov (d.2003 at 70), USSR cosmonaut (Soyuz 12, 18A, 27, T-3), was born.
(MC, 1/16/02)(SFC, 5/31/03, p.A21)
1934 Mar 14, Eugene Cerna, American Astronaut who was the last man on the moon, was born.
(HN, 3/14/00)
1935 Mar 28, Goddard used gyroscopes to control a rocket.
(MC, 3/28/02)
1939 Jul 3, Ernst Heinkel demonstrated an 800-kph rocket plane to Hitler.
(MC, 7/3/02)
1940 Jul 2, Georgi Ivan Ivanov, 1st Bulgarian space traveler (Soyuz 33), was born.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1942 Jun 13, 1st V-2 rocket launch from Peenemunde, Germany, reached 1.3 km.
(MC, 6/13/02)
1942 Oct 3, In Germany the rocket-development team of Werner von Braun conducted the 1st successful test flight of an A-4/V-2 missile from the Peenemunde test site. It flew perfectly over a 118-mile course to an altitude of 53 miles (85 km). The 13-ton, 46-foot long V2 rocket was the world’s 1st long-range ballistic missile.
(HN, 10/3/98)(AM, 5/01, p.63)(WSJ, 2/21/09, p.A5)
1944 Jun 11, James "Ox" D A Van Hoften, astronaut (STS 41C, STS 51I), was born in Fresno, Calif.
(SC, 6/11/02)
1945 May 25, Arthur C. Clark proposed relay satellites in geosynchronous orbit.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1945 Jul 10, Robert Goddard (b.1882), American rocket scientist, died. He received 214 patents for rocket systems and components. In 2003 David Clary authored "Rocket Man," a biography of Goddard.
(HN, 10/5/98)(ON, 1/01, p.5)(WSJ, 8/7/03, p.W8)(MC, 7/10/02)
1946 Mar 22, First U.S. built rocket to leave the earth's atmosphere reached a 50-mile height.
(HN, 3/22/97)
1946 Apr 16, 1st US launch of captured V-2 rocket was at White Sands, NM. It reached 8 km.
(MC, 4/16/02)
1946 Jun 24, Lt. Col. Ellison S. Onizuka (astronaut: mission specialist aboard ill-fated Space Shuttle Challenger), was born.
(MC, 6/24/02)
1949 Feb 24, A V-2 WAC-Corporal was the 1st rocket to outer space. It was fired at White Sands, NM, and reached 400 km.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1950 German physicist and engineer Wernher von Braun and a team of some 118 German scientists, described as “prisoners of peace," began arriving in Huntsville, Alabama, to work on the US space program at Redstone Arsenal.
(WSJ, 11/10/04, p.A1)(Econ, 3/13/10, p.34)
1951 May 26, Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, was born in LA, Calif. She flew on the Space Shuttle Challenger.
(HN, 5/26/99)(MC, 5/26/02)
1952 Jul 2, Linda M. Godwin, PhD, astronaut (STS 37), was born in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1953 Aug 21, Marion Carl in Douglas Skyrocket reached a record 25,370 m.
(SC, 8/21/02)
1954 Mar 19, The 1st rocket-driven sled on rails was tested in Alamogordo, NM.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1956 Mar 11, Curtis L. Brown Jr., astronaut (STS 47, STS 66, 77, 85, sk:95), was born in NC.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1956 Sep 27, The U.S. Air Force Bell X-2, the world's fastest and highest-flying plane, crashed, killing the test pilot.
(HN, 9/27/98)
1957 Jul 26, USSR launched the 1st intercontinental multistage ballistic missile.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1957 Oct 4, The Space Age and "space race" began as the Soviet Union launched Sputnik (traveler), the first man-made space satellite. The satellite, built by Valentin Glushko, weighed 184 pounds and was launched by a converted Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). Sputnik, developed under the chief scientist Sergei Korolyov, orbited the earth every 96 minutes at a maximum height of 584 miles. The event was timed to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution. In 1958, it reentered the earth's atmosphere and burned up. It was followed by 9 other Sputnik spacecraft.
(WSJ, 10/7/96, p.B4)(SFC, 8/2/97, p.A12)(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)(WSJ, 10/3/97, p.A8)(AP, 10/4/97)(HN, 10/4/98)(AP, 10/1/07)
1957 Nov 3, The Soviet Union launched into orbit Sputnik Two, the second manmade satellite; a dog on board named Laika, the first animal in space, was sacrificed in the experiment. Sputnik 2 remained in orbit another 162 days before burning up. Safe reentry process had not yet been developed.
(TMC, 1994, p.1957)(AP, 11/3/97)(HN, 11/3/98)
1957 Dec 6, America's first attempt at putting a satellite into orbit failed as Vanguard TV3 rose only about four feet off a Cape Canaveral, Fla., launch pad before crashing back down and exploding.
(AP, 12/6/08)
1957 Dec 17, The United States successfully test-fired the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time.
(AP, 12/17/97)
1958 Jan 31, Explorer 1, the first successful US satellite, was launched by a Jupiter-C rocket and the United States entered the Space Age. It discovered the "Van Allen radiation belts" around Earth named after James Van Allen. Radio signals from the transmitter aboard the 30.8 pound satellite were picked up in California within a few minutes after the launch. Two months earlier, the first attempt to launch a satellite had failed.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)(AP, 1/31/98)(MC, 1/31/02)
1958 Mar 17, The U.S. Navy launched the Vanguard 1 satellite.
(AP, 3/17/02)
1958 Mar 26, The U.S. Army launched America's third successful satellite, Explorer 3.
(AP, 3/26/97)
1958 Apr 2, National Advisory Council on Aeronautics was renamed NASA.
(HN, 4/2/98)
1958 Apr 14, Sputnik 2 (with dog Laika) burned up in the atmosphere.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1958 May 15, Sputnik III, the first space laboratory, was launched in the Soviet Union.
(HN, 5/15/99)
1958 Jul 29, President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which created NASA.
(AP, 7/29/97)
1958 Aug 17, World's 1st Moon probe, US's Thor-Able, exploded at T +77 sec.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1958 Aug 27, USSR launched Sputnik 3 with 2 dogs aboard.
(MC, 8/27/01)
1958 Oct 1, America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was inaugurated [See Apr 2, Jul 29].
(SFC, 10/2/07, p.A6)
1959 Jan 27, NASA selected 110 candidates for the first U.S. space flight.
(HN, 1/27/99)
1959 Feb 6, The United States successfully test-fired for the first time a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile from Cape Canaveral.
(AP, 2/6/97)
1959 Feb 17, The U.S. launched its first weather station in space, Vanguard II.
(HN, 2/17/98)
1959 Mar 3, Pioneer 4, the 1st US probe to enter solar orbit, was launched.
(SFC, 10/2/07, p.A6)
1959 Mar 16, Michael J. Bloomfield, Major USAF, astronaut (STS 86), was born in Flint, Mich.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1959 Apr 9, NASA announced the selection of America's first seven astronauts for the US first orbital flight in 1962 under the Mercury program: Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard and Donald Slayton.
(SFC, 3/10/97, p.A16)(AP, 4/9/97)
1959 May 28, Monkeys Able & Baker zoomed 300 mi (500 km) into space on Jupiter missile and became the 1st animals retrieved from a space mission.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1959 Jun 8, The NASA rocket powered X-15 made its first glide flight.
(http://history.nasa.gov/x15/chrono.html)
1959 Jul 2, Wendy B. Lawrence, USN Lt Commander, astronaut, was born in Jacksonville, Fla.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1959 Aug 7, The United States launched Explorer 6, which sent back a picture of the Earth. The satellite, popularly known as the "paddlewheel satellite," featured a photocell scanner that transmitted a crude picture of the earth's surface and cloud cover from a distance of 17,000 miles
(HFA, '96, p.36)(AP, 8/7/97)(MC, 8/7/02)
1959 Sep 15, Scott Crossfield (1921-2006) flew the rocket-powered X-15 faster and higher than any aircraft in history.
(NPub, 2002, p.19)
1959 Sep 17, The North American Aviation X-15 rocket plane, piloted by Scott Crossfield, made its first powered flight.
(SFC, 4/21/06, p.B9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Scott_Crossfield)
1960 Mar 11, Pioneer 5 was launched into solar orbit between Earth & Venus.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1960 Mar 23, Explorer 8 failed to reach Earth orbit.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1960 Apr 1, The first weather satellite, TIROS 1, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
(AP, 4/1/98)
1960 Apr 13, The first navigational satellite was launched into Earth's orbit.
(HN, 4/13/98)
1960 May 13, The 1st US launch of the Delta satellite launching vehicle failed.
(SS, Internet, 5/13/97)
1960 Aug 12, USAF Major Robert M White takes X-15 to 41,600 m.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1960 Aug 12, The first balloon satellite, the Echo 1, was launched by the US from Cape Canaveral, Fla. It bounced phone calls from JPL in California to the Bell Labs in New Jersey.
(AP, 8/12/97)(SFC, 4/9/02, p.A18)
1960 Aug 19, Korabl-Sputnik-2 (Spaceship Satellite-2), also known as Sputnik 5, was launched. On board were the dogs Belka (Squirrel) and Strelka (Little Arrow). Also on board were 40 mice, 2 rats and a variety of plants. After a day in orbit, the spacecraft's retrorocket was fired and the landing capsule and the dogs were safely recovered. They were the first living animals to survive orbital flight.
(www.spacetoday.org/Astronauts/Animals/Dogs.html)
1960 Nov 12, Discoverer XVII was launched into orbit from California’s Vandenberg AFB. The Discoverer Program (1959-1962) was a ruse to conceal the Corona Program, a series of photoreconnaissance spy satellites. Corona was the first photoreconnaissance program, and a precursor of the military and civilian space imaging programs of today.
(HN, 11/12/98)(http://spacecovers.com/pricelists/categories/category_satellites.htm)
1961 Jan 31, Chimpanzee Ham landed safely and became the 1st primate in space after a 16 minute flight aboard a Mercury-Redstone 2 rocket.
(AH, 2/06, p.14)
1961 Feb 16, The United States launched the “Explorer Nine" satellite.
(AP, 2/16/01)
1961 Mar 9, Korabl-Sputnik-4, also known as Sputnik 9, was launched with a dog named Chernushka (Blackie) on a one orbit mission. Also onboard the spacecraft was a dummy cosmonaut, mice and a guinea pig.
(www.spacetoday.org/Astronauts/Animals/Dogs.html)
1961 Mar 25, Sputnik 10 carried a dog into Earth orbit; later recovered.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1961 Apr 12, Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin, Russian cosmonaut, experienced the weightlessness of space for 108 minutes. He orbited the Earth once before making a safe landing. The Russians rocketed Yuri Gagarin, the first man into space. His ship, Vostok I, was guided entirely from the ground.
(SFEC, 2/16/97, Z1 p.6)(AP, 4/12/97)(HN, 4/12/98)(NPub, 2002, p.20)
1961 Apr 20, American Harold Graham made 1st rocket belt flight.
(MC, 4/20/02)
1961 Apr 25, Mercury-Atlas rocket lifted off with an electronic mannequin. An unmanned Mercury test exploded on launch pad.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1961 May 5, Astronaut Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. (d.1998 at 74), a Navy commander, became the first American in space as he made a 15-minute suborbital flight in the Freedom 7 Project Mercury capsule launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla. The spacecraft reached a maximum altitude of 116.5 miles.
(AP, 5/5/97)(HN, 5/5/98)(SFC, 7/23/98, p.A1)(HNQ, 7/11/99)
1961 May 25, President Kennedy summoned a joint session of Congress and asked the nation to work toward putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade. In 2011 John Logsdon authored “John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon."
(AP, 5/25/97)(Econ, 5/21/11, p.36)
1961 May 25, NASA civilian pilot Joseph A. Walker took the X-15 to 32,770 meters.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1961 Jul 21, Capt. Virgil "Gus" Grissom became the second American to rocket into a suborbital pattern around the Earth, flying on the Mercury 4 Liberty Bell 7. The Mercury capsule sank in the Atlantic, 302 miles from Cape Canaveral and Grissom was rescued by helicopter. The space capsule was recovered in 1999.
(AP, 7/21/97)(OGA, 11/24/98)(SFC, 4/17/99, p.A6)(WSJ, 7/21/99, p.A1)
1961 Jul 28, Scott E. Parazynski, MD, astronaut, was born in Little Rock, Ark.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1961 Aug, The Soviets launched Vostok-2 with cosmonaut Gherman Titov (d.2000 at 65). He circled the planet 17 times in a 25-hour flight.
(SFC, 9/22/00, p.D7)
1961 Sep 13, An unmanned Mercury capsule was orbited and recovered by NASA in a test for the first manned flight.
(AP, 9/13/98)
1961 Oct 27, The 1st Saturn launch vehicle made an unmanned flight test.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1961 Ham, the first astro chimpanzee, was named for the Holloman Aeromedical Laboratory. He proved space travel was safe for humans when he flew aboard a Mercury capsule.
(WSJ, 12/30/97, p.A1)
1961-1972 The NASA space program of this period was later portrayed in the $65 mil 12-part 1998 TV documentary “From the Earth to the Moon."
(WSJ, 4/2/98, p.A20)
1962 Feb 20, U.S. Marine Lieutenant Colonel John H. Glenn, Jr. (1921-2016), became the first American to orbit the earth. Launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., Glenn made three 90-minute orbits of the earth in Friendship 7, radioing down to Earth, "Oh, that view is tremendous!" When the ship's automatic altitude control system began to fail, Glenn, a decorated WW II pilot, took manual control for the rest of the flight. During Friendship 7's approach to Earth, Glenn saw some flaming material breaking off the capsule, but the parachute opened and the capsule landed safely in the Atlantic Ocean. It was some time later that NASA mission control determined that the sparks were crystallized water vapor released by Friendship 7's air-conditioning system. Friendship 7's flight lasted four hours and 56 minutes.
(AP, 2/19/98)(HNPD, 2/20/99)(SFC, 12/9/16, p.A12)
1962 Apr 5, NASA civilian pilot Neil A. Armstrong took the X-15 to 54,600 m.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1962 Apr 20, NASA civilian pilot Neil A. Armstrong took the X-15 to 63,250 m.
(MC, 4/20/02)
1962 May 24, Astronaut Scott Carpenter became the second American to orbit the Earth as he flew aboard Aurora 7.
(AP, 5/24/97)
1962 Apr 25, U.S. Ranger spacecraft crash landed on the Moon.
(HN, 4/25/98)
1962 Jun 7, Joseph A. Walker, NASA civilian test pilot, took the X-15 to 31,580 meters.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1962 Jun 27, NASA civilian pilot Joseph Walker took the X-15 to 6,606 kph, 37,700 m.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1962 Jul 10, The experimental communications satellite Telstar I was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, beaming live television from Europe to the United States.
(AP, 7/10/97)(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telstar)
1962 Jul 11, The first transatlantic TV transmission was made via satellite Telstar I.
(PGA, 12/9/98)
1962 Jul 11, Cosmonaut Micolaev set longevity space flight record -- 4 days.
(PGA, 12/9/98)
1962 Jul 17, Air Force pilot Robert White (1924-2010) flew the rocket-powered X-15 to an altitude of 314,750 feet (59.6 miles).
(SFC, 3/24/10, p.C4)
1962 Jul 28, Mariner I, launched to Mars, fell into the Atlantic Ocean.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1962 Aug 12, A day after launching Andrian Nikolayev into orbit, the Soviet Union also sent up cosmonaut Pavel Popovich; both men landed safely on Aug 15.
(AP, 8/12/02)
1962 Aug 27, The United States launched the Mariner 2 space probe with an Atlas D booster. On December 14, 1962, Mariner 2 passed within just over 20,000 miles of Venus, reporting an 800F surface temperature, high surface pressures, a predominantly carbon dioxide atmosphere, continuous cloud cover, and no detectable magnetic field.
(AP, 8/27/97)(SFEM, 8/22/99, p.9)(http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/tmp/1962-041A.html)
1962 Sep 17, U.S. space officials announced the selection of nine new astronauts, including Neil A. Armstrong, who became the first man to step onto the moon.
(AP, 9/17/02)
1962 Dec 19, Transit 5A1, the 1st operational navigational satellite, was launched.
(MC, 12/19/01)
1962 NASA ended its Mercury 13 program. In 2003 Martha Ackermann authored "The Mercury 13: The Untold Story of the Thirteen American Women and the Dream of Space Flight."
(SSFC, 6/15/03, p.M4)
1963 Feb 14, NASA launched Syncom 1 with the Delta B #16 launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral. It was intended to be the first geosynchronous communications satellite, but was lost on the way to geosynchronous orbit due to an electronics failure.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syncom)
1963 May 7, The United States launched the Telstar II communications satellite. It made the first public transatlantic broadcast.
(HNQ, 5/3/99)(AP, 5/7/00)
1963 May 15, U.S. astronaut L. Gordon Cooper blasted off atop an Atlas rocket aboard Faith 7 on the final mission of the Project Mercury space program. He orbited Earth 22 times and manually piloted his craft to a pinpoint splashdown.
(AP, 5/15/97)(WSJ, 11/7/97, p.A1)(HN, 5/15/98)
1963 May 16, After 22 Earth orbits Gordon Cooper returned to Earth in Friendship Seven, ending Project Mercury.
(HN, 5/16/98)
1963 Jun 27, USAF Major Robert A. Rushworth reached an altitude of 53.9 miles in the X-15.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_X-15)
1963 Jul 26, NASA launched Syncom 2, the world's first successful geosynchronous communications satellite. Syncom 3, launched in 1964, was the world's first geostationary satellite.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syncom)
1963 Aug 22, The X-15 aircraft set an altitude record of 67 miles.
(NPub, 2002, p.20)
1963 Nov 21, India launched its first rocket from Thumba in Kerala state.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thumba_Equatorial_Rocket_Launching_Station)
1964 Jul 28, Ranger 7 was launched toward the Moon. It sent back 4308 TV pictures.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1964 Oct 12, The Soviet Union launched a Voskhod space capsule with a three-man crew on the first manned mission involving more than one crew member. Spaceship designer Konstantin Feoktistov (1926-2009), the only non-Communist space traveler in the history of the Soviet space program, traveled aboard the Voskhod as part of the first group space flight in history.
(AP, 10/12/97)(AP, 11/22/09)
1965 Feb 20, The Ranger 8 spacecraft crashed on the moon after sending back 7,000 photos of the lunar surface.
(HN, 2/20/98)(AP, 2/20/98)
1965 Mar 21, The U.S. launched Ranger 9, last in a series of lunar explorations.
(HN, 3/21/98)
1965 Mar 18, The first spacewalk took place as Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov (30) left his Voskhod 2 capsule and remained outside the spacecraft for 20 minutes, secured by a tether.
(SFC, 5/27/00, p.A26)(AP, 3/18/97)
1965 Mar 23, America's first two-person space flight began as Gemini 3 blasted off from Cape Kennedy with astronauts Virgil I. Grissom and John W. Young aboard for a nearly five-hour flight. Young sneaked a corned beef sandwich on board, for which he was later reprimanded.
(AP, 3/23/08)
1965 Apr 6, The United States launched the Intelsat I, also known as the "Early Bird" communications satellite.
(AP, 4/6/08)
1965 May 1, USSR launched Luna 5; later lands on Moon.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1965 May 2, Intelsat 1, also known as the Early Bird satellite, was used to transmit television pictures across the Atlantic.
(AP, 5/2/08)
1965 Jun 3, Astronaut Edward White became the first American to "walk" in space, during the flight of Gemini 4.
(AP, 6/3/97)(SFC, 7/15/00, p.A2)
1965 Jun 7, Gemini 4 completed 62 orbits.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1965 Jul 15, US scientists displayed close-up photographs of the planet Mars taken by "Mariner Four." It passed over Mars at an altitude of 6,000 feet.
(AP, 7/15/00)
1965 Aug 21, Gemini 5 was launched into Earth orbit atop Titan V with Cooper and Conrad.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.A6)
1965 Aug 29, Gemini 5, carrying astronauts Gordon Cooper and Charles ("Pete") Conrad, splashed down in the Atlantic after eight days in space.
(AP, 8/29/97)
1965 Dec 4, The United States launched Gemini 7 with Air Force Lt. Col. Frank Borman and Navy Comdr. James A. Lovell aboard.
(AP, 12/4/97)
1965 Dec 15, Two U.S. manned spacecraft, Gemini 6 and Gemini 7, maneuvered to within 10 feet of each other while in orbit.
(AP, 12/15/97)
1965 Dec 18, The Borman and Lovell splash down in the Atlantic ended a 2 week Gemini VII mission.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1966 Jan 31, The Soviets launched Luna 9, the first spacecraft to land softly on the moon.
(HC, 2003, p.64)
1966 Feb 3, The Soviet probe Luna 9 became the first manmade object to make a soft landing on the moon.
(AP, 2/3/08)
1966 Mar 16-1966 Mar 17, US astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott performed the first orbital docking.
(NPub, 2002, p.20)
1966 Jun 8, Gemini astronaut Gene Cernan attempted to become the first man to orbit the Earth untethered to a space capsule, but was unable to when he exhausts himself fitting into his rocket pack.
(HN, 6/8/99)
1966 Jul 21, Gemini X returned to Earth.
(OGA, 11/24/98)
1966 Aug 17, Pioneer 7 launched into solar orbit.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1966 Sep 18, Gemini XI, a 3-day mission, was launched with Charles Conrad in command.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.A6)
1966 Sep 20, Nasa's Centaur upper rocket stage successfully propelled the Surveyor 2 lander to the moon before it was discarded. The lander ended up crashing into the moon after one of its thrusters failed to ignite on the way there. The rocket, meanwhile, swept past the moon and into orbit around the sun as intended junk. In 2020 it was identified as asteroid 2020 SO.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveyor_2)(AP, 10/11/20)
1966 Dec 21, USSR launched Luna 13. It soft-landed on the Moon’s Oceanus Procellarum.
(MC, 12/21/01)
1966 Dec 24, Soviet research station Luna 13 soft-landed on the moon.
(HN, 12/24/98)(MC, 12/24/01)
1966 NASA was spending 4.4% of the American government’s budget providing jobs for some 400,000 people.
(Economist, 9/1/12, p.90)
1967 Jan 27, The US signed a space treaty with Russia. More than 60 nations signed a treaty banning the orbiting of nuclear weapons. All weapons of mass destruction were banned from orbit, as was military activity on the moon and other celestial bodies. On October 10 the Outer Space Treaty went into effect.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty)(SFC, 1/28/67, p.A1)(AP, 1/27/98)(SSFC, 7/15/07, p.D1)
1967 Jan 27, During a launch pad test of the Apollo I (AS-204) mission at Cape Kennedy, a flash fire suddenly broke out in the vehicle's command module and killed its crew, Lt. Col. Edward White, II (U.S. Air Force), Lt. Col. Virgil "Gus" Grissom (U.S. Air Force) and Lt. Cmdr. Roger Chaffee (U.S. Navy), pictured above. The fire consumed the command module mere seconds after the crew had reported it. Although the Apollo I test ended in tragedy, subsequent modifications to safety and planning contributed to the success of later Apollo missions--including the first landing on the moon and the first time a man walked on the moon.
(AP, 1/27/98)(HNPD, 1/27/99)
1967 Mar, Ten Minuteman missiles were mysteriously deactivated at a Montana missile base as an alleged UFO hovered overhead.
(http://www.wanttoknow.info/ufos/ufos_national_press_club_witness_testimony)
1967 Apr 23, Soyuz 1 was launched, and Vladimir Komarov became the first in-flight casualty.
(AP, 4/23/98)
1967 Jun 12, Venera 4, a space probe of the Soviet Union, was launched. It transmitted information on the atmosphere of Venus.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera_4)
1967 Nov 9, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) launched Apollo 4 into orbit from Cape Kennedy with the first successful test of a Saturn V rocket.
(AP, 11/9/97)(HN, 11/9/98)
1967 Venera 4, A space probe of the Soviet Union, was launched. It transmitted information on the atmosphere of Venus.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)
1968 Jan 22, Apollo 5 was launched to the Moon from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_5)
1968 Mar 2, The USSR launched space probe Zond 4. It failed to leave Earth orbit.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zond_4)
1968 Mar 4, NASA launched its Orbiting Geophysical Observatory 5.
(http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/heasarc/missions/ogo.html)
1968 May 6, Neil Armstrong was nearly killed in a lunar module trainer accident.
(HNQ, 7/20/99)
1968 Aug 21, William Dana reached 80 km. in the last high-altitude X-15 flight.
(SC, 8/21/02)
1968 Oct 11, Apollo 7, The first manned Apollo mission, was launched from Cape Kennedy with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Fulton Eisele and R. Walter Cunningham aboard. It made 163 orbits in 260 hours.
(AP, 10/11/97)(www.apollomissionphotos.com/index_AP7.html)
1968 Oct 14, The first live telecast from a manned US spacecraft was sent from Apollo 7.
(AP, 10/14/98)
1968 Dec 7, The first orbiting astronomical observatory, OAO-2, was launched.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)
1968 Dec 21, Apollo 8 with astronauts Borman, Lovell & Anders was launched on the 1st mission to orbit the moon.
(AP, 12/21/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_8)
1968 Dec 24, The 3 Apollo 8 astronauts, orbiting the moon, read passages from the Old Testament Book of Genesis during a Christmas Eve television broadcast. The first pictures of an Earth-rise over the Moon are seen as the crew of Apollo 8 orbits the moon.
(TL, 1988, p.117)(AP, 12/24/97)(HN, 12/24/99)
1968 Dec 27, Apollo 8, the 1st manned mission to the moon, and its three astronauts made a safe, nighttime splashdown in the Pacific.
(AP, 12/27/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_8)
1968 Kourou, French Guiana, launched its 1st commercial satellite. A space center opened there in 1970.
(AP, 8/27/02)
1969 Jan 15, The Russian Soyuz 5 went into orbit. The crew then maneuvered to dock with Soyuz 4 and Yevgeny Khrunov (d.2000 at 67) became the first astronaut to transfer between linked capsules.
(SFC, 5/27/00, p.A26)
1969 Mar 3, Apollo 9 blasted off from Cape Kennedy on a mission to test the lunar module. It carried astronauts James McDivitt, Russell Schweickart and David Scott and made 151 Earth orbits over 10 days.
(AP, 3/3/98)(SSFC, 3/8/09, p.B2)
1969 Mar 13, The Apollo 9 astronauts splashed down, ending a mission that included the successful testing of the lunar module.
(AP, 3/13/97)
1969 May 16, Russia’s Venera 5 landed on Venus and returned data on atmosphere.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera_5)
1969 May 18, Astronauts Eugene A. Cernan, Thomas P. Stafford and John W. Young blasted off aboard Apollo 10.
(AP, 5/18/97)
1969 May 22, The lunar module of Apollo 10 separated from the command module and flew to within nine miles of the moon's surface in a dress rehearsal for the first lunar landing.
(AP, 5/22/97)
1969 May 26, The Apollo 10 astronauts returned to Earth after a successful eight-day dress rehearsal for the first manned moon landing.
(AP, 5/26/97)(HN, 5/26/98)
1969 Jul 16, Apollo XI set out from Cape Canaveral (Cape Kennedy), Florida, with Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, and Michael Collins on the first manned mission to the surface of the moon. Engineer George Mueller (1918-2015) served as head of manned space flight at NASA.
(V.D.-H.K.p.182, 341)(AP, 7/16/97)(SFC, 10/22/15, p.D3)
1969 Jul 19, Apollo 11 and its astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins, went into orbit around the moon.
(AP, 7/19/99)
1969 Jul 20, Astronaut Neil Armstrong took his legendary "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." He and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin made the first successful landing of a manned vehicle on the moon when they touched down in Apollo 11. Armstrong stepped down from the ladder of the landing module Eagle to become the first man ever to walk on the moon. The two astronauts explored the moon's surface for 2 1/2 hours, with amazed TV audiences looking on. Armstrong was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his accomplishments and his contributions to the space program. Edwin Aldrin became the second man to step foot on the moon shortly after Neil Armstrong hopped off the lunar lander Eagle at 10:56 p.m. Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the moon for about two hours during their 22-hour lunar stay. Thomas Kelly (d.2002 at 72) was the engineer who had overseen the building of the lunar module.
(V.D.-H.K.p.182, 341) (TMC, 1994, p.1969)(AP, 7/20/97)(HNPD, 7/20/98)(HNQ, 9/14/00)(SFC, 3/29/02, p.A24)
1969 Jul 21, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin blasted off from the moon aboard the lunar module.
(AP, 7/21/99)
1969 Jul 24, The Apollo XI astronauts, two of whom had been the first men to set foot on the moon, splashed down safely in the Pacific. They were picked up by the 42,000 ton USS Hornet. The Hornet was decommissioned in 1970 and set up as a museum in 1998 in Alameda, Ca.
(V.D.-H.K.p.182, 341)(AP, 7/24/97)(SFC, 8/17/98, p.A22)
1969 Nov 14, The United States launched Apollo 12 for the moon from Cape Kennedy.
(AP, 11/14/97)(HN, 11/14/98)
1969 Nov 19, Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean made man's second landing on the moon.
(AP, 11/19/97)(HN, 11/19/98)
1969 Nov 24, Apollo XII returned to Earth.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.A6)
1970 Feb 11, Japan launched its first satellite, Ohsumi-1. That launch made Japan the fourth nation with a space rocket powerful enough to launch satellites to Earth orbit, after the USSR, the US and France.
(www.spacetoday.org/Japan/Japan/History.html)
1970 Apr 11, Apollo 13 blasted off on a mission to the moon, commanded by Jim Lovell. The mission was disrupted on April 13, when an oxygen tank ruptured and crippled the spacecraft. The astronauts managed to return safely on April 17.
(AP, 4/11/97)(AWAM, Dec. 94, p.79)(SFC, 4/10/20, p.A3)
1970 Apr 13, Apollo 13, four-fifths of the way to the moon, was crippled when a tank containing liquid oxygen burst: "Houston, we've got a problem!" The incident preventing a planned moon landing. The three-man crew managed to return safely.
(AP, 4/13/97)(HN, 4/13/98)(HN, 4/13/99)
1970 Apr 17, The Apollo 13 crew splashed down safely in the Pacific, four days after a ruptured oxygen tank crippled their spacecraft. A film was made in 1995 that depicted the mission.
(WSJ, 3/22/96, p.A-12)(SFEC, 11/10/96, Par p.5)(AP, 4/17/97)
1970 Apr 24, China launched its first satellite, known as China 1 or Mao 1, to orbit on a Long March rocket. It was the fifth nation able to launch its own satellite to orbit.
(www.spacetoday.org/Satellites/Iran/IranianSat.html)
1970 Jun 19, A. Nikolayev and V. Sevastyanov returned after 18 days in Russia’s Soyuz 9.
(www.astronautix.com/flights/soyuz9.htm)
1970 Aug 17, Venera 7 was launched by USSR for a soft landing on Venus.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1970 Sep 12, The Soviet Union launched its unmanned Soviet Luna 16. It was the first robotic probe to land on the Moon and return a sample to Earth.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_16)
1970 Sep 20, The Soviet Luna 16 landed on Moon’s Mare Fecunditatis and drilled a core sample.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_16)
1970 Sep 24, The Soviet Luna 16 landed in Kazakhstan, completing the first unmanned round trip to the moon.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_16)
1970 Oct 24, The X24A lifting body exceeded Mach 1. The X-24A was the Martin Corporation's subsonic test version of the US Air Force's preferred manned lifting body configuration. The lifting bodies were used to demonstrate the ability of pilots to maneuver and safely land wingless vehicles designed to fly back to Earth from space and be landed like an airplane at a predetermined site.
(NPub, 2002, p.22)(www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Movie/X-24A/index.html)
1970 Nov 17, The Soviet Union landed an unmanned, remote-controlled vehicle on the moon, the Lunokhod 1. The spacecraft which carried Lunokhod 1 was named Luna 17.
(AP, 11/17/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunokhod_1)
1971 Feb 4, Apollo 14 lander Antares landed on Moon with Shepard & Mitchell.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1971 Feb 9, The "Apollo 14" spacecraft returned to Earth after man's third landing on the moon.
(AP, 2/9/99)
1971 Apr 19, The Soviet Union launched Salyut 1, the world’s first space station into orbit.
(HN, 4/19/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salyut_1)
1971 Apr 23, The Soviet Union launched Soyuz 10; the cosmonauts became the first in Salyut 1 space station.
(HN, 4/23/02)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_10)
1971 May 10, The KOSMOS 419 Probe failed to leave Earth orbit.
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.B1)
1971 May 19, The Mars 2 Orbiter and Lander made it to Mars but the Lander crashed when braking rockets failed. The orbiter returned in 1972.
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.B1)
1971 May 28, The Mars 3 Orbiter and lander was launched successfully.
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.B1)
1971 Jun 7, Soviet Soyuz 11 crew completed the 1st transfer to orbiting Salyut.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salyut_1)
1971 Jun 30, A Soviet space mission ended in tragedy when three cosmonauts (Georgi Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev) aboard Soyuz 11 were found dead inside their spacecraft after it returned to Earth.
(AP, 6/30/97)(SFC, 10/2/07, p.A6)
1971 Jul 26, Apollo 15 was launched from Cape Kennedy.
(AP, 7/26/97)
1971 Jul 30, US Apollo 15 with astronauts Scott and Irwin landed at Mare Imbrium on the Moon.
(http://history.nasa.gov/SP-362/app.b.htm)
1971 Jul 31, Apollo 15 astronauts (Dave Scott) took a drive on the moon in their land rover.
(HN, 7/31/98)(MC, 8/31/01)
1971 Nov 13, The US space probe Mariner 9 went into orbit around Mars. NASA's Mariner 9 circled Mars and revealed dried beds of rivers that flowed billions of years ago.
(SFC, 8/7/96, p.A9)(TMC, 1994, p.1971)(AP, 11/13/01)
1971 The US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) branded ammonium perchlorate composite propellant (APCP) as a low explosive. The substance, used as a rocket propellant by NASA, was also used by rocket hobbyists.
(WSJ, 5/7/04, p.A1)(http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/113159_rockets19.shtml)
1972 Mar 2, Pioneer 10 was launched from Cape Kennedy. It carried a plaque designed by Carl Sagan and Frank Drake showing some details of human civilization on Earth. The craft headed to Jupiter and then continued into deep space long past expectations. In 2001 contact was re-established with the craft 7.29 billion miles distant and enroute toward the constellation Taurus. Contact was again made in 2002. Pioneer was expected to reach the red star Aldebaran in Taurus in about 2 million years.
(SFC, 3/4/96, p.A5)(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)(SFC, 4/30/01, p.A7)
1972 Apr 16, Apollo 16 blasted off on a voyage to the moon.
(AP, 4/16/97)
1972 Apr 20, The manned lunar module from Apollo 16 landed on the moon.
(AP, 4/20/97)
1972 Jul 23, NASA launched the Landsat-1 satellite. It viewed Earth at different wavelengths and opened a new era in sensing the planet’s resources and environment.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)
1972 Aug 21, US orbiting astronomy observatory Copernicus was launched.
(SC, 8/21/02)
1972 Apr 21, Apollo 16 astronauts John Young and Charles Duke explored the surface of the moon with Boeing Lunar Rover #2.
(AP, 4/21/97)
1972 Apr 27, Apollo 16 returned to Earth.
(www.solarviews.com/eng/apo16.htm)
1972 Dec 7, America's last moon mission to date was launched as Apollo 17 blasted off from Cape Canaveral at 12:33 a.m. It landed on the moon December 11 at 3:15 p.m. and took a historic photo of the Earth that showed our "isolated blue planet."
(AP, 12/7/97)(SFC, 3/13/98, p.A19)(HNQ, 7/21/99)
1972 Dec 11, Challenger, the Lunar Lander for Apollo 17, touched down on the Moon's surface. It was the last time that men visited the Moon. The last two men to walk on the surface of the moon were Harrison Schmitt and Eugene Cernan. Cernan and Schmitt conducted the longest lunar exploration of the Apollo program (75 hours), driving the lunar rover about 36 kilometers (22 miles) in all, ranging as far as 7.37 kilometers (4.5 miles) from the lunar module Challenger and collecting some 243 pounds of soil and rock samples.
(HNQ, 7/21/99)(HN, 12/11/99)
1972 Dec 14, Astronauts Schmitt and Cernan blasted off from the moon to join the command module America in lunar orbit, thus ending America’s manned lunar exploration for the 20th century. Apollo 17 astronauts blasted off from the moon after three days of exploration on lunar surface.
(HNQ, 7/21/99)(AP, 12/14/02)
1972 Dec 19, Apollo 17 splashed down in the Pacific, ending the Apollo program of manned lunar landings.
(AP, 12/19/97)
1973 Apr 5, Pioneer 11, built to be a backup if Pioneer 10 failed, was launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on an Atlas-Centaur rocket, on a trajectory similar to Pioneer 10. After Pioneer 10 completed the first ever successful encounter with Jupiter, Pioneer 11 was re-targeted, even while it was flying outward, for an eventual encounter with Saturn after its visit to Jupiter in December, 1973.
(http://www.spacetoday.org/SolSys/ThePioneers.html)
1973 May 14, The United States launched the 85-ton Skylab 1, its first manned space station with crew Kerwin, Conrad and Paul J. Weitz (1932-2017).
(AP, 5/14/97)(SFC, 10/25/17, p.D7)
1973 Jul 21, The Russian Mars 4 Orbiter braking engine malfunctioned and it failed to go into orbit around Mars.
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.B1)(http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/masterCatalog.do?sc=1973-047A)
1973 Jul 25, Russia launched its Mars 5 Orbiter.
(http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/masterCatalog.do?sc=1973-049A)
1973 Jul 28, Astronauts Alan Bean, Owen Garriott & Jack Lousma) launched to continue maintenance at Skylab 3.
(www.astronautix.com/flights/skylab3.htm)
1973 Aug 23, The Intelsat communications satellite was launched.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1973 Sep 25, The three-man crew of the U.S. space laboratory Skylab Two splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean after spending 59 days in orbit.
(AP, 9/25/98)
1973 Dec 3, Pioneer 10 passed Jupiter in the 1st fly-by of an outer planet.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_10)
1973 Dec 25, Skylab astronauts took a seven hour walk in space and photographed the comet Kohoutek.
(HN, 12/25/98)
1974 Feb 8, The three-man crew of "Skylab" space station returned to Earth after spending 84 days in space.
(AP, 2/8/99)
1974 Sep 21, US Mariner 10 made a 2nd fly-by of Mercury.
(NH, 5/01, p.38)(www.astronautix.com/craft/marner10.htm)
1974 Dec 4, Pioneer II made its closest approach to Jupiter.
(www.astronautix.com/project/pioneer.htm)
1974 Taser, a voltage emitting handgun, was created. In 2004 the handheld device fired 2 probes up 21 feet with a peak load of 50,000 volts. Jack Cover, a NASA researcher, began developing the Taser in 1969.
(USAT, 7/4/04, p.2A)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taser)
1975 Apr 19, India announced it had launched its 1st satellite, from the Soviet Union atop a Soviet rocket.
(AP, 4/19/05)
1975 Jul 15, Three American astronauts blasted off aboard an Apollo spaceship hours after two Soviet cosmonauts were launched aboard a Soyuz spacecraft for a mission that included a linkup of the two ships in orbit.
(AP, 7/15/97)
1975 Jul 17, A US Apollo spaceship docked with a Soyuz spacecraft in orbit in the first superpower linkup of its kind. Soviet cosmonauts Valery Kubasov (1935-2014) and lt. Col. Alexei A. Leonov spent 44 hours with Brig. Gen. Thomas P. Stafford, Deke Slayton and Vance D. Brand.
(AP, 7/17/97)(SFC, 3/3/14, p.D2)
1975 Jul 19, The Apollo and Soyuz space capsules that were linked in orbit for two days separated.
(AP, 7/19/97)
1975 Jul 24, An "Apollo" spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific, completing a mission which included the first-ever docking with a "Soyuz" capsule from the Soviet Union.
(AP, 7/24/00)
1975 Aug 20, Viking 1, the first of 2 unmanned Viking landers, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a mission to Mars. It reached Mars in the summer of 1976.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)
1975 A Russian SL3 rocket body began orbiting the Earth. It re-entered the atmosphere in 2001.
(SFC, 9/7/01, p.A12)
1976 Jan 7, Eleanor Helin of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab. discovered the first near Earth asteroid which she named Aten. The orbits of these asteroids lie mostly inside that of the Earth and could at some date collide with the Earth.
{NASA, Asteroid, USA}
(SFC, 2/1/97, p.A8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_F._Helin)
1976 Jul 20, The Viking I robot spacecraft made a successful, first-ever landing on Mars and began taking soil samples.
(AP, 7/20/97)(HN, 7/20/98)
1976 Aug 7, Scientists in Pasadena, Calif., announced that the Viking 1 spacecraft had found the strongest indications to date of possible life on Mars.
(AP, 8/7/97)
1976 Aug 22, A Soviet probe called Luna 4 brought back to Earth 170 grams of lunar matter. It was the third Soviet mission to return lunar soil samples from the Moon (the first two sample return missions were Luna 16 and Luna 20).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_24)(Econ., 11/21/20, p.74)
1976 Sep 17, NASA publicly unveiled the space shuttle Enterprise at ceremonies in Palmdale, Calif.
(AP, 9/17/97)(HN, 9/17/98)
1976 Baruch S. Blumberg (1925-2011) of NASA Ames Astrobiology Inst. won the Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology. He had discovered a virus that caused hepatitis and a vaccine to prevent it.
(SFC, 10/8/01, p.A17)(Econ, 4/30/11, p.92)
1977 Feb 18, The space shuttle Enterprise, sitting atop a Boeing 747, went on its maiden "flight" above the Mojave Desert.
(AP, 2/18/98)
1977 Jun 16, Werner von Braun (65), German-born Nazi and American rocket scientist (V1/V2), died of smoking. In 2005 Bob Ward authored “Dr. Space," a biography of von Braun.
(www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/sputnik/braun.html)(WSJ, 6/16/05, p.D8)
1977 Aug 12, The space shuttle Enterprise passed its first solo flight test by taking off atop a Boeing 747, separating and then touching down in California's Mojave Desert.
(AP, 8/12/97)
1977 Aug 12, NASA launched the High Energy Astronomy Observatory 1 into Earth orbit. It continued operating until January 9, 1979.
(http://heasarc.nasa.gov/docs/heao1/heao1.html)
1977 Aug 20, The United States launched Voyager 2, an unmanned spacecraft carrying a 12-inch copper phonograph record containing greetings in dozens of languages, samples of music and sounds of nature. It was scheduled to pass Jupiter and Saturn.
(V.D.-H.K.p.388)(MofE, 1978, p.41)(AP, 8/20/97)(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)
1977 Sep 5, The United States launched the Voyager 1 spacecraft two weeks after launching its twin, Voyager 2.
(AP, 9/5/97)
1977 Sep 18, Cosmos, a Soviet nuclear-powered satellite, was launched. It fell onto Northern Canada on Jan. 24, 1978.
(SSFC, 3/18/01, p.A1)
1977 Oct 26, The experimental space shuttle Enterprise glided to a bumpy but successful landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
(AP, 10/26/97)
1978 Jan 16, NASA named 35 candidates to fly on the space shuttle, including Sally K. Ride, who became America's first woman in space, and Guion S. Bluford Jr., who became America's first black astronaut in space. Six women, out of some 3,000 original applicants, graduated from NASA's rigorous training program to become the 1st female astronauts in the space program.
(AP, 1/16/98)(www.astronautix.com/astrogrp/nas81978.htm)
1978 Jan 24, Cosmos 954, a 4-month-old nuclear-powered Soviet satellite plunged through Earth's atmosphere and disintegrated, scattering radioactive debris over parts of northern Canada.
(SSFC, 3/18/01, p.A1)(AP, 1/24/08)
1978 Feb 22, The US Dept. of Defense launched the 1st of a constellation of satellites that later made the backbone of the Global Positioning System (GPS). Ivan A. Getting (1912-2003), a military scientist, conceived the idea and Bradford Parkinson of Stanford helped implement the system.
(SFC, 10/18/03, p.A22)(http://msl.jpl.nasa.gov/Programs/gps.html)
1978 Mar 2, Soyuz 28 carried 2 cosmonauts to Salyut 6. Czech pilot Vladimir Remek became the first non-Russian, non-American in space.
(HN, 3/2/99)(SC, 3/2/02)
1978 Jun 27, US Seasat 1, the 1st oceanographic satellite, was launched into polar orbit.
(www.n2yo.com/satellite.php?s=10967)
1978 Jun 27, Soyuz 30 carried 2 cosmonauts (1 Polish) to the Salyut 6 space station.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_30)
1978 Aug 8, The United States launched Pioneer Venus II, which carried scientific probes to study the atmosphere of Venus.
(HFA, '96, p.36)(AP, 8/8/99)
1978 Aug 26, Sigmund Jahn became the first German in space when he blasted off aboard Russia’s Soyuz 31.
(RTH, 8/26/99)
1978 Oct 24, The weather satellite Nimbus-7 was launched with a Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) as one of its instruments.
(NOHY, 3/90, p.142)(http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/earth/nimbus.html)
1978 Dec 5, The American space probe Pioneer Venus I, orbiting Venus, began beaming back its first information and picture of the planet to scientists in Mountain View, Calif.
(AP, 12/5/98)
1978 NASA scientist Donald J. Kessler proposed a theoretical scenario in which the density of objects in low Earth orbit (LEO) due to space pollution is high enough that collisions between objects could cause a cascade in which each collision generates space debris that increases the likelihood of further collisions. This came to known as the Kessler syndrome.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome)
1979 Jun 7, Bhaskara 1, an Indian Earth resources meteorology satellite, was launched.
(www.csre.iitb.ac.in/isro/bhaskara1.html)
1979 Jul 9, Voyager II made its closest approach to Jupiter. Both Voyager I and II probes spotted volcanoes erupting on the Jupiter’s moon, Io.
(www.solarviews.com/eng/vgrjup.htm)
1979 Jul 11, The abandoned 78-ton US space station Skylab made a spectacular return to Earth, burning up in the atmosphere and showering debris over the Indian Ocean and Western Australia. Solar storms were blamed for Skylab’s premature fall back.
(AP, 7/11/97)(SFC, 6/3/00, p.A6)(SFC, 3/7/06, p.A5)
1979 Sep 1, Pioneer 11 made the 1st fly-by of Saturn and discovered new moon rings. Ring F of Saturn was discovered by Lonny Baker at NASA's Ames Research Center from data sent by Pioneer 11.
(Ind, 7/27/99, p.1A)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_11)
1979 Nov 9, Robert Taylor (d.2002), British forester, allegedly encountered a UFO in the woods of Dechmont Law. He took police to the scene 2 days later and evidence was gathered that gave some support to his claims.
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.95)
1980 Feb 14, The Solar Max satellite was launched by NASA to monitor the sun and its flares at an orbit of some 400 miles above Earth.
(NOHY, 3/90, p.126)(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)
1980 Apr 11, NASA’s Viking 2 Mars Lander ended communications.
(http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/viking.html)
1980 May 18, China People's Republic launched its 1st intercontinental rocket.
(www.astronautix.com/articles/chidoors.htm)
1980 Jul 18, India became the eighth country to demonstrate it could send a satellite to orbit above Earth with the launch of the satellite Rohini 1 on a Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV) rocket in the state of Andhra Pradesh.
(www.spacetoday.org/Satellites/Iran/IranianSat.html)(NG, 5/88, p.598)
1980 Sep 18, Cosmonaut Arnoldo Tamayo, a Cuban, became the first black to be sent on a mission in space.
(HN, 9/18/98)
1980 Nov 12, The US space probe Voyager 1 came within 77,000 miles of Saturn.
(AP, 11/12/97)(http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/science/saturn.html)
1981 Feb 20, Space shuttle Columbia cleared the final major hurdle to its maiden launch by firing fired its three engines in a 20-second test.
(AP, 2/20/00)
1981 Mar 19, One technician was killed and two others were injured during a routine test on space shuttle Columbia.
(HN, 3/19/98)
1981 Apr 10, The long-awaited maiden launch of the space shuttle “Columbia" was scrubbed because of a computer malfunction.
(AP, 4/10/01)
1981 Apr 12, The first space shuttle, Columbia, carrying astronauts Robert L. Crippen and John W. Young, blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on its first test flight. It was designated STS-1 (space transportation system).
(WSJ, 4/24/95, p.R-5)(AP, 4/12/97)(SSFC, 2/2/03, p.A6)
1981 Apr 14, The first test flight of America's first operational space shuttle, the Columbia 1, ended successfully with a landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
(AP, 4/14/97)(HN, 4/14/98)
1981 May 26, Russia’s Soyuz T-4, launched on March 12, landed.
(http://space.kursknet.ru/cosmos/english/machines/st4.sht)
1981 Jun 19, European Space Agency's Ariane carried two satellites into orbit.
(www.arianespace.com/site/news/feature_12_19_05.html)
1981 Aug 25, The US spacecraft Voyager 2 came within 63,000 miles of Saturn's cloud cover, sending back pictures and data about the ringed planet and its moons.
(AP, 8/25/97)(http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/science/planetary.html)
1982 Mar 4, NASA launched Intelsat V.
(www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/exploration/main/this_month_march.html)
1982 Apr 19, Astronauts Sally K. Ride and Guion S. Bluford Jr. became the first woman and first African-American to be tapped by NASA for U.S. space missions.
(AP, 4/19/97)(HN, 4/19/97)
1982 May 13, Soyuz T-5 was launched at Baikonur. Berezovoi & Lebedev spent the next 211 days in space.
(http://space.kursknet.ru/cosmos/english/machines/st5.sht)
1982 Jun 27, The 4th Space Shuttle, Mission-Columbia 4, was launched.
(http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-4/mission-sts-4.html)
1982 Jul 2, Soyuz T-6 returned to Earth.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_T-6)
1982 Jul 4, The space shuttle Columbia 4 concluded its fourth and final test flight with a landing at Edwards AFB.
(http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-4/mission-sts-4.html)(AP, 7/4/02)
1982 Aug 19, Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the second woman to be launched into space.
(AP, 8/19/07)
1982 Nov 11, Space shuttle Columbia launched for its first operational flight. The 4-man crew successfully used a remote manipulator arm.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Columbia)
1982 Nov 16, The Space Shuttle Columbia completed its first operational flight.
(HN, 11/16/98)
1982 Orbital Sciences, a Virginia-based company, was founded by David Thompson, Bruce Ferguson and Scott Webster. It later built the first private space rocket. In 1990, the company successfully carried out eight space missions, highlighted by the initial launch of the Pegasus rocket, the world's first privately-developed space launch vehicle.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_Sciences_Corporation)(Econ, 8/23/08, p.69)
1982 Scaled Composites was founded by aerospace engineer Burt Rutan. In 2007 it was acquired by Northrop Grumman. The company later developed SpaceShipTwo, a rocket-plane intended to carry paying passengers to 100km above Earth.
(Econ, 12/21/13, p.121)
1983 Jan 23, Cosmos 1402, a Russian nuclear powered satellite launched in 1982, fell into the Indian Ocean.
(www.space.com/news/spacehistory/dangerous_reentries_000602.html)
1983 Jan 25, The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) space probe, sponsored by the United Kingdom, the US, and the Netherlands, was launched. It studied infrared radiation from across the cosmos and exposed stars as they were born from clouds of gas and dust.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)
1983 Apr 4, The space shuttle Challenger roared into orbit on its maiden voyage and the first US female into space was Sally Ride.
(TMC, 1994, p.1983)(AP, 4/4/97)
1983 Apr 7, Specialist Story Musgrave and Don Peterson took the first US space walk in almost a decade as they worked in the open cargo bay of Challenger for nearly four hours.
(HN, 4/7/97)(AP, 4/7/03)
1983 Apr 9, The space shuttle Challenger, commanded by Astronaut Paul J. Weitz (1932-2017), ended its first mission with a safe landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
(AP, 4/9/97)(SFC, 10/25/17, p.D7)
1983 Jun 13, The US space probe Pioneer 10, launched in 1972, became the first spacecraft to leave the solar system as it crossed the orbit of Neptune.
(AP, 6/13/97)(HN, 6/13/98)
1983 Jun 18, Astronaut Sally K. Ride became America's first woman in space as she and four colleagues blasted off aboard the space shuttle Challenger.
(AP, 6/18/97)(HN, 6/18/98)
1983 Jun 20, The crew of the space shuttle Challenger, including America's first woman in space, Sally K. Ride, launched the Indonesian-owned Palapa B communications satellite into orbit.
(http://tinyurl.com/2uu2fj)
1983 Jun 24, The space shuttle "Challenger," carrying America's first woman in space, Sally K. Ride, coasted to a safe landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
(AP, 6/24/03)(http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-7/mission-sts-7.html)
1983 Jun 27, The Russian Soyuz T-9 spacecraft launched from Baikonur carrying 2 cosmonauts to the Salyut 7 space station.
(http://space.kursknet.ru/cosmos/english/machines/st9.sht)
1983 Jul 24, The Space Shuttle Challenger landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, making Sally Ride the first American woman in space.
(HN, 7/24/98)
1983 Aug 30, Lieutenant Colonel Guion S. Bluford Jr. became the first black American astronaut to travel in space, blasting off aboard the Challenger.
(AP, 8/30/97)(HN, 8/30/98)
1983 Sep 26, Cosmonauts Titov and Strekalov were saved by their escape system when the rocket that was to carry their Soyuz T-10-1 mission into space caught fire on the launchpad.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_disaster)
1983 Oct 13, The Space Shuttle Challenger, carrying seven, the largest crew to date, landed safely at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
(HN, 10/13/98)
1983 Nov 28, The space shuttle Columbia blasted into orbit, carrying six astronauts who conducted experiments using the $1 billion Spacelab in the shuttle's cargo bay.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-9)
1984 Jan 25, President Reagan endorsed the development of the first U.S. permanently manned space station.
(HN, 1/25/99)
1984 Feb 7, Space shuttle astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart went on the first untethered space walk.
(AP, 2/7/97)
1984 Mar 1, NASA launched Landsat-D Prime (Landsat 5) to map the Earth.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1984 Apr 6, 1st time 11 people in space.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaceflight_records)
1984 Jul 25, Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to walk in space. She carried out more than 3 hours of experiments outside the orbiting space station Salyut 7.
(AP, 7/25/97)
1984 Aug 27, President Reagan announced the Teacher in Space project.
(www.challenger.org/teachers/history/index.cfm)
1984 Aug 30, In Florida NASA launched the US space shuttle Discovery on its 1st mission.
(www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/shuttleoperations/orbiters/discovery-info.html)
1984 Oct 11, Space shuttle Challenger astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan (b.1951) became the first American woman to walk in space.
(AP, 10/11/97)(www.astronautix.com/astros/sullivan.htm)
1984 Nov 12, Space shuttle astronauts Dale Gardner and Joe Allen snared a wandering satellite in history's first space salvage. The Palapa B-2 satellite was secured in Discovery's cargo bay for return to Earth.
(AP, 11/12/04)
1984 Nov 14, The Space Shuttle Discovery crew rescued a second satellite.
(HN, 11/14/98)
1984 Dec 14, The maiden flight of NASA’s X-29, a forward swept wing aircraft, took place.
(NPub, 2002, p.24)
1985 Jan 24, The space shuttle Discovery was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on the first secret, all-military shuttle mission.
(AP, 1/24/05)
1985 Jan 27, A secret three-day military-satellite mission of the space shuttle Discovery ended with a smooth landing in Florida.
(AP, 1/27/05)
1985 Feb 15, The STS 51-E vehicle was moved to the launch pad. Deployment of the vehicle aboard the Challenger was cancelled in March.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)(www.astronautix.com/flights/sts51e.htm)
1985 Apr 12, Sen. Jake Garn of Utah became the first senator to fly in space as the shuttle Discovery lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
(AP, 4/12/97)
1985 Jul 2, The European Space Agency launched the Giotto space probe for a close-up of Halley’s Comet. It made its closest approach to the comet on March 13, 1986.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)(http://tinyurl.com/2hnfnw)
1985 Jul 19, Christa McAuliffe of New Hampshire was chosen to be the first schoolteacher to ride aboard the space shuttle. McAuliffe and six other crew members died (1/28/96) when the Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff.
(SFC, 12/18/96, p.A3)(TMC, 1994, p.1986)(AP, 7/19/97)
1985 Jul 29, The space shuttle Challenger began an eight-day mission that got off to a shaky start. The spacecraft achieved a safe orbit even though one of its main engines shut down prematurely after lift-off.
(AP, 7/29/05)
1985 Aug 27, Dr. Fisher was a mission specialist on STS 51-I which launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
(www.astronautix.com/astros/fislliam.htm)
1985 Oct 30, The launch of the space shuttle “Challenger" was witnessed by schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, who was fated to die when the spacecraft exploded after liftoff the following January.
(AP, 10/30/00)
1986 Jan 12, Space shuttle Columbia blasted off with a crew that included the first Hispanic-American in space, Dr. Franklin R. Chang-Diaz.
(AP, 1/12/98)
1986 Jan 24, The Voyager 2 space probe swept past Uranus, coming within 50,679 miles of the seventh planet of the solar system.
(AP, 1/24/98)
1986 Jan 28, Just 73 seconds into its 10th launch, Americans watched in horror as the space shuttle Challenger (STS-51L) exploded in midair, killing its crew of seven: Navy pilot Michael J. Smith, Commander Francis Scobee and mission specialist Ronald McNair, mission specialist Ellison Onizuka, first teacher in space Christa McAuliffe, payload specialist Gregory Jarvis and mission specialist Judith Resnik. President Ronald Reagan spoke to the nation from the Oval Office that afternoon, explaining the tragedy to the nation's schoolchildren: "The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted. It belongs to the brave.... The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them nor the last time we saw them this morning as they prepared for their journey and waved good-bye and 'slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God.'" Space shuttle flights were suspended until 1988. An independent U.S. commission blamed the disaster on unusually cold temperatures that morning and the failure of the O-rings, a set of gaskets in the rocket boosters. Rocket engineer Bob Ebeling (d.2016 at 89) and Rocco Petrone (1926-2006), former Apollo program manager and Rockwell chief shuttle engineer, had cautioned against the launch fearing that low temperatures might have damaged the shuttle’s thermal protection tiles.
(SFC, 12/18/96, p.A3)(AP, 1/28/98)(HNPD, 1/28/00)(SFC, 9/1/06, p.B8)(SFC, 3/25/16, p.D7)
1986 Feb 19, The Soviet Union launched the first component of its Mir space station. Mir meant peace.
(WSJ, 6/27/97, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/5/98, p.W14)(SFC, 8/26/99, p.A12)
1986 Mar 9, Navy divers found the crew compartment of the space shuttle Challenger along with the remains of the astronauts.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1986 Jun 9, The Rogers Commission released its report on the “Challenger" disaster, criticizing NASA and rocket-builder Morton Thiokol for management problems leading to the explosion that claimed the lives of seven astronauts. The Space Shuttle Challenger blew up as a result of a failure in a solid rocket booster joint.
(AP, 6/9/00)(HN, 6/9/99)
1986 Jul 28, NASA released the transcript from the doomed Challenger. Pilot Michael Smith could be heard saying, "Uh-oh!" as spacecraft disintegrated.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1987 Feb 26, NASA launched GOES-H (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite). It carried experimental search and rescue equipment.
(http://goespoes.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/timeline.html)
1987 Mar 26, NASA launched Fltsatcom-6, but it failed after 51 seconds due to lightning.
(http://www.astronautix.com/craft/fltatcom.htm)
1987 May 15, The Soviet space booster Energia took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying a black container labeled Polyus with the Skif-DM inside. The Skif-DM was a model a future weapon. Energia performed flawlessly, but the Polyus, which was supposed to fire engines to reach a higher orbit, shot back down to Earth and into the Pacific Ocean. The Skif project came to a halt and Pres. Gorbachev did not renew it.
(SSFC, 9/27/09, p.A24)
1987 Jul 25, USSR launched Kosmos 1870, a 15-ton Earth-study satellite.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1987 Dec 29, NASA delayed the planned June launch of the space shuttle -- the first since the Challenger disaster -- because a motor component failed during a test-firing of the shuttle's redesigned booster rocket.
(AP, 12/29/97)
1988 Apr 25, NASA launched space vehicle S-211.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1988 Jul 7, Russia’s PHOBOS 1 Mars Orbiter and lander was launched. Contact was lost on September 2, 1988.
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.B1)(www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/mars/space_missions.html)
1988 Jul 12, Russia’s PHOBOS 2 Flyby and lander was launched. It failed within 480 miles of Mar’s moon Phobos.
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.B1)(www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/mars/space_missions.html)
1988 Jul 29, NASA officials delayed a critical test-firing of the space shuttle Discovery's main engines another three days. The test on Aug. 10 was judged a success.
(AP, 7/29/98)
1988 Aug 25, Challenger Center opened its classroom doors in Houston.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1988 Aug 25, NASA launched space vehicle S-214.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1988 Sep 6, A 25-hour drama began as technical problems kept a two-man Soviet space crew from returning to Earth aboard a Soyuz space capsule. The problems were cleared up, and the crew landed safely the next day.
(AP, 9/6/98)
1988 Sep 29, The space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., marking America's return to manned space flight following the Challenger disaster.
(AP, 9/29/98)
1988 Oct 3, Discovery completed a four-day mission, the first American shuttle flight since the Challenger disaster.
(AP, 10/3/98)
1988 Oct 29, The maiden voyage of the Soviet Union's space shuttle was delayed because of problems with ground equipment.
(AP, 10/29/98)
1988 Nov 15, The Soviet Union launched its first space shuttle, Buran, on an unmanned, 3 1/2 hour flight. It was designed by Gleb Lozino-Lozinsky (d.2001 at 97). The Buran orbited Earth twice, landed, and never flew again. Russia built about a dozen shuttles, mostly test models, and later scrapped the program.
(AP, 11/15/98)(SFC, 12/5/01, p.A23)(WSJ, 4/11/05, p.A18)
1988 Dec 2, The space shuttle Atlantis was launched on a secret four-day mission.
(AP, 12/2/98)(http://tinyurl.com/gjp7w)
1988 Dec 5, The US Space Shuttle Atlantis continued its classified mission.
(http://www.astronautix.com/craft/atlantis.htm)
1988 Dec 6, The space shuttle Atlantis landed in California.
(AP, 12/6/98)
1989 Mar 13, The space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a five-day mission.
(AP, 3/13/99)
1989 Mar 18, The space shuttle Discovery landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California, completing a five-day mission.
(AP, 3/18/99)
1989 May 4, The US launched its Magellan spacecraft to Venus.
(www.solarviews.com/eng/magellan.htm)
1989 Jul 12, The European Space Agency launched an experimental communications satellite named Olympus. It malfunctioned in 1991 and was lost for a year before communication was re-established. It was damaged during a Perseid meteor shower in 1993 and was taken out of service.
(Econ, 6/1/13, TQ p.17)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympus-1)
1989 Jul 20, President Bush called for a long-range space program to build an orbiting space station, establish a base on the moon and send a manned mission to the planet Mars.
(AP, 7/20/99)
1989 Aug 2, NASA confirmed Voyager 2's discovery of 3 more moons of Neptune designated temporarily 1989 N2 (Larissa), 1989 N3 (Despina) and 1989 N4 (Galatea).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galatea_(moon))
1989 Aug 8, The space shuttle Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a secret, five-day military mission to deploy a new Pentagon spy satellite.
(AP, 8/8/99)(SSFC, 2/2/03, p.A6)
1989 Aug 13, The space shuttle Columbia returned from a secret military mission.
(AP, 8/13/99)
1989 Aug 27, Chuck Berry performed his tune Johnny B. Goode for NASA staff in celebration of Voyager II's encounter with the planet Neptune.
(HN, 8/27/98)
1989 Aug 27, The first U.S. commercial satellite rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., a Delta booster carrying a British communications satellite.
(AP, 8/27/99)
1989 Sep 4, The Air Force launched its last Titan 3 rocket, which reportedly carried a reconnaissance satellite. Since 1964, the Titan 3 had sent more than 200 satellites into space.
(AP, 9/4/99)
1989 Oct 18, The space shuttle Atlantis was launched on a five-day mission that included deployment of the Galileo space probe on a course for Jupiter.
(SFC, 6/28/96, p.A2)(AP, 10/18/99)
1989 Nov 17, The Cosmic Background Explorer Satellite was launched. It provided evidence for the “Big Bang" that spawned the universe 10-20 billion years ago. Dr. David T. Wilkinson (1935-2002) was the driving force behind the launch.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)(SFC, 9/16/02, p.A20)
1989 Nov 22, The space shuttle Discovery blasted off at night.
(AP, 11/22/99)
1990 Jan 9, The space shuttle Columbia was launched on a 10-day mission that included retrieving a drifting scientific satellite.
(AP, 1/9/00)
1990 Jan 12, Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Columbia retrieved an 11-ton floating science laboratory in a rescue mission that kept the satellite from plunging to Earth.
(AP, 1/12/00)
1990 Jan 20, The space shuttle Columbia returned from an 11-day mission.
(AP, 1/20/00)
1990 Feb 14, Space probe Voyager 1 took photographs of entire solar system.
(www.nmm.ac.uk/server/show/conMediaFile.4331)
1990 Feb 28, Space shuttle Atlantis blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla. on a secret mission to place a spy satellite in orbit.
(AP, 2/28/00)
1990 Mar 4, US 65th manned space mission STS 36 (Atlantis 6) returned from space.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1990 Apr 24, The space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., carrying the $1.5 billion Hubble Space Telescope. It cost $2 billion. The orbital period of the telescope was 97 Minutes. In 2008 Robert Zimmerman authored “The Universe in a Mirror: The Saga of the Hubble Space Telescope and the Visionaries Who Built It."
(AP, 4/24/97)(NG, 1/’94, p.23)(WSJ, 2/14/97, p.A1)(SFC, 3/21/98, p.E3)(WSJ, 6/16/08, p.A13)
1990 Apr 25, The Hubble Space Telescope was deployed from the space shuttle "Discovery."
(AP, 4/25/00)
1990 Apr 27, The aperture door of the Hubble Space Telescope was opened by ground controllers as the space shuttle Discovery, which had carried the Hubble into orbit, prepared to return home.
(AP, 4/27/00)
1990 Apr 29, The space shuttle Discovery landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California after a mission which included deploying the Hubble Space Telescope.
(AP, 4/29/00)
1990 Jun 27, NASA announced that a flaw in the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope was preventing the instrument from achieving optimum focus.
(AP, 6/27/00)
1990 Oct 6, The space shuttle “Discovery" blasted off on a four-day mission. NASA launched the Ulysses solar probe, an American and European spacecraft, aboard the space shuttle Discovery. It ceased operations in 2008.
(AP, 10/6/00)(SFC, 6/13/08, p.A5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_probe)
1990 Oct 10, The space shuttle “Discovery" landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California, ending a virtually flawless four-day mission.
(AP, 10/10/00)
1990 Nov 15, The space shuttle “Atlantis" was launched on a secret military mission.
(AP, 11/15/00)
1990 Nov 20, The space shuttle “Atlantis" landed at Cape Canaveral, Florida, after completing a secret military mission.
(AP, 11/20/00)
1991 Apr 5, The space shuttle “Atlantis" blasted off on a mission that included the deploying of the second of “NASA’s" Great Observatories. NASA launched the $670 million Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. It was directed to a suicide plunge in 2000.
(SFC, 3/24/00, p.A5)(SFC, 6/3/00, p.A6)(AP, 4/5/01)
1991 Apr 11, The space shuttle “Atlantis" landed safely after an extended, 93-orbit mission that included deployment of an observatory.
(AP, 4/11/01)
1991 Apr 23, NASA scrubbed the launch of the space shuttle “Discovery" after a sensor on one of the main engines failed during fueling.
(AP, 4/23/01)
1991 Jun 5, The space shuttle “Columbia" blasted off with seven astronauts on a nine-day mission.
(AP, 6/5/01)
1991 Aug 8, James B. Irwin (b.1930), Col USAF, astronaut (Apollo 15), died. He was the 8th person to walk on the moon.
(www.astronautix.com/astros/irwin.htm)
1991 Aug 11, The space shuttle “Atlantis" returned safely from a nine-day journey.
(AP, 8/11/01)
1991 Sep 12, The space shuttle Discovery blasted off on a mission to deploy an observatory designed to study the Earth's ozone layer.
(AP, 9/12/01)
1991 Sep 18, The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite was deployed from the space shuttle Discovery. It measured the ozone hole for the next decade. Operations of the satellite ceased in 2001 due to NASA economics.
(SFC, 8/24/01, p.A13)
1991 Sep 18, The space shuttle Discovery landed in California, ending a five-day mission.
(AP, 9/18/01)
1991 Britain's Helen Sharman flew to Russia's Mir Space Station as a tourist as part of a lottery system called Project Juno.
(AP, 9/18/06)
1992 Jan 22-30, Roberta Bondar was the first Canadian woman in space. She rode the shuttle Discovery and performed life and material-science experiments.
(USAT, 7/26/99, p.14A)
1992 Jan 30, The space shuttle Discovery landed in California, ending an eight-day mission.
(AP, 1/30/02)
1992 Mar 24, The space shuttle Atlantis blasted off with seven astronauts on the first shuttle mission devoted to the environment.
(AP, 3/24/97)
1992 Apr 2, The space shuttle Atlantis returned from a nine-day mission.
(AP, 4/2/02)
1992 May 10, Astronaut Pierre Thuot tried but failed to snag a wayward satellite during a spacewalk outside the shuttle Endeavour. A trio of astronauts succeeded in capturing the Intelsat-Six three days later.
(AP, 5/10/97)
1992 May 13, A trio of astronauts from the space shuttle Endeavour captured a wayward Intelsat-6 communications satellite during the first-ever three-person spacewalk.
(AP, 5/13/97)
1992 Jul 9 The space shuttle Columbia landed at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, ending a two-week mission.
(AP, 7/9/97)
1992 Jul 31, The space shuttle Atlantis blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a problem-plagued scientific mission.
(AP, 7/31/97)
1992 Aug 8, The space shuttle Atlantis returned from a problem-plagued mission.
(AP, 8/8/97)
1992 Sep 25, The Mars Observer blasted off on a $980 million mission to the red planet. The probe disappeared just before entering Martian orbit in August 1993.
(AP, 9/25/97)
1992 Pres. Bush appointed Daniel Goldin (51) as head of NASA. Goldin retired in 2001.
(SFC, 10/18/01, p.C4)
1992 The Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer was launched. It surveyed the entire Milky Way and beyond and transmitted date until Jan 31 2001. It broke up in Earth’s atmosphere Jan 30, 2002.
(SFC, 1/30/02, p.A2)
1993 Jan 13, The space shuttle Endeavor blasted off from Cape Canaveral.
(AP, 1/13/98)
1993 Mar 22, The launch of the space shuttle Columbia was scrubbed with three seconds left in the countdown.
(AP, 3/22/97)
1993 Aug 12, The launch of space shuttle Discovery was scrubbed at the last second.
(AP, 8/12/98)
1993 Sep 12, The space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral on a 10-day mission.
(AP, 9/12/98)
1993 Sep 22, The space shuttle "Discovery" and its five astronauts landed at Kennedy Space Center, ending a 10-day mission.
(AP, 9/22/98)
1993 Oct 30, Martin Fettman, America's first veterinarian in space, chopped the heads off six rats and performed the world's first animal dissections in space, aboard the shuttle Columbia.
(HN, 10/30/98)
1993 Nov 1, The space shuttle Columbia landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California, ending a two-week mission.
(AP, 11/1/98)
1993 Dec 2, The space shuttle Endeavour blasted off on a mission to fix the Hubble Space Telescope.
(AP, 12/2/98)
1993 Dec 4, Astronauts aboard space shuttle Endeavour captured the near-sighted Hubble Space Telescope for repairs.
(AP, 12/4/98)
1993 Dec 5, Astronauts began the repair of Hubble telescope in space.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-61)
1993 Dec 9, Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Endeavour completed repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope.
(AP, 12/9/98)
1993 Dec 10, The crew of the space shuttle Endeavour deployed the repaired Hubble Space Telescope into Earth orbit.
(AP, 12/10/98)
1993 Dec 13, The space shuttle Endeavour returned from its mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
(AP, 12/13/98)
1993 A NASA study said: “While no single food can supply all the essential life-sustaining nutrients, quinoa comes as close as any other in the plant or animal kingdom."
(Econ, 5/21/16, p.65)
1994 Feb 3, The space shuttle Discovery lifted off, carrying Sergei Krikalev, the first Russian cosmonaut to fly aboard a U.S. spacecraft.
(AP, 2/3/99)
1994 Feb 11, The space shuttle "Discovery" returned from an eight-day mission.
(AP, 2/11/99)
1994 Mar 4, The space shuttle STS-62 (Columbia 16) blasted off on a two-week mission.
(AP, 3/4/99)(SC, 3/4/02)
1994 Apr 9, The space shuttle Endeavour blasted off on an 11-day mission that included mapping the Earth's surface in three dimensions.
(AP, 4/9/99)
1994 May 4, India made its 4th developmental launch of ASLV. The 113 kg Stretched Rohini Satellite Series (SROSS-C2) was launched by fourth developmental flight of ASLV-D4 from Sriharikota.
(www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080048779)
1994 Jul 4, Russian manned space craft TM-18, landed.
(Maggio)
1994 Jul 8, The space shuttle "Columbia" blasted off on a two-week mission.
(AP, 7/8/99)
1994 Jul 23, Space shuttle Columbia returned to Earth after a 15-day mission which included experiments on the effects of weightlessness on aquatic animals.
(AP, 7/23/99)
1994 Sep 9, The space shuttle Discovery blasted off on an 11-day mission.
(AP, 9/9/99)
1994 Sep 30, The space shuttle Endeavour and its six astronauts roared into orbit on an 11-day mission.
(AP, 9/30/99)
1994 Nov 3, The space shuttle Atlantis blasted into orbit on a mission to survey Earth's ozone layer.
(AP, 11/3/99)
1994 Fresh water fish from Japan, known as Medaka, became the first vertebrate creatures to successfully mate in space.
(SFC, 9/15/00, p.A12)
1995 Feb 3, The space shuttle Discovery blasted off with a woman, Air Force Lt. Col. Eileen Collins, in the pilot's seat for the first time in NASA history.
(AP, 2/3/00)
1995 Feb 6, The space shuttle Discovery flew to within 37 feet of the Russian space station Mir in the first rendezvous of its kind in two decades.
(AP, 2/6/00)
1995 Feb 11, The space shuttle Discovery landed at Cape Canaveral, Fla., ending a historic rendezvous mission with Russia's Mir space station.
(AP, 2/11/00)
1995 Mar 2, The space shuttle STS-67 (Endeavour 8) blasted off to study the far reaches of the universe.
(AP, 3/2/00)(SC, 3/2/02)
1995 Mar 14, American astronaut Norman Thagard became the first American to enter space aboard a Russian rocket as he and two cosmonauts blasted off aboard a Soyuz spacecraft, headed for the Mir space station.
(AP, 3/14/00)
1995 Mar 16, NASA astronaut Norman Thagard was welcomed aboard the Russian space station Mir as the first American to visit the orbiting outpost.
(AP, 3/16/97)
1995 May 4, India launched the fourth ASLV-D4 from Sriharikota, successfully placing the SROSS-C2 satellite in orbit.
(www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080048779)
1995 May 19, NASA's administrator unveiled plans to slash thousands of aerospace jobs and to overhaul virtually every part of the agency.
(AP, 5/19/00)
1995 Jun 6, US astronaut Norman Thagard broke NASA’s space endurance record of 84 days, one hour and 16 minutes, aboard the Russian space station “Mir."
(AP, 6/6/00)
1995 Jun 27, The space shuttle “Atlantis" blasted off on a historic flight to link up with Russia’s space station “Mir" and bring home American astronaut Norman Thagard.
(AP, 6/27/00)
1995 Jun 29, The shuttle Atlantis and the Russian space station Mir docked, forming the largest man-made satellite ever to orbit the Earth.
(AP, 6/29/97)
1995 Jul 4, The space shuttle “Atlantis" and the Russian space station “Mir" parted after spending five days in orbit docked together.
(AP, 7/4/00)
1995 Jul 13, Just six days after the space shuttle “Atlantis" returned, the shuttle “Discovery" blasted off on a nine-day mission.
(AP, 7/13/00)
1995 Sep 7, The space shuttle “Endeavour" thundered into orbit with five astronauts on a mission to release and recapture a pair of science satellites.
(AP, 9/7/00)
1995 Oct 20, Space shuttle “Columbia" was launched on a research flight that had been delayed six times.
(AP, 10/20/00)
1995 Nov 12, The space shuttle “Atlantis" blasted off on a mission to dock with the Russian space station “Mir."
(AP, 11/12/00)
1995 Nov 15, The space shuttle “Atlantis" docked with the orbiting Russian space station “Mir."
(AP, 11/15/00)
1995 Dec 2, NASA launched a US-European observatory on a one billion-dollar mission to study the sun. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, SOHO, later detected rivers of charged particles flowing over the surface of the sun and sunquakes. In 2003 a motor failure crippled a high-gain antenna.
(SFC, 9/4/98, p.A3)(AP, 12/2/00)(BS, 6/26/03, 3A)
1995-1997 American cosmonauts worked on the Russian space station Mir. In 1998 Bryan Burrough authored “Dragonfly: NASA and the Crises Aboard Mir."
(WSJ, 11/6/98, p.W14)
1996 Jan 11, The space shuttle “Endeavour" blasted off on a nine-day mission.
(AP, 1/11/01)
1996 Feb 21, The Space Telescope Science Institute announced that photographs from the Hubble Space Telescope confirmed the existence of a “black hole" equal to the mass of two billion suns in a galaxy some 30 million light-years away.
(AP, 2/21/01)
1996 Feb 22, The space shuttle “Columbia" blasted into orbit on a mission to unreel a satellite on the end of a 12.8-mile cord.
(AP, 2/22/01)
1996 May 19, The Endeavour Shuttle rocketed into orbit with six astronauts. One task was to deploy an experimental antennae that would inflate and swell to the size of a tennis court.
(SFC, 5/20/96, p.A-2)
1996 May 29, The Endeavor space shuttle landed after a 10-day mission. It went be overhauled for a space-station assembly mission in 1997.
(SFC, 5/30/96, p.A5)
1996 Jul 8, The Shuttle Columbia landed after a record flight of 16 days, 21 hours, 48 minutes and 30 sec.
(SFC, 7/8/96, p.A2)
1996 Aug 6, NASA scientists presented evidence that a meteorite from Mars (ALH 84001) that was found in Antarctica in 1984 contained organic minerals such as carbonate globules, magnetite, iron sulfide and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. In 2001 Imre Friedmann (1921-2007), extreme microbiologist, led a team of researchers to study the same meteorite and claimed conclusive evidence that Mars had been teeming with life 3.5 billion years ago.
(SFC, 8/8/96, p.A6)(Econ, 6/30/07, p.96)
1996 The $10 million Ansari X Prize was offered to encourage the development of space tourism. The winner was required to make the 1st private launch of 3-people to an altitude of 62.5 miles twice in 2 weeks.
(SFC, 4/19/03, p.A2)(WSJ, 6/14/04, p.B1)
1997 Mar 2, The Russian Soyuz TM-24 returned to Earth.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1997 Mar 4, Russia launched Zeya Start-1, a test satellite, aboard a modified SS-25 ballistic missile from the new Svobodny cosmodrome in the Amur region of eastern Siberia.
(WSJ, 3/5/97, p.A1)(SC, 3/4/02)
1997 Mar 11, Ashes of Star Trek creator, Gene Roddenberry were launched into space, along with those of drug guru Timothy Leery.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1997 Apr 6, NASA officials announced they were cutting short the 16-day mission of space shuttle Columbia by 12 days because of a deteriorating and potentially explosive power generator.
(AP, 4/6/02)
1997 Apr 29, Astronaut Jerry Linenger and cosmonaut Vasily Tsibliyev went on the first U.S.-Russian space walk.
(AP, 4/29/98)
1997 May 15, Space shuttle Atlantis blasted off on a mission to deliver urgently needed repair equipment and a fresh American astronaut to Russia's orbiting Mir station.
(AP, 5/15/98)
1997 May 16, The space shuttle Atlantis docked with Russia's Mir station.
(AP, 5/16/98)
1997 May 17, The first flight of NASA’s subscale remotely piloted X-36 Tailless Fighter Agility Research Aircraft took place.
(www.dfrc.nasa.gov/gallery/Photo/X-36/index.html)
1997 May 17, Russia's Mir space station received a new oxygen generator and a fresh American astronaut, courtesy of space shuttle Atlantis.
(AP, 5/17/98)
1997 May 21, The space shuttle Atlantis undocked from the Russian Mir space station.
(AP, 5/21/98)
1997 May 24, The space shuttle Atlantis returned to Earth, bringing with it NASA astronaut Jerry Linenger, who had spent four months aboard the Russian Mir space station.
(AP, 5/24/98)
1997 Jul 4, The Mars Pathfinder landed and began to broadcast pictures of the red rocky landscape. The landing site was later named the Carl Sagan Memorial Station.
(SFC, 7/5/97, p.A1)
1997 Jul 17, The Columbia space shuttle and it crew of 7 returned after a 16-day mission. On the Mir space station, the 3-man crew struggled to stabilize a free-spin after a cable to a key computer system was mistakenly pulled.
(SFC, 7/18/97, p.A1,9)(AP, 7/17/98)
1997 Jul 18, All key systems on the Russian space station Mir returned to near-normal, about 24 hours after the already disabled spacecraft had lost power.
(HN, 7/18/98)
1997 Aug 7, The space shuttle Discovery was launched with a crew of six. A satellite was dropped off to study the Earth’s ozone layer.
(SFC, 8/8/97, p.A3)
1997 Aug 7, A Russian capsule on a fix-it mission docked gingerly with the crippled Mir space station, bringing a new crew to salvage the orbiting outpost.
(AP, 8/7/98)
1997 Aug 16, Two cosmonauts just returned from Mir (Vasily Tsibliyev and Alexander Lazutkin) rejected criticism that they were to blame for troubles aboard the aging, problem-plagued space station.
(AP, 8/16/98)
1997 Aug 22, A $64.8 million 890- lb. Lewis satellite was launched by NASA on a hoped-for 5-year mission. It went into an uncontrolled spin on Aug 22 and was expected to fall and burn up in Earth’s atmosphere in Sep.
(SFC, 9/27/97, p.A3)
1997 Aug 25, NASA sent a Delta rocket aloft with the Ace solar observatory, Advanced Composition Explorer. The 5-year $110 million project will go into orbit at a point 1 million miles from Earth and 92 million miles from the Sun where the gravity of Earth and Sun balance.
(SFC, 8/26/97, p.A2)
1997 Sep 25, The space shuttle Atlantis was launched. Astronaut David Wolf scheduled to replace Michael Foale on the Mir space station.
(www.cnn.com/TECH/9709/25/shuttle.mir/)(SFC, 9/27/97, p.A3)
1997 Sep 27, The space shuttle Atlantis, docked with the problem-plagued Russian Mir station to drop off American David Wolf and pick up Michael Foale.
(AP, 9/27/98)
1997 Nov 24, Space-walking astronauts from the shuttle Columbia grabbed a spinning satellite with their hands, enabling the cockpit crew to use the shuttle's robot arm to return it to the cargo bay.
(AP, 11/24/07)
1997 Nov 27, Japan launched the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite (TRMM) in a joint venture with NASA. Funding ended in 2004 a controlled de-orbit was planned.
(SFC, 7/19/04, p.A4)
1997 Dec 5, The space shuttle Columbia returned from a 16-day mission that had been marred by the bungled release of a satellite.
(AP, 12/5/98)
1997 Dec 24, The world’s first civilian spy satellite, EarlyBird I, was launched from Russia. It was built by EarthWatch Inc. of Longmont, Colo.
(SFC, 12/25/97, p.A6)
1997 The US began upgrading its GPS system with the deployment of a new generation of satellites known as GPS-3 with accuracy to 30cm.
(Econ., 7/18/20, p.34)
1998 Jan 16, NASA officially announced that John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, would fly aboard the space shuttle later in the year.
(AP, 1/16/99)
1998 Jan 22, The Endeavour space shuttle shot up on its way to meet with the Mir space station. Astronaut Andrew Thomas traded places with David Wolf for a 4-month stint.
(SFC, 1/23/98, p.A5)
1998 Jan 31, The space shuttle Endeavour returned from Mir with its crew of 7.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.A2)
1998 Mar 5, NASA officials announced that the Lunar Prospector probe found the presence of water on the moon at the north and south poles. As much as 100 million tons of water was estimated. They said that the water frozen in the loose soil of the moon might support a lunar base and a human colony.
(SFC, 3/6/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/6/98, p.A1)(AP, 3/5/99)
1998 Jun 2, Space Shuttle Discovery was launched and it planned to pick up astronaut Andrew Thomas from the Mir space station.
(WSJ, 6/3/98, p.A1)
1998 Jun 8, Discovery completed its 9th and final visit to Mir. Russian astronaut Talgat Musabayev passed a 2-foot wrench to Andrew Thomas to take to the new int’l. space station.
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A3)
1998 Jun 8, In New Mexico the $77 million Sloan Digital Sky Survey was reported to be about to start probing the universe.
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A3)
1998 Jun, The first module of an int’l. space station, US funded and Russian-built, was to be launched at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. [it didn’t make it]
(SFC, 1/29/98, p.A7)
1998 Aug 12, A Lockheed Martin Titan 4A rocket exploded after takeoff at Cape Canaveral. The $300 million rocket carried a spy satellite for the Air Force valued at $800 to $1 billion. The explosion was blamed on a momentary loss of power.
(SFC, 8/13/98, p.A2)(SFC, 9/3/98, p.A3)
1998 Aug 26, A $225 million rocket and communication satellite exploded after take-off at Cape Canaveral.
(SFC, 8/27/98, p.A3)
1998 Oct 29, The shuttle Discovery blasted off with 6 crew mates including John Glenn (77), the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962.
(SFC, 10/30/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct, The Deep Space I mission was launched. It would make a 2-year tour of the outer solar system propelled by an ion-propulsion system.
(SFC, 8/28/97, p.A2)(www.space.com)
1998 Nov 7, The shuttle Discovery landed in Cape Canaveral, Fla. After 9 days in space.
(SFEC, 11/8/98, p.A2)
1998 Nov 20, Phase 2 began in the construction of the int’l. space station. It would take 5 years, 43 flights and 16 nations to assemble the outpost. The first human crew arrived in November 2000.
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A3)(CSM, 11/22/18)
1998 Nov 20, In Kazakhstan a Russian Proton booster rocket lifted up the first stage of the new int’l. space station called Zarya (Sunrise).
(SFC, 11/20/98, p.A18)(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A13)
1998 Dec 4, The shuttle Endeavour was launched with a crew of 6 from Cape Canaveral. It contained the 2nd component of the new int’l. space station.
(SFC, 12/4/98, p.A2)
1998 Dec 6, The astronauts of the Endeavour space shuttle attached Node 1 of the new space station to the cargo block Zarya.
(SFC, 12/7/98, p.A2)
1998 Dec 15, The Endeavour shuttle and crew returned to Cape Canaveral in a night time landing following NASA’s first space station-building mission.
(SFC, 12/16/98, p.A7)
1999 Feb 6, The Stardust spacecraft lifted off aboard a Delta II rocket for its 7-year journey to gather particles from the Wild-2 comet.
(SFC, 2/6/99, p.A8)(SFC, 2/8/99, p.A2)
1999 May 1, The Liberty Bell 7 Mercury capsule, which sank in 1961, was found 300 miles offshore from Cape Canaveral in 3 waters 3 miles deep.
(SFC, 5/3/99, p.A2)
1999 May 21, The Mir space station was to be allowed to burn up in the atmosphere later this year, but Pres. Yeltsin signed permission to keep the Mir space station aloft pending private financing.
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A3)(SFC, 5/25/99, p.A8)
1999 May 27, The space shuttle Discovery was launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida with 7 astronauts from the US, Canada and Russia. The shuttle was on a 10-day mission to stock the new space station. Julie Payette of Canada flew on the 10-day mission.
(SFC, 5/28/99, p.A2)(USAT, 7/26/99, p.14A)
1999 May 30, Astronauts from the space shuttle “Discovery" rigged cranes and other tools to the exterior of the international space station during a spacewalk; then, the astronauts entered the orbiting outpost for three days of making repairs and delivering supplies.
(AP, 5/30/00)
1999 Jun 6, The Shuttle Discover landed at Kennedy Space Center just after 2 a.m. following the first docking with the new int'l. space station.
(SFEC, 6/6/99, p.A19)
1999 Jul 8, Astronaut Charles "Pete" Conrad Junior, the third man to walk on the moon, died after a motorcycle accident near Ojai, California; he was 69.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.A1)(AP, 7/8/00)
1999 Jul 16, A Russian supply ship for Mir was launched from Baikomur in Kazakstan. It proceeded to successfully dock with Mir.
(WSJ, 7/19/99, p.A1)
1999 Jul 20, After 38 years at the bottom of the Atlantic, astronaut Gus Grissom’s "Liberty Bell Seven" Mercury capsule was lifted to the surface.
(AP, 7/20/00)
1999 Jul 23, After a 2 day delay the Chandra X-ray Observatory was launched from Cape Canaveral aboard the shuttle Columbia led by Commander Eileen Collins, the first woman to command a US space flight.
(SFC, 7/23/99, p.A3)(AP, 7/23/00)
1999 Jul 27, The Columbia space shuttle landed at Cape Canaveral after a 3 day mission to deploy the Chandra X-ray telescope.
(SFC, 7/28/99, p.A3)
1999 Jul 31, NASA controllers planned to send the $63 million Lunar Prospector crashing into the Mawson crater located in the Moon’s south pole. They hoped to churn up some water vapor for possible detection. Evidence of the crash at 2:51 PDT was not detected.
(SFC, 6/3/99, p.A4)(SFEC, 8/1/99, p.A3)
1999 Aug 27, The Russian Mir space station was closed down as the last crew undocked.
(SFC, 8/28/99, p.A10)
1999 Sep 3, NASA temporarily grounded its space shuttle fleet after inspections had uncovered damaged wires that could endanger a mission.
(AP, 9/3/00)
1999 Nov 20, China completed its first unmanned test of a spacecraft. The Shenzhou 1, or "Divine Vessel," was launched at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu province.
(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.A1)
1999 Dec 19, The shuttle Discovery was launched following 9 delays from Cape Canaveral with 7 astronauts on a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
(SFC, 12/20/99, p.A3)
1999 Dec 27, Space shuttle Discovery landed at Cape Canaveral, Fla., following a successful repair of the Hubble Space Telescope.
(SFC, 12/28/99, p.A3)
2000 Feb 11, The space shuttle Endeavour lifted into orbit with a crew of six under commander Kevin Kregel and a mission to map the Earth.
(SFC, 2/12/00, p.A4)
2000 Feb 22, The space shuttle Endeavour and its crew of 6 returned to Cape Canaveral with over a weeks worth of radar images to map Earth.
(SFC, 2/23/00, p.A2)
2000 Apr 6, Two Russian cosmonauts docked with Mir. The destruction of the space station was delayed after MirCorp. of Amsterdam agreed in Feb. to pay $10-20 million to lease commercial rights.
(SFC, 4/7/00, p.D2)(SFEC, 6/11/00, p.T12)
2000 May 19, The shuttle Atlantis lifted off with 7 astronauts on a mission to fix the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 5/20/00, p.A7)
2000 May 29, The space shuttle Atlantis landed at Cape Canaveral in the early morning dark after a successful overhaul of the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 5/30/00, p.A3)
2000 Jun 4, The $670 million, 17-ton, Compton Gamma Ray Observatory was directed to a suicide plunge.
(SSFC, 1/27/08, p.A4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compton_Gamma_Ray_Observatory)
2000 Jul 12, The Russian-made Zvezda service module for the Int’l. Space Station was launched from the Baikonur site in Kazakstan.
(SFC, 7/11/00, p.A8)(SFC, 7/12/00, p.A8)
2000 Sep 8, The space shuttle Atlantis blasted into orbit to deliver supplies to the new int’l. space station.
(SFC, 9/9/00, p.A3)
2000 Sep 20, The space shuttle Atlantis returned after hauling in 3 tons of equipment for the int’l. space station.
(WSJ, 9/21/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 24, The space shuttle Discovery landed at Edwards Air Force Base following the 100th shuttle flight and work on the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 10/25/00, p.A3)
2000 Oct 31, American astronaut Bill Shepherd and Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev of Russia rocketed into orbit aboard a Soyuz rocket for the Int’l. Space Station for a 4-month stay. They would become the first residents of the international space station.
(www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/shepherd.html)(SFC, 10/31/00, p.A12)(AP, 10/31/01)
2000 Nov 30, The space shuttle Endeavour took off to the Int’l. Space Station with a crew of 5 to install new solar panels.
(SFC, 12/1/00, p.A14)
2000 Dec 11, The space shuttle Endeavour landed in Florida following its mission to install solar panels on the int’l. space station.
(WSJ, 12/12/00, p.A1)
2001 Feb 7, The space shuttle Atlantis took off with the Destiny module, a laboratory compartment, for the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 2/8/01, p.A3)
2001 Feb 20, Space Shuttle Atlantis landed at Edwards Air Force Base following a 13-day mission to the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 2/21/01, p.A5)
2001 cMar 1, NASA announced the cancellation of the X-33, a new heavy-lift orbiting spacecraft. The X-34, a reusable vehicle, and the X-38, a rescue vehicle, were also cancelled due to budget constraints.
(WSJ, 3/7/01, p.A22)
2001 Mar 8, The space shuttle Discovery lifted off with supplies for the int’l. space station in a new Italian module named Leonardo. The 12-day mission also included a fresh crew of 3 for the station.
(SFC, 3/9/01, p.A2)(WSJ, 3/9/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 23, Russia's orbiting 135-ton Mir space station ended its 15-year odyssey with a fiery plunge into the South Pacific between Chile and New Zealand.
(SFC, 3/23/01, p.A1)(AP, 3/23/02)
2001 Apr 18, India launched a rocket carrying a communications satellite.
(SFC, 4/19/01, p.A11)
2001 Apr 19, The space shuttle Endeavour went into orbit with 7 astronauts on an 11-day mission to install a billion-dollar robot arm on the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 4/20/01, p.A6)
2001 Apr 28, A Russian Soyuz rocket lifted off for the Int’l. Space Station with Dennis Tito (60), who paid some $20 million, for the experience. Tito was the founder of the Wilshire Associates investment firm.
(SSFC, 4/29/01, p.A15)
2001 Apr 29, NASA scientists reported that they had contacted the Pioneer 10 spacecraft, launched in 1972, after 8 months of no communication.
(SFC, 4/30/01, p.A7)
2001 Apr 30, The Soyuz-32, carrying multimillionaire Dennis Tito and 2 Russian astronauts, docked with the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 5/1/01, p.B3)
2001 May 1, The space shuttle Endeavour landed at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mohave Desert following the installation of the billion-dollar robot arm on the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 5/2/01, p.A4)
2001 Jun 30, NASA launched its 16-foot, 1,800-pound Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) to orbit the Sun and to scan the universe for the faint afterglow of Creation by measuring variations in radiation temperature of up to 20 millionths of a degree. In 2003 it allowed scientists to calculate the age of the universe at 13.7 billion years.
(WSJ, 6/28/01, p.A16)(AP, 6/30/02)(SFC, 2/12/03, p.A4)
2001 Jul 12, The US space shuttle Atlantis took off with a crew of 5 to deliver a portal for spacewalks to the Int’l. Space Station Alpha.
(SFC, 7/13/01, p.A3)(SFC, 7/14/01, p.C1)
2001 Jul 14, NASA launched an unmanned solar-powered plane named Helios over Hawaii.
(WSJ, 7/16/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 10, Space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral with supplies and a fresh crew for the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 8/11/01, p.A4)
2001 Aug 22, The space shuttle Discovery returned and brought home 3 crew members, Yuri Usachev, Susan Helms, and Jim Voss, who had spent nearly 6 months on the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 8/23/01, p.A7)
2001 Sep 16, A Russian module docked with space station Alpha 2 days after its launch from Kazakstan.
(SFC, 9/17/01, p.A18)
2001 Sep 21, A US Taurus rocket, made by Orbital Sciences, carrying a NASA satellite failed to launch and probably plunged into the Indian ocean.
(SFC, 9/22/01, p.A20)
2001 Oct 21, In Kazakstan a 3-person Russian-French crew blasted off for the Int’l. Space Station in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The crew included Claudie Haignere, who in 1996 became the 1st Frenchwoman in space.
(SFC, 10/22/01, p.B2)
2001 Dec 5, NASA launched space shuttle Endeavour to deliver a new 3-man crew to the Alpha space station. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Onufrienko flew to replace Doug Culbertson as skipper.
(WSJ, 12/6/01, p.A1)(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A2)
2001 Dec 7, Jason-1, a satellite for tracking rising sea levels, was launched as a joint US and French effort. Its useful life ended in 2013.
(SFC, 7/4/13, p.D3)
2001 Dec 11, NASA agreed in principle to let Russia’s space agency send Mark Shuttleworth, a South Africa Internet tycoon, to the space station in April for some $20 million.
(WSJ, 12/12/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 17, Space shuttle Endeavour returned to Cape Canaveral following A 12-day mission for a crew change at the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 12/18/01, p.A4)(WSJ, 12/18/01, p.A1)
2002 Jan 30, The 3.5-ton satellite Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUNE), launched in 1992, broke up in Earth’s atmosphere over Egypt. It had surveyed the entire Milky Way and beyond and transmitted date until Jan 31 2001.
(SFC, 1/30/02, p.A2)(www.cbc.ca/health/story/2002/01/31/satellite020131.html)
2002 Mar 1, The space shuttle Columbia with 7 astronauts blasted into orbit on an 11-day mission that included work on the Hubble Space Telescope.
(SFC, 3/2/02, p.A3)
2002 Mar 1, Envisat ("Environmental Satellite"), an Earth-observing satellite, was launched aboard an Ariane 5 from the Guyana Space Center in Kourou, French Guyana. After losing contact with the satellite on 8 April 2012, the European Space Agency formally announced the end of Envisat's mission on 9 May 2012.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Envisat)
2002 Mar 6, Astronauts successfully replaced a power-control unit on the Hubble space telescope.
(WSJ, 3/7/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 8, The space shuttle Atlantis took off for an 11-day mission to the ISS carrying latticework and a rail car.
(SFC, 4/9/02, p.A3)
2002 Mar 9, The space shuttle Columbia's astronauts released the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit after five days of repairs.
(AP, 3/9/07)
2002 Apr 19, The space shuttle Atlantis returned to Earth after installing the first girder in what eventually will be a giant framework at the international space station.
(AP, 4/19/03)
2002 Apr 30, Striking new images from the upgraded Hubble Space Telescope were unveiled.
(SFC, 5/1/02, p.A9)
2002 May 6, Elon Musk founded SpaceX with the goal of reducing space transportation costs to enable the colonization of Mars.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX)
2002 Jun 5, The space shuttle Endeavour launched from Cape Canaveral carrying 7 new residents for the int’l. space station.
(SFC, 6/6/02, p.A7)
2002 Jun 19, The space shuttle Endeavour returned to Earth with one Russian and two American crewmen who'd spent six and a-half months aboard the international space station.
(AP, 6/19/03)
2002 Jun, Moon rocks were stolen from a NASA safe. They were recovered in July at a hotel in Orlando, Fl. 4 men were later convicted and sentenced to prison terms. 3 young NASA employees, led by Thad Roberts (25) had stolen a quarter pound of moon rocks and tried selling them online to a Belgian collector, who alerted the FBI. In 2011 Ben Mezrich authored “Sex on the Moon: The Amazing Story Behind the Most Audacious Heist in History."
(SSFC, 7/17/11, p.F5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolen_and_missing_moon_rocks)
2002 Aug 21, A new Lockheed Martin Atlas V rocket launched a 4-ton French communications satellite into orbit.
(WSJ, 8/23/02, p.A1)
2002 Oct 7, Space shuttle Atlantis carried 6 astronauts and a 14-ton girder for installation on the int’l. space station.
(ADN, 10/8/02, p.A4)
2002 Oct 9, The space shuttle "Atlantis" arrived at the international space station, bringing with it a 14-ton girder.
(AP, 10/9/03)
2002 Oct 15, In northern Russia a Soyuz-U rocket carrying an EU research communications satellite exploded several seconds after liftoff from a launch pad, killing one soldier.
(AP, 10/16/02)(WSJ, 10/17/02, p.A1)
2002 Oct 18, Space shuttle Atlantis returned to Earth following an 11-day mission to the int’l. space station.
(SFC, 10/19/02, p.A16)
2002 Nov 25, Space shuttle Endeavour arrived at the international space station, delivering one American and two Russians, and another girder for the orbiting outpost.
(AP, 11/25/03)
2002 Nov 26, The Astra-1K satellite was launched atop a Russian Proton rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan. The world's largest communications satellite, manufactured by France's Alcatel Space corporation for Societe Europeene des Satellites of Luxembourg, was lost after it went into the wrong orbit.
(AP, 11/26/02)(WSJ, 11/27/02, p.A1)
2002 Dec 7, Space shuttle Endeavour returned to Earth along with space station voyagers Peggy Whitsun, Valery Korzun and Sergei Treschev.
(SSFC, 12/8/02, p.A14)
2002 Dec 30, China launched its Shenzhou IV spacecraft in a test launch to prepare for manned space voyages.
(SFC, 12/30/02, p.A8)
2002 NASA removed 5 of 9 safety panel members and 2 consultants following a report that safety problems loomed if the agency’s budget was not increased.
(SSFC, 2/3/03, p.A1)
2002 NASA said yes to a $2.5 billion plan for a successor to the Hubble space telescope, launched in 1990, that would use infra-red, rather than visible light, to be ready in 2010. By 2011 the James Webb space telescope, now costing $8.8 billion, was still in the workshop with an estimated launch in 2018.
(Econ, 11/12/11, p.94)
2002 Gary McKinnon was caught in London and after breaking into 97 US military and NASA computers, while allegedly searching for UFO’s. His hacking from 2001-2002 caused an estimated $700,000 of damage. In 2008 McKinnon (42) was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome. He also lost an appeal against being extradited to the US to face charges. In 2009 he offered to plead guilty to a criminal charge in Britain to avoid extradition to the United States.
(SFC, 7/31/08, p.A14)(AP, 1/12/09)(Econ, 8/8/09, p.51)
2003 Jan 16, The shuttle Columbia carried a crew of 7 for a 16-day mission. Col. Ilan Ramon was aboard as Israel's 1st astronaut. The mission ended in tragedy on Feb. 1, when the shuttle broke up during its return descent, killing all seven crew members.
(SFC, 1/17/03, p.A2)(AP, 1/16/04)
2003 Jan 25, NASA launched a spacecraft into orbit to measure all the radiation streaming toward Earth from the sun. The small satellite is called Sorce — for Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment.
(AP, 1/25/04)
2003 Feb 1, Space shuttle Columbia broke apart in flames over Texas, killing all 7 astronauts just 16 minutes before they were supposed to glide to ground in Florida. The astronauts included Michael P. Anderson (b.1959), David M. Brown (b.1956), Laurel Clark (b.1962), Kalpana Chawla (b.1962), Rick Husband (b.1957), William C. McCool (b.1961) and Ilan Ramon (b.1954).
(AP, 2/1/03)(SSFC, 2/2/03, p.A8)
2003 Feb 2, In Kazakstan Progress M-47 lifted off atop a Soyuz-U rocket to deliver supplies to the int’l. space station.
(SFC, 2/3/03, p.A5)
2003 Feb 13, An investigative panel found that superheated air almost certainly seeped through a breach in space shuttle Columbia's left wing and possibly its wheel compartment during the craft's fiery descent, resulting in the deaths of all seven astronauts.
(AP, 2/13/04)
2003 Feb 28, NASA released video taken aboard Columbia that had miraculously survived the fiery destruction of the space shuttle with the loss of all seven astronauts; in the footage, four of the crew members can be seen doing routine chores and admiring the view outside the cockpit.
(AP, 2/28/04)
2003 Apr 18, Burt Rutan, aircraft designer, unveiled SpaceShipOne, a rocket-powered spacecraft. He hoped to win the $10 million 1996 X Prize, offered for the 1st private launch of 3-people to an altitude of 62.5 miles twice in 2 weeks.
(SFC, 4/19/03, p.A2)
2003 Apr 26, Russia lunched a Soyuz rocket with a 2-man crew to keep the space station operating while Shuttle flights are suspended.
(WSJ, 4/28/03, A1)
2003 Jun 10, NASA launched a Mars Exploration Rover named Spirit, the 1st of 2. Spirit arrived on Mars in January 2004.
(WSJ, 6/11/03, p.A1)(SFC, 6/12/03, p.A1)(AP, 6/10/08)
2003 Jul 7, A chunk of foam insulation fired at shuttle wing parts blew open a gaping 16-inch hole, yielding what one member of the Columbia investigation team said was the "smoking gun" proving what brought down the spaceship on Feb 1.
(AP, 7/7/04)
2003 Jul 7, NASA's 2nd Mars lander, named Opportunity, was launched.
(SFC, 7/8/03, p.A1)
2003 Aug 10, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, aboard the international space center, married his earthbound bride, Ekaterina Dmitriev, who was at Johnson Space Center in Houston, in the first wedding ever conducted from space.
(AP, 8/11/08)
2003 Aug 25, NASA launched the largest-diameter infrared telescope ever in space. NASA showed the 1st images from the $670 million Spitzer Space Telescope on Dec 18.
(WSJ, 8/26/03, p.A1)(SFC, 12/19/03, p.A2)
2003 Sep 8, NASA presented a "return to flight" plan for the shuttle fleet.
(WSJ, 9/8/03, p.A1)
2003 Sep 21, NASA’s $1.5 billion Galileo mission ended a 14-year exploration of the solar system's largest planet and its moons with the spacecraft crashing by design into Jupiter at 108,000 mph.
(SFC, 9/22/03, p.B8)(AP, 9/21/04)
2003 Oct 15, In China Shenzhou 5 launched into orbit with air force Lt. Col. Yang Liwei (38) aboard, making China the third nation to put a human in space on its own, after the former Soviet Union and the United States. The launch was made from the space center at Jiuquan. His capsule landed in Mongolia the next day.
(AP, 10/15/03)(SFC, 10/16/03, p.A3)(SSFC, 7/15/07, p.D5)(Econ, 10/24/09, SR p.13)
2003 Oct 18, Russia launched a Soyuz capsule from Kazakhstan with a 3-man crew for the int'l. space station. Aboard were an American, a Russian and a Spaniard.
(SSFC, 10/19/03, p.A2)
2003 Oct 28, The seven astronauts who died in the February 1 Columbia shuttle disaster were honored with the unveiling of their names carved into the national Space Mirror Memorial in Florida.
(AP, 10/28/08)
2003 Oct 28, A Soyuz space capsule with 3 astronauts landed in Kazakhstan.
(SFC, 10/28/03, p.A1)
2003 Dec 25, The British Beagle 2 spacecraft landed on Mars. The 73-pound lander was launched by the European Space Agency June 2. Contact with the Charles Darwin probe was lost soon after it separated from its European Space Agency Mars Express mother ship on Dec 19. The mother ship went into orbit for a planned 2 years of photography.
(SFC, 12/25/03, p.A1)(SFC, 12/26/03, p.A2)(SFC, 12/27/03, p.A2)
2003 Dec, The expected completion date of the $17.4 billion int’l. space station. The cost was estimated up in 1998 to $24.7 billion, and possibly delayed by 3 years.
(SFC, 4/24/98, p.A10)
2004 Jan 8, Pressure in the Int'l. Space Station continued to drop.
(WSJ, 1/9/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 14, Pres. Bush proposed a new space program that would send humans back to the moon by 2015 and establish a base to Mars and beyond. Bush said he would seek $12 billion for the initial stages of the plan.
(SFC, 1/15/04, p.A1)(WSJ, 1/15/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 15, The NASA Spirit rover rolled onto the surface of Mars for the first time since the vehicle bounced to a landing nearly two weeks earlier.
(AP, 1/15/05)
2004 Jan 16, NASA said it would not send another shuttle mission to service and repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
(SFC, 1/17/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 22, NASA said it lost contact with the Mars spirit rover.
(WSJ, 1/23/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 24, A 2nd NASA rover was set to land on Mars.
(SFC, 1/23/04, p.A14)
2004 Mar 2, The European Space Agency launched its Rosetta lander. It was intended to land on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in May, 2014.
(SFC, 7/18/05, p.A4)
2004 Mar 24, A NASA unpiloted X-43A jet, part of its Hyper-X program, reached a record speed of 5,200 mph, Mach 6.83, after a rocket boosted it to 3,500 mph. It used a new engine called a supersonic-combustion ramjet, or scramjet.
(SSFC, 3/28/04, p.A3)(Econ, 3/27/04, p.80)(SFC, 11/10/04, p.A2)
2004 Apr 19, A Russian rocket roared into space carrying an American, a Russian and a Dutchman to the international space station on the 3rd manned mission since the halt of the US shuttle program.
(SFC, 4/19/04, p.A5)(AP, 4/19/05)
2004 Apr 20, The NASA Gravity Probe B satellite, designed by Stanford researchers, was launched to test Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.
(SFC, 4/21/04, p.A7)
2004 Jun 21, SpaceShipOne lifted off from the Mojave Desert in the initial stage of the world's first attempted commercial space flight. SpaceShipOne reached 62.21 miles. It was designed by legendary aerospace designer Burt Rutan and was built with more than $20 million in funding by billionaire Paul Allen. It was piloted by Michael Melvill.
(AP, 6/21/04)(WSJ, 6/22/04, p.A1)
2004 Jul 1, The Cassini spacecraft sent back photographs of Saturn's shimmering rings.
(AP, 7/1/05)
2004 Sep 8, NASA’s $260 million Genesis space capsule crashed in the Utah desert after its parachute failed to open. It carried a cargo of solar wind particles.
(SFC, 9/9/04, p.A1)
2004 Sep 29, Mike Melvill piloted SpaceShipOne, designed by Burt Rutan, climbed to 337,500 feet in the 1st leg of an attempt to capture the $10 million X Prize. The prize required a 2nd success within 2 weeks.
(SFC, 9/30/04, p.A4)
2004 Oct 4, Mike Melvill piloted SpaceShipOne, designed by Burt Rutan, climbed to 367,442 feet in a 2nd leg and captured the $10 million Ansari X Prize.
(SFC, 10/5/04, p.A1)(Econ, 10/9/04, p.75)
2004 Oct 4, Gordon Cooper (b.1927), US astronaut in the Mercury program, died in Ventura, Ca. He piloted Faith 7 around Earth on May 15-16, 1963.
(SFC, 10/5/04, p.B7)
2004 Oct 13, A Russian rocket lifted off in Kazakhstan carrying 2 Russians and an American to replace the crew of the int’l. space station.
(SFC, 10/14/04, p.A2)
2004 Oct 24, A Soyuz capsule, carrying 2 Russians and an American, landed in Kazakhstan. The crew had spent 6 months at the int’l. space station.
(SSFC, 10/24/04, p.A7)
2004 Dec 23, Russia launched an unmanned cargo ship to the int’l. space station.
(WSJ, 12/24/04, p.A1)
2004 Dec 26, The Russian unmanned cargo ship, Progress M-51, docked at the int’l. space station with fresh supplies.
(SFC, 12/25/04, p.A5)
2004 Greg Klerkx authored “Lost in Space: The Fall of NASA and the Dream of a Space Age.
(SSFC, 12/12/04, p.E6)
2005 Jan 12, NASA launched its Deep Impact spacecraft from Cape Canaveral, Fla. It was scheduled to launch an 820-poind impactor vehicle at Comet Tempel-1 on July 4.
(WSJ, 1/13/05, p.D8)
2005 Jan 14, The European space probe Huygens landed on Saturn's moon Titan, sending back images of what scientists were calling the strangest landscape in the solar system. Pictures showed a pale orange surface covered by a thin haze of methane and what appears to be a methane sea complete with islands and a mist-shrouded coastline.
(AP, 1/15/05)(http://huygens.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=36280)
2005 Mar 11, Pres. Bush picked Johns Hopkins physicist Michael Griffin to lead NASA.
(SFC, 3/12/05, p.A8)
2005 Apr 15, A Russian Soyuz-FG rocket lifted off at Baikonur, Kazakhstan, carrying 3 men to the int’l. space station.
(SFC, 4/15/05, p.A3)
2005 Apr 25, A 3-man crew from the Int’l. Space Station landed in northern Kazakhstan.
(SFC, 4/25/05, p.A3)
2005 Jul 3, A NASA spacecraft collided with a comet half the size of Manhattan, creating a brilliant cosmic smashup that capped a risky voyage to uncover the building blocks of life on Earth.
(Reuters, 7/4/05)
2005 Jul 13, A fuel gauge that mistakenly read full instead of empty forced NASA to call off the first shuttle launch in 2½ years.
(AP, 7/13/06)
2005 Jul 26, Discovery and seven astronauts blasted into orbit on America's first manned space shot since the 2003 Columbia disaster, ending a painful, 2 1/2-year shutdown devoted to making the shuttle less risky and NASA more safety-conscious. Its mission was to resupply the space station and deliver a new gyroscope and storage platform.
(AP, 7/26/05)(SFC, 7/27/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 9, Discovery and its crew of seven glided back to Earth ending a 14-day test of space shuttle safety. NASA’s STS 114 flight was shadowed by the ghosts of Columbia
(AP, 8/9/05)(Econ, 8/13/05, p.68)
2005 Oct 3, A Russian space capsule with American tourist Gregory Olsen aboard docked with the international space station.
(AP, 10/4/06)
2005 Oct 11, US millionaire scientist Gregory Olsen and a two-man, Russian-American crew returned from the international space station to Earth in a swift, bone-jarring descent in Kazakhstan.
(AP, 10/11/05)
2005 Dec 28, The EU launched the first satellite in its Galileo navigation program, which officials expect one day will end the continent's reliance on the US Global Positioning System. A Soyuz rocket, launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, carried the 1st of an expected 30 satellites.
(AP, 12/28/05)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.53)
2006 Jan 15, The NASA space capsule, Stardust, returned safely to Earth in a desert near Salt Lake City with the first dust ever fetched from a comet, a cosmic bounty that scientists hope will yield clues to how the solar system formed.
(http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/photo/er.html)(AP, 1/15/06)
2006 Jan 19, NASA launched its New Horizons spacecraft on a mission to Pluto following a 2-day delay. Scientists won't be able to receive data on Pluto until at least July 2015, the earliest date the mission is expected to arrive. The spacecraft carried ashes of Clyde Tombaugh (1906-1997), the man who discovered Pluto.
(SFC, 1/20/06, p.A5)(SFC, 7/13/15, p.A7)
2006 Jul 4, The US space shuttle Discovery took off at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, with 7 astronauts. Up to six pieces of debris that could be foam insulation fell off Discovery's troublesome external fuel tank minutes after liftoff. News arrived that North Korea had launched test missiles [see July 5].
(AFP, 7/5/06)(SFC, 7/5/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 5, North Korea test-fired a long-range missile that may be capable of reaching America, but it failed seconds after launch. North Korea also tested shorter range missiles in an exercise the White House termed "a provocation" but not an immediate threat. The early morning tests came as the US celebrated the Fourth of July and just minutes ahead of the US launch of the space shuttle Discovery.
(AP, 7/4/06)(AP, 7/5/06)(SFC, 7/5/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 6, The space shuttle Discovery docked with the international space station, bringing with it European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter, who began a six-month stay aboard the station.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2006 Jul 8, Discovery astronauts Piers Sellers and Michael Fossum went on a 7 1/2-hour spacewalk to test a repair technique for space shuttles.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2006 Jul 15, The space shuttle Discovery undocked from the international space station.
(AP, 7/15/07)
2006 Sep 18, Anousheh Ansari (40), an Iranian-American telecommunications entrepreneur, took off on a Russian rocket bound for the international space station, becoming the world's first paying female space tourist. Aboard the space station, an oxygen generator overheated and spilled a toxic irritant, forcing the crew to don masks and gloves in the first emergency ever declared aboard the 8-year-old orbiting outpost.
(AP, 9/18/07)
2006 Dec 11, After a two-day journey, space shuttle Discovery reached the international space station for a weeklong stay.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2006 Dec 22, Space shuttle Discovery and its seven-member crew landed in Florida after a smooth, 13-day flight to rewire the International Space Station.
(AFP, 12/23/06)(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Jan 11, China destroyed its Feng Yun 1-C, an aging weather satellite launched in 1999, with a ballistic missile 537 miles above the Earth. The impact created about 28% of the junk currently floating in space. The US halted such tests in 1985 for fear of creating debris deadly to spacecraft.
(WSJ, 1/19/07, p.A1)(Econ, 1/27/07, p.38)(Econ, 1/19/08, p.26)
2007 Feb 5, NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak was arrested in Orlando, Fla., accused of trying to kidnap a perceived rival for the affections of a space shuttle pilot.
(AP, 2/5/08)
2007 Apr 7, A Russian rocket carrying the American billionaire who helped develop Microsoft Word roared into the night skies over Kazakhstan, sending Charles Simonyi and two cosmonauts soaring into orbit on a two-day journey to the international space station.
(AP, 4/7/07)
2007 Apr 9, Two Russian cosmonauts and US billionaire Charles Simony bringing a gourmet meal arrived at the international space station, to a warm welcome from current crewmen.
(AP, 4/10/07)
2007 Apr 17, Egypt launched EgyptSat 1, its first remote sounding satellite, from Baikonur Cosmodrome. The spacecraft was jointly developed by Egypt's National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences and the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau in Ukraine. Israeli officials suspected it to be a spy satellite. In 2010 ground-controllers lost it.
(http://claudelafleur.qc.ca/Spacecrafts-2007.html)(Econ, 10/30/10, p.50)
2007 Apr 21, Charles Simonyi, an American billionaire who paid $25 million for a 13-day trip to outer space, returned to Earth in a space capsule that also carried a cosmonaut and an American astronaut, making a soft landing on the Kazakh steppe.
(AP, 4/21/07)
2007 May 14, A Chinese rocket blasted a Nigerian communications satellite into orbit, marking an expansion of China's commercial launching services for foreign space hardware. The NIGCOMSAT-1 ceased functioning on November 11, 2008, due to a power failure.
(AP, 5/14/07)(AP, 11/13/08)
2007 Jun 8, A patched-up Atlantis blasted off with seven astronauts on the first space shuttle flight of 2007, an 11-day space station-building mission.
(AP, 6/8/07)(WSJ, 6/9/07, p.A1)
2007 Jun 22, The space shuttle Atlantis landed in California to avoid rain in Florida, ending a two-week, five-million-mile mission for its crew of seven. While docked at the International Space Station, the astronauts successfully installed a new truss segment, expanding the station's laboratory with a new set of power-generating solar arrays.
(AP, 6/23/07)
2007 Aug 4, NASA launched its Phoenix Mars Lander, a robotic dirt and ice digger, scheduled to land on Mars on May 25, 2008.
(SSFC, 8/5/07, p.A10)
2007 Aug 8, The US space shuttle Endeavour and a crew of 7 took off from Cape Canaveral, Fl., on a special mission. Teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan was part of the crew.
(SFC, 8/9/07, p.A7)
2007 Aug 14, Teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan transformed the space shuttle Endeavour and space station into a classroom for her first educational session from orbit, fulfilling the legacy of Christa McAuliffe, who died in the 1986 Challenger disaster.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2007 Aug 19, The US space shuttle Endeavour departed hastily from the International Space Station, ending a construction mission a day early in order to land before Hurricane Dean threatens its Houston control center.
(AP, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 21, The US shuttle Endeavour landed in Florida following a 13-day assembly mission on the international space station.
(SFC, 8/22/07, p.A3)
2007 Sep 20, NASA released satellite data that showed sea ice in the Arctic had shrunk one million square miles more this summer that the average melt over 24 years. This represented an area larger that Alaska and Texas combined.
(SFC, 9/21/07, p.A1)
2007 Sep 27, In Florida a spacecraft named Dawn blasted off aboard an unmanned Delta rocket on a mission to explore two giant asteroids between Mars and Jupiter. Dawn was powered by a trio of solar-powered electric engines that ionize and expel xenon gas. It could serve as a blueprint for future interplanetary transport.
(Reuters, 9/27/07)
2007 Oct 10, A Russian rocket blasted off from Kazakhstan's Baikonur launch pad, carrying 3 astronauts to the international space station. Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, an orthopedic surgeon and university lecturer from Kuala Lumpur, left Earth alongside Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and American astronaut Peggy Whitson. Shukor was selected from among 11,000 Malaysian candidates to fly aboard the ISS in a deal his government arranged with Russia as part of a $1 billion purchase of Russian fighter jets. Whitson will be the first woman to command the outpost.
(Reuters, 9/20/07)(AP, 10/10/07)(SFC, 10/11/07, p.A8)
2007 Oct 23, The US space shuttle Discovery launched from Cape Canaveral with a 7-person crew for a 14-day mission to the int’l. space station.
(SFC, 10/24/07, p.A9)
2007 Nov 7, The space shuttle Discovery returned to Kennedy Space Center after a 15-day mission building and repairing the international space station.
(SFC, 11/8/07, p.A7)
2007 Dec 16, Argentina and Brazil successfully launched a rocket into space in the first joint space mission by the two South American nations. The VS30 rocket, which carried experiments from both countries, blasted off from Brazil's Barreira do Inferno launch center in northern Rio Grande do Norte state.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 26, An unmanned Russian cargo ship carrying 2 tons of supplies including holiday gifts, docked at the international space station.
(AP, 12/26/07)
2008 Jan 14, The NASA space probe Messenger skimmed 124 miles above Mercury in the first of 3 passes before it settles into orbit in 2011.
(SFC, 1/14/08, p.A20)
2008 Jan 14, A 30-year-old Boeing 747, outfitted by NASA with a telescope, stopped at Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Ca. The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) was expected to begin scientific flights in 2009.
(SFC, 1/15/08, p.B3)
2008 Feb 11, A US defense official, an ex-Boeing engineer and two others were charged in 2 separate spy cases with spying for China involving sensitive military and aerospace secrets, including on the space shuttle. Dongfan Chung, a longtime aerospace worker in Southern California, was indicted for allegedly passing classified documents to China in an elaborate espionage endeavor that spanned two decades and exposed trade secrets from the space shuttle, the Delta IV rocket and the C-17 military transport aircraft. In 2010 Chung was sentenced to over 15 years in prison.
(http://articles.latimes.com/2008/feb/12/nation/na-espionage12)(SFC, 2/12/08, p.A3)(SFC, 2/9/10, p.A4)
2008 Feb 23, Japan's space agency launched an experimental communications satellite designed to enable super high-speed data transmission at home and in Southeast Asia.
(AP, 2/24/08)
2008 Mar 11, The US space shuttle Endeavour blasted off from a seaside Florida launch pad to deliver part of a long-awaited Japanese space laboratory and a Canadian-built robotic system to the International Space Station.
(AP, 3/11/08)
2008 Mar 18, NASA reported that the thickest Arctic ice is melting according to satellite data.
(WSJ, 3/19/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 26, The NASA space shuttle Endeavour and its crew of seven made a night landing in Florida following a 16 day mission to the ISS.
(SFC, 3/27/08, p.A3)
2008 Apr 8, A Russian capsule carrying South Korea's first astronaut and two cosmonauts blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, en route to the international space station.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 19, In northern Kazakhstan a Soyuz capsule, carrying South Korean bioengineer Yi So-yeon, American astronaut Peggy Whitson and Russian flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko, landed 260 miles off its mark.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 May 15, An unmanned Russian cargo ship blasted off with supplies, equipment and gifts for the international space station.
(AP, 5/15/08)
2008 May 25, NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander landed safely and began sending images home after a 10-month, 422 million-mile journey.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 31, The US shuttle Discovery made a successful launch from Florida. It carried a Japanese research laboratory and key parts to fix a broken toilet in the International Space Station.
(AP, 6/1/08)
2008 Jun 11, NASA's Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, or GLAST, successfully launched aboard a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The telescope was soon named after Enrico Fermi.
(www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/jun/HQ_08141_GLAST_Launch.html)(SFC, 8/27/08, p.B7)
2008 Jun 20, NASA scientists reported that the Mars Phoenix spacecraft had uncovered chunks of ice.
(SFC, 6/21/08, p.A2)
2008 Jun 28, Dr. Robert C. Seamans, former NASA administrator (1960-1968) and MIT professor, died in Massachusetts. In 1968 Pres. Nixon named him secretary of the Air Force and in 1974 Pres. Ford named him the first administrator of the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA), which along with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, had replaced the Atomic Energy Commission.
(SFC, 7/4/08, p.B5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Seamans)
2008 Jul 24, NASA released findings that indicate magnetic explosions about one-third of the way to the moon cause the northern lights, or aurora borealis, to burst in spectacular shapes and colors, and dance across the sky.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Sep 6, The $500 million GeoEye-1, a super-sharp Earth-imaging satellite, was launched into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the Central California coast. GeoEye Inc. said that in black-and-white mode, the satellite can distinguish objects on the Earth's surface as small as 16 inches.
(AP, 9/7/08)
2008 Sep 10, An unmanned Russian cargo ship blasted off successfully carrying supplies, equipment and gifts for the international space station.
(AP, 9/10/08)
2008 Sep 25, China successfully launched a three-man crew into space to carry out the country's first spacewalk, beginning the nation's most challenging space mission since it first sent a person into space in 2003. The Shenzhou VII spacecraft was launched on a Long March II-F rocket in western Inner Mongolia.
(AP, 9/25/08)(Econ, 9/27/08, p.60)
2008 Sep 27, Mission commander Zhai Zhigang floated, a Chinese astronaut, performed the nation's first-ever spacewalk, the latest milestone in an ambitious program that is increasingly rivaling the United States and Russia in its rapid expansion. Fellow astronaut Liu Boming also emerged briefly from the capsule to hand Zhai a Chinese flag that he waved for an exterior camera filming the event. The third crew member, Jing Haipeng, monitored the Shenzhou 7 from inside the re-entry module.
(AP, 9/27/08)
2008 Sep 28, Three Chinese astronauts made a jubilant return to Earth after successfully completing the country's first-ever spacewalk, an event the premier said was "a stride forward" in China's space history.
(AP, 9/28/08)
2008 Sep 28, Space Explorations Technologies (SpaceX) successfully launched its 2-stage Falcon 1 rocket into orbit with a dummy payload. The South Pacific launch was its 4th attempt following 3 earlier failures.
(SFC, 9/29/08, p.A5)
2008 Sep 29, Scientists reported that NASA's Phoenix spacecraft has discovered evidence of past water at its Martian landing site and spotted falling snow for the first time. Soil experiments revealed the presence of two minerals known to be formed in liquid water. Scientists identified the minerals as calcium carbonate, found in limestone and chalk, and sheet silicate.
(AP, 9/30/08)
2008 Oct 12, A Soyuz spacecraft with two Americans and a Russian on board lifted off from Kazakhstan for the international space station. The Soyuz TMA-13 capsule carried American computer game millionaire Richard Garriott, US astronaut Michael Fincke and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov.
(AP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 16, The Hubble Space Telescope went into the final stages of recovery after NASA successfully bypassed a faulty computer and resurrected an 18-year-old spare from orbital hibernation.
(Reuters, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 22, India launched its first mission to the moon, rocketing the Chandrayaan 1 satellite up into the pale dawn sky in a two-year mission to redraw maps of the lunar surface. On board was the Mono Mineralogy Mapper, a NASA spectroscope.
(AP, 10/22/08)(Econ, 10/25/08, p.96)
2008 Oct 24, A Soyuz capsule carrying an American and two Russians touched down on target in Kazakhstan after a descent from the international space station, safely delivering the first two men to follow their fathers into space.
(AP, 10/24/08)
2008 Nov 10, NASA ended the Phoenix Mars mission. The lander last communicated on Nov 2 after more than 5 months on the planet.
(WSJ, 11/11/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 14, An Indian probe landed on the moon, in a milestone for the country's 45-year-old space program.
(AFP, 11/14/08)
2008 Nov 14, Space shuttle Endeavour and 7 astronauts made a night time launch and raced toward the international space station for a home makeover job.
(AP, 11/15/08)
2008 Nov 19, NASA flight controllers were revamping plans for the remaining spacewalks planned during space shuttle Endeavour's visit to the international space station, after a crucial tool bag floated out to space during a repair trip.
(AP, 11/19/08)
2008 Nov 28, Space shuttle Endeavour and its crew of seven departed the international space station, ending a 12-day visit.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Nov 30, The US space shuttle Endeavour ended a 16-day trip to the int’l. space station landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California after storms hit the main landing site in Florida.
(SFC, 12/1/08, p.A4)
2008 Dec 16, NASA said satellite data indicated that more than 2 trillion tons of land ice have melted in Alaska, Antarctica and Greenland since 2003. The satellite data showed the latest signs of what scientists say is global warming. A scientist from America’s National Snow and Ice Data Center said the shrinking of Arctic ice (and exposure of extra sea to radiation) was warming the world at an accelerating pace.
(http://tinyurl.com/uxl8tm8)(Econ, 12/20/08, p.109)
2009 Jan 23, Japan’s space agency (JAXA) launched Ibuki (breath), the first satellite dedicated to monitoring carbon dioxide emissions. Officials hoped to gather information on climate change and help the country compete in the lucrative satellite-launching business.
(AP, 1/23/09)(Econ, 2/14/09, p.90)
2009 Feb 2, Iran successfully launched a missile carrying Omid (hope in Farsi), its first domestically made satellite into orbit. In 2005, Iran launched its first commercial satellite on a Russian rocket in a joint project with Moscow, which appears to be the main partner in transferring space technology to Iran.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 10, An unmanned Russian cargo ship lifted off from Kazakhstan carrying supplies and a space suit to the international space station and its three-member crew. American astronauts Michael Fincke and Sandra Magnus are aboard the station along with Russian Yuri Lonchakov. The crew size will be doubled to six members later this year.
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 10, The first-ever collision between two satellites occurred over Siberia when a derelict Russian military communications satellite, Cosmos 2251, crossed paths with a US Iridium satellite.
(AP, 2/12/09)(Econ, 8/21/10, p.65)
2009 Feb 24, A rocket carrying a NASA satellite crashed near Antarctica after a failed launch, ending a $280 million mission to track global warming from space.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Mar 6, NASA's planet-hunting telescope, Kepler, rocketed into space on a historic voyage to track down other Earths in a faraway patch of the Milky Way galaxy. The $600 million satellite experienced a communication failure in 2013. It continued limited operations until 2018.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler_space_telescope)(AP, 3/7/09)(Econ, 10/18/14, p.83)
2009 Mar 15, The space shuttle Discovery and its crew of 7 launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fl., bound for the Int’l. Space Station. It carried the last set of solar wings to boost the station to full power.
(SFC, 3/16/09, p.A7)(SFC, 3/18/09, p.A5)
2009 Mar 26, In Kazakhstan a Soyuz capsule carrying a Russian-American crew and US billionaire space tourist Charles Simonyi blasted off for the international space station.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 28, The space shuttle Discovery landed in Florida following a 13-day mission to the Int’l. Space Station (ISS).
(SFC, 3/28/09, p.A12)
2009 Mar 29, The mysterious boom and flash of light seen over parts of Virginia was not a meteor, but actually exploding space junk from the second stage of a Russian Soyuz rocket, launched March 26, falling back to Earth.
(www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,511501,00.html)
2009 Apr 8, A Russian spacecraft carrying a crew of three including US billionaire space tourist Charles Simonyi landed safely in Kazakhstan.
(AP, 4/8/09)
2009 Apr 15, China fired into orbit its second satellite in a program to build an alternative to the global positioning system based on U.S. satellites.
(AP, 4/15/09)
2009 May 7, Russian Mission Control said the unmanned Progress M-02M lifted off from Kazakhstan on schedule and should dock with the int’l. space station on May 12.
(AP, 5/7/09)
2009 May 11, The space shuttle Atlantis and 7 astronauts blasted off from Cape Canaveral on a mission to repair the Hubble telescope.
(SFC, 5/12/09, p.A6)
2009 May 13, Russian news agencies reported that Russia, in agreement with the US, will charge US astronauts $51 million per return trip to the International Space Station (ISS) from 2012 and will resume selling seats to space tourists. In 2006 Russia charged the US $21.8 million per return flight to the ISS. Since then the price for of a space tourist ticket to the ISS has climbed to $35 million from $20 million.
(Reuters, 5/13/09)
2009 May 14, A French rocket carrying the largest space telescope ever was launched into space on a mission that European scientists hope will help unravel the mystery of the universe's creation. The Ariane-5 rocket was loaded with the Herschel space telescope and the Planck spacecraft, carrying a payload of 5.3 tons (4.81 metric tons) when it launched from the city of Kourou near the jungles of French Guiana.
(AP, 5/15/09)
2009 May 24, The space shuttle Atlantis and its 7 astronauts landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California ending a 13-day mission that repaired and enhanced the Hubble Space Telescope. Stormy weather in Florida prevented a return to NASA's home base.
(AP, 5/24/09)(SFC, 5/25/09, p.A5)
2009 May 27, A Russian space capsule, carrying Canadian Bob Thirsk, Russian Roman Romanenko and Belgian Frank De Winne, blasted off from Kazakhstan for a 2 day journey to the ISS.
(SFC, 5/28/09, p.A2)
2009 Jun 18, NASA launched its Lunar Crater Observation and sensing Satellite (LCROSS). The Mission Objectives LCROSS included confirming the presence or absence of water ice in a permanently shadowed crater at the Moon’s South Pole.
(AP, 6/18/09)(http://lcross.arc.nasa.gov/)
2009 Jun 19, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson took part in a ceremonial groundbreaking at the remote site of Spaceport America, about 45 north of Las Cruces. The spaceport was being constructed for commercial space development.
(SFC, 6/20/09, p.A4)
2009 Jul 15, Space shuttle Endeavour rocketed toward the international space station as engineers on Earth pored over launch pictures that showed debris breaking off the fuel tank and striking the craft.
(AP, 7/16/09)
2009 Jul 28, At the EAA AirVenture air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Aabar Investments, an Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund, and Virgin Galactic signed a strategic partnership in which Aabar would take a 32% stake in Virgin Galactic for $280 million. To date Virgin Galactic has been wholly owned and funded by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group.
(Econ, 9/12/09, p.87)(http://tinyurl.com/y8gtjad)
2009 Jul 29, An unmanned Russian cargo ship has docked successfully at the international space station to deliver supplies for its six-member crew.
(AP, 7/29/09)
2009 Jul 30, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata described his test of new underwear, called J-Wear, as the shuttle Endeavour prepared to come home after over 2 weeks aloft. Wakata tested the high-tech underwear for a month at a time during his 4½ months aboard the ISS.
(SFC, 7/31/09, p.A9)
2009 Jul 31, The space shuttle Endeavour returned to Florida after over 2 weeks aloft and a successful construction job that boosted the size and power of the international space station.
(AP, 8/1/09)
2009 Aug 25, South Korea launched its first rocket, just months after rival North Korea's launch drew international anger, but space officials said the satellite it carried failed to enter its intended orbit.
(AP, 8/25/09)
2009 Aug 28, The space shuttle Discovery with 7 astronauts blasted off from Cape Canaveral just before midnight to bring supplies to the int’l. space station.
(SFC, 8/29/09, p.A4)
2009 Sep 3, SpaceX signed a contract worth $50 million with ORBCOMM, a satellite communications firm, to launch 18 satellites.
(Econ, 9/12/09, p.87)
2009 Sep 8, A review committee on NASA, led by Norman Augustine, delivered a summary report saying the agency does not have enough money to return to the moon. The Augustine report also said that NASA should stop traveling to the Int’l. Space Station and to low Earth orbit in general, leaving these to the private sector.
(Econ, 9/12/09, p.87)
2009 Sep 10, NASA made a successful first test of its Ares I rocket at promontory, Utah. It was created as part of a plan to return to the moon, but a recent panel said there isn’t enough money for the moon project.
(SFC, 9/11/09, p.A13)
2009 Sep 10, The Japanese space agency successfully launched a new rocket carrying an unmanned cargo ship on a $680 million maiden voyage to the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 9/11/09, p.A9)
2009 Sep 14, China broke ground on its fourth space center. The new port on the southern island province of Hainan, slated to go into use in 2013, highlights the country's soaring space ambitions six years after it sent its first man into orbit.
(AP, 9/14/09)
2009 Sep 19, NASA launched the Black Brant XII to gather data on the highest clouds in the Earth's atmosphere.
(AP, 9/20/09)
2009 Sep 30, In Kazakhstan Canadian circus billionaire Guy Laliberte blasted off in a Russian Soyuz spaceship to become the world's seventh space tourist.
(Reuters, 9/30/09)
2009 Oct 6, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said the Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered the biggest but never-before-seen ring around the planet Saturn. The diffuse ring doesn't reflect much visible light and is so huge it would take 1 billion Earths to fill it.
(AP, 10/6/09)
2009 Oct 9, NASA smacked two spacecraft into the lunar south pole in a search for hidden ice. Instruments confirm that a large empty rocket hull barreled into the moon at 7:31 a.m., followed four minutes later by a probe with cameras taking pictures of the first crash.
(AP, 10/9/09)
2009 Oct 11, The Russian Soyuz capsule carrying Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte and two other space travelers landed safely in Kazakhstan, ending the entertainment tycoon's mirthful space odyssey.
(AP, 10/11/09)
2009 Oct 18, Russia's unmanned Progress M-03M docked with the orbital station after a three-day trip up from Earth. It delivered food, fuel, oxygen and other supplies to the International Space Station.
(AP, 10/18/09)
2009 Oct 28, NASA launched its 327-foot Ares I-X, its new prototype moon rocket, skyward from Cape Canaveral on a suborbital test flight at a cost of $445 million.
(SFC, 10/29/09, p.A7)
2009 Oct 31, Qian Xuesen (b.1911), a rocket scientist known as the father of China's space technology program, died in Beijing. Qian left for the US after winning a scholarship to graduate school in 1936. He studied at MIT and later at the California Institute of Technology, where he helped start the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Qian, also known as Tsien Hsue-shen, was regarded as one of the brightest minds in the new field of aeronautics before returning to China in 1955, driven out of the US at the height of anticommunist fervor.
(AP, 10/31/09)
2009 Nov 13, NASA said a "significant amount" of frozen water has been found on the moon heralding a giant leap forward in space exploration and boosting hopes of a permanent lunar base.
(AFP, 11/13/09)
2009 Nov 16, NASA’s shuttle Atlantis lifted off from Cape Canaveral with 6 astronauts on a mission to supply the international with spare parts and experimental equipment.
(SFC, 11/17/09, p.A17)
2009 Nov 27, Space shuttle Atlantis and its 7 astronauts returned to Earth with a smooth touchdown at Cape Canaveral, Fla., to end an "amazing" flight that resupplied the International Space Station.
(AP, 11/28/09)
2009 Nov, The Planetary Skin Institute (PSI), set up by Cisco Systems and NASA to study the extent and health of forests and other ecosystems, was registered as an independent non-profit organization.
(Econ, 12/18/10, p.153)(www.planetaryskin.org/institute/background)
2009 Dec 1, In Kazakhstan astronauts from Canada and Belgium and a Russian cosmonaut landed safely, wrapping up a six-month stint on the International Space Station.
(AP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 7, Virgin Galactic unveiled its first commercial spaceship, the VSS Enterprise, at the Mohave Air and Space Port in California. Initial trips to the edge of space were expected to cost $200,000 per person.
(Econ, 12/12/09, p.91)
2009 Dec 20, A Russian Soyuz TMA-17 rocket blasted off from a cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying an American, a Russian and a Japanese astronaut to the int’l. space station.
(SFC, 12/21/09, p.A2)
2010 Jan 4, NASA scientists reported that the new Kepler space telescope has discovered 5 fiery-hot planets in the depths of the Milky Way, each far larger than Earth.
(SFC, 1/5/10, p.A5)
2010 Feb 1, NASA’s back-to-the-moon program, Constellation, fell victim to budget cuts.
(Econ, 2/6/10, p.86)
2010 Feb 3, Iran announced it has successfully launched a research rocket carrying a mouse, two turtles and worms into space. The launch of the rocket Kavoshgar-3, which means Explorer-3 in Farsi, was announced by Defense Minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi to mark the National Day of Space Technology.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 8, At Cape Canaveral, Florida, Endeavour and six astronauts rocketed into orbit on what's likely the last nighttime launch for the shuttle program, hauling a new room and observation deck for the International Space Station.
(AP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 15, Astronauts successfully attached a fancy new observation deck to the International Space Station after a long, frustrating night spent dealing with stuck bolts and wayward wiring.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 21, The US space shuttle Endeavour returned to Florida following an assembly mission to the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 2/22/10, p.A6)
2010 Mar 18, Astronauts from the US and Russia landed safely in northern Kazakhstan's chilly steppes after spending almost six months on the International Space Station.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 22, The radio of Spirit, NASA’s Mars rover, fell silent. In 2011 engineers gave up trying to re-establish contact.
(SFC, 5/26/11, p.A10)
2010 Apr 2, In southern Kazakhstan a Russian rocket carrying 2 Russian and one American astronauts blasted off, kicking off a tightly packed schedule at the International Space Station in the coming days.
(AP, 4/2/10)
2010 Apr 4, A US-Russian space team sent their Easter greetings down to Earth after their Soyuz spacecraft docked flawlessly at the International Space Station. The rotating calendars of the Christian West and the Christian East agreed on the same date for Easter.
(AP, 4/4/10)(Econ, 4/3/10, p.85)
2010 Apr 5, The Discovery space shuttle launched with 7 astronauts, including 3 women, for a rendezvous with the int’l. space station.
(SFC, 4/6/10, p.A6)
2010 Apr 13, US officials said President Barack Obama is reviving the NASA crew capsule concept that he had canceled with the rest of the moon program earlier this year, in a move that will mean more jobs and less reliance on the Russians. The space capsule, called Orion, will go unmanned to the International Space Station to stand by as an emergency vehicle to return astronauts home.
(AP, 4/14/10)
2010 Apr 15, President Barack Obama set a goal to visit an asteroid by 2025. Obama outlined NASA's new path during a visit to the Kennedy Space Center.
(AP, 4/16/10)
2010 Apr 20, The space shuttle Discovery landed in Florida ending its 15-day voyage to the int’l. space station.
(SFC, 4/21/10, p.A8)
2010 Apr 24, A Russian Proton rocket carrying a US AMC 49 telecommunications satellite was launched into orbit from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
(AFP, 4/25/10)
2010 Apr 29, A giant NASA science balloon crashed during take-off in Australia, destroying its multi-million-dollar payload, toppling a large car and narrowly missing frightened observers.
(AFP, 4/29/10)
2010 May 14, The space shuttle Atlantis blasted off from Cape Canaveral for its final voyage with a crew of 6 heading to the Int’l. space station.
(SFC, 5/15/10, p.A5)
2010 May 26, The US space shuttle Atlantis returned from its final voyage bringing back 6 astronauts from a mission to the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 5/27/10, p.A9)
2010 Jun 4, The Falcon 9, a SpaceX test rocket, blasted off from Cape Canaveral on its maiden voyage and reached orbit. Space Exploration Technologies was founded by Elon Musk, an Internet entrepreneur who co-founded PayPal. NASA hoped to use the rocket to haul cargo.
(SFC, 6/4/10, p.A9)
2010 Jun 16, In Kazakhstan 2 US and a Russian crewmate blasted off for the int’l. space station in a Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft. A woman in the US crew doubled the ISS female crew to an all time high.
(SFC, 6/16/10, p.A2)(SFC, 6/18/10, p.A10)
2010 Jun 22, Israel launched a spy satellite called "Ofek 9" increasing Israel's capacity to keep an eye on enemies like Iran.
(AP, 6/22/10)
2010 Jul 2, An unmanned Russian space capsule carrying supplies to the International Space Station failed in a docking attempt. The Progress space capsule was carrying more than two tons of food, water and other supplies for the orbiting laboratory. NASA said the failure was due to an antenna problem. Space station commander Alexander Skvortsov reported the Progress was "rotating uncontrollably" as it neared the space station. The capsule docked successfully with the ISS on July 4.
(AP, 7/2/10)(SFC, 7/5/10, p.A2)
2010 Sep 25, A Russian Soyuz space capsule landed in Kazakhstan returning 3 astronauts from a 6-month mission to the Int’l. Space Station.
(SSFC, 9/26/10, p.A5)
2010 Sep 27, Six US Air Force officers and one researcher assembled at the prestigious National Press Club in Washington, DC, to give their intriguing testimony of personal involvement in a major UFO cover-up. The officers planned to discuss UFOs and nuclear missiles, including an alleged incident in March, 1967, at a Montana missile base where 10 Minuteman missiles were mysteriously deactivated as a UFO allegedly hovered overhead.
(http://www.wanttoknow.info/ufos/ufos_national_press_club_witness_testimony)
2010 Oct 7, In Kazakhstan a Russian Soyuz TMA-01M rocket blasted off for the Int’l. Space Station carrying one American and 2 Russian astronauts.
(SFC, 10/8/10, p.A2)
2010 Oct 10, Virgin Galactic’s space tourism rocket, SpaceShip Two, achieved its first solo glide flight. Manned by 2 pilots it flew for 11 minutes before landing in Mojave, Ca.
(SFC, 10/11/10, p.A5)(Econ, 10/16/10, p.100)
2010 Oct 11, President Obama signed a major NASA act that turns his vision for US space exploration of asteroids and Mars into law.
(http://tinyurl.com/26w555z)
2010 Oct 30, A Russian unmanned cargo ship manually docked with the International Space Station, bringing 2.5 tons of food, water, oxygen and fuel for the orbiting laboratory and its US-Russian crew.
(AP, 10/30/10)
2010 Nov 10, A NASA study said it would cost at least $6.5 billion to launch and run a replacement for the Hubble Space Telescope.
(SFC, 11/11/10, p.A8)
2010 Dec 2, NASA researcher Felisa Wolfe-Simon (33) reported that a strange bacterium, Halomonadaceae, found in California's Mono Lake, thrives on arsenic and redefines life as we know it. She said the bacterium does not merely eat arsenic, but incorporates the toxic element directly into its DNA. Her finding stirred much controversy. In 2012 scientists reported that the bacteria is just resistant to arsenic and actually dependent for life on phosphorous.
(Reuters, 12/2/10)(SFC, 5/28/11, p.C1)(SFC, 7/10/12, p.C3)
2010 Dec 3, The US Air Force's secrecy-shrouded X-37B unmanned spaceplane returned to Earth after more than seven months in orbit on a classified mission.
(AP, 12/3/10)
2010 Dec 5, Russian news reported that a Proton rocket and its payload of three GLONASS-M navigation satellites has fallen into the Pacific Ocean after failing to reach orbit. They were to be part of Russia's satellite navigation system competing with the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS). The mishap eventually cost space chief Anatoly Perminov his job.
(AP, 12/5/10)(AP, 8/18/11)
2010 Dec 8, Space Explorations Technologies, aka SpaceX, successfully launched its Falcon 9 test rocket from Cape Canaveral. Its Dragon capsule was retrieved in the Pacific ocean 3 hours later after it had circled the globe 2 times.
(SFC, 12/9/10, p.A18)
2010 Dec 16, Astronauts from the US, Russia and Italy blasted off in a Soyuz spacecraft from Kazakhstan on a mission to the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 12/16/10, p.A2)
2011 Jan 10, NASA said it has spotted a tiny, rocky planet about the size of Earth doing a speedy orbit of a star outside our solar system. Named Kepler-10b its scorching temperatures are too hot for life.
(AFP, 1/12/11)
2011 Jan 22, A Japanese rocket carrying supplies for the International Space Station lifted off from a remote island on a mission designed to help fill a hole left by the retirement of NASA's space shuttle program.
(AP, 1/22/11)
2011 Jan 30, Israel signed an agreement with the European Space Agency for cooperation on space technology and exploration of the solar system.
(AFP, 1/30/11)
2011 Jan 30, An unmanned Russian cargo spacecraft docked at the Int’l. Space Station delivering 2.6 tons of supplies to the US-Russian-Italian crew.
(SFC, 1/31/11, p.A2)
2011 Feb 2, NASA scientists reported that the Kepler spacecraft, launched in 2009, has found over 1,000 possible planets with at least 54 of them within their suns’ habitable zones.
(SFC, 2/3/11, p.A1)
2011 Feb 6, A US rocket carrying a national security payload launched from Vandenberg air Force Base in southern California.
(SFC, 2/7/11, p.A4)
2011 Feb 7, Iran unveiled four new domestically produced “research" satellites as part of a space program that's worrying other nations. Commander Mohammad Ali Jafari said Iran is mass-producing a ballistic missile which can travel at more than three times the speed of sound and hit targets on the high seas.
(AP, 2/7/11)(AFP, 2/7/11)
2011 Feb 24, The space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with 6 astronauts on its last mission to the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 2/25/11, p.A4)
2011 Mar 3, Dr. Richard B. Hoover, an astrobiologist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, said he has found conclusive evidence of alien life, fossils of bacteria found in an extremely rare class of meteorite called CI1 carbonaceous chondrites. (There are only nine such meteorites on planet Earth.) His findings were published today in the Journal of Cosmology, a peer-reviewed scientific journal. Scientists inside and outside NASA distanced themselves from Hoover saying he does not have expertise in astrobiology.
(http://tinyurl.com/4t485yy)(SFC, 3/8/11, p.A4)
2011 Mar 4, A NASA rocket carrying an Earth-observation satellite plummeted into the Pacific Ocean, the second-straight blow to NASA's weakened environmental monitoring program. The Taurus XL rocket carrying NASA's Glory satellite lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, but fell to the sea several minutes later.
(AP, 3/4/11)
2011 Mar 5, An Atlas 5 rocket blasted off with the X-35B unmanned space plane from Cape Canaveral. The Air Force said the newest craft will serve as a test platform for satellite sensors and systems. It's the second of its type to be launched.
(AP, 3/6/11)
2011 Mar 9, The US space shuttle Discovery landed at Kennedy Space Center in Florida completing its 39th and final voyage.
(SFC, 3/10/11, p.A5)
2011 Mar 16, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and two Russian cosmonauts landed safely in central Kazakhstan after a five-month stint on the International Space Station. They left behind Russian cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev, Italy's Paolo Nespoli and NASA astronaut Catherine Coleman, who are due to return to earth in about three months.
(AP, 3/16/11)
2011 Mar 17, The US spacecraft Messenger went into orbit around Mercury after a 6-year, 4.9 billion mile journey. Messenger was expected to crash on April 30, 2015.
(SFC, 3/19/11, p.A5)(Econ., 4/25/15, p.75)
2011 Mar 17, Iran sent the country's first space capsule that is able to sustain life into orbit as a test for a future mission that may carry a live animal.
(AP, 3/17/11)
2011 Mar 28, NASA's Swift spacecraft, while trolling the universe for gamma ray bursts, spied a monster black hole that shredded a Sun-like star, producing a strangely long-lasting flash of gamma rays that probably won't be seen again in a million years.
(Reuters, 6/17/11)
2011 May 16, Endeavour blasted off on NASA's next-to-last shuttle flight, thundering through clouds into orbit as the mission commander's wounded wife, Gabrielle Giffords, watched along with an exhilarated crowd estimated in the hundreds of thousands.
(AP, 5/16/11)
2011 May 31, The official newspaper Neutral Turkmenistan reported that Pres. Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov has signed a decree authorizing the creation of the National Space Agency. Earlier this month, US space transportation company SpaceX vice president Christophe Bauer announced that his company would launch a satellite for the Central Asian nation in 2014.
(AP, 5/31/11)
2011 Jun 1, Space shuttle Endeavour and its 6 astronauts landed at Cape Canaveral following a 2-week mission to the Int’l Space Station. This was Endeavour’s last mission. It will now go to the California Science Center in Los Angeles.
(SFC, 6/2/11, p.A6)
2011 Jun 7, A Russian Soyuz spacecraft took off from Kazakhstan, bound for the International Space Station. In the three-man crew were Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov, American astronaut Michael Fossum, and Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa of Japan's JAXA space agency. The trio will spend six months on the space station.
(AP, 6/7/11)(Reuters, 6/7/11)
2011 Jun 15, Iran launched a satellite into earth orbit, in a feat that is likely to raise concerns among those who fear Iran's intentions and nuclear development program.
(AP, 6/15/11)
2011 Jul 8, At Cape Canaveral, Florida, Atlantis and four astronauts rocketed into orbit on NASA's last space shuttle voyage.
(AP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 19, NASA made available the first image of the asteroid Vesta shot from its Dawn spacecraft, 117 million miles from Earth.
(SFC, 7/20/11, p.A7)
2011 Jul 20, NASA said that the Hubble Space Telescope has found a 4th moon circling Pluto. It was named Kerberos.
(SFC, 7/21/11, p.A6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moons_of_Pluto)
2011 Jul 21, The space shuttle Atlantis glided home to the Kennedy Space Center through a clear moonlit sky to complete a 13-day cargo run to the International Space Station and a 30-year odyssey for NASA's shuttle program.
(Reuters, 7/21/11)
2011 Aug 4, NASA scientists said they have detected the first clear signs that water may be flowing on Mars. Evidence came from the HiRISE camera aboard the Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been circling Mars for 5 years.
(SFC, 8/5/11, p.A11)
2011 Aug 10, NASA said its Mars rover Opportunity reached the rim of a 14-mile-wide crater where it will examine rocks older than any it has seen in its 7 years on the surface of the planet.
(SFC, 8/11/11, p.A6)
2011 Aug 18, Russia lost contact with its Express-AM4 communications satellite shortly after its launch, the latest in a series of failures that has dogged the nation's space program. Failure of the upper stage, the Briz-M, resulted in the loss of communications.
(AP, 8/18/11)
2011 Aug 24, A Russian unmanned supply spaceship, launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, crashed and exploded in a forested area in Siberia. It was the 44th launch of a Progress supply ship to the int’l. space station, and the first failure in the nearly 13-year life of the complex.
(AP, 8/25/11)
2011 Sep 10, NASA launched 2 near identical probes, named Grail-A and Grail-B, aboard a relatively small Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fl. The pair rocketed toward the moon on the first mission dedicated to measuring lunar gravity and determining what's inside Earth's orbiting companion, all the way down to the core.
(AP, 9/10/11)
2011 Sep 16, A Russian Soyuz capsule carrying 3 astronauts, an American and two Russians, landed in Kazakhstan following a stay at the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 9/17/11, p.A2)
2011 Sep 24, NASA’s 20-year-old, 6-ton Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) fell back to Earth. NASA calculations later showed the satellite entered Earth's atmosphere generally above American Samoa. But falling debris as it broke apart didn't start hitting the water for another 300 miles to the northeast, southwest of Christmas Island, just after midnight.
(AP, 9/24/11)(AP, 9/28/11)
2011 Sep 29, China launched an experimental module into space, taking its first step towards building a space station. Tiangong-1, or "Heavenly Palace", took off from the Gobi desert in the northwest, propelled by a Long March 2F rocket.
(AFP, 9/29/11)
2011 Oct 4, It was reported that NASA has awarded a Pennsylvania company, Pipistrel-USA.com of State College, a $1.35 million prize for developing an ultra-efficient electric airplane. Wired Magazine reported that the winning airplane "was developed and built in Slovenia as a technology demonstrator for the airplane maker."
(http://tinyurl.com/3nk4ndh)
2011 Oct 19, The German Aerospace Center said its retired ROSAT satellite, the size of a minivan, is hurtling toward the atmosphere and pieces of it could crash into the Earth as early as Oct 21. The 2.69-ton (2.4 metric ton) satellite was launched in 1990 and retired in 1999 after being used for research on black holes and neutron stars and performing the first all-sky survey of X-ray sources with an imaging telescope.
(AP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 21, A Russian rocket launched the first 2 satellites of the EU’s Galileo navigation system from French Guiana, in an ambitious bid to rival the American GPS network.
(SFC, 10/22/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 30, An unmanned Russian cargo ship headed for the Int’l. Space Station after it launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
(SFC, 10/31/11, p.A2)
2011 Nov 1, China launched an unmanned Shenzhou 8 spacecraft, the latest step in its efforts to place a permanent space station in orbit. The Shenzhou 8 docked with the Tiangong 1 module on Nov 3.
(SFC, 11/1/11, p.A2)(SFC, 11/4/11, p.A3)
2011 Nov 4, In Russia an international crew of researchers walked out of a set of windowless modules in Moscow after a grueling 520-day simulation of a flight to Mars. The all-male crew consisted of three Russians, a Frenchman, an Italian-Colombian and a Chinese.
(AP, 11/4/11)
2011 Nov 9, A Russian space probe aiming to land on a Mars moon was stuck circling the Earth after equipment failure. Scientists raced to fire up its engines before the whole thing came crashing down. The unmanned Phobos-Ground craft was successfully launched by a Zenit-2 booster rocket just after midnight. On Dec 2 the European Space Agency said it had abandoned efforts to contact the probe.
(AP, 11/9/11)(SFC, 12/3/11, p.A2)
2011 Nov 14, Two Russians and an American blasted off from Kazakhstan to the ISS orbiting laboratory on a Soyuz-FG rocket, Russia's first manned mission since the failed launch of the unmanned Progress supply ship in August temporarily grounded its Soyuz rockets.
(AFP, 11/14/11)
2011 Nov 16, A court in Romania ordered the arrest of a Romanian man accused of hacking into NASA's servers in December, 2010, causing NASA losses of about $500,000 (euro371,000). A court spokesman said Robert Butyka (26) would be arrested for 29 days as he awaits trial.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 17, China's unmanned spacecraft Shenzhou VIII returned to Earth, state media reported, after completing two space dockings that have pushed forward the nation's ambitious space program.
(AFP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 21, A Russian Soyuz capsule with 3 astronauts returned from the Int’l. Space Station landed in Kazakhstan after spending 165 days in space.
(SFC, 11/22/11, p.A2)
2011 Nov 26, NASA launched a rover of "monster truck" proportions toward Mars on an 8½-month, 354 million-mile journey, the biggest, best equipped robot ever sent to explore another planet. Curiosity will reach Mars next summer.
(AP, 11/26/11)
2011 Nov, A large metallic ball fell out of the sky on a remote grassland in Namibia, prompting baffled authorities to contact NASA and the European space agency. Several such balls have dropped in southern Africa, Australia and Latin America in the past twenty years, authorities found in an Internet search.
(AFP, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 14, In Russia Boris Chertok (99), a rocket designer who played a key role in engineering Soviet-era space programs, died in Moscow. He was closely involved in putting the world's first satellite in orbit on Oct. 4, 1957, and preparing the first human flight to space by Yuri Gagarin on April, 12 1961.
(AP, 12/14/11)
2011 Dec 16, A Soyuz rocket carrying six satellites launched from French Guiana in the Russian-built rocket model's second mission this year. It was to first release a French Earth observation satellite, Pleiades 1. Next to come would be four French micro-satellites and a Chilean Earth observation satellite was to be released last.
(AP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 23, A Russian Soyuz spacecraft arrived at the Int’l. Space Station delivering a Russian, an American and a Dutchman, restoring the permanent crew to six.
(SFC, 12/24/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 31, A NASA spacecraft, the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, slipped into orbit around the moon. A 2nd Grail probe was expected to enter orbit the next day. Both were launched last September aboard the same rocket to measure lunar gravity.
(SSFC, 1/1/12, p.A10)
2011 The US passed legislation forbidding NASA from cooperating with China or any Chinese company and hosting official Chinese visitors at any NASA facility. The legal language was inserted into a funding bill by Congressman Frank Wolf, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies.
(http://tinyurl.com/n568kkz)(Econ, 10/12/13, p.95)
2011 NASA announced the development of the Space Launch System (SLS), a US super heavy-lift expendable launch vehicle. The first launch was expected in 2021.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Launch_System)
2012 Jan 15, A failed $170 million Russian space probe, Phobos-Ground, crashed into the southern Pacific, 770 miles off the southern coast of Chile.
(SFC, 1/16/12, p.A2)
2012 Mar 25, Russian spacecraft controllers intentionally plunged a defunct communications satellite, called Express-AM4, into the ocean. The $265 million satellite was launched into the wrong orbit on Aug 18, 2011, and had been languishing in space ever since. The company Polar Broadband Systems Ltd. tried in vain to save and recycle the Russian satellite.
(SPACE.com, 3/28/12)
2012 Apr 3, A US rocket carrying a top-secret payload for the National Reconnaissance Office blasted off from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base.
(AP, 4/4/12)
2012 Apr 8, Envisat, Europe’s largest Earth-observing satellite, stopped talking to its users after 10 years of operation.
(Econ, 5/12/12, p.14)
2012 Apr 16, The space shuttle Discovery was flown on its final journey to Washington’s Smithsonian Institution.
(SFC, 4/17/12, p.A6)
2012 Apr 27, In Kazakhstan a Soyuz space capsule landed with 2 Russians and an American ending their 163-day stay at the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 4/28/12, p.A2)
2012 May 15, In southern Kazakhstan a three-man crew, NASA astronaut Joseph Acaba and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin, blasted off from the Baikonur space center on board a Soyuz craft for a four-and-half-month stay at the International Space Station. Russian charges for use of the Soyuz were $450 million per year.
(AP, 5/15/12)(Econ, 5/5/12, p.77)
2012 May 22, Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) launched a private space capsule called Dragon on a history-making trip to the International Space Station.
(Space.com, 5/22/12)
2012 May 25, The privately held SpaceX Dragon capsule docked with the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 5/26/12, p.A7)
2012 May 31, The SpaceX Dragon capsule splashed down in the Pacific to conclude the first private delivery to the Intl. Space Station.
(SFC, 6/1/12, p.A6)
2012 Jun 16, China launched its most ambitious space mission yet carrying its first female astronaut and two male colleagues on a Shenzhou 9 capsule in an attempt to dock with an orbiting module and work on board for more than a week.
(AP, 6/16/12)
2012 Jun 18, Three Chinese astronauts entered an orbiting module for the first time, in a key step towards the nation's first space station.
(AFP, 6/18/12)
2012 Jul 1, A Russian Soyuz space capsule landed in Kazakhstan bringing an end to a 193-day mission for American astronaut Donald Petit, Dutchman Andre Kuipers and Russian Oleg Kononenko.
(SFC, 7/2/12, p.A2)
2012 Jul 15, A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off from Kazakhstan with an international crew of three toward the International Space Station in a mission testing the reliability of Russia's crisis-prone space program. On board were NASA's Sunita Williams, Japan's Akihiko Hoshide and Yury Malenchenko of Russia.
(AFP, 7/15/12)
2012 Jul 21, A Japanese H-IIB rocket blasted off from the southern island of Tanegashima to deliver an unmanned supplies vessel to the International Space Station.
(AFP, 7/21/12)
2012 Jul 23, Sally Ride (61), the first US woman to travel into space and an advocate for science education, died in Florida after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer. Her death made it public that her surviving partner of 27 years was a woman. Ride first launched into space in 1983 aboard Challenger on the 7th mission of US space shuttle program. In 2014 Lynn Sherr authored “Sally Ride: America’s First Woman in Space."
(Reuters, 7/24/12)(SSFC, 7/13/14, p.N3)
2012 Aug 6, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory and Curiosity rover landed successfully on the Red Planet.
(AFP, 8/6/12)
2012 Aug 6, Russia launched an unmanned Proton-M rocked carrying Russian and Indonesian communications satellites. A secondary booster module failed shortly after launch from Kazakhstan.
(SFC, 8/8/12, p.A2)
2012 Aug 9, A NASA test model planetary lander crashed seconds after liftoff from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
(SFC, 8/10/12, p.A5)
2012 Aug 15, Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-Ray telescope reported the discovery of a galaxy cluster, nicknamed Phoenix, that creates 740 stars a year. It was estimated to be 6 billion years old.
(SFC, 8/16/12, p.A7)
2012 Aug 25, Neil Armstrong (82), commander of Apollo 11 mission and first human to set foot on the moon, died. He left NASA in 1971, taught engineering at the University of Cincinnati, and later became chairman of electronic systems companies.
(AP, 8/25/12)
2012 Aug 29, NASA scientists reported the discovery of a solar system called Kepler 47 with 2 stars orbiting each other every 7.5 days. The system some 5,000 light-years away, was orbited by two planets.
(SFC, 8/30/12, p.A9)
2012 Aug, NASA’s Voyager 1 probe, launched in 1977, entered interstellar space.
(SFC, 9/13/13, p.A1)
2012 Oct 7, In Cape Canaveral, Florida, the SpaceX company launched a Falcon rocket carrying a Dragon capsule with some 1,000 pounds of gear and supplies for the Int’l. Space Station. An engine problem left a small communications satellite unable to reach its proper orbit. The Dragon capsule successfully returned in a splashdown off the Baja California coast on Oct 28.
(SFC, 10/8/12, p.A4)(Economist, 10/13/12, p.96)(SFC, 10/29/12, p.A6)
2012 Oct 23, A Russian Soyuz spacecraft launched in Kazakhstan carrying a 3-man crew, including an American and 2 Russians, to the Intl. Space Station.
(SFC, 10/24/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 11, The US Air Force launched an unmanned X-37B, a secret military version of the space shuttle, atop an Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral.
(SFC, 12/12/12, p.A5)
2012 Dec 12, North Korea launched its Unha rocket, named after the Korean word for "galaxy." The 3-stage rocket blasted off from the Sohae launch pad in Tongchang-ri, northwest of Pyongyang, and put a satellite into orbit.
(AP, 12/12/12)
2012 Dec 17, NASA space probes EBB and Flow expired as they crashed into a lunar mountainside. They were initially named “GRAIL A" and “GRAIL B," but were renamed by a class of schoolchildren in Bozeman, Montana.
(Econ, 12/22/12, p.124)
2012 Dec 18, Astronomers reported that North Korea’s new satellite, launched on Dec 12, is most likely dead.
(SFC, 12/18/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 19, In Kazakhstan a Soyuz spacecraft carrying an American, a Russian and a Canadian lifted off for the Int’l. Space Station for a 2-day journey and 4-month stay.
(SFC, 12/20/12, p.A2)
2013 Jan 28, Iran said it has successfully sent a monkey into space, describing the launch as another step toward Tehran's goal of a manned space flight.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 30, South Korea launched a satellite into space from its own soil for the first time. The satellite is designed to analyze weather data, measure radiation in space, gauges distances on earth and test how effectively South Korean-made devices installed on the satellite operate in space.
(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Mar 1, The SpaceX commercial craft ran into thruster trouble shortly after liftoff. The Dragon capsule bound at the Int’l. Space Station arrived on March 3 delivering a ton of supplies.
(SFC, 2/2/13, p.A4)(SFC, 2/4/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 16, A Soyuz space capsule carrying an American and 2 Russians landed in Kazakhstan. The men had spent 144 days on the Int’l. Space Station. 3 astronauts remained on the ISS.
(SSFC, 2/17/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 29, A Soyuz capsule carrying 3 astronauts docked with the Int’l. Space Station (ISS) after traveling just 6 hours from launch in Kazakhstan.
(SFC, 3/30/13, p.A3)
2013 May 15, NASA reported that the Kepler telescope, launched in 2009, was in trouble.
(Econ, 6/8/13, p.83)
2013 May 29, A Soyuz capsule carrying an American, Russian and Italian successfully docked with the International Space Station, where the new crew will spend six months conducting a variety of experiments.
(AP, 5/29/13)
2013 Jun 13, China’s state media reported that automated controls guided the Shenzhou 10 space capsule in its successful docking with the Tiangong-1 space lab. The astronauts will enter the module next week to conduct experiments.
(AP, 6/13/13)
2013 Jun 25, Three former NASA scientists unveiled Planet Labs, a new company that planned to hire out CubaSats, tiny satellites for taking images of Earth from space.
(SSFC, 6/30/13, p.G2)(http://tinyurl.com/mxbujyt)
2013 Jul 2, A Russian Proton rocket carrying navigation satellites crashed a few seconds after takeoff from the Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome. This was the 4th Proton failure at Baikonur in 14 years.
(SFC, 7/3/13, p.A2)(Econ, 11/8/14, p.45)
2013 Jul 3, NASA announced that Jason-1, a satellite that tracked rising sea levels, has ended its useful life. The joint US and French satellite was launched on Dec 7, 2001.
(SFC, 7/4/13, p.D3)
2013 Sep 7, NASA launched the unmanned LADEE spacecraft from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. It aimed to study the Moon's atmosphere was the US space agency's third lunar probe in five years.
(AP, 9/7/13)(SSFC, 9/8/13, p.A8)
2013 Sep 11, A Russian Soyuz capsule carrying three astronauts touched down in Kazakhstan after undocking from the International Space Station following 166 days in space.
(AP, 9/11/13)
2013 Sep 22, The Orbital Sciences Cygnus capsule experienced a navigation system delay on its debut arrival at the Int’l. Space Station. The delivery was made on Sep 29.
(SFC, 9/23/13, p.A5)(SFC, 9/30/13, p.A4)
2013 Sep 26, A Soyuz capsule carrying three astronauts successfully docked with the International Space Station, bringing the size of the crew at the orbiting outpost to six.
(AP, 9/26/13)
2013 Sep 29, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket to carry Cassiope, a Canadian communications and weather satellite, into orbit.
(Econ, 10/5/13, p.86)
2013 Sep 29, The Cygnus capsule of Orbital Sciences, carrying hundreds of kilograms of supplies, successfully docked with the ISS.
(Econ, 10/5/13, p.86)
2013 Nov 2, Europe's heaviest-ever cargo carrier to the International Space Station burned up in Earth's atmosphere in a controlled manoeuver after a five-month mission. It was filled with about six tons of garbage and waste produced on board the ISS.
(AFP, 11/2/13)
2013 Nov 5, India launched its Mngalyaan (Mars Vehicle), its first spacecraft bound for Mars.
(AP, 11/5/13)(Econ, 11/2/13, p.46)
2013 Nov 11, The European Space Agency says one of its research satellites re-entered the Earth's atmosphere early today on an orbit that passed over Siberia, the western Pacific Ocean, the eastern Indian Ocean and Antarctica. The Gravity field and Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) was launched in 2009. Most of the 2,425 lb satellite disintegrated, but about 25% slammed into the Atlantic Ocean a few hundred miles from the Falkland Islands.
(AP, 11/11/13)(SFC, 11/12/13, p.A2)
2013 Nov 18, NASA launched the MAVEN spacecraft (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) atop an Atlas V-41 rocket at Cape Canaveral.
(SFC, 11/19/13, p.A7)
2013 Nov 19, Orbital Sciences launched a rocket from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia carrying 29 small satellites and launched them into a low-Earth orbit. Thirty hours later Kosmotros, a Russian-joint venture, carried 32 satellites into a similar orbit.
(Econ, 6/7/14, TQ p.18)
2013 Nov 22, Russia's space agency successfully launched three European Space Agency's satellites intended to study Earth's magnetic field. A Rokot booster rocket at the Plesetsk launchpad in northwestern Russia put the three Swarm satellites into their designated orbits.
(AP, 11/22/13)
2013 Dec 2, NASA said solar observatories saw something emerge from around the sun following the comet ISON’s close approach.
(SFC, 12/3/13, p.A7)
2013 Dec 2, China launched its first moon rover mission, the latest step in an ambitious space program seen as a symbol of its rising global stature.
(AFP, 12/2/13)
2013 Dec 14, China successfully carried out the world's first soft landing of a space probe on the moon in nearly four decades.
(AP, 12/14/13)
2013 Dec 14, Iran said it has successfully sent a monkey into space for a second time, part of an ambitious program aimed at manned space flight.
(AP, 12/14/13)
2013 Dec 19, The European Space Agency launched its star-surveying satellite Gaia into space, hoping to produce the most accurate three-dimensional map of the Milky Way and to better understand the evolution of our galaxy.
(AP, 12/19/13)
2013 Dec 20, Bolivia launched its first telecom satellite.
(SFC, 12/21/13, p.A2)
2013 Dec 24, NASA astronauts wrapped up successful repairs at the International Space Station after a rare Christmas Eve spacewalk to fix an equipment cooling system. Rick Mastracchi (53) and Mike Hopkins (44) floated outside the orbiting lab for seven and a half hours to replace an ammonia pump whose internal control valve failed on December 11.
(AFP, 12/25/13)
2013 Dec 27, Two Russian astronauts began a spacewalk to install cameras and perform other work on the International Space Station. This was the third spacewalk in a week at the orbiting laboratory.
(AP, 12/27/13)
2013 The US passed legislation forbidding NASA from cooperating with China or any Chinese company and hosting official Chinese visitors at any NASA facility.
(Econ, 10/12/13, p.95)
2014 Jan 12, The Cygnus cargo ship from Orbital Sciences delivered Christmas presents along with needed supplies to the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 1/13/14, p.A6)
2014 Mar 11, Two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut landed back on Earth in Kazakhstan after a stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS) of over half a year.
(AFP, 3/11/14)
2014 Mar 26, A Soyuz spacecraft carrying two Russians and NASA’s Steve Swanson blasted off from Kazakhstan. A software glitch delayed their docking with the International Space Station.
(SFC, 3/27/14, p.A2)
2014 Apr 3, The European Space Agency launched its Sentinel 1A satellite on a Russian Soyuz rocket from French Guiana. It was the first of six satellites for a new system designed to better monitor climate change, environmental disasters and catastrophes like floods, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.
(AP, 4/3/14)(SFC, 4/5/14, p.A2)
2014 Apr 17, John C. Houbolt, an engineer whose contributions to the US space program were vital to NASA's successful moon landing in 1969, died in Maine. His efforts in the early 1960s are largely credited with convincing NASA to focus on the launch of a module carrying a crew from lunar orbit, rather than a rocket from earth or a spacecraft while orbiting the planet.
(AP, 4/19/14)
2014 May 6, Bill Dana, one of the test pilots for NASA’s hypersonic X-15 rocket plane, died in Phoenix.
(SFC, 5/9/14, p.D4)
2014 May 12, A NASA study said the West Antarctic ice sheet is starting a slow collapse in an unstopable way.
(SFC, 5/13/14, p.A4)
2014 May 14, A Russian Soyuz space capsule carrying three astronauts landed in Kazakhstan. Russian Mikhail Tyurin, American Rick Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata of Japan had spent 188 days in the ISS.
(SFC, 5/15/14, p.A5)
2014 May 16, Russia's Proton-M booster rocket failed and broke apart during a test launch, just months after a shake-up in the country's space agency that was meant to boost its dented image.
(AP, 5/16/14)
2014 May 29, A Russian spacecraft carrying a three-man crew docked successfully at the International Space Station following a flawless launch.
(AP, 5/29/14)
2014 May 29, In southern billionaire Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, unveiled Dragon V2, a new spacecraft designed to carry up to seven astronauts to the Int’l. Space Station (ISS).
(SFC, 5/30/14, p.A4)
2014 Jul 2, NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 reached orbit after launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base .
(SFC, 7/3/14, p.A7)
2014 Jul 10, Arianespace launched a rocket from French Guiana carrying four satellites that will help provide Internet and mobile connectivity to people in nearly 180 countries.
(AP, 7/11/14)
2014 Jul 13, Orbital Sciences Corp. launched its 3rd space station delivery for NASA from Wallops Island on the Virginia coast.
(SFC, 7/14/14, p.A5)
2014 Jul 16, The United Arab Emirates announced it will create a space agency with the aim of sending the first Arab unmanned probe to Mars by 2021.
(AFP, 7/16/14)
2014 Sep 16, NASA selected Boeing and SpaceX to transport astronauts to the Int’l. Space Station in the next few years.
(SFC, 9/17/14, p.A7)
2014 Sep 21, NASA’s Maven spacecraft entered orbit around Mars to study the planet’s atmosphere.
(SFC, 9/23/14, p.A10)
2014 Sep 25, A US-Russian space crew blasted off from Kazakhstan for a 6-month stint at the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 9/26/14, p.A2)
2014 Oct 16, Argentina launched its first domestically built communications satellite.
(AP, 10/16/14)
2014 Oct 28, An unmanned US supply rocket exploded shortly after lifting off from the Wallops Flight Facility launch pad in Virginia, the first disaster since NASA turned to private operators to run cargo to the Int’l. Space Station. The 14-story Antares rocket was built and launched by Orbital Sciences Corp.
(Reuters, 10/29/14)(Econ, 11/1/14, p.75)
2014 Oct 31, A Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo blew apart over southern California after being released from a carrier aircraft killing one pilot, Michael Alsbury (39) and seriously injuring the other, Peter Siebold (43). The suborbital vehicle was undergoing its first powered test flight since January over the Mojave Desert.
(Reuters, 10/31/14)(SFC, 11/3/14, p.A7)
2014 Nov 1, China successfully recovered an experimental spacecraft that flew around the moon and back in a test run for the country's first unmanned return trip to the lunar surface. The eight-day trip marked the first time in almost four decades that a spacecraft has returned to Earth after traveling around the moon.
(AP, 11/1/14)
2014 Nov 10, A Russian Soyuz space capsule carrying three astronauts from the International Space Station landed safely on the frozen Kazakhstan steppe.
(AP, 11/10/14)
2014 Nov 24, A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to deliver three new crew members to the International Space Station, including Italy's first female astronaut.
(Reuters, 11/24/14)
2014 Dec 3, A Japanese space explorer took off on a six-year journey to blow a crater in a remote asteroid and bring back rock samples in hopes of gathering clues to the origin of Earth. Hayabusa2, is expected to reach the asteroid in mid-2018.
(AP, 12/3/14)
2014 Dec 5, NASA’s Orion spacecraft made its first test flight following liftoff at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The 4.5 hour test flight ended in the Pacific Ocean off Mexico.
(SFC, 12/6/14, p.C1)
2015 Jan 10, The unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket reached orbit with a cargo for the Int’l. Space Station. An attempt to land the rocket’s first stage on a floating platform failed following launch at Cape Canaveral.
(SSFC, 1/11/15, p.A8)
2015 Jan 31, An unmanned Delta 2 rocket lifted off from California carrying a NASA satellite to measure how much water is in Earth’s soil, information that will help weather forecasting and tracking of global climate change.
(Reuters, 1/31/15)
2015 Feb 11, An unmanned Falcon 9 rocket from Elong Musk’s SpaceX blasted off from Cape Canaveral carrying a research satellite. Rough seas forced abandonment of a plan to recover the booster aboard a ship.
(SFC, 2/12/15, p.C4)
2015 Mar 6, NASA confirmed that its Dawn spacecraft has arrived to orbit the dwarf planet Ceres for a 16-month exploration.
(SFC, 3/7/15, p.A4)
2015 Mar 12, In Kazakhstan two Russians and an American landed after nearly six months aboard the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 3/13/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 28, NASA said a Russian Soyuz spacecraft with three crew on board successfully docked with the International Space Station after blasting off from Kazakhstan. An American and two Russians floated into the International Space Station, beginning what is to be a year away from Earth for two of them.
(AFP, 3/28/15)(AP, 3/28/15)
2015 Apr 12, Russia’s head of its space command said in a film broadcast today that specialists have uncovered a group of spy satellites, which warned of "enemy" satellites that could masquerade as space junk.
(AFP, 4/12/15)
2015 Apr 16, Russia plans to build its own orbiting space station by 2023, President Vladimir Putin said during a marathon call-in session with the nation. Russia and NASA recently agreed to keep operating and financing the International Space Station at least until 2024.
(AFP, 4/16/15)
2015 Apr 17, The SpaceX supply ship arrived at the International Space Station, delivering the world's first espresso machine designed exclusively for astronauts.
(AP, 4/17/15)
2015 Apr 22, Russia said an experimental solid-fuel rocket went off trajectory after being launched from the Plesetsk launch pad in the northern Arkhangelsk region.
(AFP, 4/22/15)
2015 Apr 28, Russia’s unmanned Progress vessel, loaded with 3 tons of goods for the Int’l. space Station, began tumbling shortly after its launch from Kazakhstan.
(AP, 4/29/15)
2015 Apr 28, Russia’s unmanned Progress M-27M, loaded with 3 tons of goods for the Int’l. space Station, began tumbling shortly after its launch from Kazakhstan.
(AP, 4/29/15)(SFC, 4/29/15, p.A2)
2015 Apr 30, Blue Origin, a private space company founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, launched an unmanned spaceship. Its New Shepard capsule reached 58 miles and landed in the west Texas desert.
(SFC, 5/1/15, p.C2)
2015 May 6, At Cape Canaveral, Florida, SpaceX completed a successful test of its new launch escape system for astronauts using a dummy in a 1.5 minute test flight.
(SFC, 5/7/15, p.A11)
2015 May 25, The United Arab Emirates laid out a strategic framework for a newly created space agency that aims to integrate various arms of the Gulf federation's burgeoning space industry.
(AP, 5/25/15)
2015 Jun 11, In Kazakhstan NASA astronaut Terry Virts, Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency and Russia's Anton Shkaplerov returned to Earth after 199 days on the Int’l. Space station, nearly a month longer than planned.
(AP, 6/11/15)
2015 Jun 23, The European Space Agency (ESA) launched overnight the second phase of a 4.3-billion-euro ($4.91-billion) program to deploy new-generation satellites to monitor environmental damage and aid disaster relief operations. Sentinel-2A was hoisted by a lightweight Vega rocket from ESA's base in Kourou, French Guiana.
(AFP, 6/23/15)
2015 Jun 28, An unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded minutes after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida, following what was meant to be a routine cargo mission to the International Space Station.
(AFP, 6/28/15)
2015 Jul 3, Russia launched an unmanned cargo ship from Kazakhstan to the Int’l. Space Station. The Progress M-28 ship was set to dock on July 5.
(SFC, 7/4/15, p.A4)
2015 Jul 5, The Russian Progress M-28 cargo ship successfully docked with the Int’l. Space Station after two recent supply missions failed.
(SFC, 7/6/15, p.A2)
2015 Jul 23, A Soyuz space capsule carrying a Russian, an American and a Japanese docked smoothly with the International Space Station.
(AP, 7/23/15)
2015 Aug 19, The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launched an unmanned transport vehicle that is carrying water, parts and other supplies to the International Space Station.
(AP, 8/19/15)
2015 Aug 27, In China debris from a Long March-4 rocket carrying a remote sensing satellite crashed into a villager's home minutes after the launch from Shaanxi province.
(AFP, 8/28/15)
2015 Sep 2, In Kazakhstan the first Dane in space accompanied by 26 custom-made figurines from Danish toymaker Lego blasted off in a Soyuz spacecraft as part of a three-man team on an unusually long two-day mission to the International Space Station.
(AFP, 9/2/15)
2015 Sep 4, A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying three new crew docked at the International Space Station.
(AP, 9/4/15)
2015 Sep 12, A Russian space capsule landed safely in Kazakhstan, bringing home a three-person crew from the International Space Station, including a record-breaking Russian cosmonaut. Gennady Padalka completed his fifth mission for a world record of 879 total days in space.
(AP, 9/12/15)
2015 Sep 28, India successfully launched its first space observatory and six satellites into orbit.
(AP, 9/28/15)
2015 Oct 1, Russia launched its Progress M-29M cargo spacecraft from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, to the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 10/2/15, p.A2)
2015 Nov 24, A rocket from Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin private space company landed upright following a test flight in West Texas.
(SFC, 11/25/15, p.C1)
2015 Nov 24, A Japanese rocket lifted off and successfully put the national space program's first commercial satellite into orbit.
(AFP, 11/24/15)
2015 Dec 6, In Florida an unmanned Atlas V rocket lifted off carrying the Orbital ATK capsule to supply astronauts at the int’l. space station.
(SFC, 12/7/15, p.A4)
2015 Dec 9, Japan's space agency said its "Akatsuki" probe had successfully entered into orbit around Venus after an initial attempt at reaching the second planet from the sun failed five years ago.
(AFP, 12/9/15)
2015 Dec 11, A three-person crew from the International Space Station landed safely in the snowy steppes of Kazakhstan.
(AP, 12/11/15)
2015 Dec 15, In Kazakhstan Tim Peake (43), the first British astronaut to travel to the International Space Station, blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome with Russian space veteran Yury Malenchenko and Tim Kopra of NASA for a six-month mission.
(AFP, 12/15/15)
2015 Dec 21, At Cape Canaveral, Florida, SpaceX successfully landed its powerful Falcon 9 rocket for the first time, a major milestone in the drive to cut costs and waste by making rockets as reusable as airplanes.
(AFP, 12/22/15)
2015 Dec 21, The unmanned Progress cargo spacecraft blasted off from Russia's space launch complex in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on a journey to the International Space Station.
(AP, 12/21/15)
2015 It was estimated that some 3,000 tons of rocket debris were in orbit around Earth.
(Econ., 4/25/15, p.75)
2016 Jan 17, A SpaceX rocket toppled on a barge when a support leg failed to lock upon landing on a barge about 200 miles west of San Diego. A Jason-3 satellite was successfully launched.
(SFC, 1/18/16, p.A4)
2016 Feb 17, A Japanese satellite, developed in collaboration with NASA and various other groups, was launched. It was designed to observe X-rays emanating from black holes and galaxy clusters. On March 27 the director of Japan’s Institute of Space and Astronautical Science said the satellite has disappeared.
(AP, 3/28/16)
2016 Mar 2, US astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko landed in Kazakhstan after almost a year in space in a ground-breaking experiment foreshadowing a potential manned mission to Mars.
(AFP, 3/2/16)
2016 Mar 14, In Kazakhstan a joint European-Russian mission aiming to search for traces of life on Mars blasted off for the start of a seven-month unmanned space journey to the Red Planet.
(AFP, 3/14/16)
2016 Mar 19, A Soyuz space capsule carrying two Russians and an American docked with the International Space Station. Their rocket took off in windy conditions from Russia's space base in Kazakhstan at 2126 GMT March 18.
(AP, 3/19/16)
2016 Mar 26, The six astronauts at the International Space Station got an early Easter treat today with the arrival of a supply ship full of fresh food and experiments via Orbital ATK's Cygnus capsule, named after the swan constellation. The cargo carrier rocketed away from Cape Canaveral on March 22.
(AP, 3/26/16)
2016 Apr 8, SpaceX resumed station deliveries for NASA, and in a double triumph, successfully landed its booster rocket on an ocean platform for the first time.
(AP, 4/9/16)
2016 Apr 10, A SpaceX Dragon cargo ship arrived at the Int’l. Space Station with 7,000 pounds of freight including a soft-sided compartment built by Bigelow Aerospace.
(SFC, 4/11/16, p.A4)
2016 Apr 28, Russia launched its first rocket from the new Vostochny cosmodrome in the remote Amur Region near China's border, a day after a technical glitch forced a postponement of the event to carry three satellites into orbit.
(Reuters, 4/28/16)
2016 May 6, A SpaceX rocket landed on an ocean platform for the 2nd time following the successful launch of a Japanese communications satellite at Cape Canaveral.
(SFC, 5/7/16, p.A6)
2016 May 23, The Indian Space Research Organization launched a small space shuttle on a rocket in southern India and completed a successful 13-minute test flight.
(AP, 5/24/16)
2016 May 28, NASA successfully inflated its new Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) in an operation that took three days to complete at the Int’l. Space Station.
(SSFC, 5/29/16, p.A7)
2016 Jun 1, NASA said researchers in the United States and Canada have located 39 unreported sources of major pollution using a new satellite-based method. The unreported sources of toxic sulfur dioxide emissions are clusters of coal-burning power plants, smelters and oil and gas operations in the Middle East, Mexico and Russia that were found in an analysis of satellite data from 2005 to 2014.
(Reuters, 6/2/16)
2016 Jun 18, In Kazakhstan Tim Peake, the first British astronaut on the ISS, Russia's Yury Malenchenko and NASA's Tim Kopra parachuted down onto the Kazakh steppe in their Soyuz capsule at 0915 GMT after spending 186 days in orbit.
(AFP, 6/18/16)
2016 Jun 19, In Texas the Blue Origin space company completed its fourth successful unmanned rocket launch and safe landing using the same New Shepard vehicle.
(SFC, 6/20/16, p.A4)
2016 Jun 26, China recovered an experimental probe launched aboard a new generation rocket, marking another milestone in its increasingly ambitious space program that envisions a mission to Mars by the end of the decade.
(AP, 6/26/16)
2016 Jul 5, NASA celebrated a key triumph as its $1.1 billion Juno spacecraft successfully slipped into orbit around Jupiter on a mission to probe the origin of the solar system.
(AFP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 7, In Kazakhstan a Russian space capsule was launched beginning a two-day trip to the International Space Station. The Soyuz capsule carried Russian Anatoly Ivanshin, NASA's Kate Rubins and Takuya Onishi of Japan’s space agency JAXA.
(AP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 18, An unmanned Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) rocket blasted off from Florida to send a cargo ship to the International Space Station, then turned around and landed itself back at the launch site.
(AP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 18, NASA officials said Taiwan is building a $47 million lunar lander as part of the first ever moon-mining project. Chung-shan Institute of Science and Technology (CSIST) will build the lander. The NASA project Resource Prospector and aims to be the first mining expedition on another world.
(AP, 7/18/16)
2016 Jul 20, SpaceX delivered more than 2 tons of supplies to the International Space Station including a space station docking port needed for future rocket ships.
(AP, 7/20/16)
2016 Aug 16, China launched Micius, the world’s first quantum communication satellite into space from the Jiuquan launch base in the northwestern Gobi desert. It was named after a Chinese philosopher of the 5th century. Experts said this will push forward efforts to develop the ability to send communications that can't be penetrated by hackers.
(AP, 8/16/16)(Econ, 9/2/17, p.67)
2016 Aug 28, In Hawaii six scientists completed a yearlong Mars simulation, where they lived in a dome on a Mauna Loa mountain. NASA funded the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) program.
(AP, 8/29/16)
2016 Sep 1, An unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded during a test in Florida, destroying the Israeli-built and -owned Amos 6 satellite that Facebook planned to use to beam high-speed internet to sub-Saharan Africa.
(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 15, China launched the Tiangong 2, its second space station, atop a Long March 7 rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.
(SFC, 9/16/16, p.A2)
2016 Oct 16, The European Space Agency dispatched an experimental probe on the final leg of its quest to land on Mars, part of a mission aimed at exploring the red planet's atmosphere and searching for signs of life. The ExoMars mission was a joint endeavor by Europe’s and Russia’s space agencies.
(AP, 10/16/16)(Econ, 10/22/16, p.71)
2016 Oct 19, In Kazakhstan two Russian cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut soared into orbit in a Soyuz spacecraft at the start of a two-day journey to the International Space Station.
(AFP, 10/19/16)
2016 Oct 19, Members of the ExoMars team announced the arrival of the project’s craft at Mars. However, their landing craft, called Schiaparelli, went silent on its way to the surface of the planet.
(Econ, 10/22/16, p.71)
2016 Oct 30, A Russian Soyuz space capsule landed in Kazakhstan, bringing astronauts Kate Rubins of NASA, Japan's Takuya Onishi and Anatoly Ivanishin of Russia back to Earth from a 115-day mission aboard the International Space Station.
(AP, 10/30/16)
2016 Nov 18, Two Chinese astronauts returned from a monthlong stay aboard the country's space station, China's sixth and longest crewed mission and a sign of the growing ambitions of its rapidly advancing space program.
(AP, 11/18/16)
2016 Nov 19, The new GOES-R spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral. It will track US weather as part of an $11 billion effort to revolutionize weather forecasting.
(SFC, 11/21/16, p.A6)
2016 Dec 1, In Kazakhstan an unmanned Russian cargo ship blasted with a load of supplies to the International Space Station, but Russian space officials said they weren't getting data from it. The Progress MSD-04 cargo craft broke up over Siberia.
(AP, 12/1/16)(SFC, 12/2/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 9, A Japanese capsule blasted off from the Tanegashima Space Center with much-needed supplies for the International Space Station, a week after a Russian shipment was destroyed shortly after liftoff.
(AP, 12/9/16)
2017 Jan 14, A SpaceX Falcon 9 successfully blasted off from California carrying a payload for Iridium Communications Inc. The rocket’s first stage soon landed upright on a droneship south of Vandenberg Air Force Base.
(SSFC, 1/15/17, p.A7)
2017 Jan 16, US astronaut Eugene Cernan (b.1934), the last man to walk on the moon, died in Houston, Texas. Cernan, James Lovell and John Young were the only three astronauts to voyage twice to the moon.
(Reuters, 1/17/17)(SFC, 1/17/17, p.A5)
2017 Feb 19, In Florida a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched space station supplies from NASA’s launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.
(SFC, 2/20/17, p.A7)
2017 Feb 15, India launched the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, built by the Indian Space Research Organization, carrying a record 104 satellites, 88 of which were made by Planet, a San Francisco-based company founded in 2010.
(Econ, 2/18/17, p.57)
2017 Feb 22, A navigation error forced SpaceX to delay its shipment to the International Space Station (ISS), following an otherwise smooth flight from NASA's historic moon pad. The delivery was completed the next day.
(AP, 2/22/17)(SFC, 2/24/17, p.A12)
2017 Feb 22, Russia successfully launched a cargo ship to the International Space Station (ISS) from Kazakhstan.
(AP, 2/22/17)
2017 Mar 19, The SpaceX Dragon cargo ship returned from the ISS and parachuted into the Pacific with some 5,000 pounds of completed experiments and used equipment.
(SFC, 3/20/17, p.A4)
2017 Mar 21, Pres. Donald Trump signed a bill authorizing $19.5 billion for NASA and updates the agency’s mission to add the exploration of Mars.
(SFC, 3/22/17, p.A6)
2017 Mar 30, SpaceX launched its first recycled rocket. The Falcon 9 hoisted a broadcasting satellite into the sky from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
(SFC, 3/31/17, p.C2)
2017 Apr 8, Russia said cosmonaut Georgy Grechko (85) has died. He made three trips into space (1975 – 1985), spending a total of 134 days off the Earth. His longest was a stay of more than three months aboard the Salyut-6 space station in 1977-78.
(AP, 4/8/17)
2017 Apr 10, In Kazakhstan NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and Russia's Sergei Ryzhikov and Andrei Borisenko touched down after spending 173 days in space.
(AP, 4/9/17)
2017 Apr 18, In Florida an Atlas rocket carried the S.S. John Glenn cargo ship toward the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 4/19/17, p.A12)
2017 Apr 20, China launched its first unmanned cargo spacecraft on a mission to dock with the country's space station, marking further progress in the ambitious Chinese space program.
(AP, 4/20/17)
2017 Apr 24, Astronaut Peggy Whitson broke the US record for most time in space at 534 days. The world record of 879 days is held by Russian Gennady Padalka.
(SFC, 4/25/17, p.A5)
2017 Apr 27, NASA said its unmanned Cassini spacecraft has survived its plunge between the rings of Saturn and, after briefly going dark for the flyby, is communicating again with Earth.
(AP, 4/27/17)
2017 Jun 2, A Russian Soyuz capsule, carrying astronauts Russia's Oleg Novitsky and Thomas Pesquet of France, landed in Kazakhstan after a half-year aboard the International Space Station. NASA's Peggy Whitson's mission aboard the space station has been extended by three months.
(AP, 6/2/17)
2017 Jun 3, SpaceX launched its first recycled cargo ship to the Int’l. Space Station aboard an unmanned Falcon rocket. The first stage booster returned to Cape Canaveral for a successful vertical touchdown.
(SSFC, 6/4/17, p.A7)
2017 Jun 5, India successfully launched its most powerful home-produced rocket, another milestone for its indigenous space program which one day hopes to put a human into orbit. The GSLV Mk III rocket carried a satellite weighing more than three tons into a high orbit above Earth.
(AFP, 6/5/17)
2017 Jul 2, A Chinese rocket launch failed this evening due to abnormality during the flight following what appeared to be a successful liftoff of the Long March-5 Y2.
(AP, 7/2/17)
2017 Jul 27, Iran successfully launched a satellite-carrying rocket into space. The launch involved a "Simorgh" rocket capable of carrying a satellite weighing 250 kg (550 pounds).
(AP, 7/27/17)
2017 Aug 14, A SpaceX capsule rocketed to the Int’l. Space Station from Cape Canaveral, Fl.
(SFC, 8/1517, p.A6)
2017 Aug 17, Spacewalking cosmonauts set free the world’s first satellite made almost entirely with a 3-D printer.
(SFC, 8/18/17, p.A7)
2017 Aug 18, NASA launched the 13th and last of its Tracking and Data Relay Satellite network from Cape Canaveral.
(SFC, 8/19/17, p.A5)
2017 Aug 24, The Earth-observation Formosat-5 satellite for Taiwan's National Space Organization was launched into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
(AP, 8/25/17)
2017 Sep 1, US President Donald Trump announced he plans to appoint James Bridenstine, a former navy pilot and Oklahoma Republican congressman, to head the US space agency NASA.
(AFP, 9/1/17)(SSFC, 9/3/17, p.A8)
2017 Sep 2, Astronaut Peggy Whitson (57) returned to Earth late today, wrapping up a record-breaking flight that catapulted her to first place for US space endurance. Her 665 days off the planet, 288 days on this mission alone, exceeds that of any other American and any other woman worldwide.
(AP, 9/3/17)
2017 Sep 7, SpaceX stuck with its long-planned launch of a super-secret Air Force space shuttle and launched an unmanned Falcon rocket from Florida's Kennedy Space Center. It's the fifth flight for one of these crewless mini shuttles, known as the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle. Officials would not say what the spacecraft are doing up there.
(AP, 9/7/17)
2017 Sep 15, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, launched in 1997, burned up in a fiery dive into Saturn, where it had been circling since 2004.
(SFC, 9/16/17 p.A8)
2017 Oct 13, Russia successfully launched a satellite into orbit that will monitor Europe's atmosphere, helping to study air pollution. The European Space Agency's Sentinel-5P satellite was launched by a Rokot missile from the northwestern Plesetsk launch pad.
(AP, 10/13/17)
2017 Oct 14, An unmanned Russian cargo ship was launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, to take supplies to the six astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
(AP, 10/14/17)
2017 Oct 26, Saudi Arabia announced plans to invest $1 billion in Richard Branson’s portfolio of space companies. Virgin Galactic intends to start flying tourists to the edge of space in the coming months.
(SFC, 10/27/17, p.A6)
2017 Nov 4, NASA Scientists reported that the giant hole in Earth’s protective ozone layer has shriveled to its smallest peak since 1988.
(SSFC, 11/5/17, p.A16)
2017 Nov 12, Orbital ATK launched its Cygnus cargo capsule aboard an unmanned Antares rocket with supplies for the Int’l. Space Station (ISS).
(SFC, 11/13/17, p.A5)
2017 Nov 18, In California the Joint Polar Satellite System-1 was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base. It was the first of four next-generation spacecraft for NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
(SSFC, 11/19/17, p.A8)
2017 Nov 28, Russian weather satellite Meteor M 2-1 and nearly 20 micro-satellites from various nations failed to enter their designated orbits following the launch from Russia's new Vostochny launch pad in the Far East. It wasn't immediately clear if they fell into the ocean or were stranded in low orbit.
(AP, 11/28/17)
2017 Dec 14, Astronomers using NASA’s Kepler space Telescope reported the discovery of an eighth planet (Kepler-90i) circling the star Kepler-90.
(SFC, 12/15/17, p.A8)
2017 Dec 14, Three astronauts returned to Earth from the Int’l. Space Station (ISS) after nearly six month in orbit. A Russian Soyuz capsule landed in Kazakhstan with NASA’s Randy Bresnik, Russia’s Sergey Ryazansky and Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency.
(SFC, 12/15/17, p.A4)
2017 Dec 15, SpaceX racked up another first, launching a recycled rocket with a recycled capsule on a grocery run for NASA to the Int’l. Space Station. Within 10 minutes of liftoff, the first-stage booster was back at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, standing upright on the giant X at SpaceX's landing zone.
(AP, 12/16/17)
2017 Dec 17, In Kazakhstan a Soyuz capsule carrying three astronauts from Russia, Japan and the US blasted off for a two-day trip to the International Space Station. Anton Shkaplerov, Norishige Kanai and Scott Tingle will join Russia's Alexander Misurkin and Joe Acaba and Mark Vandde Hei of NASA, who have been aboard since September.
(AP, 12/17/17)
2017 Dec 21, NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless (80), the first person to fly freely and untethered in space (1984), died in California.
(AP, 12/23/17)
2017 Dec 26, Angola’s Russian-built AngoSat 1 satellite successfully entered orbit after launch from the Baikonur pad in Kazakhstan, but experts couldn't immediately establish contact. By Dec. 29 state-run Energia company engineers established communications with the craft and received data indicating that all its systems are operating properly.
(AP, 12/29/17)
2018 Jan 5, Astronaut John Young (b.1930) died at his home in Houston. He commanded the Apollo 16 lunar voyage and walked on the moon in April, 1972.
(SSFC, 1/7/18, p.C11)
2018 Jan 7, SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket with the classified Zuma satellite from Cape Canaveral. The satellite was reported lost after it failed to separate from a 2nd-stage rocket.
(SFC, 1/10/18, p.C5)
2018 Feb 6, SpaceX's Falcon Heavy, blasted off from Cape Canaveral on its highly anticipated maiden test flight, carrying CEO Elon Musk's cherry red Tesla Roadster toward an orbit near Mars.
(AFP, 2/7/18)
2018 Feb 28, In Kazakhstan NASA's Joe Acaba and Mark Vande Hei, and Russia's Alexander Misurkin returned from the International Space Station to the snowy, bitingly cold flat lands of Central Asia, ending a 5 1/2-month mission. Three astronauts remained behind.
(AP, 2/28/18)
2018 Mar 21, In Kazakhstan two Americans and a Russian cosmonaut blasted off from the Baikonur launch pad on their way to the Int'l. Space Station.
(SFC, 3/22/18, p.A2)
2018 Apr 18, NASA launched its Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), a space telescope for NASA's Explorers program, designed to search for exoplanets.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transiting_Exoplanet_Survey_Satellite)
2018 Apr 2, China's defunct Tiangong 1 space station mostly burned up on re-entry into the atmosphere over the central South Pacific.
(AP, 4/2/18)
2018 May 17, In China a suborbital rocket was launched into space by OneSpace, a Beijing-based start-up in the burgeoning commercial aeronautics industry. The launch aimed to demonstrate an early working model of the company's OS-X series of rockets, designed to conduct research linked to suborbital flights.
(AFP, 5/17/18)
2018 May 21, Orbital ATK launched an Antares rocket with supplies to the Int'l. Space Station from Wallops Island, Va.
(SFC, 5/22/18, p.A8)
2018 May 22, A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched a pair of US-German science satellites and five commercial communications satellites into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in southern California.
(SFC, 5/23/18, p.C6)
2018 Jun 3, In Kazakhstan Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, Scott Tingle of the United States and Norishige Kanai of Japan touched down in a Russian Soyuz space capsule on the Kazakh steppe after a 168-day mission aboard the International Space Station.
(AFP, 6/3/18)
2018 Jun 6, In Kazakhstan a trio of astronauts from Russia, the United States and the European Space Agency blasted off for a mission on the International Space Station. A Russian spacecraft carried Serena Aunon-Chancellor of NASA, Sergey Prokopyev of Russian space agency Roscosmos and the ESA's Alexander Gerst, from Germany, as it lifted off as scheduled from the Russia-leased Baikonur cosmodrome.
(AP, 6/6/18)
2018 Jun 18, US Pres. Donald Trump announced that he is directing the Pentagon to create a new Space Force as an independent service branch aimed at ensuring American supremacy in space.
(SFC, 6/19/18, p.A7)
2018 Jun 27, Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft arrived at an asteroid after a 3 1/2-year journey to undertake a first-ever experiment: blow a crater in the rocky surface to collect samples and bring them back to Earth.
(AP, 6/27/18)
2018 Jul 2, SpaceX's Dragon capsule delivered nearly 6,000 pounds of supplies to the Int'l. Space Station. The supplies included the round AI robot Cimon, slightly bigger than a basketball, from the German Space Agency intended to assist German astronaut Alexander Gerst with science experiments.
(SFC, 7/3/18, p.A7)
2018 Jul 10, A Russian cargo ship delivered a fresh load of fuel, food, and other supplies for the International Space Station, making it in record time. The unmanned spacecraft docked at the station in automatic mode less than four hours after the launch.
(AP, 7/10/18)
2018 Jul 25, Europe launched four more Galileo satellites from French Guiana, taking the number in orbit to 26 and moving a step closer to having its own navigation system, just as the program has become the latest flashpoint in Brexit negotiations. The satellites will be part of the EU's alternative to the US Global Positioning System.
(AP, 7/25/18)
2018 Aug 7, In Florida SpaceX used its newest style booster for a second time at Cape Canaveral to put a communications satellite into orbit for Indonesia.
(AP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 12, NASA blasted off its first-ever spaceship to explore the Sun, the $1.5 billion Parker Solar Probe, on a strategic mission to protect the Earth by unveiling the mysteries of dangerous solar storms. The car-sized probe was launched aboard a massive Delta IV-Heavy rocket early today at Cape Canaveral.
(AFP, 8/12/18)
2018 Sep 15, NASA launched a satellite, designed to measure changes in Earth's ice sheets, into orbit from southern California's Vandenberg Air Force Base.
(SSFC, 9/16/18, p.A10)
2018 Sep 17, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa (42) said that he plans to blast off on the inaugural private commercial trip around the moon and will invite six to eight creative people on the weeklong journey via the SpaceX Big Falcon Rocket scheduled for 2023. Maezawa is the founder of Japan's largest retail website.
(SFC, 9/18/18, p.A5)
2018 Oct 3, The Japan Space Exploration Agency said the Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT), a German-French observation device, was released from the unmanned spacecraft Hayabusa2 and successfully landed on the asteroid Ryugu.
(AP, 10/3/18)
2018 Oct 4, In Kazakhstan the Russian Soyuz MS-08 space capsule carrying Russia's Oleg Artemyev and NASA's Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold landed safely after a six-month mission aboard the International Space Station.
(AP, 10/4/18)
2018 Oct 7, In southern California SpaceX launched a commercial satellite for Argentina from Vandenberg Air Force Base. This was the 17th mission this year for Elon Musk's rocket company.
(SFC, 10/9/18, p.A4D4)
2018 Oct 11, The two-man US-Russian crew of a Soyuz spacecraft en route to the International Space Station was forced to make a dramatic emergency landing in Kazakhstan when their rocket failed in mid-air. The rocket malfunctioned two minutes after liftoff, forcing its two-man crew of Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin to make an emergency landing. Investigators later said the rocket failure was caused by a sensor that was damaged during assembly at the Soviet-era cosmodrome at Baikonur.
(Reuters, 10/11/18)(Reuters, 10/8/19)
2018 Oct 13, NASA said that the Chandra X-ray Obervatory went into safe mode last week due to a gyroscope problem.
(SSFC, 10/14/18, p.A10)
2018 Oct 20, European and Japanese space agencies said an Ariane 5 rocket successfully lifted a spacecraft carrying two probes into orbit for a joint mission to Mercury. The unmanned BepiColombo spacecraft successfully separated and was sent into orbit from French Guiana as planned to begin a seven-year journey to Mercury.
(AP, 10/20/18)
2018 Oct 25, A Russian Soyuz rocket lifted off from the Plesetsk launch facility in Mirny and put a military satellite into orbit.
(SFC, 10/26/18, p.A2)
2018 Oct 27, China's first attempt to deploy a privately developed rocket capable of carrying a satellite failed. Beijing-based Landspace said that the first and second stage of its ZQ-1 rocket worked normally but something went wrong with the third stage.
(AP, 10/28/18)
2018 Nov 11, Electron, a small rocket from the little-known company Rocket Lab, lifted off from the east coast of New Zealand carrying a clutch of tiny satellites. This was the first commercial launch by the US-New Zealand company.
(https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/10/science/rocket-lab-launch.html)
2018 Nov 16, A Russian Soyuz rocket launched its first cargo mission to the International Space Station since a Soyuz rocket carrying astronauts failed last month.
(AFP, 11/17/18)
2018 Nov 17, An unmanned Cygnus cargo ship blasted off from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia toward the International Space Station, marking the second supply mission in 24 hours destined to carry food and supplies to the astronauts living in space.
(AFP, 11/17/18)
2018 Nov 26, A NASA spacecraft designed to burrow beneath the surface of Mars landed on the red planet after a six-month, 300 million-mile (482 million-km) journey and a perilous, six-minute descent through the rose-hued atmosphere.
(AP, 11/26/18)
2018 Dec 3, A Soyuz rocket carrying Russian, American and Canadian astronauts took off from Kazakhstan and reached orbit, the first manned mission since a failed launch in October.
(AFP, 12/3/18)
2018 Dec 8, China launched a Long March 3B rocket carrying a lunar probe from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan Province. It hoped to land the spacecraft on the largely unexplored far side of the moon.
(AP, 12/8/18)
2018 Dec 20, Three astronauts returned to Earth after more than six months aboard the International Space Station. A Russian Soyuz capsule with NASA's Serena Aunon-Chancellor, Russian Sergey Prokopyev and German astronaut Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency landed on the snow-covered steppes in Kazakhstan.
(AP, 12/20/18)
2018 Dec 23, SpaceX launched the US Air Force's most powerful GPS satellite ever constructed. This was the company's 21st and final launch of the year.
(SFC, 12/24/18, p.A4)
2018 Dec 26, Nancy Grace Roman (b.1925), NASA's first chief of astronomy, died in Germantown, Maryland. She took part in the development of the cosmic Background Explorer, launched in 1989, and oversaw the early development of the Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Roman)(SFC, 1/2/19, p.C5)
2019 Jan 1, NASA rang in the New Year with a historic flyby of the farthest, and quite possibly the oldest, cosmic body ever explored by humankind -- a tiny, distant world called Ultima Thule -- in the hopes of learning more about how planets took shape.
(AFP, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 3, A Chinese space probe successfully touched down on the far side of the moon. The Chang'e-4 lunar probe, launched in December, made the "soft landing" and transmitted the first-ever "close range" image of the far side of the moon.
(Reuters, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 11, Russia's space agency lost control of the Spektr-R satellite, an orbiting radio telescope launched in 2011 with an expected useful life of about three years.
(AP, 1/12/19)
2019 Jan 15, An Iranian rocket blasted off into space, but scientists failed to put the Payam satellite into orbit in a launch previously criticized by the United States as helping the Islamic Republic further develop its ballistic missile program.
(AP, 1/15/19)
2019 Feb 6, It was reported that two tiny satellites have fallen silent millions of miles away, after proving new technology at Mars. The twin CubeSats, nicknamed WALL-E and EVE, shadowed NASA's InSight lander to Mars last year. This week, NASA said it hasn't heard from them for more than a month now — and doubts it ever will.
(AP, 2/6/19)
2019 Feb 13, NASA pronounced that its 2004 Mars rover Opportunity was dead.
(SFC, 2/14/19, p.A14)
2019 Feb 21, A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral carried a communications satellite for Indonesia and a lunar lander for Israel. The lunar lander was expected to touch down on the Sea of Serenity on April 11.
(SFC, 2/23/19, p.A4)
2019 Mar 2, SpaceX's new Crew Dragon astronaut capsule was on its way to the International Space Station after it successfully launched from Florida on board a Falcon 9 rocket.
(AFP, 3/2/19)
2019 Mar 3, Elon Musk's SpaceX white Dragon capsule with just a test dummy aboard docked smoothly with the International Space Station in a big step toward putting the US back in the business of launching astronauts.
(AP, 3/3/19)
2019 Mar 27, India shot down one of its satellites in space with an anti-satellite missile. The government said the test was aimed at protecting India's assets in space against foreign attacks. The United States ran the first anti-satellite test in 1959, when satellites themselves were rare and new.
(Reuters, 3/27/19)
2019 Apr 4, The Russian Progress freighter blasted off from a launch facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, and docked with the International Space Station after two orbits. It set a record time for a trip to the ISS, docking in three hours and 21 minutes.
(AP, 4/4/19)
2019 Apr 5, Japan's space agency said an explosive dropped from its Hayabusa2 spacecraft successfully blasted the surface of an asteroid for the first time to form a crater and pave the way for the collection of underground samples for possible clues to the origin of the solar system.
(AP, 4/5/19)
2019 May 4, SpaceX launched a load of supplies to the ISS. A recycled Dragon capsule carried 5,500 pounds of goods.
(SSFC, 5/5/19, p.A6)
2019 May 4, Interstellar Technology Inc., a Japanese aerospace startup funded by a former internet maverick, successfully launched a small rocket into space, making it the first commercially developed Japanese rocket to reach orbit.
(AP, 5/4/19)
2019 May 15, Takafumi Horie, founder of Japan's Interstellar Technology Inc., said his company plans to provide low-cost rocket services and compete with American rivals such as SpaceX.
(SFC, 5/16/19, p.A2)
2019 May 23, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, late today carrying the first 60 satellites of its "Starlink" constellation, which is intended to provide internet from space in an array that could one day contain over 12,000 orbiting transponders.
(AFP, 5/24/19)
2019 Jun 7, NASA announced that it will open the International Space Station to private astronauts with the first visit as early as next year.
(SFC, 6/8/19, p.A5)
2019 Jun 25, SpaceX launched its Falcon Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral. It carried a payload of 24 military and scientific research satellites.
(SFC, 6/26/19, p.D1)
2019 Jun 25, In Kazakhstan NASA astronaut Anne McClain, veteran cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos, and Canadian Space Agency record-holder David Saint-Jacques emerged from the space craft to applause from support crews, after touching down near the Kazakh city of Dzhezkazgan.
(AFP, 6/25/19)
2019 Jul 22, India launched a rocket into space in an attempt to safely land a rover on the moon, its most ambitious mission yet in the effort to establish itself as a low-cost space power.
(Reuters, 7/22/19)
2019 Aug 17, A Chinese government space agency successfully launched its first rocket meant for commercial use. The 23-ton Smart Dragon-1 rocket was developed by a unit of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC).
(Reuters, 8/17/19)
2019 Aug 24, A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying a humanoid robot, the FEDOR (Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research), failed to dock with the International Space Station (ISS). Officials planned to attempt the docking on August 26.
(Reuters, 8/24/19)
2019 Aug 27, An unmanned spacecraft carrying Russia's first humanoid robot docked at the International Space Station following a failed attempt over the weekend.
(AFP, 8/27/19)
2019 Aug 29, Iran conducted a third rocket launch, but satellite imagery of the launch suggested the country's latest attempt to put a satellite in orbit has ended in failure.
(Business Insider, 8/30/19)
2019 Sep 7, India's space agency lost contact with a spacecraft it was trying to land on the moon, in a setback for the nation's ambitious plans to become the first country to probe the unexplored lunar south pole. Communication was lost just as it was about to touch down.
(Reuters, 9/7/19)
2019 Sep 25, In Kazakhstan a Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off carrying an American, a Russian and the first space traveler from the United Arab Emirates to the Int'l. Space Station.
(SFC, 9/26/19, p.A2)
2019 Oct 3, In Kazakhstan American Nick Hague, Russian Alexey Ovchinin and Hazzaa al-Mansoori, the first person from the United Arab Emirates to fly into space, landed safely after a six-hour flight from the International Space Station following an 8-day mission.
(AP, 10/3/19)
2019 Oct 11, NASA announced the death of the world's first spacewalker, Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov (85). His 12-minute spacewalk on March 18, 1965, preceded the first US spacewalk by Ed White by less than three months.
(AP, 10/11/19)
2019 Oct 11, Int'l. space station astronauts ventured out on their second spacewalk this week to swap more batteries.
(AP, 10/11/19)
2019 Oct 22, US billionaire Jeff Bezos said his space company Blue Origin has signed agreements with Lockheed Martin Corp, Northrop Grumman Corp and research and development organization Draper for development of its lunar lander designed to help NASA put humans on the moon by 2024.
(Reuters, 10/22/19)
2019 Oct 27, The US Air Force X-37B landed at NASA's Kennedy Space Center following a 780-day mission. The solar-powered plane was flown by remote control without a crew.
(SFC, 8/30/19, p.A5)
2019 Nov 1, Northrop Grumman launched its Cygnus capsule for NASA from Wallops Island, Virginia. The 8,200-pound shipment (3,700 kg) should reach the Int'l. Space Station on Nov. 4.
(AP, 11/2/19)
2019 Nov 3, China launched a new high-resolution remote sensing satellite capable of providing stereoscopic imagery, marking another important step as Beijing seeks to reduce reliance on foreign technology in topographic mapping.
(Reuters, 11/3/19)
2019 Nov 11, SpaceX launched 60 mini satellites, each weighing 575 pounds, from Cape Canaveral. This was the 2nd batch of an orbiting network meant to provide global internet coverage.
(SFC, 11/12/19, p.A6)
2019 Nov 15, Astronauts launched an extraordinarily complicated series of spacewalks to fix a cosmic ray detector at the International Space Station.
(AP, 11/15/19)
2019 Nov 25, Russian military launched a Soyuz-2-1v/Volga rocket from Site 43 in Plesetsk, delivering a classified cargo into orbit. Russia launched its Kosmos 2542 satellite. 11 days later it disgorged another satellite named Kosmos 2543. On Jul 15, 2020, 2543 spat out another object, which sped off into the void.
(http://www.russianspaceweb.com/cosmos-2542.html)(Econ., 8/15/20, p.68)
2019 Dec 2, Spacewalking astronauts attached new pumps to a cosmic ray detector outside the International Space Station in a bid to extend its scientific life.
(AP, 12/2/19)
2019 Dec 4, Scientists released the first results from NASA's sun-skimming spacecraft, the Parker Solar Probe. They observed bursts of energetic particles never seen before on such a small scale as well as switchback-like reversals in the out-flowing solar magnetic field that seem to whip up the solar wind.
(AP, 12/4/19)
2019 Dec 8, The SpaceX Dragon caqpsule delivered three tons supplies to the Int'l. Space Station.The delivery include 8 of 40 mice genetically engineered with twice the normal muscle mass for a muscle and bone experiment.
(SFC, 12/9/19, p.A6)
2019 Dec 18, A European spacecraft was launched from Kourou, French Guiana, atop a Russian Soyuz rocket. The 3-year mission of Characterising ExoPlanets Satellite (CHEOPS) is to study planets in other solar systems.
(SFC, 12/19/19, p.A2)
2019 Dec 20, A timer error prevented Boeing Co's new astronaut capsule from reaching the orbit it needed to get to the International Space Station, cutting short a critical unmanned test mission. The plan was now for the capsule to head back to Earth, landing at White Sands, New Mexico on Dec. 22.
(AP, 12/20/19)
2019 Dec 21, US Pres. Donald Trump officially launched the US Space Force, America’s first military service in more than 70 years.
(The Telegraph, 12/21/19)
2019 Dec 22, The Boeing Starliner spacecraft successfully landed in New Mexico after a failed mission to the International Space Station.
(Reuters, 12/22/19)
2019 Dec 28, NASA astronaut Christina Koch broke the record set by retired astronaut Peggy Whitson for the longest single spaceflight by a woman with 289 days in space.
(Good Morning America, 12/30/19)
2020 Jan 19, Elon Musk's SpaceX simulated a successful emergency landing off the coast of Cape Canaveral in Florida in a dramatic test of a crucial abort system on an unmanned astronaut capsule, laying the foundation for its mission to fly NASA astronauts for the first time.
(Reuters, 1/19/20)
2020 Jan 25, Space astronauts plugged a leak in the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer outside the Int'l. Space Station. The cosmic ray detector was shut down last year for the repair work.
(SSFC, 1/26/20, p.A6)
2020 Jan 30, NASA pulled the plug on the Spitzer Space Telescope after it spent 16 years scanning the universe with infrared eyes. It had been designed to last 2½ to 5 years.
(SFC, 1/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Feb 6, NASA astronaut Christina Koch, who has spent nearly 11 months in orbit on the longest spaceflight by a woman, landed safely in Kazakhstan along with along with station Commander Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency and the Russian space agency Roscosmos' Alexander Skvortsov.
(AP, 2/6/20)
2020 Feb 9, In Florida Europe and NASA's Solar Orbiter was launched at Cape Canaveral late today to capture the first pictures of the sun's elusive poles.
(SFC, 2/11/20, p.A8)
2020 Feb 15, Northrop Grumman launched its Cygnus capsule from the Virginia seashore. The nearly 4-ton shipment should arrive at the orbiting lab on Feb. 18.
(AP, 2/16/20)
2020 Feb 24, NASA scientists said the InSight lander, which touched down on the surface of Mars in November 2018 to begin the first mission to study the planet's deep interior, has since detected around 450 marsquakes, most of modest strength.
(Reuters, 2/24/20)
2020 Feb 24, Katherine Johnson (101), a mathematician who calculated rocket trajectories and earth orbits for NASA’s early space missions, died in Virginia. She was portrayed in the 2016 hit film “Hidden Figures," about pioneering black female aerospace workers.
(AP, 2/24/20)(Econ., 2/29/20, p.74)
2020 Mar 6, SpaceX successfully lunched a Falcon rocket from Cape canaveral with 4,300 pounds of supplies for the Int'l. Space Station. The booster landed for a 50th successful touchdown.
(SSFC, 3/8/20, p.A9)
2020 Mar 16, NASA said Greenland and Antarctica are losing ice six times faster than they were in the 1990s.
(The Week, 3/17/20)
2020 Mar 18, In Texas Apollo 15 astronaut Al Worden (88), who circled the moon alone in 1971 while his two crewmates test-drove the first lunar rover, died at a rehab center in Houston.
(AP, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 26, The newly established US Space Force launched its first national security satellite from Cape Canaveral. The nearly $1 billion satellite is the sixth and final one in the US military's Advanced Extrememly High Frequency series.
(SFC, 3/27/20, p.A3)
2020 Apr 9, Three astronauts flew to the International Space Station. NASA’s Chris Cassidy and Russians Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner arrived at the orbiting lab in their Soyuz capsule six hours after blasting off from Kazakhstan.
(AP, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 17, In Kazakhstan a US-Russian crew landed safely following a stint on the International Space Station and was greeted with extra precautions due to the coronavirus.
(AP, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 25, An unmanned Russian cargo capsule docked at the Int'l. Space Station bringing more that 2 tons of supplies to the three-person crew.
(SSFC, 4/26/20, p.A4)
2020 May 1, Virgin Galactic's spaceship VSS Unity landed in the New Mexico desert marking its first glide flight from Spaceport America. The company was close to actual commercial operations.
(SSFC, 5/3/20, p.A4)
2020 May 5, China successfully launched its largest carrier rocket, which was carrying a new-generation spacecraft. This was the first mission carried out by the Long March-5B.
(Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020 May 15, US Defense Department officials presented President Donald Trump with the Space Force flag during a short Oval Office event. The dark blue and white flag includes elements intended to evoke the vast recesses of outer space.
(AP, 5/16/20)
2020 May 17, The US military’s mystery space plane, the solar-powered X-37B, rocketed into orbit from Cape Canaveral, this time with an extra load of science experiments.
(AP, 5/17/20)
2020 May 30, NASA astronauts lifted off in a SpaceX capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket in the first launch into orbit from American soil with a crew since the space shuttles were retired in 2011. Two American astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, left the same Florida launchpad that once served Apollo missions.
(NY Times, 5/31/20)
2020 May 31, SpaceX delivered two astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA. The SpaceX Dragon capsule pulled up to the station and docked automatically.
(AP, 5/31/20)
2020 Jun 15, Houston-based engineering company KBR Inc said it was awarded a $570.3 million contract by NASA to develop and execute spaceflight operations at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. KBR, until April 2007, was the engineering and construction arm of oilfield services giant Halliburton Co.
(Reuters, 6/15/20)
2020 Jun 23, China successfully put into orbit its final BeiDou satellite, completing a navigation network years in the making and setting the stage to challenge the US-owned Global Positioning System (GPS).
(Reuters, 6/23/20)(Econ., 7/18/20, p.32)
2020 Jul 4, In New Zealand a rocket from small-satellite launch firm Rocket Lab failed to reach orbit minutes after a successful liftoff, losing its payload of seven small satellites it had intended to carry to space.
(Reuters, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 16, It was reported that a solar probe built by the European Space Agency and NASA has delivered the closest photos ever taken of the sun's surface, revealing a landscape rife with thousands of tiny solar flares that scientists dubbed "campfires" and offering clues about the extreme heat of the outermost part of its atmosphere.
(Reuters, 7/16/20)
2020 Jul 23, China launched its most ambitious Mars mission yet in a bold attempt to join the United States in successfully landing a spacecraft on the red planet.
(AP, 7/23/20)
2020 Jul 30, NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover rode an Atlas V rocket as part of an ambitious, long-range project to bring the first Martian rock samples back to Earth to be analyzed for evidence of ancient life. The rover will descend to the Martian surface on Feb. 18, 2021.
(AP, 7/30/20)
2020 Aug 1, NASA’s Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken bid farewell to the three men left behind as their SpaceX Dragon capsule undocked and headed toward a Sunday afternoon descent by parachute into the Gulf of Mexico.
(AP, 8/1/20)
2020 Aug 2, NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken rode the SpaceX Dragon capsule, dubbed Endeavour back to Earth and splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico.
(SFC, 8/3/20, p.A7)
2020 Sep 6, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported that an experimental reusable spacecraft launched into orbit two days ago has successfully returned to a designated site, marking a breakthrough that could lead to cheaper round-trips to space.
(Reuters, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 15, China successfully sent nine satellites into orbit in its first commercial launch of a rocket from a platform in the Yellow Sea.
(AP, 9/16/20)
2020 Oct 2, Northrup Grumman launched a cargo capsule to the Int'l. Space station from Wallops Island, Va.
(SSFC, 10/4/20, p.A8)
2020 Oct 5, The US Space Development Agency (SDA) said Elon Musk's SpaceX won a $149 million contract to build missile-tracking satellites for the Pentagon, in the company's first government contract to build satellites.
(Reuters, 10/5/20)
2020 Oct 13, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space company launched a New Shepard rocket for a seventh time from a remote corner of Texas, testing new lunar-landing technology for NASA that could help put astronauts back on the moon.
(AP, 10/13/20)
2020 Oct 14, In Kazakhstan a trio of space travelers blasted off to the International Space Station, using for the first time a fast-track maneuver that allowed them to reach the orbiting outpost in just a little over three hours. NASA’s Kate Rubins along with Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos lifted off as scheduled from the Russia-leased Baikonur space launch facility for a six-month stint on the station.
(AP, 10/14/20)
2020 Oct 20, NASA's Osiris-Rex spacecraft descended to the Bennu asteroid and, dodging boulders the size of buildings, momentarily touched the surface to collect a handful of cosmic rubble for return to Earth. On Oct. 23 scientists said the spacecraft was stuffed with so much asteroid rubble from this week’s grab that it’s lid was jammed open and precious particles were drifting away in space.
(AP, 10/20/20)(AP, 10/23/20)
2020 Oct 22, A trio of space travelers safely returned to Earth after a six-month mission on the International Space Station. The Soyuz MS-16 capsule carrying NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, and Roscosmos’ Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner landed on the steppes of Kazakhstan southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan.
(AP, 10/22/20)
2020 Nov 15, A SpaceX rocket launched four astronauts into orbit for a six-month stay on the International Space Station. NASA designated the launch as the first operational flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft built and operated by SpaceX, the rocket company started by Elon Musk.
(NY Times, 11/15/20)
2020 Nov 16, SpaceX’s newly launched capsule with four astronauts arrived at the International Space Station, their new home until spring.
(AP, 11/16/20)
2020 Nov 23, Small launch firm Rocket Lab said it was able to safely recover from the ocean a rocket it sent to space, a key test of the company's strategy to slash rocket launch costs via reusability. California-based Rocket Lab's 16th mission to space using its Electron rocket took off on Nov. 19 from the company's New Zealand launch site, with its four-storey-tall booster stage returning back to Earth under parachutes for the first time instead of burning up in the atmosphere.
(Reuters, 11/23/20)
2020 Nov 24, China's Chang'e 5 mission to the moon began as the four modules of the spacecraft blasted off atop a massive Long March-5Y rocket from the Wenchang launch center on Hainan island. The mission’s main task is to drill 2 meters (about 7 feet) into the moon’s surface and scoop up about 2 kg (4.4 pounds) of rocks and other debris.
(AP, 11/24/20)
2020 Nov 26, The European Space Agency said it is signing a 86 million-euro ($102 million) contract with ClearSpace SA, a Swiss start-up company, to bring a large piece of orbital trash back to Earth.
(AP, 11/26/20)
2020 Dec 2, Beijing and Moscow announced an expansion of their cooperation in space exploration and related technologies, boosting their alliance as the China-US rivalry continues.
(South China Morning Post, 12/4/20)
2020 Dec 6, SpaceX launched a newer, bigger version of its Dragon supply ship to the Int'l. Space Station from NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
(SFC, 12/7/20, p.A5)
2020 Dec 6, A Chinese probe that landed on the moon transferred 4.4 pounds of rocks to an orbiter in preparation for returning samples to Earth.
(SFC, 12/7/20, p.A2)
2020 Dec 9, SpaceX launched its shiny, bullet-shaped, straight-out-of-science fiction Starship several miles into the air from a remote corner of Texas, but the 6 1/2-minute test flight ended in an explosive fireball at touchdown.
(AP, 12/9/20)
2020 Dec 12, A Virgin Galactic test flight ended prematurely as the spacecraft's rocket motor failed to ignite and it then glided down safely to its landing site in southern New Mexico.
(AP, 12/12/20)
2020 Dec 14, Russia successfully test-launched its heavy lift Angara A5 space rocket from the Plesetsk cosmodrome for the second time.
(AP, 12/14/20)
2020 Dec 17, NASA and the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) pledging cooperation in areas of science and technology to support the peaceful use of outer space.
(PR Newswire, 12/18/20)
2020 Dec 17, A Chinese capsule returned to Earth landing in Inner Mongolia with about 4.4 pounds of fresh samples of rock and debris from the moon.
(SFC, 12/17/20, p.A2)
2021 Jan 17, Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit reached space, eight months after the first demonstration flight of its air-launched rocket system failed. The two-stage LauncherOne rocket carried a cluster of very small satellites known as CubeSats developed and built as part of a NASA educational program involving US universities. One small satellite, called CAPE-3, carried a chip designed and built by students at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette to detect radiation, with an eye to keeping astronauts safe. Eight of the other nine were built by students at other schools. The tenth was built by NASA.
(AP, 1/18/21)(AP, 1/23/21)
2021 Feb 1, Iranian state TV aired the launch of the country's newest satellite-carrying rocket, which it said was able to reach a height of 500 km (310 miles). The report did not say when the launch happened.
(AP, 2/1/21)
2021 Feb 2, Astra, a startup that makes small rockets to send satellites into orbit, said it is going public at a valuation of $2.1 billion through a deal with blank-check company Holicity Inc.
(Reuters, 2/2/21)
2021 Feb 18, NASA landed its Perseverance rover on Mars this afternoon, searching for fossils of ancient microbial life.
(NY Times, 2/18/21)
2021 Mar 3,The SpaceX Starship SN10 rocket exploded after landing at the Boca Chica, Florida landing pad. The rocket landed and stood at an angle before exploding.
(SFC, 3/5/21, p.A5)
2021 Mar 4, NASA's Perseverance Mars rover successfully completed its initial test drive on the surface of the red planet, two weeks after touching down.
(CBS News, 3/5/21)
2021 Mar 19, US Pres. Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Bill Nelson (78), a former senator from Florida who flew on the space shuttle just days before the Challenger launch accident, to lead NASA.
(AP, 3/19/21)
2021 Mar 30, Virgin Galactic rolled out its newest spaceship as the company looks to resume test flights in the coming months at its headquarters in the New Mexico desert.
(AP, 3/30/21)
2021 Mar 30, An uncrewed SpaceX Starship prototype rocket failed to land safely after a test launch from Boca Chica, Texas, and engineers were investigating.
(Reuters, 3/30/21)
2021 Apr 15, California and NASA, with the backing of billionaire Michael Bloomberg, unveiled a $100 million effort to pinpoint large emissions of greenhouse gases from individual sources like power plants and oil refineries from space.
(Reuters, 4/15/21)
2021 Apr 16, NASA announced that SpaceX's Starship vehicle will serve as the agency's lunar lander for its Artemis Program, which is focused on returning humans to the moon later this decade.
(NASA, 4/17/21)
2021 Apr 17, A Soyuz space capsule returned from the Int'l. Space Station to the steppes of Kazakhstan with NASA's Kate Rubins and Russians Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov. The three had arrived at the ISS last October 14.
(SFC, 4/17/21, p.A7)
2021 Apr 19, NASA's miniature robot helicopter Ingenuity performed a successful takeoff and landing on Mars early today, achieving the first powered, controlled flight by an aircraft over the surface of another planet.
(Reuters, 4/19/21)
2021 Apr 22, NASA’s little Mars helicopter aced its second test flight, soaring even higher and longer than before.
(AP, 4/22/21)
2021 Apr 23, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida carrying two American, one Japanese and one French astronaut to the International Space Station.
(NY Times, 4/23/21)
2021 Apr 24, A four-astronaut team arrived at the International Space Station aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule Endeavour.
(Reuters, 4/24/21)
2021 Apr 27, The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said it had voted to approve a SpaceX plan to deploy Starlink satellites at a lower earth orbit as part of the company's push to offer space-based broadband internet service.
(Reuters, 4/27/21)
2021 Apr 29, China launched the main module of its first permanent space station that will host astronauts long term. The Tianhe, or “Heavenly Harmony," module blasted into space atop a Long March 5B rocket from the Wenchang Launch Center on the southern island province of Hainan. The first stage of the rocket went into orbit and was expected to fall back to Earth on May 8 at an unknow location.
(AP, 4/29/21)(USA Today, 5/6/21)
2021 May 2, SpaceX safely returned four astronauts from the International Space Station off the coast of Panama City, Florida, making the first US crew splashdown in darkness since the Apollo 8 moonshot.
(AP, 5/2/21)
2021 May 5, Blue Origin, billionaire Jeff Bezos' rocket company, said it is targeting July 20 for its first suborbital sightseeing trip on its New Shepard spacecraft, a landmark moment in a competition to usher in a new era of private commercial space travel. Blue Origin said it will offer one seat on the first flight to the winning bidder of an online auction, the proceeds of which will be donated to the space firm's foundation.
(Reuters, 5/5/21)
2021 May 5, In Texas SpaceX launched and successfully landed its futuristic Starship.
(SFC, 5/6/21, p.A4)
2021 May 9, China's Long March 5B rocket crashed back to Earth this morning, landing in the Indian Ocean just west of the Maldives.
(The Week, 5/9/21)
2021 May 15, California-based Rocket Lab attempted launch of satellites from its facility in New Zealand failed. The rocket was carrying two Earth-observation satellites for BlackSky, a global monitoring company.
(AP, 5/15/21)
2021 May 22, Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc, British billionaire Sir Richard Branson's private spaceship company, completed its first manned space flight from its new home port in New Mexico. Branson founded the company in 2004 and this is the third time his company reported reaching space.
(Reuters, 5/22/21)
2021 May 29, China successfully launched an automated cargo resupply spacecraft to rendezvous with an orbiting module, in the second of a series of missions needed to complete its first permanent space station. Tianzhou-2 is the second of 11 missions needed to complete China's first self-developed space station around 2022.
(Reuters, 5/29/21)
2021 May 30, An automated spacecraft docked with China's new space station carrying fuel and supplies for its future crew. The Tianzhou-2 spacecraft reached the Tianhe station eight hours after blasting off from Hainan.
(AP, 5/30/21)
2021 Jun 1, New Zealand announced that is was the latest country to sign a space agreement with NASA. New Zealand became the 11th signatory to the Artemis Accords.
(SFC, 6/2/21, p.A3)
2021 Jun 8, Venture-backed startup Relativity Space, which aims to build the world's first fleet of 3D-printed rockets, said it has raised $650 million from a raft of new investors including BlackRock, hedge fund Soroban Capital, and the actor Jared Leto.
(Reuters, 6/8/21)
2021 Jun 12, An auction for an 11-minute ride into space with Amazon founder Jeff Bizos and his brother Mark ended with a $28 million bid. The Blue Origin's New Shephard rocket will launch on July 20 from Van Horn, Texas.
(SSFC, 6/13/21, p.A8)
2021 Jun 16, Astronauts ventured out on a spacewalk to outfit the International Space Station with powerful, new solar panels to handle the growing electrical demands from upcoming visitors.
(AP, 6/16/21)
2021 Jun 17, Three Chinese astronauts docked in space to help build a rival to the International Space Station.
(NY Times, 6/17/21)
2021 Jun 22, The Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble Co. announced that it will send a pair of Tide detergent and stain removal experiments to the space station later this year and next, all part of the galactic battle against soiled and sweaty clothes.
(AP, 6/22/21)
2021 Jun 29, Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit delivered satellites from three countries into space over the Pacific near the Channel Islands, its second rocket launch from a plane this year.
(AP, 6/30/21)
2021 Jul 1, Blue Origin said Amazon's billionaire founder Jeff Bezos will be joined by Wally Funk (82), one of the 13 women who passed NASA's astronaut training program in the 1960s, on the first crewed flight into space from his rocket company later this month.
(Reuters, 7/1/21)
2021 Jul 4, Two Chinese astronauts made the first spacewalk outside China’s new orbital station to set up cameras and other equipment using a 15-meter-long (50-foot-long) robotic arm.
(AP, 7/4/21)
2021 Jul 16, A Chinese spacecraft capable of flying to the edge of the atmosphere took off and returned to Earth on the same day in what China said was a big step towards developing reusable space transportation technology.
(Reuters, 7/16/21)
2021 Jul 20, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos lifted off from a site in West Texas with three other people, fulfilling a key goal of his private Blue Origin rocket company. Bezos and the passengers experienced about four minutes of free fall in the New Shepard capsule. The whole flight lasted about 10 minutes.
(AP, 7/20/21)
2021 Jul 21, Russia successfully launched a long-delayed lab module for the Int'l. Space Station intended to provide more room for scientific experiments and space for the crew.
(SFC, 7/22/21, p.A3)
2021 Jul 23, NASA said Elon Musk's private rocket company SpaceX has been awarded a $178 million launch services contract for NASA's first mission focusing on Jupiter's icy moon Europa and whether it may host conditions suitable for life.
(Reuters, 7/23/21)
2021 Jul 26, Gilbert V. Levin (97), whose experiment on NASA’s Viking mission in the 1970s seemed to suggest that there might be life in the soil of Mars, died at a hospital in Bethesda, Md.
(NY Times, 8/4/21)
2021 Jul 29, Russia’s long-delayed lab module successfully docked with the International Space Station, eight days after it was launched from the Russian space launch facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The space station lost control of its orientation for 47 minutes when the Nauka science lab accidentally fired its thrusters a few hours after docking, pushing the orbiting complex from its normal configuration.
(AP, 7/29/21)(AP, 7/30/21)
2021 Aug 13, Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin sued the US government over NASA's decision to award a $2.9 billion lunar lander contract to Elon Musk's SpaceX.
(Reuters, 8/16/21)
2021 Aug 29, A SpaceX shipment of ants, avocados and a human-sized robotic arm rocketed toward the International Space Station.
(AP, 8/29/21)
2021 Sep 6, NASA announced that its Perseverance rover on Mars has successfully collected its first rock sample.
(SFC, 9/8/21, p.A6)
2021 Sep 15, A SpaceX rocket lifted off late today from a Kennedy Space Center launchpad in Florida, carrying four Americans on an adventure to orbit the Earth for three days. It was financed by Jared Isaacman (38), a billionaire and founder of Shift4, a payments processing service.
(NY Times, 9/15/21)
2021 Sep 17, A trio of Chinese astronauts returned to Earth after a 90-day stay aboard their nation’s first space station in China’s longest mission yet.
(AP, 9/17/21)
2021 Sep 20, A Chinese robotic resupply cargo spacecraft successfully docked with an orbiting space station module in the fourth of 11 missions needed to finish building China's first permanent space station by the end of next year.
(Reuters, 9/20/21)
2021 Oct 13, Hollywood actor William Shatner (90) and three fellow passengers flew to an altitude of 66.5 miles aboard a Blue Origin ship over the West Texas desert.
(SFC, 10/14/21, p.A9)
2021 Oct 15, China launched a rocket carrying three astronauts, including one woman, to the core module of a future space station where they will live and work for six months, the longest-ever duration in orbit for Chinese astronauts.
(Reuters, 10/15/21)
2021 Oct 16, NASA launched a first-of-its kind mission to study Jupiter's Trojan asteroids, two large clusters of space rocks that scientists believe are remnants of primordial material that formed the solar system's outer planets. The space probe, dubbed Lucy and packed inside a special cargo capsule, lifted off on schedule from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. A solar panel jammed soon after launch.
(Reuters, 10/16/21)(SFC, 10/29/21, p.A4)
2021 Oct 17, A Russian actor and a film director making the first move film in space returned to Earth after spending 12 days on the International Space Station (ISS).
(Reuters, 10/17/21)
2021 Oct 21, South Korea's first domestically built space rocket blasted off, but failed to fully place a dummy satellite into orbit, delivering mixed results for a test launch that represents a major leap for the country's ambitious space plans.
(Reuters, 10/21/21)
2021 Nov 8, Four astronauts inside a SpaceX capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico after almost 200 days in orbit in the ISS.
(NY Times, 11/9/21)
2021 Nov 8, Two Chinese astronauts completed a space walk outside the core module of a future space station, with 41-year-old Wang Yaping becoming the first Chinese woman to perform the maneuver.
(Reuters, 11/8/21)
2021 Nov 10, In Florida a SpaceX rocket carried four astronauts into orbit late today, including the 600th person to reach space in 60 years.
(AP, 11/10/21)
2021 Nov 15, Russia carried out an antisatellite missile test, obliterating one of its own satellites in orbit. The test created a vast cloud of debris that continues to orbit Earth, and some of the material loomed dangerously close to the International Space Station, forcing astronauts to take shelter for hours in a pair of spacecraft capable of returning them to Earth.
(NY Times, 11/15/21)
2021 Nov 24, NASA launched a spacecraft to test a plan to save humanity from killer asteroids. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft could be the first to alter an asteroid’s path, a technique that may be used to defend the planet in the future.
(NY Times, 11/24/21)
2021 Dec 2, Spacewalking astronauts replaced a broken antenna outside the International Space Station after getting NASA’s all-clear for orbiting debris.
(AP, 12/2/21)
2021 Dec 9, SpaceX launched NASA's newset X-ray observatory from Kennedy Space Center. The Imaging X-ray Polarization Explorer (IXPE) rocketed into orbit and was expcted to unveil dramatic and extreme parts of the universe as never before.
(SFC, 12/10/21, p.A4)
2021 Dec 11, A Blue Origin New Shepard rocket blasted off from western Texas carrying four paying customers and two VIP guests on a 10-minute flight into space. Laura Shepard Churchley, the daugher of astronaut Alan Shepard, was one of the two guests.
(SSFC, 12/12/21, p.A8)
2021 Dec 14, Scientists announced that NASA's Parker Solar Probe has officially “touched" the sun, plunging through the unexplored solar atmosphere known as the corona. The probe actually flew through the corona in April during the spacecraft’s eighth close approach to the sun. Scientists said it took a few months to get the data back and then several more months to confirm.
(AP, 12/15/21)
2021 Dec 25, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, built to give the world its first glimpse of the universe as it existed when the earliest galaxies formed, was launched by rocket early today inside the cargo bay of an Ariane 5 rocket in French Guiana, opening a new era of astronomy.
(Reuters, 12/25/21)
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