Timeline of NASA, the Space
Shuttle and Near Earth Space Flights
Return to home1899 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 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., 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!" The mission also provided
important information about what it was like for an astronaut to be
weightless for a long period of time. When the ship's automatic
altitude control system began to fail, Glenn, a decorated World War
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)(MC, 2/20/02)
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 communications
satellite Telstar was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, beaming
live television from Europe to the United States.
(AP, 7/10/97)(HN, 7/10/98)
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 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 May, Telstar 2 was
launched and made the first public transatlantic broadcast.
(HNQ, 5/3/99)
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 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 frist
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 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.
(SFC, 1/28/67, p.A1)(AP, 1/27/98)
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.
(V.D.-H.K.p.182, 341)(AP, 7/16/97)
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, that was
disrupted on April 13, when an explosion crippled the spacecraft.
The astronauts managed to return safely on April 17.
(AP, 4/11/97)(AWAM, Dec. 94, p.79)(TMC, 1994,
p.1970)
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 Weitz.
(AP,
5/14/97)(www.friends-partners.org/partners/mwade/craft/skylab.htm)
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 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 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)
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 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 ended its first mission with a safe
landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
(AP, 4/9/97)
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. 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)
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 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)
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)
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, 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 Nov, 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.
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A3)
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 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 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
in Alaska, Antarctica and Greenland since 2003 among the latest
signs of 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.
(SFC, 12/17/08, p.A20)(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 failed to communicate in
2013.
(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)
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 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 It was estimated that some
3,000 tons of rocket debris were in orbit around Earth.
(Econ., 4/25/15, p.75)
