Timeline of NASA, the Space Shuttle and
Near Earth Space Flights
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1899 Aug 31, Paul
E. Garber, US founder and 1st curator of National Air & Space
Museum, was born.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1912 Mar 23, Werner von Braun,
rocket expert (I Aim at the Stars), was born in Wirsitz, Germany.
He led the development of the V-2 rocket during World War II.
(HN, 3/23/99)(SS, 3/23/02)
1914 Jul 14, 1st patent for
liquid-fueled rocket design was granted to Dr. R. Goddard.
(MC, 7/14/02)
1915 Mar 3, The National Advisory
Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), a NASA forerunner, was created. It
was the first US government sponsored organization in support of
aviation research and development.
(SC, 3/3/02)(NPub, 2002, p.9)
1915 Apr 23, ACA becomes National
Advisory Council on Aeronautics (NACA), the forerunner of NASA.
(HN, 4/23/99)
1920 Jan 13, A NY Times editorial
excoriated Dr. Robert H. Goddard, and reported that rockets can never
fly. In 1969 the NY Times belatedly apologized.
(WSJ, 8/7/03, p.A1)
1925 May 1, Malcolm Scott
Carpenter, astronaut (Mercury 7-Aurora 7), was born in Boulder, Colo.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1926 Mar 16, The first liquid-fuel
rocket was launched by physicist Robert H. Goddard. It went 184' (56
meters). [see Mar 26]
(HN, 3/16/98)(MC, 3/16/02)
1926 Mar 26, Pioneer physicist and
engineer Dr. Robert H. Goddard launched the first successful
liquid-fuel rocket in Auburn, Massachusetts. Goddard’s rocket, launched
from a homemade pipe frame, rose 41 feet and in a 2.5-second flight
reached a speed of about 60 miles per hour, proving the practicality of
liquid-propelled rocketry. [see Mar 16]
(HNPD, 3/14/99)
1926 Apr 3, Virgil Grissom
(d.1967), Lt. Col. USAF, astronaut (Mercury 4, Gemini 3), was born in
Mitchell, Ind. He was the Mercury and Gemini astronaut who was killed
in a fire while preparing for the first Apollo flight.
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/Apollo204/grissom.html
(MC, 4/3/02)
1926 Apr 3, Robert Goddard
launched his 2nd flight of a liquid-fueled rocket.
(MC, 4/3/02)
1926 Apr 23, Virgil I (Gus)
Grissom, was born. He was the Mercury and Gemini astronaut who was
killed in a fire while preparing for the first Apollo flight.
(HN, 4/23/99)
1927 Mar 6, Leroy Gordon Cooper
Jr. (d.2004), USAF astronaut (Mer 9, Gem 5), was born in Shawnee, Okla.
(SFC, 10/5/04, p.B7)
1928 Mar 14, Frank Borman,
astronaut (Gem 7, Ap 8), CEO (Eastern Airline), was born in Gary, Ind.
(MC, 3/14/02)
1930 Mar 17, James Benson Irwin,
Col. USAF, astronaut (Apollo 15), was born in Pittsburgh, Penn.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1930 Jun 2, Charles Conrad
(d.1999), astronaut, was born in Philadelphia. He walked on the moon
during the Apollo XII mission in 1969.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.A6)
1932 May 25, Georgi Mikhailovich
Grechko, USSR cosmonaut (Soyuz 17, 26, T-14), was born.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1932 Jul 25, Paul J. Weitz,
astronaut (Skylab 2, STS 6), was born in Erie, Pennsylvania.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1933 Jan 16, Oleg Grigoryevich
Makarov (d.2003 at 70), USSR cosmonaut (Soyuz 12, 18A, 27, T-3), was
born.
(MC, 1/16/02)(SFC, 5/31/03, p.A21)
1934 Mar 14, Eugene Cerna,
American Astronaut who was the last man on the moon, was born.
(HN, 3/14/00)
1935 Mar 28, Goddard used
gyroscopes to control a rocket.
(MC, 3/28/02)
1939 Jul 3, Ernst Heinkel
demonstrated an 800-kph rocket plane to Hitler.
(MC, 7/3/02)
1940 Jul 2, Georgi Ivan Ivanov,
1st Bulgarian space traveler (Soyuz 33), was born.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1942 Jun 13, 1st V-2 rocket launch
from Peenemunde, Germany, reached 1.3 km.
(MC, 6/13/02)
1942 Oct 3, In Germany the
rocket-development team of Werner von Braun conducted the 1st
successful test flight of an A-4/V-2 missile from the Peenemunde test
site. It flew perfectly over a 118-mile course to an altitude of 53
miles (85 km). The 13-ton, 46-foot long V2 rocket was the world’s 1st
long-range ballistic missile.
(HN, 10/3/98)(AM, 5/01, p.63)(WSJ, 2/21/09, p.A5)
1944 Jun 11, James "Ox" D A Van
Hoften, astronaut (STS 41C, STS 51I), was born in Fresno, Calif.
(SC, 6/11/02)
1945 May 25, Arthur C. Clark
proposed relay satellites in geosynchronous orbit.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1945 Jul 10, Robert Goddard
(b.1882), American rocket scientist, died. He received 214 patents for
rocket systems and components. In 2003 David Clary authored "Rocket
Man," a biography of Goddard.
(HN, 10/5/98)(ON, 1/01, p.5)(WSJ, 8/7/03, p.W8)(MC,
7/10/02)
1946 Mar 22, First U.S. built
rocket to leave the earth's atmosphere reached a 50-mile height.
(HN, 3/22/97)
1946 Apr 16, 1st US launch of
captured V-2 rocket was at White Sands, NM. It reached 8 km.
(MC, 4/16/02)
1946 Jun 24, Lt. Col. Ellison S.
Onizuka (astronaut: mission specialist aboard ill-fated Space Shuttle
Challenger), was born.
(MC, 6/24/02)
1949 Feb 24, A V-2 WAC-Corporal
was the 1st rocket to outer space. It was fired at White Sands, NM, and
reached 400 km.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1951 May 26, Sally Ride, the first
American woman in space, was born in LA, Calif. She flew on the Space
Shuttle Challenger.
(HN, 5/26/99)(MC, 5/26/02)
1952 Jul 2, Linda M. Godwin, PhD,
astronaut (STS 37), was born in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1953 Aug 21, Marion Carl in
Douglas Skyrocket reached a record 25,370 m.
(SC, 8/21/02)
1954 Mar 19, The 1st rocket-driven
sled on rails was tested in Alamogordo, NM.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1956 Mar 11, Curtis L. Brown Jr.,
astronaut (STS 47, STS 66, 77, 85, sk:95), was born in NC.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1956 Sep 27, The U.S. Air Force
Bell X-2, the world's fastest and highest-flying plane, crashed,
killing the test pilot.
(HN, 9/27/98)
1957 Jul 26, USSR launched the 1st
intercontinental multistage ballistic missile.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1957 Oct 4, The Space Age and
"space race" began as the Soviet Union launched Sputnik (traveler), the
first man-made space satellite. The satellite, built by Valentin
Glushko, weighed 184 pounds and was launched by a converted
Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). Sputnik, developed under the
chief scientist Sergei Korolyov, orbited the earth every 96 minutes at
a maximum height of 584 miles. The event was timed to celebrate the
40th anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution. In 1958, it reentered the
earth's atmosphere and burned up. It was followed by 9 other Sputnik
spacecraft.
(WSJ, 10/7/96, p.B4)(SFC, 8/2/97, p.A12)(SFEC,
9/28/97, p.A14)(WSJ, 10/3/97, p.A8)(AP, 10/4/97)(HN, 10/4/98)(AP,
10/1/07)
1957 Nov 3, The Soviet Union
launched into orbit Sputnik Two, the second manmade satellite; a dog on
board named Laika, the first animal in space, was sacrificed in the
experiment. Sputnik 2 remained in orbit another 162 days before burning
up. Safe reentry process had not yet been developed.
(TMC, 1994, p.1957)(AP, 11/3/97)(HN, 11/3/98)
1957 Dec 6, America's first
attempt at putting a satellite into orbit failed as Vanguard TV3 rose
only about four feet off a Cape Canaveral, Fla., launch pad before
crashing back down and exploding.
(AP, 12/6/08)
1957 Dec 17, The United States
successfully test-fired the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile
for the first time.
(AP, 12/17/97)
1958 Jan 31, Explorer 1,
the first successful US satellite, was launched by a Jupiter-C rocket
and the United States entered the Space Age. It discovered the "Van
Allen radiation belts" around Earth named after James Van Allen. Radio
signals from the transmitter aboard the 30.8 pound satellite were
picked up in California within a few minutes after the launch. Two
months earlier, the first attempt to launch a satellite had failed.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)(AP, 1/31/98)(MC,
1/31/02)
1958 Mar 17, The U.S. Navy
launched the Vanguard 1 satellite.
(AP, 3/17/02)
1958 Mar 26, The U.S. Army
launched America's third successful satellite, Explorer 3.
(AP, 3/26/97)
1958 Apr 2, National Advisory
Council on Aeronautics was renamed NASA.
(HN, 4/2/98)
1958 Apr 14, Sputnik 2 (with dog
Laika) burned up in the atmosphere.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1958 May 15, Sputnik III, the
first space laboratory, was launched in the Soviet Union.
(HN, 5/15/99)
1958 Jul 29, President Eisenhower
signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which created NASA.
(AP, 7/29/97)
1958 Aug 17, World's 1st Moon
probe, US's Thor-Able, exploded at T +77 sec.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1958 Aug 27, USSR launched Sputnik
3 with 2 dogs aboard.
(MC, 8/27/01)
1958 Oct 1, America’s National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was inaugurated [See Apr 2,
Jul 29].
(SFC, 10/2/07, p.A6)
1959 Jan 27, NASA selected 110
candidates for the first U.S. space flight.
(HN, 1/27/99)
1959 Feb 6, The United States
successfully test-fired for the first time a Titan intercontinental
ballistic missile from Cape Canaveral.
(AP, 2/6/97)
1959 Feb 17, The U.S. launched its
first weather station in space, Vanguard II.
(HN, 2/17/98)
1959 Mar 3, Pioneer 4, the 1st US
probe to enter solar orbit, was launched.
(SFC, 10/2/07, p.A6)
1959 Mar 16, Michael J.
Bloomfield, Major USAF, astronaut (STS 86), was born in Flint, Mich.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1959 Apr 9, NASA
announced the selection of America's first seven astronauts for the US
first orbital flight in 1962 under the Mercury program: Scott
Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan
Shepard and Donald Slayton.
(SFC, 3/10/97, p.A16)(AP, 4/9/97)
1959 May 28, Monkeys Able &
Baker zoomed 300 mi (500 km) into space on Jupiter missile and became
the 1st animals retrieved from a space mission.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1959 Jun 8, The NASA rocket
powered X-15 made its first glide flight.
(http://history.nasa.gov/x15/chrono.html)
1959 Jul 2, Wendy B. Lawrence, USN
Lt Commander, astronaut, was born in Jacksonville, Fla.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1959 Aug 7, The United States
launched Explorer 6, which sent back a picture of the Earth. The
satellite, popularly known as the "paddlewheel satellite," featured a
photocell scanner that transmitted a crude picture of the earth's
surface and cloud cover from a distance of 17,000 miles
(HFA, '96, p.36)(AP, 8/7/97)(MC, 8/7/02)
1959 Sep 15, Scott Crossfield
(1921-2006) flew the rocket-powered X-15 faster and higher than any
aircraft in history.
(NPub, 2002, p.19)
1959 Sep 17, The North American
Aviation X-15 rocket plane, piloted by Scott Crossfield, made its first
powered flight.
(SFC, 4/21/06,
p.B9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Scott_Crossfield)
1960 Mar 11, Pioneer 5 was
launched into solar orbit between Earth & Venus.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1960 Mar 23, Explorer 8 failed to
reach Earth orbit.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1960 Apr 1, The first weather
satellite, TIROS 1, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
(AP, 4/1/98)
1960 Apr 13, The first
navigational satellite was launched into Earth's orbit.
(HN, 4/13/98)
1960 May 13, The 1st US
launch of the Delta satellite launching vehicle failed.
(SS, Internet, 5/13/97)
1960 Aug 12, USAF Major Robert M
White takes X-15 to 41,600 m.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1960 Aug 12, The first balloon
satellite, the Echo 1, was launched by the US from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
It bounced phone calls from JPL in California to the Bell Labs in New
Jersey.
(AP, 8/12/97)(SFC, 4/9/02, p.A18)
1960 Aug 19, Korabl-Sputnik-2
(Spaceship Satellite-2), also known as Sputnik 5, was launched. On
board were the dogs Belka ( Squirrel) and Strelka (Little Arrow). Also
on board were 40 mice, 2 rats and a variety of plants. After a day in
orbit, the spacecraft's retrorocket was fired and the landing capsule
and the dogs were safely recovered. They were the first living animals
to survive orbital flight.
(www.spacetoday.org/Astronauts/Animals/Dogs.html)
1960 Nov 12, Discoverer XVII was
launched into orbit from California’s Vandenberg AFB. The
Discoverer Program (1959-1962) was a ruse to conceal the Corona
Program, a series of photoreconnaissance spy satellites. Corona was the
first photoreconnaissance program, and a precursor of the military and
civilian space imaging programs of today.
(HN,
11/12/98)(http://spacecovers.com/pricelists/categories/category_satellites.htm)
1961 Jan 31, Ham became the 1st
primate in space (158 miles) aboard Mercury-Redstone 2.
(MC, 1/31/02)
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
asked the nation to work toward putting a man on the moon by the end of
the decade.
(AP, 5/25/97)
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 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)
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)
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 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, An Apollo spaceship
docked with a Soyuz spacecraft in orbit in the first superpower linkup
of its kind.
(AP, 7/17/97)
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)
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 Apr 11, NASA’s Viking 2 Mars
Lander ended communications.
(http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/viking.html)
1980 May 18, China People's
Republic launched its 1st intercontinental rocket.
(www.astronautix.com/articles/chidoors.htm)
1980 Jul 18, India became the
eighth country to demonstrate it could send a satellite to orbit above
Earth with the launch of the satellite Rohini 1 on a Satellite Launch
Vehicle (SLV) rocket in the state of Andhra Pradesh.
(www.spacetoday.org/Satellites/Iran/IranianSat.html)(NG, 5/88, p.598)
1980 Sep 18, Cosmonaut Arnoldo
Tamayo, a Cuban, became the first black to be sent on a mission in
space.
(HN, 9/18/98)
1980 Nov 12, The US space probe
Voyager 1 came within 77,000 miles of Saturn.
(AP,
11/12/97)(http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/science/saturn.html)
1981 Feb 20, Space shuttle
Columbia cleared the final major hurdle to its maiden launch by firing
fired its three engines in a 20-second test.
(AP, 2/20/00)
1981 Mar 19, One technician was
killed and two others were injured during a routine test on space
shuttle Columbia.
(HN, 3/19/98)
1981 Apr 10, The long-awaited
maiden launch of the space shuttle “Columbia” was scrubbed because of a
computer malfunction.
(AP, 4/10/01)
1981 Apr 12, The first space
shuttle, Columbia, carrying astronauts Robert L. Crippen and John W.
Young, blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on its first test flight.
It was designated STS-1 (space transportation system).
(WSJ, 4/24/95, p.R-5)(AP, 4/12/97)(SSFC, 2/2/03,
p.A6)
1981 Apr 14, The first test flight
of America's first operational space shuttle, the Columbia 1, ended
successfully with a landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
(AP, 4/14/97)(HN, 4/14/98)
1981 May 26, Russia’s Soyuz T-4,
launched on March 12, landed.
(http://space.kursknet.ru/cosmos/english/machines/st4.sht)
1981 Jun 19, European Space
Agency's Ariane carried two satellites into orbit.
(www.arianespace.com/site/news/feature_12_19_05.html)
1981 Aug 25, The US spacecraft
Voyager 2 came within 63,000 miles of Saturn's cloud cover, sending
back pictures and data about the ringed planet and its moons.
(AP,
8/25/97)(http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/science/planetary.html)
1982 Mar 4, NASA launched Intelsat
V.
(www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/exploration/main/this_month_march.html)
1982 Apr 19, Astronauts Sally K.
Ride and Guion S. Bluford Jr. became the first woman and first
African-American to be tapped by NASA for U.S. space missions.
(AP, 4/19/97)(HN, 4/19/97)
1982 May 13, Soyuz T-5 was
launched at Baikonur. Berezovoi & Lebedev spent the next 211 days
in space.
(http://space.kursknet.ru/cosmos/english/machines/st5.sht)
1982 Jun 27, The 4th Space
Shuttle, Mission-Columbia 4, was launched.
(http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-4/mission-sts-4.html)
1982 Jul 2, Soyuz T-6 returned to
Earth.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_T-6)
1982 Jul 4, The space shuttle
Columbia 4 concluded its fourth and final test flight with a landing at
Edwards AFB.
(http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-4/mission-sts-4.html)(AP,
7/4/02)
1982 Aug 19, Soviet cosmonaut
Svetlana Savitskaya became the second woman to be launched into space.
(AP, 8/19/07)
1982 Nov 11, Space shuttle
Columbia launched for its first operational flight. The 4-man crew
successfully used a remote manipulator arm.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Columbia)
1982 Nov 16, The Space Shuttle
Columbia completed its first operational flight.
(HN, 11/16/98)
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 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 Jul 25, USSR launched Kosmos
1870, a 15-ton Earth-study satellite.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1987 Dec 29, NASA delayed the
planned June launch of the space shuttle -- the first since the
Challenger disaster -- because a motor component failed during a
test-firing of the shuttle's redesigned booster rocket.
(AP, 12/29/97)
1988 Apr 25, NASA launched space
vehicle S-211.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1988 Jul 7, Russia’s PHOBOS 1 Mars
Orbiter and lander was launched. Contact was lost on September 2, 1988.
(SFC, 11/19/96,
p.B1)(www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/mars/space_missions.html)
1988 Jul 12, Russia’s PHOBOS 2
Flyby and lander was launched. It failed within 480 miles of Mar’s moon
Phobos.
(SFC, 11/19/96,
p.B1)(www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/mars/space_missions.html)
1988 Jul 29, NASA officials
delayed a critical test-firing of the space shuttle Discovery's main
engines another three days. The test on Aug. 10 was judged a success.
(AP, 7/29/98)
1988 Aug 25, Challenger
Center opened its classroom doors in Houston.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1988 Aug 25, NASA launched
space vehicle S-214.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1988 Sep 6, A 25-hour drama began
as technical problems kept a two-man Soviet space crew from returning
to Earth aboard a Soyuz space capsule. The problems were cleared up,
and the crew landed safely the next day.
(AP, 9/6/98)
1988 Sep 29, The space shuttle
Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., marking America's
return to manned space flight following the Challenger disaster.
(AP, 9/29/98)
1988 Oct 3, Discovery completed a
four-day mission, the first American shuttle flight since the
Challenger disaster.
(AP, 10/3/98)
1988 Oct 29, The maiden voyage of
the Soviet Union's space shuttle was delayed because of problems with
ground equipment.
(AP, 10/29/98)
1988 Nov 15, The Soviet Union
launched its first space shuttle, Buran, on an unmanned, 3 1/2 hour
flight. It was designed by Gleb Lozino-Lozinsky (d.2001 at 97). The
Buran orbited Earth twice, landed, and never flew again. Russia built
about a dozen shuttles, mostly test models, and later scrapped the
program.
(AP, 11/15/98)(SFC, 12/5/01, p.A23)(WSJ, 4/11/05,
p.A18)
1988 Dec 2, The space shuttle
Atlantis was launched on a secret four-day mission.
(AP, 12/2/98)(http://tinyurl.com/gjp7w)
1988 Dec 5, The US Space Shuttle
Atlantis continued its classified mission.
(http://www.astronautix.com/craft/atlantis.htm)
1988 Dec 6, The space shuttle
Atlantis landed in California.
(AP, 12/6/98)
1989 Mar 13, The space shuttle
Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a five-day mission.
(AP, 3/13/99)
1989 Mar 18, The space shuttle
Discovery landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California, completing a
five-day mission.
(AP, 3/18/99)
1989 May 4, The US launched its
Magellan spacecraft to Venus.
(www.solarviews.com/eng/magellan.htm)
1989 Jul 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, 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 15, NASA announced John
Glenn, 76, may fly in space again.
(MC, 1/15/02)
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 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 Kazakstan 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 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 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 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 Gary McKinnon was caught in
London and after breaking into US military and NASA computers, while
allegedly searching for UFO’s. In 2008 McKinnon (42) 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)
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. His capsule landed in
Mongolia the next day.
(AP, 10/15/03)(SFC, 10/16/03, p.A3)(SSFC, 7/15/07,
p.D5)
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, 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 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 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 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 crossed paths with a US
Iridium satellite.
(AP, 2/12/09)
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.
(AP, 3/7/09)
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)
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