The events on this day in history for our heritage companies are noted below:
The earliest event was in 1962, the latest event was in 2009
Human Spaceflight:
1992 – LAUNCH: STS-45 (Atlantis), LC39A, KSC – 7 person crew, ATLAS scientific payloads
Military and Classified Programs:
1964 – LAUNCH FAILURE: Classified mission, Thor SLV-2A/Lockheed Agena D, SLC3W, VAFB
1971 – LAUNCH: Classified mission, Thorad SLV-2H/Lockheed Agena D, SLC3W, VAFB
1972 – LAUNCH: RCA DMSP-Block-5B F2, Thor Burner 2A, SLC10W, VAFB
1995 – LAUNCH: MM (RCA) DMSP F-13, MM Atlas E, SLC3W, VAFB – Last Atlas E launch
2009 – LAUNCH: LM GPS SVN49 (2R), ULA Delta 7925-9.5, LC17B, CCAFS
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
NONE
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite programs:
NONE
Commercial Programs:
NONE
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1962 – LAUNCH: GD Atlas D, 576-A2, VAFB
1963 – LAUNCH FAILURE: GD Atlas F, 576-E, VAFB
1964 – LAUNCH: MM Titan II, LC15, CCAFS
1970 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Poseidon C3, EAG-154, ETR
1971 – LAUNCH (6): Lockheed Polaris A3, SSBN643, ETR
1977 – LAUNCH (2): Lockheed Poseidon C3, SSBN624, ETR
1990 – LAUNCH (4): Lockheed Trident C-4, SSBN629, ETR
Other:
NONE
The photos today are of the last Atlas E launch in 1995 with DMSP F-13 and of another DMSP spacecraft being processed. DMSP F-13 exploded in orbit in 2015, according to this article/editorial from SpaceNews:
The breakup of an aging U.S. Air Force weather satellite Feb. 3 [2015] has drawn fresh attention to the always smoldering orbital debris issue, including the U.S. government’s orbital data sharing practices.
According to the Air Force, the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Flight 13 satellite (DMSP-F13), which launched in 1995 and had long been relegated to backup duty, broke up after its power system experienced “a sudden spike in temperature” followed by an “unrecoverable loss of attitude control.” Some experts speculated that the event, which left more than 60 pieces of observable debris in an orbital belt heavily used by environmental, weather and imaging satellites, was caused by a catastrophic battery failure.