The events on this day in history for our heritage companies are noted below.
The earliest event was in 1970, the latest was in 2009
Human Spaceflight:
1985 – LANDING: STS-51-I (Discovery), Edwards AFB
Military and Classified Programs:
1970 – LAUNCH: RCA DMSP Block-5A F2, Thor Burner 2, SLC10W, VAFB
1981 – LAUNCH: Classified mission, MM Titan IIID, SL4E, VAFB
1993 – LAUNCH: UHF F/O F2, GD Atlas I, LC36B, CCAFS
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
1976 – LANDING: MM Viking 2 on Mars
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite programs:
NONE
Commercial Programs:
NONE
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1977 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Trident C4, LC25C, CCAFS
1992 – LAUNCH (4): Lockheed Trident D5, SSBN737, ETR
2009 – LAUNCH: LM Trident D5, SSBN736, ETR
Other:
NONE
The photos today are from the Viking 2 landing in the Utopia Planitia area of Mars; the lander was operational until April 12, 1980. The life experiments on Viking were inconclusive because of the perchlorate on the surface of Mars.