The events on this day in history for our heritage companies are noted below.
The earliest event was in 1946, the latest event was in 2000
Human Spaceflight:
1985 – SLC-6, VAFB, declared operational for shuttle flights
Military and Classified Programs:
1979 – LAUNCH: Classified mission, MM Titan IIIC, LC40, CCAFS
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
NONE
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite programs:
NONE
Commercial Programs:
2000 – LAUNCH: LM GE-1A – Proton-K/DM-2M, LC81/23, Baikonur, Kazakhstan
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1946 – MM Viking sounding rocket program begins
1949 – Cape Canaveral long-range proving ground activated
1956 – LAUNCH: Lockheed X-17 launched, LC3, CCAFS
1963 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Polaris A2, SSBN619, ETR
Other:
1958 – Contract awarded to Pratt & Whitney for development of the GD Centaur upper stage engine
1958 – NASA formally begins operations
The photo today is the planned Space Shuttle SLC-6 pad with the drop test Enterprise Space Shuttle during checkouts. A drawing showing the planned shuttle operations is also included. The “Blue” shuttle program at SLC-6 was placed in “caretaker” status after the Challenger failure and then completely shut down in 1989.
