The events on this day in history for our heritage companies are noted below.
The earliest event was in 1956, the latest event was in 2018
Human Spaceflight:
1958 – NASA officially names the first manned program “Project Mercury”
1975 – MM X-24B flight 64, Dryden Lake – Pilot: Thomas McMurtry – Last X-24B flight
Military and Classified Programs:
NONE
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
1959 – LAUNCH FAILURE: Pioneer 3 GD Atlas/Able, LC14, CCAFS – Payload fairing
2011 – LAUNCH: MSL, ULA Atlas V 541, LC41, CCAFS – Mars Science Lab renamed Curiosity
2018 – LANDING: LM InSight Lander on Mars (Elysium Planitia area)
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite programs:
NONE
Commercial Programs:
NONE
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1956 – DoD assigns all long-range missiles to be under USAF jurisdiction
1968 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Poseidon C3, LC25C, CCAFS
1969 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Poseidon C3, LC26C, CCAFS
1987 – LAUNCH: MM Pershing 1A, Fort Bliss, Texas
Other:
NONE
The photos today are from two missions and include the launch of Curiosity Rover (Mars Science Lab) in 2011 on ULA Atlas V 541 and the first photo from the InSight lander after landing in 2018. I have also included a photo of the InSight spacecraft being assembled at LM, a view of InSIght on the surface of MARS taken by MRO and an example of a Mars quake captured by the seismometer.