The events on this day in history for our heritage companies are noted below.
The earliest event was in 1960, the latest event was in 2019
Human Spaceflight:
1999 – LAUNCH: STS-103 (Discovery), LC39B, KSC – 7 person crew, HST servicing mission 3A
2019 – LAUNCH: Starliner Boe-OFT, ULA Atlas V N22, LC41, CCAFS – Starliner test only partially successful
Military and Classified Programs:
1960 – LAUNCH: Classified mission, Thor/Lockheed Agena B, SLC1E, VAFB
1972 – LAUNCH: Classified mission, GD Atlas SLV-3A/Lockheed Agena D, LC13, CCAFS
1996 – LAUNCH: USA-129, LM Titan IVA(404), SLC4E, VAFB
2007 – LAUNCH: LM GPS IIR-5M (SVN 61), ULA Delta 7925-9.5, LC17A, CCAFS
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
NONE
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite programs:
NONE
Commercial Programs:
1971 – LAUNCH: Intelsat 4 F3, GD Atlas SLV-3C/Centaur, LC36A, CCAFS
1997 – LAUNCH (5): LM (Motorola) Iridium, Delta 7920-10C, SLC2W, VAFB
2000 – LAUNCH: LM GE8 (also Astra 2D), Ariane 5G, ELA3, Kourou, French Guiana
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1960 – LAUNCH FAILURE: Martin Titan I, LC20, CCAFS
1961 – LAUNCH: GD Atlas E , LC13, CCAFS
1963 – 556th squadron operational, GD Atlas F ICBMs, Plattsburgh AFB, New York
1965 – LAUNCH: GD Atlas D, 576-B2, VAFB
1965 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Polaris A3, SSBN640, ETR
1983 – LAUNCH: MM Peacekeeper, TP-01, VAFB
Other:
NONE
The photos today are from two missions. First, there is the Boeing Starliner launch on Atlas V N22 in 2019. This first test of the Starliner crew system was only partially successful. The second set of photos are from the STS-103 mission in 1999, with the Hubble Servicing Mission 3A and include the launch, the crew and work on Hubble. The third servicing mission was actually split into two missions (3A and 3B) due to the urgency of the situation with failures of gyroscopes on-board HST.
Some info on the first Starliner launch from Wikipedia:
The uncrewed orbital flight test launched on December 20, 2019, but after deployment, an 11-hour offset in the mission clock of Starliner caused the spacecraft to compute that “it was in an orbital insertion burn”, when it was not. This caused the attitude control thrusters to consume more fuel than planned, precluding a docking with ISS and the spacecraft landed at White Sands Missile Range two days after launch.
Two software errors detected during the test, one of which prevented a planned docking with the International Space Station, could each have led to the destruction of the spacecraft, had they not been caught and corrected in time, NASA said on February 7, 2020. A joint NASA–Boeing investigation team found that “the two critical software defects were not detected ahead of flight despite multiple safeguards”, according to an agency statement. “Ground intervention prevented the loss of the vehicle in both cases”. Before re-entry, engineers discovered the second critical software error that affected the thruster firings needed to safely jettison the Starliner’s service module. The service module software error “incorrectly translated” the jettison thruster firing sequence.
