The events on this day in history for our heritage companies are noted below.
The earliest event was in 1955, the latest was in 2018
No milestone events (5 to 65+ years ago)
Human Spaceflight:
1986 – LAUNCH: STS-61-C (Columbia), LC-39A, KSC – 7 person crew including congressman Bill Nelson (now NASA administrator); deployed GE (RCA) Satcom K-1, performed experiments in the Material Sciences Laboratory. Crew: Robert Gibson, Charles Bolden, George Nelson, Steve Hawley, Franklin Chang-Diaz, Bill Nelson, Robert Cenker
1997 – LAUNCH: STS-81 (Atlantis), LC-39B, KSC – 7 person crew (one from Mir /one to Mir), Spacehab module/Mir. Crew: Michael Baker, Brent Jett, Peter Wisoff, John Grunsfeld, Marsha Ivins, Jerry Lininger (from Mir)/John Blaha (to Mir).
Military and Classified Programs:
1961 – Martin Titan II selected as the suborbital step booster for the Dyna-Soar program
2012 – USAF awards LM contract for third and fourth GPS III satellites
2018 – LAUNCH: USA 281, ULA Delta 4M+(5,2) SLC6, VAFB
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
NONE
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite Programs:
NONE
Commercial Programs:
NONE
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1955 – Martin Titan I proposed as a competitor and back-up to Atlas
1965 – Contract award for MM Titan II facilities updates released
1965 – LAUNCH: GD Atlas D, 576-B1, VAFB
Other
NONE
The photos today are from the STS-61-C mission in 1986, the last successful mission before the Challenger loss on January 28, 1986. This launch included deployment of Satcom K-1, a communications satellite built by RCA/GE.
