The events on this day in history for our heritage companies are noted below.
The earliest event was in 1955, the latest event was in 2012
One milestone event (5 to 65+ years ago)
Human Spaceflight:
1970 – MM X-24A flight 9, Dryden Lake – Pilot Jerauld Gentry
2011 – LAUNCH: STS-133 (Discovery), LC39B, KSC – 6-person crew, ISS logistics and robot experiment, last flight of OV Discovery. Crew: Steven Lindsey, Eric Boe, Nicole Stott, Alvin Drew, Michael Barrett, Stephen Bowen.
Military and Classified Programs:
1967 – LAUNCH: Classified Mission, MM Titan IIIB, SLC4W, VAFB
2012 – LAUNCH: LM MUOS-1, ULA Atlas V 551, LC41, CCAFS
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
NONE
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite programs:
1979 – LAUNCH: Solwind, GD Atlas F/OIS, SLC3W, VAFB – MILESTONE: 45 years ago
1996 – LAUNCH: LM Polar, Delta 7925-10, SLC2W, VAFB – Magnetosphere science
Commercial Programs:
NONE
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1955 – GE receives contract to develop three ground-based tracking systems for the radio guidance system for GD Atlas
1960 – LAUNCH: Martin Titan I, LC15, CCAFS
1961 – LAUNCH: GD Atlas, LC13, CCAFS – First Atlas E
1966 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Polaris A3, SSBN641, ETR
1982 – LAUNCH: MM Pershing 1A, LC16, CCAFS
Other:
NONE
The photos today are from two missions: First, there are photos of the launch, crew and ISS operations for STS-133, which was the 39th and final mission for OV Discovery in 2011. This mission had five previous launch attempts starting in November, 2010, with four scrubbed due to technical issues.
Second, there are photos of a MUOS satellite being processed at Lockheed Martin and of the launch of MUOS-1 on Atlas V 551 in 2012. MUOS stands for Mobile User Objective System and the constellation of five military (Navy) communications satellites are fully deployed. The spectacular launch photo is by Pat Corkery for ULA.
