The events on this day in history for our heritage companies are noted below.
The earliest event was in 1958, the latest event was in 1982
No milestone events (5 to 65+ years ago)
Human Spaceflight:
1966 – SPLASHDOWN: Gemini 8, North Pacific, USS Leonard F. Mason
Military and Classified Programs:
1972 – LAUNCH: Classified mission, MM Titan 24B, SLC4W, VAFB
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
NONE
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite programs:
1958 – LAUNCH: Vanguard 1, Martin Vanguard TV-4, LC-18A, CCAFS
Commercial Programs:
NONE
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1967 – LAUNCH: MM Titan II, 395-C, VAFB
1982 – LAUNCH (4): Lockheed Trident C-4, SSBN658, ETR
Other:
NONE
The photos today are of the launch of Vanguard TV-4, which put the first Vanguard spacecraft into orbit on this day in 1958. Although the military was involved in the development of the Vanguard program, it was designated as a non-military satellite experiment program by President Eisenhower. Vanguard 1, the size of a grapefruit, did atmospheric density measurements and communicated with Earth stations until 1964. The Vanguard 1 spacecraft is still in orbit and may be there for almost another 1000 years.
