The events on this day in history for our heritage companies are noted below.
The earliest event was in 1961, the latest event was in 1998
One milestone event (5 to 65+ years ago)
NOTE: NEW starting with this day in events and going forward – I have thoroughly researched the declassification of the Corona program and have added identifiers for those launches (either Discoverer or Corona). I did not note what type of KH program these are or refer to alternative configurations like Argon or Lanyard but used the two generic names. No piggyback missions are described or included. I am researching the rules for additional programs that have been declassified and will update future events if it is acceptable to me (I’m very conservative and careful about these things). There are also other missions that launched on Thor/Agena that were classified at the time and those will remain with that identifier until I finish my research.
Human Spaceflight:
1962 – Design philosophy document submitted by MM to Space Systems Division for Titan GLV (Gemini)
1982 – LANDING: STS-3 (Columbia), White Sands, New Mexico
Military and Classified Programs:
1961 – LAUNCH FAILURE: Lockheed Discoverer 22, Thor/Lockheed Agena B, SLC1W, VAFB – FAILURE
1967 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Corona 116, Thor SLV-2A/Lockheed Agena D, SLC3W, VAFB
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
NONE
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite programs:
1966 – LAUNCH: GD OV1 satellites, GD Atlas D, 576-A3, VAFB – magnetosphere experiments
Commercial Programs:
1998 – LAUNCH (5): LM (Motorola) Iridium, Delta 7920-10C, SLC2W, VAFB
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1962 – LAUNCH FAILURE: Lockheed Polaris A2, LC25A, CCAFS – FAILURE
1963 – LAUNCH: MM Titan I, 395-A2, VAFB
1971 – LAUNCH (7): Lockheed Polaris A2, SSBN611, ETR
1977 – LAUNCH (2): Lockheed Poseidon C3, SSBN654, ETR
1984 – LAUNCH: MM Peacekeeper, TP-01, VAFB – MILESTONE: 40 years ago
Other:
NONE
The photo today is of the STS-3 landing at White Sands, New Mexico, in 1982. This was the only shuttle flight that did not land at either Edwards AFB or KSC. High winds aloft prevented an Edwards landing and KSC was not ready for landings.
