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 2004
Three milestone events (5 to 65+ years ago)
Human Spaceflight:
1963 – The MM Titan II-Gemini coordination board directed efforts to reduce longitudinal vibration (POGO) and improve engine reliability; the POGO levels were satisfactory for ICBM performance, but not for NASA requirements
Military and Classified Programs:
1963 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Corona 62, Thor/Lockheed Agena D, SLC1W, VAFB
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
2004 – LM Genesis mission, end of science collection (solar wind particle collection at L1 point) – MILESTONE: 20 years ago
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite programs:
1960 – LAUNCH: RCA TIROS-1, Thor Able II, LC17A, CCAFS – Tiros I began the new era of weather satellites
Commercial Programs:
NONE
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1964 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Polaris A3, EAG-154, Johnston Island, Pacific – MILESTONE: 60 years ago
1964 – LAUNCH: GD Atlas F, LC-11, CCAFS – MILESTONE: 60 years ago
1965 – Last MM Titan I ICBM taken off alert status, Mountain Home AFB
1980 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Trident C4, SSBN598, ETR
1981 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Trident C4, SSBN641, ETR
1988 – LAUNCH (4): Lockheed Poseidon C3, SSBN628, ETR
Other:
NONE
The photo today is the launch of RCA TIROS-1 on Thor Able II in 1960. A block diagram of Tiros is also included. TIROS-1 was the first full-scale weather satellite.
Here’s some information about TIROS-1 from Wikipedia:
Over its 2 1⁄2-month lifespan, TIROS 1 returned 23,000 photos of the Earth, 19,000 of them usable for weather analysis. For the first time, it was possible to view large scale cloud patterns in their totality, and from this, identify storm regions. The satellite provided the first long-term observations of a developing storm from orbit, tracking the disintegration of a large cyclonic mass off the coast of Bermuda over the course of four days. In addition, TIROS 1 returned data on smaller scale structures such as tornadoes and jet streams, and findings returned from the satellite complemented and enhanced ground-based findings. The satellite is still in orbit as of 2024.
