The events on this day in history for our heritage companies are noted below.
The earliest event was in 1959, the latest event was 2018
Five milestone events (5 to 65+ years ago)
Human Spaceflight:
1964 – LAUNCH: Fire 1, GD Atlas D, LC12, CCAFS – Subscale model of Apollo capsule – MILESTONE: 60 years ago
1972 – KSC and VAFB announced as operational bases for the Space Shuttle
1981 – LANDING: STS-1 (Columbia), Edwards AFB
Military and Classified Programs:
1984 – LAUNCH: DSP-12, MM Titan 34D/Transtage, LC40, CCAFS – MILESTONE: 40 years ago
2018 – LAUNCH: AFSPC-11, ULA Atlas V 551, LC41, CCSFS – Air Force Space Command 11 – dual payload with CBAS and EAGLE platforms (yeah, more acronyms). CBAS – Continuous Broadcast Augmenting SATCOM (an acronym in an acronym); EAGLE – EELV [Secondary Payload Adapter] Augmented Laboratory Experiment (another acronym in an acronym)
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
NONE
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite programs:
1959 – LAUNCH FAILURE: Vanguard 3A, Martin Vanguard SLV-5, LC18A, CCAFS – Stage three hydraulics failure – MILESTONE: 65 years ago
1969 – LAUNCH: RCA Nimbus 3, Thorad SLV-2G/Lockheed Agena D, SLC2E, VAFB – MILESTONE: 55 years ago
Commercial Programs:
2008 – LAUNCH: ICO G1, ULA Atlas V 421, LC41, CCAFS
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1959 – LAUNCH FAILURE: GD Atlas D, LC13, CCAFS – FAILURE – first Atlas D – MILESTONE: 65 years ago
1960 – TEST: Lockheed Polaris A1 underwater test, San Clemente, California
1968 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Polaris A3, SSBN598, ETR
1969 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Polaris A3, UK S23, ETR – MILESTONE: 55 years ago
2012 – LAUNCH (2): LM Trident D-5, SSBN738, ETR
Other:
NONE
There are photos from two missions today. First, there is a photo of the crew of STS-1 (Columbia) disembarking their orbiter after their successful mission and landing in 1981.
Second, there is a photo of the AFSPC-11 launch on Atlas V 551 in 2018. See the entry above for the plethora of acronyms associated with this launch.
