The events on this day in history for our heritage companies are noted below.
The earliest event was in 1959, the latest event was in 2002
Four milestone events (5 to 65+ years ago)
Human Spaceflight:
1959 – Convair (GD) evaluated flight instrumentation requirements and weight for Atlas D/Mercury and provided recommendations to NASA – MILESTONE: 65 years ago
1964 – Three contractors (GE, Douglas, MM) received authorization by the USAF to begin work on space station studies – MILESTONE: 60 years ago
1991 – LAUNCH: STS-40 (Columbia), LC39B, KSC – 7 person crew, Spacelab biology experiments. Crew: Bryan O’Connor, Sidney Gutierrez, James Bagian, Tamara Jernigan, Rhea Seddon, Drew Gaffney, Millie Hughes-Fulford.
2002 – LAUNCH: STS-111 (Endeavour), LC39A, KSC – 7 person crew, ISS assembly. Crew: Kenneth Cockrell, Paul Lockhart, Philippe Perin (CNES – France), Franklin Chang-Diaz (Costa Rica/USA). To ISS Expedition 5: Valery Korzin (RKA – Russia), Peggy Whitson, Sergei Treshkhov (RKA – Russia). From ISS Expedition 4: Yuri Onufrienko (RKA – Russia), Carl Walz, Daniel Bursch.
Military and Classified Programs:
1968 – LAUNCH: Classified mission, MM Titan IIIB, SLC4W, VAFB
1977 – LAUNCH: RCA DMSP 5-D S2 (AMS-2), Thor DSV-2U, SLC10W, VAFB
1979 – Full-scale development of the GPS system recommended by the Defense Systems Acquisition Review Council – MILESTONE: 45 years ago
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
NONE
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite programs:
1969 – LAUNCH: OGO 6, Thorad SLV-2H/Lockheed Agena D, SLC2E, VAFB – observatory with many instruments to study upper atmosphere – MILESTONE: 55 years ago
Commercial Programs:
NONE
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1982 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Trident C-4, SSBN627, ETR
Other:
NONE
The photos today are from two missions. First, there are photos of the STS-40 mission that launched in 1991. They include the launch, the crew and the Spacelab in the Columbia cargo bay. Photo Credits: NASA.
Second, there are photos from the STS-111 mission to ISS in 2002 and they include the launch, the core crew, the new ISS Expedition 5 crew, the returning ISS Expedition 4 crew and work being performed using the Canadarm2 at ISS. Photo Credits: NASA.
