The events on this day in history for our heritage companies are noted below.
The earliest event was in 1955, the latest event was in 1986.
No milestone events (5 to 65+ years ago)
Human Spaceflight:
1973 – MM X-24B flight 29, Edwards AFB
Military and Classified Programs:
NONE
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
1961 – NASA directed Marshall Space Flight Center to procure five operational Atlas Centaur vehicles
1967 – LAUNCH: Lunar Orbiter 5, GD Atlas SLV-3/Lockheed Agena D, LC13, CCAFS
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite programs:
1955 – Martin Vanguard selected to launch first US satellite (Vanguard program).
Commercial Programs:
NONE
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1957 – Ballistic missile programs re-oriented by the National Security Council, per DoD recommendations, with GD Atlas having top priority and Martin Titan I relegated to second priority. Thor and Jupiter would be looked at for downselect to one choice.
1958 – GD Atlas IOC slips from March, 1959 to June, 1959
1962 – LAUNCH: GD Atlas F, 576-E, VAFB – First Atlas F at VAFB
1986 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Polaris A3, UK S27, ETR
Other:
NONE
The photo today is the launch of Lunar Orbiter 5 on GD Atlas SLV-3/Lockheed Agena D in 1967. This last Lunar Orbiter mission filled in gaps in lunar mapping for the upcoming Apollo missions. Photo Credit: NASA.
