The events on this day in history for our heritage companies are noted below.
The earliest event was in 1964, the latest event was in 2011
One milestone event (5 to 65+ years ago)
Human Spaceflight:
1985 – LANDING: STS-51-F (Challenger), Edwards AFB
Military and Classified Programs:
1968 – LAUNCH: Classified mission, GD Atlas SLV-3A/Lockheed Agena D, LC13, CCAFS
1968 – LAUNCH: Classified mission, MM Titan IIIB, SLC4W, VAFB
1976 – LAUNCH: Classified mission, MM Titan 34B, SCL4W, VAFB
1981 – LAUNCH (Partial FAILURE): Fltsatcom 5 GD Atlas SLV-3D/Centaur, LC36A, CCAFS – Payload fairing failed; satellite damaged but operational
2001 – LAUNCH: DSP-1 Block 18 F21, LM Titan IVB(402)/IUS, LC40, CCAFS
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
2012 – LANDING: Curiosity Rover, Mars – Using an LM Aeroshell during EDL
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite programs:
NONE
Commercial Programs:
2011 – LAUNCH: LM BSAT-3C, (also Astra 1N), Ariane 5ECA, ELA2, Kourou, French Guiana – Japanese communications satellite
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1964 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Polaris A3, SSBN628, ETR – MILESTONE: 60 years ago
1983 – LAUNCH (2): Lockheed Trident C4, SSBN641, ETR
Other:
NONE
The photos today are from the Curiosity Rover mission, which landed on this day in 2012 and is still active exploring Mars. The photos include a view of the ejected Aeroshell (built by LM) during Entry/Descent/Landing, a photo just after the landing, and a “selfie” of Curiosity that was taken in 2015. Here’s more information on the photos:
Aeroshell: : “Curiosity’s Heat Shield in Detail”, photo by NASA/JPL. Obtained at Aug. 5 (PDT), 2012 with Mars Descent Imager camera (MARDI) installed on bottom of the rover. The 15-foot (4.5-meter) diameter heat shield is shown 3 seconds after separation from the descent Capsule, when it was about 50 feet (16 meters) from the spacecraft. Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS (Malin Space Science Subsystems).
Landing photo: This image taken by NASA’s Curiosity shows what lies ahead for the rover — its main science target, Mount Sharp. The rover’s shadow can be seen in the foreground, and the dark bands beyond are dunes. Rising up in the distance is the highest peak Mount Sharp at a height of about 5.5 km, taller than Mt. Whitney in California. The Curiosity team hopes to drive the rover to the mountain to investigate its lower layers, which scientists think hold clues to past environmental change. This image was captured by the rover’s front left Hazard-Avoidance camera at full resolution shortly after it landed. It has been linearized to remove the distorted appearance that results from its fisheye lens. Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“Selfie” photo: This self-portrait of NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle at the “Big Sky” site, where its drill collected the mission’s fifth taste of Mount Sharp.
The scene combines dozens of images taken during the 1,126th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity’s work during Mars (Oct. 6, 2015, PDT), by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera at the end of the rover’s robotic arm. The rock drilled at this site is sandstone in the Stimson geological unit inside Gale Crater. The view is centered toward the west-northwest. It does not include the rover’s robotic arm, though the shadow of the arm is visible on the ground. Wrist motions and turret rotations on the arm allowed MAHLI to acquire the mosaic’s component images. The arm was positioned out of the shot in the images, or portions of images, that were used in this mosaic. This portrait of the rover was designed to show the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument atop the rover appearing level. This causes the horizon to appear to tilt toward the left, but in reality, it appears fairly flat.
For scale, the rover’s wheels are 20 inches (50 centimeters) in diameter and about 16 inches (40 centimeters) wide. The drilled hole in the rock, appearing grey near the lower left corner of the image (image cropped, see original source), is 0.63 inch (1.6 centimeters) in diameter. Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
