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 2013
No milestone events (5 to 65+ years ago)
Human Spaceflight:
1966 – LAUNCH: Gemini XI Agena target, GD Atlas SLV-3/Lockheed Agena D, LC12, CCAFS
1966 – LAUNCH: Gemini XI, MM Titan II/GLV, LC19, CCAFS – Pete Conrad and Richard Gordon – successful rendezvous and docking exercises, high orbital altitudes obtained
1991 – LAUNCH: STS-48 (Discovery), LC39A, KSC – 5 person crew, deployed GE UARS (Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite). Crew: John Creighton, Kenneth Reightler, Charles Gemar, James Buchli, Mark Brown.
1992 – LAUNCH: STS-47 (Endeavour) launched, LC39B, KSC – 7 person crew, Spacelab J. Crew: Robert Gibson, Curtis Brown, Mark Lee, Jerome Apt, Jan Davis, Mae Jemison, Mamori Mohri (NASDA – Japan).
1993 – LAUNCH: STS-51 (Discovery), LC39B, KSC – 5 person crew, deployed and retrieved X-ray astronomy satellite, deployed ACTS satellite (see story a below on the Transfer Orbit Stage anomaly). Crew: Frank Culbertson, WIlliam Readdy, James Newman, Daniel Bursch, Carl Walz.
1998 – LANDING: STS-128 (Discovery), Edwards AFB
NOTE: The shuttle mission numbers are not incorrect. Many missions were “out of sequence” during the years of shuttle operations.
Military and Classified Programs:
1961 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Discoverer 30, Thor/Lockheed Agena B, SLC1E, VAFB
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
NONE
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite programs:
NONE
Commercial Programs:
1985 – LAUNCH FAILURE: GE (RCA) Spacenet F3 (also Eutelsat 3), Ariane 3, ELA1, Kourou, French Guiana – third stage igniter cartridge
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1960 – LAUNCH FAILURE: GD Atlas D, 576-B3, VAFB
1967 – LAUNCH FAILURE: Lockheed Polaris A3 launched, LC29A, CCAFS
1977 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Polaris A3, LC29A, CCAFS
1987 – LAUNCH (4): Lockheed Poseidon C3, SSBN622, ETR
2013 – LAUNCH (4): LM Trident D5, SSBN734, ETR
Other:
1962 – President Kennedy delivers the famous “we choose to go to the moon” speech at Rice University in Houston, Texas
The photos today are from three missions on this very busy day in history.
First, there are photos of the Gemini XI mission, including the launch of the Agena D target vehicle on Atlas, the launch of the crew on Titan II/GLV, the crew (Richard Gordon and Pete Conrad) and an experiment in space using a space tether. Photo Credits: NASA. Here’s an interesting story about this mission from Wikipedia:
Gemini XI’s record altitude was ultimately the result of an internal race to the Moon. As early as 1961, NASA’s Jim Chamberlin and McDonnell-Douglas Aircraft advocated using Gemini spacecraft to get to the Moon sooner than Apollo. Their proposals considered using Centaur upper stage rockets to boost the Gemini on a circumlunar trajectory (similar to the Soviet’s Zond program), lunar orbit missions using Centaur rockets for translunar injection and Agena for lunar orbit insertion, and even lunar landing missions using Gemini in place of the Apollo Command Module and a small open-cockpit Langley Light LM place of the Apollo Lunar Module. Multiple Titan or Saturn IB rockets, and even the abandoned Saturn C-3 were considered as the launch vehicles. Pete Conrad liked these ideas and together with McDonnell corporation strongly advocated his Gemini XI to be circumlunar. Discretely called ‘Gemini – Large Earth Orbit’, the plan would use a Titan IIC-launched Transtage. The Gemini XI crew would be launched with the Titan II GLV as they did in reality, and would dock with the Transtage, which would then boost them to translunar velocity. Conrad managed to stir Congressional interest, but NASA administrator James Webb informed them that any extra funds Congress cared to appropriate for such a project would be better spent accelerating the Apollo program. After further internal struggles, Conrad finally got NASA approval for the Agena on his Gemini 11 flight to boost him onto two record highly elliptical 1,370 km orbits. This high flight was the only remnant of lunar Gemini.
Second, there are photos from the STS-48 mission that include the launch, the crew and the deployment of the UARS satellite built by GE Astrospace. Photo Credits: NASA.
Third, there are photos from the STS-51 mission, including the launch, the crew and the deployment of the ACTS (Advanced Communications Technology Satellite), built by GE Astrospace in East Windsor. This mission had several delays before it finally launched and the Transfer Orbit Stage (built by Martin Marietta) malfunctioned during ACTS payload separation. Here are the stories from Wikipedia:
STS-51 was notable for having been scrubbed three times on the launchpad, each time after the crew had boarded the spacecraft:
- On July 17, 1993, the launch was scrubbed on the pad due to a flaw in the pyrotechnic initiator controller that triggers the release of the solid rocket boosters from the mobile launcher platform.
- On July 24, 1993, problems with a hydraulic power unit in one of the solid rocket boosters caused another scrub on the pad. Because of the Perseids Meteor Shower the next launch window did not open until the second week of August 1993.
- On August 12, 1993, the count reached the T−3 second mark, at which point the Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs) had ignited. A shutdown was then triggered by faulty fuel flow sensors in one of the SSMEs.
During the [ACTS] deployment on September 12, 1993, two Super*Zip explosive corded in the Airborne Support Equipment cradle (ASE) designed to release the spacecraft, one primary and the other a backup, simultaneously detonated. This caused minor tears in two dozen insulation blankets mounted on the bulkhead between the payload bay and the AFT near the #3 APU. The ASE ring holding the TOS was damaged as well, and ejected debris was visible as the stack moved away from the orbiter.
