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 2014
Five milestone events (5 to 65+ years ago)
Human Spaceflight:
2006 – LANDING: STS-115 (Atlantis), KSC
Military and Classified Programs:
1959 – General Curtis LeMay announces that the USAF will be responsible for all military spacecraft launches – MILESTONE: 65 years ago
2010 – LAUNCH: USA 215, ULA Atlas V 501, SLC3E, VAFB
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
2014 – LM MAVEN enters Mars orbit – study of atmosphere – MILESTONE: 10 years ago
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite programs:
2000 – LAUNCH: LM NOAA 16 (L), LM Titan II/SLV, SLC4W, VAFB
Commercial Programs:
NONE
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1959 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Polaris A1, LC29A, CCAFS – MILESTONE: 65 years ago
1964 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Polaris A3, SSBN631, ETR – MILESTONE: 60 years ago
1964 – LAUNCH: MM Titan II, 395-B, VAFB – MILESTONE: 60 years ago
1970 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Poseidon C3, SSBN629, ETR
2000 – LAUNCH: LM Trident D5, UK S31, ETR
Other:
NONE
The images today include an artist’s conception of MAVEN in Mars orbit and two ultraviolet images of Mars. MAVEN is still operational and functions as a relay for the Mars rovers and may be used until 2030. Photo and Image Credits: NASA/JPL.
From the NASA Press kit: MAVEN is the first spacecraft dedicated to exploring the tenuous upper atmosphere of Mars. The mission’s combination of detailed point measurements and global observations provides a powerful way to understand the properties of the upper atmosphere. The primary mission includes five “deep-dip” campaigns, in which the altitude of MAVEN’s orbit will be lowered to about 77 miles (125 kilometers). These measurements will provide information down to the top of the well-mixed lower atmosphere, giving scientists a full profile of the top of the atmosphere.
From Wikipedia – Results from MAVEN studying atmospheric loss:
Mars loses water into its thin atmosphere by evaporation. There, solar radiation can split the water molecules into their components, hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen, as the lightest element, then tends to rise far up to the highest levels of the Martian atmosphere, where several processes can strip it away into space, to be forever lost to the planet. This loss was thought to proceed at a fairly constant rate, but MAVEN’s observations of Mars’s atmospheric hydrogen through a full Martian year (almost two Earth years) show that the escape rate is highest when Mars’s orbit brings it closest to the Sun and only one-tenth as great when it is at its farthest.
On 5 November 2015, NASA announced that data from MAVEN shows that the deterioration of Mars’s atmosphere increases significantly during solar storms. That loss of atmosphere to space likely played a key role in Mars’s gradual shift from its carbon dioxide-dominated atmosphere – which had kept Mars relatively warm and allowed the planet to support liquid surface water – to the cold, arid planet seen today. This shift took place between about 4.2 and 3.7 billion years ago.Atmospheric loss was especially notable during an interplanetary coronal mass ejection in March 2015.
