The events on this day in history for our heritage companies are noted below.
The earliest event was in 1958, the latest event was in 1999
Two milestone events (5 to 65+ years ago)
Human Spaceflight:
1985 – LANDING: STS-61-B (Atlantis), Edwards AFB
Military and Classified Programs:
1976 – Negotiations completed between USAF SAMSO and Martin Marietta for the purchase of eight additional Titan III vehicles ($79.35 million)
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
1973 – Pioneer 10 fly-by of Jupiter
1999 – Contact lost with LM Mars Polar Lander (and experimental JPL DS2A & DS2B probes) at the time of Entry/Descent/Landing at Mars – MILESTONE: 25 years ago
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite programs:
NONE
Commercial Programs:
NONE
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1956 – LAUNCH: Lockheed X-17, LC3, CCAFS
1969 – LAUNCH: GD Atlas F, 576-A1, VAFB – MILESTONE: 55 years ago
Other:
1958 – Jet Propulsion Laboratory transferred from Army to NASA management
1971 – MM Mark IV Monorail (Yellow) delivered, Walt Disney World
The photo today was taken by Pioneer 10 during a flyby of Jupiter. The quality of the image speaks volumes about the improvements that have been made since that time in interplanetary spacecraft camera systems. Photo Credit: NASA.
The story about the MPL failure can be found by referring to NASA for the failure report and information. Actions taken during Phoenix Lander development corrected many minor and major potential failure mechanisms, including at least one likely failure mechanism that was not addressed in the official failure report (cruise stage recontact with MPL and the probes before EDL).
