The events on this day in history for our heritage companies are noted below.
The earliest event was in 1963, the latest event was in 2007
Two milestone events (5 to 65+ years ago)
Human Spaceflight:
2006 – LAUNCH: STS-116 (Discovery), LC39B, KSC – 7 person crew, ISS assembly/P5 truss. Crew: Mark Polansky, William Oelefein, Nicholas Patrick, Robert Curbeam, Christer Fugelsang (ESA – Sweden), Joan Higgenbontham. To ISS Expedition 14: Sunit Williams; From ISS Expedition 14: Thomas Reiter (ESA – Germany)
Military and Classified Programs:
1963 – Dynasoar program canceled; MOL program given the go-ahead to proceed
1964 – LAUNCH: MM Titan IIIA/Transtage 2, MM Titan IIIA/Transtage, LC40, CCAFS – Second successful test launch of Transtage – MILESTONE: 60 years ago
2007 – LAUNCH: USA-198, ULA Atlas V 401, LC41, CCAFS
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
1974 – LAUNCH: Helios 1 (A), MM Titan IIIE/GD Centaur, LC41, CCAFS – first successful Titan IIIE launch – MILESTONE: 50 years ago
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite programs:
NONE
Commercial Programs:
NONE
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1963 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Polaris A3, LC25A, CCAFS
Other:
NONE
The photo today is of the Titan IIE/Centaur with the Helios 1 (A) spacecraft on the pad in 1974 just before launch; this was the first successful Titan IIIE/Centaur launch. Helios 1 (the “A” was changed to 1 after launch) was a joint West German/USA project to study the sun’s heliosphere and solar wind. Here’s the caption for the photo, which was found on Wikipedia and is credited to NASA:
Titan/Centaur-2 stands poised at Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to hurl a West German-built solar probe on a journey which will carry it more than two-thirds of the distance to the Sun. Launch by KSC’s Unmanned launch Operations Directorate is scheduled for no earlier than 2:11 a.m. EST December 10. Helios-A is to soar to within 28 million miles of the Sun approximately three months after launch. The first spacecraft designed to penetrate the outer corona of the Sun, it will be exposed to temperatures hot enough to melt lead at its closest approach. The Helios project is a joint undertaking of the United States and West Germany.
