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 2006
Five milestone events (5 to 65+ years ago)
Human Spaceflight:
2006- LANDING: STS-116 (Discovery), KSC
Military and Classified Programs:
1961 – LAUNCH: Classified mission, GD Atlas/Lockheed Agena B, SLC3E, VAFB
1984 – LAUNCH: DSP 6R, MM Titan 34D/Transtage, LC40, CCAFS – MILESTONE: 40 years ago
1994 – LAUNCH: DSP-1 Block 14 F17, MM Titan IVA(402)/IUS, LC40, CCAFS – MILESTONE: 30 years ago
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
NONE
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite programs:
NONE
Commercial Programs:
1997 – LAUNCH: LM Intelsat 804, Ariane 42L, ELA2, Kourou, French Guiana
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1960 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Polaris A1, SSBN601, ETR
1962 – LAUNCH: GD Atlas D, 576-A1, VAFB
1964 – MM Titan I operational inventory to be retired by June 30, 1965 – MILESTONE: 60 years ago
1964 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Polaris A3, SSBN632, ETR – MILESTONE: 60 years ago
1964 – LAUNCH: GD Atlas F, 576-E, VAFB – MILESTONE: 60 years ago
1965 – LAUNCH: MM Titan II, 395-C, VAFB
1970 – LAUNCH: GD Atlas F/Trident, 576-A3, VAFB
Other:
1974 – MM MarkIV Monorail (Black) delivered, Walt Disney World
1985 – GE reacquires RCA
1993 – MM acquires GD Space Systems
The photo today is the landing of STS-116 at KSC. Here is a description of the photo provided by NASA and found on Wikipedia:
On the shortest day of the year, Discovery touches down on Runway 15 at NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility as the sun sets, concluding mission STS-116. Aboard are Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot William Oefelein, and Mission Specialists Robert Curbeam, Joan Higginbotham, Nicholas Patrick and Christer Fuglesang, who represents the European Space Agency, as well as Thomas Reiter, who is returning from a 6-month stay on the International Space Station. During the mission, three spacewalks attached the P5 integrated truss structure to the station, and completed the rewiring of the orbiting laboratory’s power system. A fourth spacewalk retracted a stubborn solar array. Main gear touchdown was at 5:32 p.m. EST. Nose gear touchdown was at 5:32:12 p.m. and wheel stop was at 5:32:52 p.m. At touchdown — nominally about 2,500 ft. beyond the runway threshold — the orbiter is traveling at a speed ranging from 213 to 226 mph. Discovery traveled 5,330,000 miles, landing on orbit 204. Mission elapsed time was 12 days, 20 hours, 44 minutes and 16 seconds. This is the 64th landing at KSC. Photo Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett.
Also of note on this date – GE reacquired RCA in 1985 and Martin Marietta acquired GD Space Systems in 1993; earlier in 1993 MM acquired the GE/RCA Space Systems portion of GE.
