The events on this day in history for our heritage companies are noted below.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Special Notice: The December 31 events posting from yesterday, 12/31/2024, has the details on how these events were found and identified, since there are no December 31 events (so far). This post starts the 2025 events, with new 2024 relevant events that occurred, some space-related press releases and other enhancements, including milestone events (those are just to let everybody know how fast time goes by!).
The earliest event on this date was in 1965, the latest was in 1990.
Two events are milestone events (5 to 65+ years ago)
Human Spaceflight
1979 – Demolition of previous facilities and new construction begins at SLC-6 (VAFB) for Space Shuttle operations
Military and Classified Programs
1984 – Space Command now responsible for GPS (Global Positioning System) program resource management
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs
NONE
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite Programs
NONE
Commercial Programs
1990 – LAUNCH: Skynet-4A/JCSAT-2, MM Commercial Titan III, LC-40, CCAFS – First launch of short-lived Commercial Titan program – MILESTONE: 35 years ago
Test, ICBM, FBM programs
1965 – Acquisition phase of the MM Titan II ICBM program completed – MILESTONE: 60 years ago
1978 – SAMSO’s ICBM office begins a multiple aim point basing for Missile X (Peacekeeper) basing
Other
NONE
Today’s photo is an example of the short-lived Commercial Titan launch vehicle and shows the last launch in that program of Mars Observer. Photo Credit: NASA. There are no available photos of the first Commercial Titan launch that I could find that are described as being in the public domain.
