The events on this day in history for our heritage companies are noted below.
The earliest event was in 1957, the latest was in 2020
Three milestone events (5 to 65+ years ago)
Human Spaceflight
NONE
Military and Classified Programs
1959 – First contract awarded for Centaur upper stage for GD Atlas family
1965 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Corona 91, Thor SLV-2A/Lockheed Agena D, SLC1E, VAFB – MILESTONE: 60 years ago
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs
1976 – LAUNCH: HeliosB, MM Titan IIIE/GD Centaur, LC41, CCAFS
2001 – LM Stardust Earth fly-by
2007 – RETURN: LM Stardust safely returns comet and interstellar dust samples to Earth
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite Programs
NONE
Commercial Programs
2020 – LM ships JCSAT-17 to Kourou, French Guiana – MILESTONE: Five years ago
Test, ICBM, FBM programs
1957 – LAUNCH FAILURE: Lockheed X-17, LC3, CCAFS
1968 – LAUNCH FAILURE: Lockheed Polaris A2, SSBN-609, ETR
1987 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Trident D-5, LC46, CCAFS
1990 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Trident D-5, SSBN-734, ETR – MILESTONE: 35 years ago
Other
1991 – Space Command takes over VAFB from SAC
The photos today are from two events: First there is the launch of HeliosB on Titan/Centaur in 1976 (another joint USA/Germany solar mission). Photo Credit: NASA.
Second, there is a photo of the successful return to earth of the Stardust module containing comet and interstellar dust particles in 2007. Photo Credit: NASA.
Here is a long, but interesting story about what has been going on with the Stardust analysis since its return (from Wikipedia). I participated in the “Stardust at Home” project for a couple of years.
The sample container was taken to a clean room with a cleanliness factor 100 times that of a hospital operating room to ensure the interstellar and comet dust was not contaminated. Preliminary estimations suggested at least a million microscopic specks of dust were embedded in the aerogel collector. Ten particles were found to be at least 100 micrometers and the largest approximately 1,000 micrometers (1 mm). An estimated 45 interstellar dust impacts were also found on the sample collector, which resided on the back side of the cometary dust collector. Dust grains are being observed and analyzed by a volunteer team through the citizen science project, Stardust@home.
The combined mass of the harvested sample was approximately 1 mg.
In December 2006, seven papers were published in the scientific journal Science discussing initial details of the sample analysis. Among the findings are: a wide range of organic compounds, including two that contain biologically usable nitrogen; indigenous aliphatic hydrocarbons with longer chain lengths than those observed in the diffuse interstellar medium; abundant amorphous silicates in addition to crystalline silicates such as olivene and pyroxene, proving consistency with the mixing of Solar System and interstellar matter, previously deduced spectroscopially from ground observations;hydrous silicates and carbonate minerals were found to be absent, suggesting a lack of aqueous processing of the cometary dust; limited pure carbon was also found in the samples returned; methyalimine and ethyalmine was found in the aerogel but was not associated with specific particles.
In 2010, Dr. Andrew Westphal announced that Stardust@home volunteer Bruce Hudson found a track (labeled “I1043,1,30”) among the many images of the aerogel that may contain an interstellar dust grain. The program allows for any volunteer discoveries to be recognized and named by the volunteer. Hudson named his discovery “Orion”.
In April 2011, scientists from the University of Arizona discovered evidence for the presence of liquid water in Comet Wild 2. They have found iron and copper sulfide minerals that must have formed in the presence of water. The discovery shatters the existing paradigm that comets never get warm enough to melt their icy bulk. In the spring of 2014, the recovery of particles of interstellar dust from the Discovery program’s Stardust mission was announced.
The Stardust samples are currently available for everyone to identify after completing the training at Berkeley webpage.
