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 2003
Five milestone events (5 to 65+ years ago)
Human Spaceflight:
1964 – LAUNCH: Gemini I, MM Titan II/GLV, LC19, CCAFS – unmanned first test, qualified the launch vehicle stack
1965 – RCA receives a contract from NASA for Apollo deep-space tracking and data acquisition systems – MILESTONE: 60 years ago
1993 – LAUNCH: STS-56 (Discovery), LC39A, KSC – 5 person crew, ATLAS 2 (Atmospheric Laboratory) and Spartan (solar astronomy) experiments. Crew: Kenneth Cameron, Stephen Oswald, Michael Foale (United Kingdom), Kenneth Cockrell, Ellen Ochoa.
1997 – LANDING: STS-83 (Columbia), KSC
2002 – LAUNCH: STS-110 (Atlantis), LC39B, KSC – 7 person crew, ISS assembly (S0 truss assembly). Crew: Michael Bloomfield, Stephen Frick, Rex Waldheim, Ellen Ochoa, Lee Morin, Jerry Ross, Steven Smith.
Military and Classified Programs:
1961 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Discoverer 23, Thor/Lockheed Agena B, SLC1E, VAFB
1970 – LAUNCH (2): Vela 11, 12, MM Titan IIIC, LC40, CCAFS – MILESTONE: 55 years ago
2003 – LAUNCH: LM Milstar 6 (2-F4), LM Titan IVB(401)/Centaur, LC40, CCAFS – Final Milstar system
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
1966 – LAUNCH FAILURE: Surveyor Model, GD Atlas D/Centaur, LC37B, CCAFS – Centaur propulsion leak
1967 – LAUNCH: OAO-1, GD Atlas SLV-3/Lockheed Agena D, LC12, CCAFS
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite programs:
1970 – LAUNCH: RCA Nimbus 4, Thorad SLV-2G/Lockheed Agena D, SLC2E, VAFB – MILESTONE: 55 years ago
Commercial Programs:
NONE
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1960 – LAUNCH: Martin Titan I, LC16, CCAFS – MILESTONE: 65 years ago
1960 – LAUNCH FAILURE: GD Atlas D, LC11, CCAFS- exploded at liftoff – MILESTONE: 65 years ago
1963- LAUNCH: Lockheed Polaris A3, LC29A, CCAFS
1964 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Polaris A3, EAG-154, Johnston Island, Pacific
1983 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Poseidon C3, SSBN642, ETR
1992 – LAUNCH(2): Lockheed Trident C4, SSBN655, ETR
Other:
NONE
The photos today are of two events. First, there is a photo of the Gemini 1 launch (Titan II/GLV) in 1964. This unmanned test launch was first scheduled to take place in December, 1963 but there were delays in the arrival of all of the subsystems at the Cape. This launch successfully qualified the GLV for manned missions (Gemini 2 qualified the spacecraft). Photo Credit: NASA.
Second, there is a photo of the last Milstar launch (Milstar 6) on Titan IVB (401)/Centaur (B-35) in 2003. This photo was found in the photo archives of the Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum and is a government-created photo released to the public domain.
