The events on this day in history for our heritage companies are noted below.
The earliest event was in 1959, the latest event was in 2024
No milestone events (5 to 65+ years ago)
Human Spaceflight:
1959 – Convair (GD) evaluated flight instrumentation requirements and weight for Atlas D/Mercury and provided recommendations to NASA
1964 – Three contractors (GE, Douglas, MM) received authorization by the USAF to begin work on space station studies
1991 – LAUNCH: STS-40 (Columbia), LC39B, KSC – 7 person crew, Spacelab biology experiments. Crew: Bryan O’Connor, Sidney Gutierrez, James Bagian, Tamara Jernigan, Rhea Seddon, Drew Gaffney, Millie Hughes-Fulford.
2002 – LAUNCH: STS-111 (Endeavour), LC39A, KSC – 7 person crew, ISS assembly. Crew: Kenneth Cockrell, Paul Lockhart, Philippe Perin (CNES – France), Franklin Chang-Diaz (Costa Rica/USA). To ISS Expedition 5: Valery Korzin (RKA – Russia), Peggy Whitson, Sergei Treshkhov (RKA – Russia). From ISS Expedition 4: Yuri Onufrienko (RKA – Russia), Carl Walz, Daniel Bursch.
2024 – LAUNCH: BOE CFT (Starliner) Calypso, ULA Atlas V N-22, LC-41, CCSFS – Two person crew (Barry Wilmore, Sunita Williams)
Military and Classified Programs:
1968 – LAUNCH: Classified mission, MM Titan IIIB, SLC4W, VAFB
1977 – LAUNCH: RCA DMSP 5-D S2 (AMS-2), Thor DSV-2U, SLC10W, VAFB
1979 – Full-scale development of the GPS system recommended by the Defense Systems Acquisition Review Council
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
NONE
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite programs:
1969 – LAUNCH: OGO 6, Thorad SLV-2H/Lockheed Agena D, SLC2E, VAFB – observatory with many instruments to study upper atmosphere
Commercial Programs:
NONE
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1982 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Trident I C4, SSBN627, ETR
Other:
2024 – Lockheed Martin purchases up to 25 launches from Firefly Aerospace.
The photos today are from three missions. First, there are photos of the STS-40 mission that launched in 1991. They include the launch, the crew and the Spacelab in the Columbia cargo bay. Photo Credits: NASA.
Second, there are photos from the STS-111 mission to ISS in 2002 and they include the launch, the core crew, the Expedition 5, the returning Expedition 4 crew and work being performed using the Canadarm2 at ISS. Photo Credits: NASA.
Third, there are photos of the launch of the Boeing Starliner Calypso on ULA Atlas V N-22 in 2024 and of the crew, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore. The two crew members did not return from ISS aboard the Starliner due to safety and reliability concerns and Starliner returned to earth unmanned on September 7, 2024 (UTC time). The crew later returned to Earth in March, 2025 on the Crew-9 SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. Photo Credits: NASA/Joel Kowsky (launch); NASA/JSC (crew).
