The events on this day in history for our heritage companies are noted below.
The earliest event was in 1962, the latest event was in 2004
Two milestone events (5 to 65+years ago)
Human Spaceflight:
1970 – MM X-24A flight 18, Dryden Lake – Pilot John Manke – MILESTONE: 55 years ago
Military and Classified Programs:
1971 – LAUNCH: RCA DMSP-Block-5B F1, Thor Burner 2A, SLC10W, VAFB
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
NONE
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite programs:
1965 – LAUNCH: OGO-2, Thor SLV-2A/Lockheed Agena D, SLC2E, VAFB – Orbital magnetosphere observatory – MILESTONE: 60 years ago
Commercial Programs:
2004 – LAUNCH: LM AMC-15 Proton-M/Briz-M, LC200/39, Baikonur, Kazakhstan
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1962 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Polaris A1, EAG-154, ETR
1967 – LAUNCH: GD Atlas F, 576-A2, VAFB
1971 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Poseidon C3, SSBN635, ETR
1974 – LAUNCH: GD Atlas F, 576-A3, VAFB
1977 – The ICBM office requested proposals for Stages I-IV of Missile-X (Peacekeeper)
1983 – LAUNCH: MM Peacekeeper, LF03, VAFB
Other:
NONE
The photos today are from two events. First, there is an example of a Poseidon C3 test launch as there was a similar launch on this day in 1971. Here is the information about the photo, which was found on Wikipedia and is from the National Archives:
Released to Public ID: DFSC8405193 Service Depicted: Navy A Poseidon C-3 (UGM-73A) fleet ballistic missile lifts off after being launched from the submerged nuclear-powered strategic missile submarine USS ULYSSES S. GRANT (SSBN-631). This is the 70th test launch of a Poseidon C-3.
Second, there is a photo of the Thor SLV-2A/Lockheed Agena D on the pad at VAFB in 1965 for the launch of OGO-2. Here is a story about OGO-2 from Wikipedia:
OGO 2 (OGO-C) carried about twenty scientific experiments with the objective of performing observations of polar auroras, atmospheric luminescence, energized particles, variations affecting the magnetic field and the properties of the ionosphere. These observations were to be carried out particularly in the regions overlooking the poles. The satellite was placed in a low polar orbit (414 × 1,510 km with an inclination of 87.4°) on October 14, 1965 by a Thor-Agena D launch vehicle from Vandenberg Air Force Base.
Shortly after launch, the attitude control system exhausted the gas it had available to control the satellite’s orientation and the satellite entered a slow rotation. Five of the experiments could no longer operate under these conditions and six others provided degraded results. On April 1966, both accumulators fail and observations are consequently limited to the illuminated portions of the orbit. By December 1966, there are only 8 operational experiments left, of which only 5 provide undegraded results. On November 1, 1967, the satellite was put into standby mode. Due to power problems, the data collected up to that time only covered a total period of 306 days. An instrument was briefly reactivated for two weeks in February 1968, and operations were definitely stopped on November 1, 1971.
