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
One milestone event (5 to 65+ years ago)
Human Spaceflight:
2024 – NASA awarded a Lunar Terrain Vehicle Services (LTVS) contract to the Lunar Dawn team, led by Lunar Outpost as the prime contractor along with its principal partner Lockheed Martin and teammates General Motors, The GoodyearTire & Rubber Company, and MDA Space (part of the Artemis program)
Military and Classified Programs:
1965 – LAUNCH: Snapshot, GD Atlas SLV-3/Lockheed Agena D, SLC4E, VAFB – only orbiting nuclear reactor in history, intended to power an ion engine – MILESTONE: 60 years ago
2014 – LAUNCH: LM DMSP 5D-3 F19, ULA Atlas V 401, SLC3W, VAFB
2023 – LM is announced as the preferred bidder for the Australian Defence Communications Satellite network (Project JP9102)
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
NONE
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite programs:
NONE
Commercial Programs:
1996 – LAUNCH: LM Inmarsat-3 F1 LM Atlas IIA, LC36A, CCAFS
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1959 – LAUNCH: Martin Titan I, LC15, CCAFS
1963 – Site construction for MM Titan II ICBM squadrons completed (Davis-Monthan, McConnell, and Little Rock AFBs)
1964 – LAUNCH FAILURE: GD Atlas F, OSTF-2, VAFB
1967 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Polaris A3, SSBN657, ETR
Other:
NONE
The photos today are of the launch of Snapshot by Atlas/Agena D in 1965 (SNAP 10-A – Systems for Nuclear Auxiliary Power) and the actual spacecraft before launch. The launch photo was found on Wikipedia and is attributed to an archive from the Department of Energy (this mission took place before DoE was formed). The spacecraft photo is attributed to the same archive for the Department of Energy.
Here’s some information about this mission from Astronautix.com:
The ion beam power supply was operated at 4500 V and 80 mA to produce a thrust of about 8.5 mN. The neutralizer was a barium-oxide-coated wire filament. The ion engine was to be operated off batteries for about one hour, and then the batteries were to be charged for approximately 15 hours using 0.1 kW of the nominal 0.5 kW SNAP system as the power supply.
The SNAP power system operated successfully for about 43 days, but the ion engine operated for a period of less than 1 hour before being commanded off permanently. Analysis of flight data indicated a significant number of high-voltage breakdowns, and this apparently caused sufficient EMI to induce false horizon sensor signals leading to severe attitude perturbations of the spacecraft. Ground tests indicated that the engine arcing produced conducted and radiated EMI significantly above design levels. It was concluded that low frequency (< 1 MHz) conducted EMI caused the slewing of the spacecraft.
