The events on this day in history for our heritage companies are noted below.
The earliest event was in 1958, the latest event was in 2008
Three milestone events (5 to 65+ years ago)
Human Spaceflight:
1985 – LAUNCH: STS-51-B (Challenger), LC39A, KSC – 7 person crew, Spacelab3/Microgravity experiments. Crew: Robert Overmyer, Frederick Gregory, Don Lind, Norman Thagard, William Thornton, Lodewijk van der Berg, Taylor Wang – MILESTONE: 40 years ago
1990 – LANDING: STS-31 (Discovery), Edwards AFB – MILESTONE: 35 years ago
Military and Classified Programs:
1962 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Corona 40, Thor/Lockheed Agena B, SLC1W, VAFB
1964 – LAUNCH: Classified mission, Thor SLV-2A/Lockheed Agena D, SLC3W, VAFB
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
2008 – LM POLAR spacecraft ends operation after 12 years
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite programs:
1958 – LAUNCH FAILURE: Vanguard TV-5, Martin Vanguard TV-5, LC-18A
Commercial Programs:
NONE
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1960 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Polaris A1, LC29A, CCAFS – MILESTONE: 65 years ago
1977 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Trident C4, LC25C, CCAFS
Other:
NONE
The photos today are from the STS-51-B mission in 1985, including the launch, the crew and the experiments in the Spacelab3. Photo Credits: NASA.


