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 2018
Two milestone events (5 to 65+ years ago)
Human Spaceflight:
1977 – ALT-12, Free Flight #1, Enterprise Shuttle/Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, Dryden Research Center, Edwards AFB. Crew: Fred Haise, Gordon Fullerton. 24,100 feet, 5 minutes, 21 seconds free flight, tail cone on, lake bed landing. Approach and Landing Test Program.
Military and Classified Programs:
1971 – LAUNCH: Classified mission, MM Titan 24B, SLC4W, VAFB
1998 – LAUNCH FAILURE: Classified mission, LM Titan IVA(401)/Centaur, LC40, CCAFS – wiring harness short to structure caused spurious guidance signals, structural limits of the vehicle reached. Last Titan IVA vehicle.
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
1977 – LAUNCH: HEAO 1, GD Atlas SLC-3D/Centaur, LC36B, CCAFS – High energy astronomical observatory
2005 – LAUNCH: LM Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, LM Atlas V 401, LC41, CCAFS – MILESTONE: 20 years ago
2018- LAUNCH: Parker Solar Probe, ULA Delta 4H, LC37B, CCAFS
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite programs:
NONE
Commercial Programs:
1969 – LAUNCH: ATS 5, GD Atlas SLV-3C/Centaur, LC36B, CCAFS
1999 – LAUNCH: LM Telkom1, Ariane 42P, ELA2, Kourou, French Guiana
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1960 – LAUNCH: GD Atlas D, LC11, CCAFS – MILESTONE: 65 years ago
1961 – LAUNCH (7): Lockheed Polaris A1, SSBN602, ETR
Other:
NONE
The photos today are from two events.
The first event includes the successful launch of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) by Atlas V 401 in 2005, a photo of MRO during assembly operations and an example of the high resolution photograph from MRO; MRO is still operating in orbit of Mars. Photo Credits: NASA; NASA/KSC (high gain antenna installation on MRO); NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona (MRO high resolution photograph). Here is the caption for the MRO photograph of MARS:
This image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a location on Mars associated with the best-selling novel and Hollywood movie, “The Martian.”
This area is in the Acidalia Planitia region. In the novel and the movie, it is the landing site of a crewed mission named Ares 3. For the story’s central character, Acidalia Planitia is within driving distance from where NASA’s Mars Pathfinder, with its Sojourner rover, landed in 1997.
An initial HiRISE image of the site was taken in April 2015 and is online [link removed so photos can be shared]. A second one was taken May 17, 2015, and is shown here.
The second event has a photo of the launch of the Parker Solar Probe on Delta 4H in 2018. Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls.
