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 2012
One milestone events (5 to 65+ years ago)
Human Spaceflight:
1996 – LAUNCH STS-78 (Columbia), LC39B, KSC – 7-person crew, Spacelab (life and microgravity experiments). Crew: Terence Henricks, Kevin Kregel, Richard Linnehan, Susan Helms, Charles Brady, Jean-Jacques Favier (CNES – France), Robert Thirsk (Canadian Space Agency).
Military and Classified Programs:
1967 – LAUNCH: Classified mission, MM Titan IIIB, SLC4W, VAFB
1968 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Corona 126, Thorad SLV-2G/Lockheed Agena D, SLC1E, VAFB
1977 – HQ USAF directed the start of development of the Titan 34D/IUS vehicle
1983 – LAUNCH: Classified mission, MM Titan 34D, SLC4E, VAFB
1987 – LAUNCH: GE (RCA) DMSP S-9, GD Atlas E, SLC3W, VAFB
2012 – LAUNCH: USA 236, ULA Atlas V 401, LC41, CCAFS
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
NONE
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite programs:
1999 – LAUNCH: QuikSCAT, LM Titan II SLV, SLC4W, VAFB – MILESTONE: 25 years ago
2008 – LAUNCH: Jason 2, ULA Delta 7320-10C, SLC2W, VAFB
Commercial Programs:
NONE
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1960 – The USAF placed a production contract with Martin Company for the production of Titan II ICBMs
1963 – LAUNCH: MM Titan II, 395-C, VAFB
1971 – LAUNCH: MM Titan II, 395-C VAFB
2006 – LAUNCH LM Trident D5, SSBN732, ETR
2016 – LAUNCH: LM Trident D5, UK S31, ETR
Other:
2012 – LM celebrates the Centennial of the company (based on the founding of Lougheed Aircraft corporation in 1912)
The photo today is of the launch of QuikSCAT on a Titan II/SLV in 1999. QuikSCAT (Quick Scatterometer) was built to measure wind speeds over open oceans and was built quickly (no pun intended) to replace a failed NCSAT (another scatterometer) satellite. Photo Credit: NASA/JPL, released to public domain.
