"This date in history"

[karimisss]

Dear Friends!

Be with us in this topic for reading the past activities & events in astronomy & space sciences.

Such as successes & failures in missions ,observations ,solving problems & etc.

Thank you

[stargazer]

On This Date in History - January 17

Quote Of The Day

Science tells us how the heavens go. Religion tells us how to go to heaven.
Galileo Galilei


Who Died Today?

1938: William H Pickering, astronomer (predicted Pluto), age 79

1997: Clyde Tombaugh, astronomer, discovered Pluto in 1930, age 90

Today in History:

1962: A NASA civilian pilot Neil Armstrong takes X-15 to 40,690 m

1968: Soyuz 4 and 5 completed 1st docking of 2 manned spacecraft

1976: Hermes rocket launched by European Space Agency

1980: NASA launches Fltsatcom-3

1986: Voyager 2 - USA Jupiter - Saturn - Uranus - Neptune Flyby (Launched August 20, 1977) flew by Uranus[/link. Voyager 2 flew by Jupiter on July 9, 1979, Saturn on August 26, 1981, Uranus on January 24, 1986, and Neptune on August 24, 1989.

From: About.com

[stargazer]

On This Date in History - January 18

Astronomy & Space Word of The Day

ellipse: A flattened circle or oval. That the orbits of the planets are ellipses, not circles, was first discovered by Johannes Kepler based on the careful observations by Tycho Brahe. An ellipse is essentially a circle that has been stretched out of shape. When describing ellipses, the eccentricity defines how "stretched out" it is. In the case of the moon (diagram), when it is closest it is at perigee and

Who Was Born Today?

1933: Vladimir Yevgrafovich Bugrov, cosmonaut

1958: Jeffrey N Williams, Superior Wisconsin, Major Army/astronaut

Today in History:

1978: Thiokol conducts 2nd test firing of space shuttle's SRB

1986: 24th Space Shuttle (61-C) Mission-Columbia 7-returns to Earth

1989: Astronomers discover pulsar in remnants of Supernova 1987A (LMC)

2000: STARDUST, Deep Space Maneuver 1A (DSM-1), Successful

From: About.com

[stargazer]

On This Date in History - January 19

Quote Of The Day

The beginning, middle, and end of the birth, growth, and perfection of whatever we behold is from contraries, by contraries, and to contraries; and whatever contrarity is, there is action and reaction, there is motion, diversity, multitude, and order, there are degrees, succession and vicissitude.
Giordano Bruno (1548–1600)

Who Was Born Today?

1851: Johannes C Kapteyn, Dutch astronomer

1946: Alexandr Vladimirovich Shchukin, Russian cosmonaut

Today in History

1961: Iris rocket, new solid-propellant single-stage sounding rocket, failed to attain programmed flight from Wallops Island, reaching only 86 miles' altitude instead of 160 miles.

From: About.com

[stargazer]

On This Date in History - January 20

Astronomy & Space Word of The Day

ultraviolet: Light that is so blue humans cannot see it. A band of the electromagnetic spectrum between the visible and the X-ray. Photons of ultraviolet light are more energetic than photons of visible light.

Who Was Born Today?

1920: DeForest Kelley, born in Atlanta, Georgia, actor, Dr. McCoy-Star Trek

1930: Buzz Aldrin, Montclair, New Jersey, USAF/astro, Gem 12, Ap 11

1939: Nalin Chandra Wickramasinghe, Indian astronomer

1948: Jerry Ross, Indiana, Lt Col USAF/astronaut, STS 61B, 27, 37, 55, 74,sk:88

1951: Magomed Omarovich Tolboyev, Russian cosmonaut

Today in History:

1961: Headline news in Moscow was detailed Tass announcement that Strelka, one of two female dogs recovered from orbiting Spacecraft II in August 1960, had given birth to six puppies in good health. Pravda had announced 3 weeks earlier that one of the satellite-passenger dogs had given birth. (See Dogs in Space

1965: JPL proposes modified Apollo flight to fly around Mars and return

1990: US 64th manned space mission STS 32 (Columbia 10) returns from space

1997: Comet Hale-Bopp crosses Mars' orbit

From: About.com

[karimisss]

On This Date in History - January 21

Astronomy & Space Word of The Day

geologic time: The time extending from the end of the formative period of the Earth to the beginning of human history.

Who Was Born Today

1908: Bengt Stromgren, Goteborg Sweden, astrophysicist, studied gas cloud

1930: Valentin Ignatyevich Filatyev, Russia, cosmonaut

1950: Joseph R Tanner, Danville, Illinois, astronaut, STS 66, 82, sk: 97


Today in History

1951: Westinghouse J-40 jet engine (7,500 pounds dry thrust) completed 150-hour Navy qualification test.

1979: Neptune becomes outermost planet (Pluto moves closer). Unless a new planet is discovered, Neptune will remain outermost planet since on August 24, 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) formally downgraded Pluto from an official planet to a dwarf planet. (See Is Pluto a Planet.)

From: About.com

[karimisss]

On This Date in History - January 22


Astronomy & Space Word of The Day

Shoemaker-Levy9 (S-L9): The comet that broke up and fell into Jupiter in June 1994.

Who Was Born Today

1955: Thomas David Jones, born in Baltimore, Maryland, PhD/Astronaut, STS 59, 68, 80, sk: 98

Today in History

1965: U.S. launches TIROS 9 weather satellite

1969: Orbiting Solar Observatory 5 launched into earth orbit

1975: Landsat 2, an Earth Resources Technology Satellite, launched

1992: Space Shuttle STS-42 (Discovery 15) launches into space

1997: Space Shuttle Atlantis Returns to Earth, Successful

2000: Vandenburg Launch Pad Demolished

From: About.com

[stargazer]

On This Date in History - January 23

Astronomy & Space Fact

The term "aeronautics" originated in France, and was derived from the Greek words for "air" and "to sail."

Who Was Born Today?

1930: William Reid Pogue, Okemah Oklahoma, Colonel USAF/astronaut, Skylab 4

1942: Ivan Ivanovich Bachurin, cosmonaut

1949: Robert Cabana, Minneapolis, Mjr USMC/astronaut, STS 41, 53, 68, sk:88

Who Died Today?

1976: Aleksey Vasilyevich Sorokin, Russian cosmonaut, age 44

1997: Roger John Tayler, astrophysicist, age 67

Today in History:

1930: Clyde Tombaugh photographs Pluto

1941: Ground breaking for NACA (now NASA) Lewis Research Center

1961: Final test flight of USAF Atlas D traveled 5,000 miles to target down Atlantic Missile Range, representing 35 successes, 8 partials, and 6 failures in 49 test launchings for D model.

1970: Australia's 1st amateur radio satellite (Oscar 5) launched (Calif)

1970: U.S. launches 2nd generation weather satellite, ITOS 1

1983: Russian radioactive satellite falls into Indian Ocean

1986: Columbia returns to Kennedy Space Center via Davis-Monthan AFB

From:About.com

[stargazer]

On This Date in History - January 24

Astronomy & Space Word of The Day

erosion: The process of physically removing weathered materials; the wearing away of soil and rock by weathering, mass wasting, and the action of streams, glaciers, waves, wind and groundwater.

Who Was Born Today?

1952: William F Readdy, Quonset Point, Rhode Island, astronaut, STS 42, 51, 79

1961 Krasimir Mikhailov Stoyanov, Bulgaria, cosmonaut

Today in History:

1764: Gov Winthrop Telescope, is destroyed in a Harvard fire

1925: Moving picture of a solar eclipse taken from dirigible over Long Island

1985: 15th Space Shuttle (51-C) Mission-Discovery 3 is launched

1990: Muses-A - Japan Lunar Orbiters launched. This consisted of two small orbiters but failed to send back data from their orbit around the Moon. This was the first non USA or USSR probe to reach Moon.

From: About.com

[karimisss]

On This Date in History - January 25

Astronomy & Space Word of The Day

planum: A plateau or high plain

Today in History

1964: Echo 2, U.S. communications satellite launched

1983: Infrared telescope satellite launched into polar orbit

1992: Hubble space telescope optics finds NGC3862/3C264

1994: Clementine - USA Lunar Orbiter launched. The official name for Clementine is Deep Space Probe Science Experiment (DSPSE). It was a Department of Defense program used to test new space technology. Clementine was a new design using lightweight structure and propellant systems. It spent 70 days (between February 6 and May 5, 1994) in lunar orbit. Its four cameras mapped the surface of the Moon at 125-250 meters/pixel resolution. Clementine also used a laser to gather altimeter data which will make it possible to generate the first lunar topographic map

From: About.com

[karimisss]

On This Date in History - January 26


Astronomy & Space Fact

To communicate with distant spacecraft, NASA's Deep Space Network uses antenna with a diameter of up to 70 meters (230 feet). That is almost as big as a football field.

Who Was Born Today

1952: Mario Runco, Jr., born in Bronx, New York, Lt Cmdr USN/astronaut, STS 44, 54, 77

Today in History

1966: 5th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet

1962: Ranger 3 - USA Lunar Hard Lander launched. Lunar probe missed the moon and is now in a solar orbit

From: About.com