Forty-five years ago today -- June 18, 1965 -- the first Titan-IIIC ("three C") launched from Cape Canaveral on a test flight. (A 1978 Titan-IIIC launch. USAF image from Wikimedia Commons.) The IIIC was the first Titan variant to use strap-on solid rocket motors for additional lift capacity. The Air Force flew a large number of SRM-augmented Titans through ...
Forty years ago today -- June 2, 1970 -- NASA test pilot William H. "Bill" Dana flew the Northrop M2-F3 lifting body on its first flight. (M2-F3 lifting body on the dry lakebed at Edwards AFB. NASA image.) The M2-F3 was one of a series of lifting bodies flown by NASA and the USAF to test spacecraft reentry. On this flight, it was dropped from its B-52 mothership and Dana ...
This is more "air and space" than "space" history, and it's as much of a curiosity as anything, but 60 years ago today -- May 12, 1950 -- Chuck Yeager flew the first Bell X-1 rocket plane (serial number 46-062, or X-1-1) on its final flight. (Bell X-1 in flight. USAF photo from NASA image collection.) The aircraft, the first to be flown faster than the speed ...
Forty years ago today -- April 24, 1970 -- China joined the "space club" by launching its first satellite, appropriately named China-1. China was the fifth nation to launch its own satellite. And 20 years ago -- on this date in 1990 -- the Space Shuttle Discovery launched from the Kennedy Space Center on mission STS-31 to deploy the Hubble Space Telescope. (STS-31 mission patch. NASA image. Click to enlarge.) ...
On April 5, 1990, the first live launch of a Pegasus rocket carried the PEGSAT experimental satellite into orbit. (July 1991 picture of a Pegasus rocket being carried by NASA's B-52. NASA image.) PEGSAT was an interesting combination of an instrumentation package to monitor this first Pegasus launch; a small Navy communications relay satellite; and a science experiment involving ...
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