Twenty-five years ago today -- August 27, 1985 -- astronauts Joe H. Engle, Richard O. Covey, James D. Van Hoften, William F. Fisher and John M. Lounge lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center aboard Space Shuttle Discovery. (Unidentified STS-51I astronaut in the Shuttle Discovery's open cargo bay. NASA image.) Mission STS-51I lasted a week, during which the crew deployed three ...
Fifty years ago today -- August 18, 1960 -- Discoverer-14 launched from Vandenberg AFB. It was known to the public by that name, but to insiders in what would become the National Reconnaissance Office it was known as CORONA Mission 9009. (Aerial recovery of Discoverer-14. USAF image from Wikimedia Commons.) Discoverer-14 was the first CORONA mission in which the ...
Fifty years ago today -- August 12, 1960 -- a Thor-Delta rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral* carrying the Echo-1 satellite. (Echo-1 satellite, fully inflated, inside a Navy hangar in Weeksville, NC. NASA image from Wikimedia Commons.) Echo-1 was a Mylar balloon 100 feet in diameter which reflected radio waves aimed at it. Its only transmitter was for telemetry: for communications, ...
A half-century ago today -- August 10, 1960 -- Discoverer-13 launched from Vandenberg AFB on a Thor-Agena rocket. (President Eisenhower presented with U.S. flag flown inside Discoverer capsule. Dwight D. Eisenhower Library image from the National Air & Space Museum.) Discoverer-13, and indeed the entire Discoverer series of spacecraft, was part of the highly classified CORONA program ...
Twenty-five years ago today -- July 29, 1985 -- the Space Shuttle Challenger lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on mission STS-51F. During the launch, the number one main engine shut down ahead of schedule; NASA declared an "Abort To Orbit," but was able to re-plan the mission to complete all of its objectives. Astronauts Charles G. Fullerton, Roy D. Bridges, Karl G. Henize, Anthony W. England, F. Story Musgrave, Loren W. Acton and John-David E Bartoe conducted life ...
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