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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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