See also Born on this Day On this day in: 1675 - -
Royal Greenwich Observatory founded. Nation: UK.
1951 - Launch Vehicle: Loki. LV Configuration: Loki rocket first flight. -
Nation: USA. JPL fired first of a series of 3,544 Loki solid-propellant antiaircraft missiles at WSPG, the Army program ending after September 1955. Loki rocket was later used in ONR Rockoon upper atmosphere balloon-launched rocket research soundings.
1951 - Launch Site: Kapustin Yar. Launch Complex: V-2. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: R-1. Model: R-1. LV Configuration: R-1 IIIB-7. -
Operational test Nation: USSR. Agency: NII-88. Apogee: 100 km (60 mi).
1955 - Launch Site: Kapustin Yar. Launch Complex: V-2. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: R-5. Model: R-5M. -
State trials missile test Nation: USSR. Agency: NII-88. Apogee: 500 km (310 mi).
1956 - Launch Site: Edwards. Launch Complex: -. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Atlas. Model: Atlas A.
1956 - Launch Site: Wallops Island. Launch Complex: -. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Deacon. Model: Tandem Double Deacon. -
Inlet model test flight Nation: USA. Agency: NACA. Apogee: 10 km (6 mi).
1957 - Launch Site: Kapustin Yar. Launch Complex: V-2. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Kosmos 2. Model: R-12. LV Configuration: R-12 63M No. 1 (LKI1-1). -
Test mission Nation: USSR. Agency: MVS. Apogee: 402 km (249 mi).
1958 -
1959 - -
Preliminary design of a two-man space laboratory. Nation: USA. Program: Gemini. Spacecraft: Gemini, MOL. H. Kurt Strass of Space Task Group's Flight Systems Division (FSD) recommended the establishment of a committee to consider the preliminary design of a two-man space laboratory. Representatives from each of the specialist groups within FSD would work with a special projects group, the work to culminate in a set of design specifications for the two-man Mercury.
1959 - Launch Site: Kapustin Yar. Launch Complex: -. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: R-2. Model: R-2A. -
R-2A launch Nation: USSR. Agency: NII-88. Apogee: 212 km (131 mi).
1959 - 14:32 GMT - Launch Site: Holloman. Launch Complex: A. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Aerobee. Model: Aerobee. LV Configuration: Aerobee AA1.260C. -
Solar infrared mission Nation: USA. Agency: USAF. Apogee: 110 km (60 mi).
1959 - 20:16 GMT - Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Complex: LC18A. Launch Pad: LC18A. Launch Vehicle: Vanguard. Model: Vanguard. LV Configuration: Vanguard SLV-6. FAILURE: Stage 2 propulsion malfunction. -
Vanguard 3B Nation: USA. Program: Vanguard. Payload: Radiation Balance satellite. Mass: 10 kg (22 lb). Class: Earth. Type: Magnetosphere. Spacecraft: Vanguard 3. Agency: NASA. Apogee: 140 km (80 mi). COSPAR: F590622A. Decay Date: 1959-06-22.
1960 - Launch Site: White Sands. Launch Complex: LC38. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Nike Zeus. Model: Nike Zeus. LV Configuration: Nike Zeus 8. FAILURE: Failure. -
Test mission Nation: USA. Agency: USA. Apogee: 0 km ( mi).
1960 - Launch Site: Hammaguira. Launch Complex: Blandine. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Veronique. LV Configuration: Veronique AGI26. -
Aeronomy mission Nation: France. Agency: FR. Apogee: 100 km (60 mi).
1960 - 05:54 GMT - Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Complex: LC17B. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Delta. Model: Thor Ablestar. LV Configuration: Thor Ablestar 281 AB003?.
1960 - 14:49 GMT - Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Complex: LC14. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Atlas. Model: Atlas D. LV Configuration: Atlas D 62D. FAILURE: Electrical Failure.
1960 - 23:26 GMT - Launch Site: Vandenberg. Launch Complex: SLC10E. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Delta. Model: Thor DM-18A. LV Configuration: Thor DM-18A 233. -
Combat training launch Nation: USA. Agency: RAF. Apogee: 520 km (320 mi).
1961 - Launch Vehicle: Nova, Saturn C-2, Saturn C-3.
1963 -
1963 - -
Vostok 5/6 cosmonaut welcome in Moscow Nation: USSR. Spacecraft: Vostok. Flight: Vostok 6, Vostok 5. The big day for the cosmonauts. Departure for Moscow was scheduled for 10:30, with the meeting with Khrushchev at Vnukovo planned for 15:00. A sensitive issue - who would exit the aircraft first - Tereshkova, the main celebrity, or Bykovskiy, the senior cosmonaut and the first one launched? An enormous motorcade takes the entourage from the house on the Volga to the airport. Tereshkova and Kamanin are in the lead automobile, followed by Bykovskiy in the second, then the correspondents and so far in others, at five minute intervals. Huge crowds all along the route chant 'Valya! Valya! During the flight to Moscow Kamanin goes over Tereshkova's speech with her. When she and Bykovskiy get off the plane and march up to the tribune, a completely new life will begin for them. After the immense reception at the airport, they go with the leadership to a huge rally at Red Square.
1965 - Launch Vehicle: Kosmos 2. Model: Kosmos 11K63.
1965 - Launch Site: Hammaguira. Launch Complex: Bacchus. Launch Pad: Bacchus?. Launch Vehicle: Belier. Model: Centaure. LV Configuration: Centaure C106. -
Cs Aeronomy mission Nation: France. Agency: CNES. Apogee: 150 km (90 mi).
1965 - 04:15 GMT - Launch Site: Green River. Launch Complex: Pad 3. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Athena RTV. LV Configuration: Athena B002. FAILURE: Failure. -
USN B002 re-entry vehicle test flight Nation: USA. Agency: USAF. Apogee: 200 km (120 mi).
1965 - 06:00 GMT - Launch Site: Barking Sands. Launch Complex: -. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Honest John. Model: HJ Nike. -
Aeronomy mission Nation: USA. Agency: DASA. Apogee: 100 km (60 mi).
1965 - 07:37 GMT - Launch Site: Green River. Launch Complex: Pad 2. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Athena RTV. LV Configuration: Athena B001. -
USN B001 re-entry vehicle test flight Nation: USA. Agency: USAF. Apogee: 200 km (120 mi).
1965 - 17:44 GMT - Launch Site: Delamar Dry Lake DZ. Launch Complex: -. Launch Pad: 37.3 N x 114.9 W. Launch Vehicle: X-15. LV Configuration: X-15 2-39-70.
1967 - 21:57 GMT - Launch Site: Hidden Hills DZ. Launch Complex: -. Launch Pad: 36.1 N x 116.0 W. Launch Vehicle: X-15. LV Configuration: X-15 3-60-90. FAILURE: Severe tail oscillations.
1968 -
1968 - Launch Site: Vandenberg. Launch Complex: 576A3. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Atlas. Model: Atlas F/Trident. LV Configuration: Atlas F/Trident 86F. -
RMP-B-8 re-entry vehicle test flight Nation: USA. Agency: USAF AFSC. Apogee: 1,400 km (800 mi).
1968 - 15:15 GMT - Launch Site: South Uist. Launch Complex: -. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Skua. Model: Skua 1. LV Configuration: Skua Su4H. -
Ionosphere/Solar X-ray mission Nation: UK. Agency: SRC. Apogee: 101 km (62 mi).
1969 - 05:28 GMT - Launch Site: Natal. Launch Complex: -. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Aerobee. Model: Aerobee 150. LV Configuration: Aerobee 150 NASA 04.183UG. -
Astronomy mission Nation: USA. Agency: NASA. Apogee: 165 km (102 mi).
1970 - -
Grechko meets with the cosmonauts. Nation: USSR. Program: Soyuz. Flight: Soyuz 9. They push for production of ten additional Soyuz spacecraft, necessary trainers for the L1 and L3, more female-crew flights, and complain of lack of support from GUKOS (who agree with Mishin's approach of total automation of spacecraft).
1970 - 14:45 GMT - Launch Site: White Sands. Launch Complex: LC35. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Aerobee. Model: Aerobee 150. LV Configuration: Aerobee 150 NASA 04.323US. -
Solar mission Nation: USA. Agency: NASA. Apogee: 200 km (120 mi).
1970 - 16:00 GMT - Launch Site: Wallops Island. Launch Complex: -. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Cajun. Model: Nike Cajun. LV Configuration: Nike Cajun NASA 10.332GM. -
Aeronomy mission Nation: USA. Agency: NASA. Apogee: 132 km (82 mi).
1971 - -
Soyuz 11 Day 17 Nation: USSR. Program: Salyut. Flight: Soyuz 11. Thirty years since the start of World War II, Kamanin muses. He thinks of the weight of those years - of Stalinist repression, war, loss of his oldest son, evacuation to Ashkabad and Tashkent, death of Komarov, and finally the heaviest loss of all - the death of Gagarin. Kamanin will be 63 in October, and the war memories still engulf him. He is so tired. Time to retire, make way for the younger men. There are some good men in the first cosmonaut team. Meanwhile, all is normal aboard Salyut 1 on the 17th day of Soyuz 11's mission.
1971 - 19:20 GMT - Launch Site: White Sands. Launch Complex: LC35. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Aerobee. Model: Aerobee 150. LV Configuration: Aerobee 150 NASA 04.237NA. -
Aeronomy mission Nation: USA. Agency: NASA. Apogee: 200 km (120 mi).
1972 - Launch Site: Aberporth. Launch Complex: -. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Rook. LV Configuration: Rook Ba5. -
Badger 5 test Nation: UK. Agency: RAE. Apogee: 20 km (12 mi).
1973 -
1973 - Launch Site: Kwajalein. Launch Complex: Meck. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Spartan. LV Configuration: Spartan ABM PFT-01. -
SAFEGUARD M2-45 Interceptor mission Nation: USA. Agency: USA. Apogee: 347 km (215 mi).
1973 - Launch Site: Kwajalein. Launch Complex: Meck. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Spartan. LV Configuration: Spartan ABM 800038. -
SAFEGUARD M2-45 Interceptor mission Nation: USA. Agency: USA. Apogee: 340 km (210 mi).
1974 - 07:30 GMT - Launch Site: White Sands. Launch Complex: -. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Aerobee. Model: Aerobee 200A. LV Configuration: Aerobee 200A NASA 26.26GG. -
13-in RC Flight 2 Astronomy mission Nation: USA. Agency: NASA. Apogee: 250 km (150 mi).
1976 - Launch Site: Vandenberg. Launch Complex: LF05. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Minuteman 2. -
FOT GT128M Follow-on Test launch Nation: USA. Agency: USAF SAC. Apogee: 1,300 km (800 mi).
1976 - 18:04 GMT - Launch Site: Baikonur. Launch Complex: LC81/23. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Proton. Model: Proton-K. LV Configuration: Proton-K 290-02. -
Salyut 5 Nation: USSR. Program: Almaz. Payload: Almaz s/n 103-01. Mass: 19,000 kg (41,000 lb). Class: Manned. Type: Space station. Spacecraft: Almaz OPS. Agency: MOM. Perigee: 215 km (133 mi). Apogee: 232 km (144 mi). Inclination: 51.60 deg. Period: 88.90 min. COSPAR: 1976-057A. USAF Sat Cat: 8911. Duration: 411.24 days. Decay Date: 1977-08-08. Second successful flight of the Almaz manned military space station. It had taken only 60 days and 1450 man-hours to prepare Almaz 0101-2 for flight, using the services of 368 officers and 337 non-commissioned officers. The tracking ships Academician Sergei Korolev and Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin were stationed in the Atlantic and Caribean to provide communications when out of tracking range of the USSR. Salyut 5 operated for 409 days, during which the crews of Soyuz 22 and 24 visited the station. Soyuz 23 was to have docked but its long-distance rendezvous system failed. Soyuz 25 was planned, but the mission would have been incomplete due to low orientation fuel on Salyut 5, so it was cancelled.
During the flight of Salyut 5 a 'parallel crew' was aboard a duplicate station on the ground. They conducted the same operations in support of over 300 astrophysical, geophysical, technological, and medical/biological experiments. Astrophysics studies included an infrared telescope-spectrometer in the 2-15 micrometer range which also obtained solar spectra. Earth resources studies were conducted as well as Kristall, Potok, Diffuziya, Sfera, and Reatsiya technology experiments. Presumably Salyut 5 was equipped with a SAR side-looking radar for reconnaissance of land and sea targets even through cloud cover.
The film capsule was ejected 22 February 1977 (and sold at Sotheby's, New York, on December 11, 1993!). The station was deorbited on 8 August 1977. In addition to the human crew two Russian tortoises (Testudo horsfieldi) and Zebrafish (Danio rerio) were flown.
The results of the Salyut 3 and 5 flights showed that manned reconnaissance was not worth the expense. There was minimal time to operate the equipment after the crew took the necessary time for maintenance of station housekeeping and environmental control systems. The experiments themselves showed good results and especially the value of reconnaissance of the same location in many different spectral bands and parts of the electromagnetic spectrum.
- Additional details.
1976 - 20:16 GMT - Launch Site: ETR Launch Area. Launch Complex: -. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Poseidon. -
FOT-20? Follow-on operational missile test Nation: USA. Agency: USN. Apogee: 500 km (310 mi).
1976 - 20:17 GMT - Launch Site: ETR Launch Area. Launch Complex: -. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Poseidon. -
FOT-20? Follow-on operational missile test Nation: USA. Agency: USN. Apogee: 500 km (310 mi).
1977 - 08:00 GMT - Launch Site: Baikonur. Launch Complex: LC1. Launch Pad: LC1 or LC31. Launch Vehicle: Soyuz. Model: Soyuz 11A511U.
1978 - -
Jim Christy's Discovery of Pluto Moon Charon Nation: USA.
1978 - Launch Site: Vandenberg. Launch Complex: LF21. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Minuteman 3. LV Configuration: Minuteman 3 STM-16W. -
Research and development launch Nation: USA. Agency: USAF AFSC. Apogee: 1,300 km (800 mi).
1978 - 11:49 GMT - Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Complex: LC25C. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Trident. Model: Trident C-4. LV Configuration: Trident C-4 C4X-17. FAILURE: Failure. -
Test mission Nation: USA. Agency: USN. Apogee: 1,000 km (600 mi).
1979 - 07:00 GMT - Launch Site: Plesetsk. Launch Complex: LC43/4. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Soyuz. Model: Soyuz 11A511U.
1980 - Launch Site: Vandenberg. Launch Complex: LF08. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Minuteman 3. -
FOT GT74GM Follow-on Test launch Nation: USA. Agency: USAF SAC. Apogee: 1,300 km (800 mi).
1982 - Launch Site: Vandenberg. Launch Complex: LF08. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Minuteman 3. -
FOT GT88GM Follow-on Test launch Nation: USA. Agency: USAF SAC. Apogee: 1,300 km (800 mi).
1982 - Launch Site: White Sands. Launch Complex: -. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Black Brant. Model: Black Brant 8C. LV Configuration: Black Brant 8C NASA 27.68AH. -
X-ray astronomy mission Nation: USA. Agency: NASA. Apogee: 245 km (152 mi).
1983 - 23:58 GMT - Launch Site: Plesetsk. Launch Complex: LC32. Launch Pad: LC32/pad?. Launch Vehicle: Tsiklon. Model: Tsiklon-3. -
Cosmos 1470 Nation: USSR. Program: Tselina. Payload: Tselina-D no. 42. Class: Sigint. Spacecraft: Tselina-D. Agency: MO SSSR. Perigee: 596 km (370 mi). Apogee: 626 km (388 mi). Inclination: 82.50 deg. Period: 96.90 min. COSPAR: 1983-061A. USAF Sat Cat: 14147.
1984 - 00:20 GMT - Launch Site: Baikonur. Launch Complex: LC200/39. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Proton. Model: Proton-K/DM. LV Configuration: Proton-K/DM 319-01.
1984 - 07:40 GMT - Launch Site: Plesetsk. Launch Complex: LC43/4. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Soyuz. Model: Soyuz 11A511U.
1988 - 13:00 GMT - Launch Site: Baikonur. Launch Complex: LC1. Launch Pad: LC1 or LC31. Launch Vehicle: Soyuz. Model: Soyuz 11A511U.
1993 - Launch Site: White Sands. Launch Complex: LC36. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Aries. LV Configuration: Aries LEAP 3. -
Technology mission Nation: USA. Agency: BMDO/OSC. Apogee: 300 km (180 mi).
1994 - 02:20 GMT - Launch Site: Wallops Island. Launch Complex: -. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Hawk. Model: Nike Orion. LV Configuration: Nike Orion NASA 31.087UE. -
Plasma mission Nation: USA. Agency: NASA. Apogee: 140 km (80 mi).
1994 - 08:22 GMT - Launch Site: Plesetsk. Launch Complex: -. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Topol. Model: Topol. -
Test mission Nation: Russia. Agency: RVSN RF. Apogee: 1,000 km (600 mi).
1995 - 19:58 GMT - Launch Site: Point Arguello WADZ. Launch Complex: -. Launch Pad: 36.0 N x 123.0 W. Launch Vehicle: Pegasus. Model: Pegasus XL. LV Configuration: Pegasus XL F9. FAILURE: Second stage failure; destroyed by range safety.
2006 - 22:00 GMT - Launch Site: Barking Sands. Launch Complex: -. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Castor 4B. LV Configuration: Castor 4B MBRV Aegis Target. -
SMD FTM-10 MRT-2 Nation: USA. Agency: USN. Apogee: 150 km (90 mi).
2006 - 22:04 GMT - Launch Site: Barking Sands. Launch Complex: POA. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: Standard-ER. Model: Standard SM-3. LV Configuration: SM-3 FTM-10. -
Stellar Predator Nation: USA. Agency: USN. Apogee: 150 km (90 mi).
2007 - 19:50 GMT -
Born on this day in:
- 1918 - Fritz Vandersee. German Rocket engineer. Birth City: Bebau. Birth Country: Germany.
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