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The first orbiting satellite to be repaired in space was NASA’s Solar Maximum Mission, which launched on February 14, 1980, to observe solar flares. Just a few months later, in November 1980, one of the satellite’s altitude control fuses failed. It was put in standby mode, and it remained so until Space Shuttle Challenger [STS-41-C] …
Continue reading “The first in-space satellite repair was performed on April 11, 1984”
On April 1, 1960, the world’s first weather observation satellite (TIROS-1) was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It became operational for 78 days, despite the mission duration being 90 days.
On March 29, 1974, NASA’s Mariner 10 spacecraft has performed the first Mercury flyby in the history of space exploration.
On March 7, 2009, NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope was launched from Cape Canaveral on top of a Delta II (7925-10L) rocket. It was designed to search for exoplanets – planets orbiting stars outside our solar system. Kepler’s primary mission was to determine how common Earth-like planets are in our galaxy, and it discovered more than …
Continue reading “Kepler Space Telescope was launched on March 7, 2009”
On March 5, 1979, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft performed a Jupiter flyby as it flew within 277,400 kilometers (172,368 miles) of the planet’s cloud tops or 348,890 km/216,790 miles from the center of mass.
On March 2, 1972, Pioneer 10, was launched by NASA on top of an Atlas-Centaur rocket (AC-27 / Atlas 3C no. 5007C / Centaur D-1A) to study Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, and its environment. The mission’s primary goal was to fly by Jupiter and study its atmosphere, magnetosphere, and radiation belts. …
On March 1, 1896, French physicist Henri Becquerel (15 December 1852 – 25 August 1908) accidentally discovered radioactivity.
On March 1, 1982, the landing vehicle of the Soviet Union’s Venera 13 spacecraft landed on Venus and became the first spacecraft to record sounds on another planet.
Pluto was discovered on February 18, 1930, by the American astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh (February 4, 1906 – January 17, 1997) at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona.
On January 27, 1967, three NASA astronauts, Roger B. Chaffee (b. February 15, 1935), Virgil I. Grissom (b. April 3, 1926), and Edward H. White II (b. November 14, 1930) died when a flash fire swept through the Apollo 1 command module during a launch rehearsal test. The three men inside perished despite the best …
