Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
			01 STS-94	02	03	04 Mars Pathfinder Henrietta Leavitt
05 (Week 27) Apollo AS-203 Earth - Aphelion Andrew Douglass	06 Principia Lysithea	07 Opportunity 5:21am» Full Moon 5:22am» Full Moon	08 STS-65	09	10 Giotto - Grigg-Skjellerup Telstar 1 Alvan G. Clark	11
12 (Week 28) STS-104 Phobos 2	13 Convair MX-774 STS-70 Langley	14	15 Regulus Missile 5:53am» Last Quarter Moon 5:54am» Half Moon (waning)	16 Apollo 11	17	18 Gemini 10
19 (Week 29) Cassini - Titan Explorer 35	20 Redstone Moon Landing	21 Mercury Redstone 4 Mars 4 10:34pm» New Moon 10:35pm» Total Solar Eclipse 10:35pm» New Moon	22 STS-93 Venera 8 Landsat 1	23	24 Bumper 8 Venus Express Geotail	25
26 (Week 30) Apollo 15	27	28 Skylab-3 6pm» First Quarter Moon 6pm» Half Moon (waxing)	29 STS-51-F Bumper 7 Mercury Atlas 1 S. Delta-Aquarids Meteors	30 Carme	31 STS-46

Description:

(1997) STS-94 Columbia Launch - Microgravity Science Laboratory-1 (MSL-1 reflight)

This is a reflight of STS-83. MSL was originally launched on April 4, 1997 at 2:20 p.m. EST and was intended to be on orbit for 15 days. The mission was cut short due to a problem with Fuel Cell #2 landed on 4/8/97 after 3 days 23 hours.

MSL featured 19 materials science investigations in 4 major facilities.

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(1997) Mars pathfinder mission lands on Mars.

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Henrietta Leavitt's 140th Birthday (1868)

American astronomer Leavitt began work in 1893 at Harvard College Observatory as one of the women "computers" brought in by Edward Pickering to measure and catalog the brightness of stars in the observatory's photographic plate collection.

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(1966) Apollo AS-203

2nd test flight of Saturn IB rocket. Test of SIV-B stage. Tracked 4 orbits.

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Earth will be at its' fartest point from the Sun for this orbit. 94.8 million miles (152.6 million KM) Averaged over the globe, sunlight falling on Earth at aphelion is about 7% less intense than it is at perihelion.

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Douglass, Andrew Ellicott (1867-1962)

In 1894, Douglass assistant to William Pickering, scouted several sites in Arizona for Percival Lowell's new observatory including the one that was chosen in Flagstaff. When Lowell fell ill in 1897, Douglass took over as acting director. When his experiments led him to question some of Lowell's assertions, he was dismissed and went on to found the Steward Observatory.

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(1687) Isaac Newton's book Principia published. It contains the statement of Newton's laws of motion forming the foundation of classical mechanics as well as his law of universal gravitation. Edmund Halley, of comet fame, covered the cost of the first publication.

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(1938) Seth Nicholson Discovers Jupiter Moon's Lysithea

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(2003) Mars Exploration Rover B (Opportunity) Launch

Time:

5:21am

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Full Moon

Time:

5:22am

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Full Moon

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(1994) STS-65 Columbia Launch - International Microgravity Laboratory-2 (IML-2)

IML-2 was the second in a series of Spacelab flights designed to conduct research in a microgravity environment. The IML concept enables a scientist to apply results from one mission to the next. Data from the IML missions contributed to the research base for the space station.

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(1992) Giotto Spaceprobe Comet Grigg-Skjellerup Flyby

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(1962) Telstar 1 Launch - First Active communications satellite.

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Alvan Graham Clark (July 10, 1832 – June 9, 1897)

An American astronomer and telescope-maker. He was the son of Alvan Clark. In 1862, while testing Northwestern University's new 18-inch refracting telescope, he discovered Sirius B, the magnitude 8 companion of Sirius and the first known white dwarf.

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(2001) STS-104 Atlantis Launch - ISS Assembly Flight 7A, Quest Airlock, High Pressure Gas Assembly

The primary purpose of the flight was to deliver and install the Quest airlock. The Joint Airlock consists of two cylindrical chambers attached end-to-end. Once activated, the ISS airlock became the primary path for ISS space walks.

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(1988) Phobos 2 Launch (Soviet Mars Orbiter)

Shortly before the final phase of the mission, during which the spacecraft was to approach within 50 m of Phobos' surface and release two landers, one a mobile 'hopper', the other a stationary platform, contact with Phobos 2 was lost.

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(1948) Convair MX-774 first launched

MX-774 was the United States' first attempt at an intercontinental ballistic missile. Experience gained from this missile led to development of the Atlas ICBM, which descendants still exist and operate today, delivering spacecraft and objects into Earth orbit.

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(1995) STS-70 Discovery Launch - Tracking Data and Relay Satellite-G (TDRS-G)

The primary mission was the deployment of the 7th TDRS by means of the two-stage Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) solid rocket.

The TDRS is a space-based network that provides communications, tracking, telemetry, and command services essential to the Shuttle and other low-Earth orbital spacecraft.

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(1917) NASA Langley Research Center was founded in 1917 - 41 years before NASA - as the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, the Nation's first civilian aeronautics lab.

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(1953) Regulus missile first launched from a submarine

Time:

5:53am

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Last Quarter Moon

Time:

5:54am

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Half Moon (waning)

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(1969) Apollo 11 launch - Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins

First mission to land humans on the Moon.

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(1966) Gemini 10 - Young, Collins

Gemini 10 achieved the objectives planned for the prior two missions — rendezvous, docking and EVA. It also docked with the Agena Target Vehicle from the Gemini 8 mission.

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(2007) Titan flyby (T34) -- the RSS bistatic observation (bouncing a signal off the surface and returning it to Earth) is just to the west of the Huygens landing site and is excellently placed with respect to the Brewster angle (the perfect angle for a bistatic experiment). The optical remote sensing instruments have the opportunity near closest approach for high resolution imaging of the surface. This is the last inbound (to Saturn) Titan flyby of the prime mission.

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov

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(1967) Explorer 35 Launch - Moon Orbiter

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(1953) First Redstone fired by Redstone Arsenal personnel at Cape Canaveral

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(1969) Apollo 11 - first human landing on moon

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(1961) Mercury Redstone 4 - Liberty Bell 7 - Gus Grissom - suborbital flight

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(1973) Mars 4 Launch (Soviet Mars Mission)

Due to a flaw in the computer chip which resulted in degradation of the chip during the voyage to Mars, the retro-rockets never fired to slow the craft into Mars orbit, and Mars 4 flew by the planet at a range of 2200 km. It returned one swath of pictures and some radio occultation data which constituted the first detection of the nightside ionosphere on Mars.

Time:

10:34pm

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New Moon

Time:

10:35pm

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Total Solar Eclipse

Time:

10:35pm

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New Moon

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(1999) STS-93 Columbia Launch -

The primary mission was the deployment of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory.

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(1972) Venera 8 - Russian probe landing on Venus.

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(1972) Landsat 1 Launch

Earth observation and resources management satellite.

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(1950) Bumper 8 flown from Cape Canaveral.
This program was used to test two stage rockets.

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(2007) ESA Venus Express Orbiter, End of Primary Mission.

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(1992) Geotail Launch - Japan
Geotail studied the structure and dynamics of the tail region of Earth's magnetosphere.

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(1971) Apollo 15 launch - Scott, Irwin, Worden

Apollo 15 was the ninth manned mission in the Apollo program and the fourth mission to land on the Moon. It was the first of what were termed J missions — long duration stays on the Moon with a greater focus on science than had been possible on previous missions.

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(1973) Skylab-3 Launch

Continued maintenance of the space station and extensive scientific and medical experiments. Completed 858 Earth orbits and 1,081 hours of solar and Earth experiments; three EVAs totalled 13 hours, 43 minutes.

Time:

6:00pm

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First Quarter Moon

Time:

6:00pm

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Half Moon (waxing)

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(1985) STS-51-F Challenger Launch - Spacelab-2

The main objective was to verify performance of Spacelab systems, determine the interface capability of the orbiter, and measure the environment created by the spacecraft.

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(1950) Bumper no. 7 launched from Cape Canaveral attains mach 9. This program was used to test two stage rockets.

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(1960) Mercury Atlas 1 unmanned test launch

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South Delta-Aquarids Meteor Shower Peak

Link - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Delta_Aquarids

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(1938) Seth Nicholson Discovers Jupiter's moon Carme.

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(1992) STS-46 Atlantis Launch - Tethered Satellite System-1 (TSS-1); European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA) deploy

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