Tuesday, September 04, 2012
Space Anniversaries September & November
Follow up to previous July/August list. Ones in bold are of particular interest in Britain
1st Sept - 1902 – A Trip to the Moon, considered one of the first science fiction films, is released in France.
2nd Sept - 1859 – A solar super storm affects electrical telegraph service. The Carrington Event previously described by this blog. We are more dependent on electricity nowadays & such an event could destroy much of the world's generating capacity.
3rd - 1976 – Viking program: The American Viking 2 spacecraft lands at Utopia Planitia on Mars.
5th - 1977 – Voyager program: Voyager 1 is launched after a brief delay. 1984 – STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery lands after its maiden voyage.
8th - 1966 – The first Star Trek series premieres on NBC. 12th - 1933 – Leó Szilárd, waiting for a red light on Southampton Row in Bloomsbury, conceives the idea of the nuclear chain reaction. 14th - 1959 – The Soviet probe Luna 2 crashes onto the Moon, becoming the first man-made object to reach it. 15th - 1968 – The Soviet Zond 5 spaceship is launched, becoming the first spacecraft to fly around the Moon and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere. 21st - 2001 – Deep Space 1 flies within 2,200 km of Comet Borrelly.
25th - 2008 – China launches the spacecraft Shenzhou 7.
1983 – Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov averts a likely worldwide nuclear war by correctly identifying a report of an incoming nuclear missile as a computer error and not an American first strike.
28th - 2008 – SpaceX launches the first ever private spacecraft, the Falcon 1 into orbit.
29rh - 2004 – The Burt Rutan Ansari X Prize entry SpaceShipOne performs a successful spaceflight, the first of two required to win the prize.
3rd October - 1952 – The United Kingdom successfully tests a nuclear weapon to become the world's third nuclear power.
4th - 1957 – Space Race: Launch of Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.
2004 – SpaceShipOne wins Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight, by being the first private craft to fly into space.
5th - 1930 – British Airship R101 crashes in France en-route to India on its maiden voyage.
7th -1959 – U.S.S.R. probe Luna 3 transmits the first ever photographs of the far side of the Moon.
9th - 1604 – Supernova 1604, the most recent supernova to be observed in the Milky Way.
10th - 1967 – The Outer Space Treaty, signed on January 27 by more than sixty nations, comes into force.
11th - 1968 – Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 7, the first successful manned Apollo mission, with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn F. Eisele and Walter Cunningham aboard.
14th - 1947 – Captain Chuck Yeager of the U.S. Air Force flies a Bell X-1 rocket-powered experimental aircraft the Glamorous Glennis, faster than the speed of sound - over the high desert of Southern California - and becomes the first pilot and the first airplane to do so in level flight
17th - 1956 – The first commercial nuclear power station is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in Sellafield,in Cumbria, England.
18th - 1967 – The Soviet probe Venera 4 reaches Venus and becomes the first spacecraft to measure the atmosphere of another planet.
22nd - 2008 – India launches its first unmanned lunar mission Chandrayaan-1.
24th - 1946 – A camera on board the V-2 No. 13 rocket takes the first photograph of earth from outer space
1957 – The USAF starts the X-20 Dyna-Soar program.
1960 – Nedelin catastrophe: An R-16 ballistic missile explodes on the launch pad at the Soviet Union's Baikonur Cosmodrome space facility, killing over 100. Among the dead is Field Marshal Mitrofan Nedelin, whose death is reported to have occurred in a plane crash
28th - 1971 – Britain launches the satellite Prospero into low Earth orbit atop a Black Arrow Previously on this blog. 29th - 1991 – The American Galileo spacecraft makes its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming the first probe to visit an asteroid.
31st - 2000 – Soyuz TM-31 launches, carrying the first resident crew to the International Space Station. The ISS has been continuously crewed since.
1st Sept - 1902 – A Trip to the Moon, considered one of the first science fiction films, is released in France.
2nd Sept - 1859 – A solar super storm affects electrical telegraph service. The Carrington Event previously described by this blog. We are more dependent on electricity nowadays & such an event could destroy much of the world's generating capacity.
3rd - 1976 – Viking program: The American Viking 2 spacecraft lands at Utopia Planitia on Mars.
5th - 1977 – Voyager program: Voyager 1 is launched after a brief delay. 1984 – STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery lands after its maiden voyage.
8th - 1966 – The first Star Trek series premieres on NBC. 12th - 1933 – Leó Szilárd, waiting for a red light on Southampton Row in Bloomsbury, conceives the idea of the nuclear chain reaction. 14th - 1959 – The Soviet probe Luna 2 crashes onto the Moon, becoming the first man-made object to reach it. 15th - 1968 – The Soviet Zond 5 spaceship is launched, becoming the first spacecraft to fly around the Moon and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere. 21st - 2001 – Deep Space 1 flies within 2,200 km of Comet Borrelly.
25th - 2008 – China launches the spacecraft Shenzhou 7.
1983 – Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov averts a likely worldwide nuclear war by correctly identifying a report of an incoming nuclear missile as a computer error and not an American first strike.
28th - 2008 – SpaceX launches the first ever private spacecraft, the Falcon 1 into orbit.
29rh - 2004 – The Burt Rutan Ansari X Prize entry SpaceShipOne performs a successful spaceflight, the first of two required to win the prize.
3rd October - 1952 – The United Kingdom successfully tests a nuclear weapon to become the world's third nuclear power.
4th - 1957 – Space Race: Launch of Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.
2004 – SpaceShipOne wins Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight, by being the first private craft to fly into space.
5th - 1930 – British Airship R101 crashes in France en-route to India on its maiden voyage.
7th -1959 – U.S.S.R. probe Luna 3 transmits the first ever photographs of the far side of the Moon.
9th - 1604 – Supernova 1604, the most recent supernova to be observed in the Milky Way.
10th - 1967 – The Outer Space Treaty, signed on January 27 by more than sixty nations, comes into force.
11th - 1968 – Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 7, the first successful manned Apollo mission, with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn F. Eisele and Walter Cunningham aboard.
14th - 1947 – Captain Chuck Yeager of the U.S. Air Force flies a Bell X-1 rocket-powered experimental aircraft the Glamorous Glennis, faster than the speed of sound - over the high desert of Southern California - and becomes the first pilot and the first airplane to do so in level flight
17th - 1956 – The first commercial nuclear power station is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in Sellafield,in Cumbria, England.
18th - 1967 – The Soviet probe Venera 4 reaches Venus and becomes the first spacecraft to measure the atmosphere of another planet.
22nd - 2008 – India launches its first unmanned lunar mission Chandrayaan-1.
24th - 1946 – A camera on board the V-2 No. 13 rocket takes the first photograph of earth from outer space
1957 – The USAF starts the X-20 Dyna-Soar program.
1960 – Nedelin catastrophe: An R-16 ballistic missile explodes on the launch pad at the Soviet Union's Baikonur Cosmodrome space facility, killing over 100. Among the dead is Field Marshal Mitrofan Nedelin, whose death is reported to have occurred in a plane crash
28th - 1971 – Britain launches the satellite Prospero into low Earth orbit atop a Black Arrow Previously on this blog. 29th - 1991 – The American Galileo spacecraft makes its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming the first probe to visit an asteroid.
31st - 2000 – Soyuz TM-31 launches, carrying the first resident crew to the International Space Station. The ISS has been continuously crewed since.
Labels: History, Science/technology, space
