🚀 go-pugleaf

THIS MONTH IN SPACE HISTORY - JULY

Compiled by Ron Baalke (baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov)

Home Page version: http://newproducts.jpl.nasa.gov/calendar/


July 1
     In 1770, Comet Lexell passed a mere 2.3 million km (0.0151 AU) from the
     Earth. This was the closest ever Earth approach of a comet in recorded
     history.

July 1
     In 1847, the 6th asteroid, Hebe, was discovered.

July 1
     In 1965, Tiros 1, the first US Weather Bureau-funded satellite, was
     launched into orbit to obtain maximum coverage of the 1965 hurricane
     and typhoon season.

July 1
     In 1976, the Smithsonian's National Air & Space Museum in Washington DC
     is opened.

July 1
     In 1991, the Galileo spacecraft entered the asteroid belt. It would
     make the first flyby of an asteroid, Gaspra, in October 1991.

July 2
     In 1985, the European Space Agency launched Giotto to encounter Comet
     Halley in 1986.

July 2
     In 1990, the Giotto spacecraft made an Earth flyby for a gravity assist
     for an encounter with Comet Grigg-Skjellerup in 1992.

July 3
     In 1992, SAMPEX was launched. Carrying four cosmic ray monitoring
     instruments, SAMPEX studied the solar energetic particles, anomoulas
     cosmic rays, galactic cosmic rays and magnetospheric electrons.

July 4
     In the year 1054, the brightest known supernova, the Crab Nebula,
     starts shining for 23 days and is observed by Chinese and Japanese
     astronomers. T

July 4
     In 1819, William Herschel made his last telescopic observation, of a
     comet. Herschel was the discoverer of Uranus in 1781.

July 6
     In 1687, Edmond Halley published Isaac Newton's "Principia
     Mathematica".

July 6
     Lysithea, the 10th Moon of Jupiter, was discovered in 1938 by S.
     Nicholson.

July 7
     The USSR launched Phobos 1 in 1988 towards Mars. A wrong command was
     sent to the spacecraft on August 29 causing the spacecraft to fail.
     Phobos 1 is now orbiting the Sun.

July 7
     In 1914, Robert Goddard received a patent for a two-stage rocket.

July 8
     Radio astronomy was born in 1933 when Karl Jansky determined that the
     Milky Way is a source of radio noise.

July 9
     In 1979, Voyager 2 flew past Jupiter and collected data on the Jovian
     system and its moon. Voyager 2 used the Jupiter flyby as a slingshot to
     Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

July 10
     In 1990, Japan's Hiten spacecraft made its 2nd flyby of the Moon.

July 10
     In 1992, the Giotto spacecraft made a successful flyby of Comet
     Grigg-Skjellerup.

July 10
     In 1962, the US launched Telstar 1, the first active real-time
     communications satellite.

July 11
     Skylab burned up in Earth's atmosphere in 1979 and pieces of the space
     station landed in western Australia.

July 12
     In 1977, the High Engery Astronomical Observatory (HEAO-1) was
     launched.

July 12
     In 1988, the USSR launched Phobos 2 to Mars. The spacecraft went into
     Mars orbit on January 29, 1989 and transmitted back some data and
     photos of Mars and its moon Phobos. However, contact was lost with the
     spacecraft on March 27, 1989 before it could fullfill its primary
     mission.

July 12
     In 1995, the Galileo probe separated from the Galileo orbiter in
     preparation for arrival at Jupiter. Both spacecraft would encounter
     Jupiter in December 1995.

July 13
     In 1917, Langley Research Center was founded in Hampton, Virginia.

July 13
     In 1969, the USSR launched Luna 15 just two days before Apollo 11. Luna
     15 was to land on the Moon and return soil samples to Earth before
     Apollo 11 returned, but instead crashed on the Moon in the Sea of
     Crises on July 21 after a 4 minute descent.

July 13
     In 1972, the largest lunar quake was recorded.

July 14
     In 1965, Mariner 4 made the first ever Mars flyby. It returned the
     first close-up images of that planet and confirmed the existence of
     surface craters.

July 14
     In 1967, Surveyor 4 was launched to the Moon. Contact was lost 2.5
     minutes before landing, and the spacecraft impacted in Sinus Medii.

July 16-22
     In 1994, 21 fragments from Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacted on Jupiter
     in a spectacular fashion.

July 16
     Giuseppe Piazzi was born in 1746. Piazzi would discover the first
     asteroid, Ceres, in 1801.

July 16
     The USSR launched the first Proton rocket in 1965. This heavy lift
     rocket launches 50,000 pounds to orbit and is still in use today.

July 16
     In 1969, Apollo 11 is launched to the Moon on a Saturn V rocket.
     Carrying, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, this would
     be the first manned landing on the Moon.

July 16
     In 1990, Pakistan's first satellite, Badr-A, was launched on the maiden
     flight of China's Long March 2E rocket.

July 17
     In 1975, the USSR's Soyuz 19 linked with US's Apollo 18 for the first
     ever joint manned flight effort between the two countries. Known as
     Apollo-Soyuz, the two crews shared meals, conducted experiments
     together and held a joint news conference from space.

July 17
     The first photograph of a star was taken by Harvard Observatory of Vega
     in 1850.

July 18
     In 1965, Zond 3 was launched by the USSR for a Moon flyby. It returned
     25 images of the far side of the Moon.

July 18
     In 1966, Gemini 10 was launched on a Titan rocket into Earth orbit.
     John Young and Michael Collins were the astronauts on this mission, and
     they performed the first docked vehicle maneuvers.

July 18
     In 1980, India becomes the 7th nation to launch a satellite into Earth
     orbit with the launch of Rohini 1.

July 18
     During an EVA outside Salyut 7 in 1984, Svetlana Savitskaya beccomes
     the first woman to walk in space.

July 19
     In 1967, Explorer 35 was launched to the Moon, going into lunar orbit 3
     days later. Explorer 35's mission was to study the solar wind and
     interplanetary fields at lunar distances. Results indicated no shock
     front precedes the Moon, and no evidence of a lunar magnetic field,
     radiation belts or ionosphere.

July 20
     In 1964, SERT 1 was launched in a suborbital flight to test an ion
     engine performance in space. The flight confirmed that high prevalence
     ion beams could be neutralized in space.

July 20
     In 1969, Apollo 11 lands on the Moon. Neil Armstrong becomes the first
     man on the Moon. Buzz Aldrin becomes the second man. They spend 21.5
     hours on the lunar surface, including 2.5 hours outside their lunar
     excursion module (LEM).

July 20
     In 1976, Viking 1 becomes the first spacecraft to successfully land on
     Mars. Landing in the Plain of Chryse, Viking 1 returned the first
     images from the surface of the red planet showing an orange-red plain
     strewn with rocks and sand dunes.

July 21
     Sinope, Jupiter's 9th moon, was discovered in 1914 by S. Nicholson.

July 21
     In 1961, Mercury 4 was launched carrying Gus Grissom on the second
     manned suborbital flight by the US. Grissom had to be rescued from the
     ocean when the capsule sank after splashdown.

July 21
     The USSR launched Mars 4 in 1973. Originally intended to be a Mars
     orbiter, the spacecraft flew by Mars on February 10, 1974 when its main
     engine failed to fire. Though failing to go into orbit, the spacecraft
     did return some images of Mars and some radio occultation data.

July 22
     Astronomer Friedrich Bessel was born in 1784.

July 22
     In 1962, Mariner 1 was launched in the first Venus mission attempt by
     the United States. A launch vehicle problem caused the spacecraft to
     veer off course, and forced the Range Safety Officer to destroy the
     spacecraft 293 seconds into the launch.

July 22
     In 1972, Venera 8 arrived at Venus. The descent module parachuted to
     the surface and returned data on temperature, pressure, light levels
     and descent rates. Venera 8 lasted 50 minutes on the surface of Venus.

July 22
     In 1972, the first Earth resources technology satellite, Landsat 1, was
     launched.

July 23
     In 1980, the USSR launched Soyuz 37 carrying cosmonauts Viktor Gorbatko
     and Pham Tuan. Tuan was from Vietnam and become the first third-world
     cosmonaut.

July 23
     In 1984, a possible ring (later confirmed) was discovered around
     Neptune.

July 24
     In 1950, a captured German V-2 rocket became the first rocket to be
     launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

July 24
     In 1992, Geotail was launched to study the strucure and dynamics of the
     tail region of the Earth's magnetosphere.

July 25
     In 1973, the USSR launched Mars 5 in 1973. The spacecraft went into
     Mars orbit on February 12, 1974, and was one of the few successful Mars
     missions by the USSR. Mars 5 returned images of a small portion of the
     southern hemisphere of Mars.

July 25
     In 1990, the Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite (CRRES)
     was launched. A joint NASA/DOD program, CRRES released chemicals in
     Earth orbit to study the Earth's magnetic fields and the plasmas that
     travel through them.

July 26
     In 1659, Christaan Huygens published his book, Systema Saturnium, in
     which he explained why Saturn's rings appear to disappear every 14 to
     15 years.

July 26
     In 1958, Explorer 4 was launched into Earth orbit.

July 26
     In 1971, Apollo 15 was launched, the fourth manned Moon landing.
     Astronauts David Scott, Alfred Worden and James Irvin arrived in lunar
     orbit on July 30. 170 pounds of rocks were collected and a lunar rover
     was driven across the Moon's surface for the first time.

July 26
     In 1963, Syncom 2 was launched, the first operational geosynchronous
     satellite.

July 26
     In 1995, new moons around Saturn discovered by the Hubble Space
     Telescope was announced.

July 28
     The first photograph of a total eclipse was taken in 1851 in
     Konigsbert, East Prussia.

July 28
     In 1964, Ranger 7 was launched to the Moon. Impacting on the Moon three
     days later, Ranger 7 returned 4,316 images of the Moon including the
     first close-up images of the Moon's surface.

July 28
     Astronauts Alan Bean, Jack Lousma and Owen Garriot make the second
     visit to Skylab in 1973.

July 28
     In 1992, ALEXIS was launched.

July 29
     NASA was created when President Eisenhower signed into law the NASA Act
     of 1958.

July 29
     In 1960, a Mercury capsule (MA-1) was launched in a suborbital test.
     The Atlas launch vehicle blew up 65 seconds after launch.

July 29
     In 1993, the first test flight of the Delta-Clipper X was successfully
     performed.

July 30
     In 1610, Galileo observes Saturn's rings for the first time through a
     telescope. The true nature of Saturn's rings was not known then, and
     Galileo described his observations as a possible triple planet.

July 30
     Carme, Jupiter's 11th moon, was discovered in 1938 by S. Nicholson.

July 30
     In 1965, Pegasus 3 was launched. Pegasus 3 determined that the flux of
     large particles in space was less than expected.

July 31
     In 1969, Mariner 6 flew by Mars and provied high-resolution images of
     the Martian surface, concentrating on the equatorial region of the red
     planet.

July 31
     During the Apollo 15 mission in 1971, David Scott becomes the first
     person to drive a rover on the Moon.

July 31
     In 1995, the Ulysses reached its maximum northern latitude (80.22
     degrees) above the Sun.


     ___    _____     ___   
    /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|      Ron Baalke     | baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov
    | | | |  __ \ /| | | |  Jet Propulsion Lab | 
 ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |__   Pasadena, CA    | There are things that are known
/___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /|                 | and things that are unknown;
|_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/                  | in between is exploration.