CHRONOLOGY – AUGUST 2007

3/21/06

 

                    45 Years Ago - 1962

Aug. 11-12: Vostok 3 and Vostok 4 (Nikolayev and Popovich) launched, 0824 UT and 0755 UT, Baikonur. First simultaneous flight of two spacecraft.

Aug. 27: Mariner 2 launched, ESMC, 2:53 a.m., EDT. First successful planetary flyby - Passed Venus December 14, 1962. Spacecraft subsequently entered solar orbit.

Aug. 31: Communications Satellite Act signed by President Kennedy,

Washington, DC

 

                      40 Years Ago - 1967

Aug.1: Lunar Orbiter 5 launched. ESMC, 6:33 p.m., EDT.

 

                   35 Years Ago - 1972

Jul. 22: Venera 8 Venus Landing.

Jul. 23: Landsat 1 launched. ESMC, 2:06 p.m., EDT.

Aug. 21: Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (OAO) - 3 named Copernicus, launched ESMC, 6:28 a.m., EDT.

 

                   30 Years Ago - 1977

Aug. 12: HEAO I launched, ESMC, 2:39 a.m., EDT.

Aug. 20: Voyager 2 launched, ESMC, 10:29 a.m., EDT.

 

                    15 Years Ago - 1992

Aug. 2: European Retrievable Carrier (Eureka) launched from Shuttle Atlantis for long duration space stay and ultimate retrieval by

another shuttle flight.

Aug. 10: Topex/Poseidon launched from Kourou, French Guiana

aboard Ariane 42P launch vehicle, 8:08 p.m., local time. Satellite to measure ocean dynamics.

 

                    10 Years Ago - 1997

Aug. 7: STS-85 (Space Shuttle Discovery) launched 10:41 a.m. EDT, KSC. Astronauts: Curtis L. Brown, Jr., Kent V. Rominger, N. Jan Davis, Robert L. Curbeam, Jr., Stephen K. Robinson, and Bjarni Tryggvason (CSA). Deployment of the Cryogenic Infrared Spectrometers and Telescopes for the Atmosphere-Shuttle Pallet Satellite-2 (CRISTA-SPAS-2). Landed August 19, 1997, 7:07 a.m. EDT, KSC. Mission Duration: 11 days,  20 hours, 28 minutes.

Aug. 22: Lewis spacecraft was launched successfully at 11:51 p.m. PDT from Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA, aboard a Lockheed Martin Launch Vehicle (LMLV-1). It entered a flat spin in orbit that resulted in a loss of solar power and a fatal battery discharge.  Contact with the spacecraft was lost on Aug. 26, and it then re-entered the atmosphere and was destroyed on Sept. 28.

Aug 25:  Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) launched carrying six high resolution spectrometers  to measure the composition of energetic particles from the Sun, the heliosphere, and the Galaxy.