100 YEARS AGO – 1906

Dec. 30: Sergey Korolov born, Zhitomir, USSR.

60 YEARS AGO -- 1946

Dec. 17: First night firing in the U.S. of a V-2. Missile No. 17 launched from the White Sands Missile Range, NM.

40 YEARS AGO – 1966

Dec. 7: ATS 1 launched, 9:12 p.m., EST, ESMC

Dec. 14: Biosatellite 1 launched, 2:20 p.m., EST, ESMC.

Dec. 22: First HL-10 glide flight, Bruce Peterson pilot, DFRF, CA.

35 YEARS AGO – 1971

Dec. 2: Mars 3 lands on Mars,launched May 28, 1971. First unmanned landing on Mars.

Dec. 19: Intelsat IV F-3 launched, 8:l0 p.m., EST, ESMC.

25 YEARS AGO – 1981

Dec. 15: Intelsat V F-3 launched, 6:35 p.m., EST, ESMC.

20 YEARS AGO -- 1986

Dec. 4: Fleetsatcom 7 launched, 9:30 p.m.. EST, ESMC.

10 YEARS AGO – 1996

Dec. 4: Mars Pathfinder launched aboard a Delta II 7925 launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral Air Station. Landed on Mars on July 4, 1997.

Dec. 24: Bion 11 launched from Plesetsk cosmodrome by a Soyuz-U rocket at 13:50 UT. It carried a capsule housing two monkeys and several newts, snails, beetles, fruit flies, and small plants to study their responses and behaviors under microgravity.

5 YEARS AGO – 2001

Dec. 5: STS-108 (Space Shuttle Endeavour) launched 5:19 p.m. EST, KSC. Astronauts: Dominic L. Gorie, Mark E. Kelly, Linda M. Godwin, and Daniel M. Tani. 12th Space Shuttle flight to the International Space Station (ISS). Carried an Italian cargo module that was attached to the Unity module of the ISS. Landed 12:56 p.m., EST, KSC.  Mission duration: 11 days, 19 hours, 36 minutes.

Dec. 7: TIMED (Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics) ionospheric research satellite launched by a Delta 2 rocket from Vandenberg AFB at 15:07 UT.

Dec. 7: Jason 1, an American-French (NASA-CNES) oceanographic satellite was launched by a Delta 2 rocket from Vandenberg AFB 15:07 UT to supplement and extend the TOPEX/Poseidon mission results by monitoring the sea surface level and wave heights.

Dec. 16: STARSHINE 2, a US high school educational microsatellite was deployed from STS-108. It was built with the participation of 25,000 students in 26 countries and very similar to the STARSHINE 3 that was launched in September 2001.

Colin Fries, Author
Steven J. Dick, NASA Chief Historian
Steve Garber, NASA History Web Curator
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For further information email histinfo@hq.nasa.gov