45 Years Ago - 1961

July 7: Discoverer 26 launched, 7:32 p.m., EDT, WSMC.

July 12: Tiros 3 launched, 6:25 a.m., EDT, ESMC.

July 12: Midas 3 launched, 8:12 a.m., PDT, WSMC.

July 21: Liberty Bell 7, "Gus" Grissom, second suborbital flight for the U.S., 8:20 a.m., EDT, ESMC. Space capsule sank in Atlantic after successful landing.

40 Years Ago - 1966

July 1: Explorer 33 launched, 12:02 p.m., EDT, ESMC.

July 5: Saturn rocket (SA-203) launched, orbital test, 9:53 a.m., EST, ESMC.

July 6: Proton 3 launched, 1258 UT, Baikonur, USSR.

July 12: First M2-F2 flight, pilot Milton Thompson, DFRF, CA.

July. 18: Gemini 10 launched, with crew composed of John Young and Michael Collins, from ESMC, 5:20 p.m., EST. First dual rendezvous (Gemini 10 with Agena 10, then Agena 8).

35 years Ago - 1971

July 8: Explorer 44 launched, 6:58 p.m., EDT, WFF, VA.

July 26: Apollo 15 -launched with crew of David Scott, Jim Irwin, and Al Worden, carried lunar rover as payload, also infamous postal covers. Took off from Kennedy Space Center, 9:34 a.m., EDT.

30 Years Ago - 1976

July 1: The National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, officially opens to the public.

July 8: Palapa 1 launched, 7:31 p.m. EDT, ESMC.

July 20: Viking 1 lands on Mars, becoming the first successful operational spacecraft to land there, 5:12 a.m.,PDT.

10 Years Ago – 1996

July 2: TOMS-EP (Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer-Earth Probe)spacecraft launched by a Pegasus XL rocket from an L-1011 airplane over southern California at 00:48 UT. Intended to complement ADEOS-TOMS.

5 Years Ago – 2001

July 12: STS-104 (Space Shuttle Atlantis) launched 5:04 a.m. EDT, KSC. Astronauts Steven Lindsey, Charles Hobaugh, Michael Gernhardt, James Reilly, and Janet Kavandi. International Space Station Flight 7A. Delivered the ISS Airlock, and docked with the ISS at 11:08 p.m. EDT on July 13. Landed July 24, 2001, 11:39 p.m. EDT, KSC. Mission duration: 12 days, 18 hours, 36 minutes.

Colin Fries, Author
Steven J. Dick, NASA Chief Historian
Steve Garber, NASA History Web Curator
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