CHRONOLOGY – MARCH 2008

3/21/06

50 Years Ago - 1958

Mar. 5: Explorer 2 launched, 1:28 p.m., EST, ESMC.

Mar. 17: Vanguard 1 launched, 7:15 a.m., EST, ESMC.

Mar. 23: First underwater launch of Polaris, San Clemente, CA.

Mar. 26: Explorer 3 launched, 12:39 p.m., EST, ESMC.

45 Years Ago - 1963

Mar. 21: USSR lost contact with Mars 1 at 66 million miles from earth.

Mar. 28: Saturn/Apollo 4 launched, 3:12 p.m., EST, ESMC.

40 Years Ago - 1968

Mar. 2: Zond 4 launched, 1829 GMT, Baikonur, USSR.

Mar. 4: OGO 5 launched, 8:O6 a.m., EST, ESMC.

Mar. 5: Explorer 37 launched, 1:29 p.m.. EST, WFF.

Mar. 27: Yuri Gagarin died in MIG-15 crash northwest of Moscow.

30 Years Ago – 1978

Mar.2: Soyuz 28 launched with first non-Soviet, non-U.S. space explorer aboard: Vladimir Remek,(Czechoslovakia)

Mar. 5: Landsat 3 launched, 12:54 p.m., EST, WSMC. Oscar 8 piggy-back payload.

Mar. 31: Intelsat IV A F-6 launched, 6:36 p.m., EST, ESMC.

25 Years Ago – 1983

Mar. 28: NOAA 8 launched, 7:52 a.m., PST, WSMC.

20 Years Ago – 1988

Mar. 25: San Marco D/L launched 10:50 p.m., local time, San Marco Range. Reentered over central Africa, Dec. 6, 1988.

15 Years Ago – 1993

Mar. 29: SEDS-1 launched on a Delta II GPS-1 mission. It was the first successful 20 km space tether experiment.