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55 Years Ago -- 1951
May 14: The Air Force Missile Test Center established at Cape Canaveral, FL.
45 Years Ago – 1961
May 5: Freedom 7, astronaut Alan Shepard Jr., first U.S. suborbital flight, 9:34 a.m., EST. Eastern Space Missile Center. FL, launched atop a Redstone IRBM.
May 25: President John F. Kennedy sets Apollo lunar landing and return goal within the decade, Washington, D.C.
40 Years Ago -- 1966
May 15: Nimbus 2 launched, 3:55 a.m., EDT, Western Space Missile Center, CA.
May 17: Gemini 9 launch postponed, ESMC.
May 25: Explorer 32 launched. upper atmospheric experiments, 9:00 EST, ESMC.
35 Years Ago -- 1971
May 19: Mariner 2 launched,. 1616 UT. Baikonur, USSR, first Mars impact.
May 30: Mars 3 launched, 1522 UT, Baikonur, USSR, first Mars soft landing.
May 30: Mariner 9 launched. First spacecraft to orbit Mars, lifted off at 6:23 p.m., EDT, ESMC.
30 Years Ago -- 1976
May 4: Lageos launched. 7:00 a.m., PDT, ESMC.
May 13: Comstar 1A launched, 6:28 p,m., EDT. ESMC.
25 Years Ago -- 1981
May 22: GOES 5 launched, 6:29 p.m., EDT, ESMC.
May 23: Intelsat V F-1 launched, 6:42 p.m., EDT, ESMC.
15 Years Ago -- 1991
May 14: NOAA 12 launched 11:52 a.m., EDT, WSMC.
May 18: Soyuz TM-12 was launched on May 18, 1991, by the U.S.S.R and docked with the MIR space station. On board were two Soviet and one British astronaut, Helen Sharman, who was the first UK citizen to fly in space.
10 Years Ago – 1996
May 19: STS 77 (Space Shuttle Endeavour) launched at 6:30 a.m. EDT, KSC. Astronauts: Curtis L. Brown Jr.,Daniel W. Bursch, Mario Runco, Jr., Marc Garneau, and Andrew S. W. Thomas. Released an inflatable antenna, IAE, a platform called Spartan 20, and an experimental 35 kg. minispacecraft, PAMS-STU. Landed May 29, 1996 at 7:09 a.m., EDT, KSC. Mission Duration: 10 days and 40 minutes.
5 Years Ago – 2001
May 8: XM 1, also known as Roll, is an American geosynchronous relay satellite designed to provide one hundred channels of digital music and entertainment to motorists in North America. It was launched by a Zenit rocket from a floating platform, Odyssey on the equatorial Pacific ocean at 10:10 UT on 8 May 2001. (XM 2, also known as Rock, was launched in March 2001.)
May 25: Galileo, Callisto 30 Flyby.
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
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