CHRONOLOGY – OCTOBER 2009

3/23/06

60 Years Ago – 1949

Oct 1: Long Range Proving Ground at Cape Canaveral, Florida, activated.

55 Years Ago - 1954

Oct 5: Naval Research Laboratory Aerobee rocket took first photograph of complete hurricane located off Texas gulf, launched from

White Sands Proving Grounds, NM.

50 Years Ago - 1959

Oct 4: Luna 3 launched, 0224 UT, Baikonur, USSR -- first probe to circle the Moon with first pictures of the dark side of the Moon.

Oct 4: Little Joe 1, rest of integration of booster and Mercury Capsule, 6:00 p.m., EDT, Wallops Island, VA.

Oct 13: Explorer 7 launched, 11:31 a.m., EDT, ESMC.

45 Years Ago - 1964

Oct 4: Explorer 21 launched, 10:45 p.m., EDT, ESMC.

Oct 9: Explorer 22 launched, shortly after 11:00 p.m., PDT, WSMC.

Oct 12: Voshkod 1, cosmonauts Komorov, Feoktistov, and Yegorov aboard, 0726 UT, Baikonur, USSR. first-three man crew in space. First civilian in space (Konstantin P. Feoktistov)

40 Years Ago – 1969

Oct. 11-13: First simultaneous flight of three spacecraft: Soyuz 6, 7, and 8.

Oct 1: ESRO 1B launched, 6:20 p.m., EDT, WSMC.

Oct 11-30: SOYUZ 6 (1117 UT - 1lth); SOYUZ 7 (1048 UT - 12th); and Soyuz 8 (1034 UT - 13th) launched from Baikonur, USSR. Seven cosmonauts in orbit at the same time.

35 Years Ago – 1974

Oct 10: Westar 2 launched, 6:53 p.m., EDT, ESMC.

Oct 15: Ariel 5 launched, 3:47 a.m., EDT, San Marco Platform.

Oct 25: Fastest lifting body flight (Mach 1.76, 1164 mph), in X-24B, Michael V. Love pilot. Dryden Flight Research Facility, CA.

Oct 31: Intercosmos 12 launched, 1000 UT, Plesetsk, USSR.

30 Years Ago - 1979

Oct 30: Magsat launched, 9:15 a.m., EST, WSMC.

25 Years Ago – 1984

Oct 5: STS 41-G, Shuttle “Challenger” launched from KSC, 7:03 a.m., EDT, with astronauts Bob Crippen, Jon McBride, Kathryn Sullivan, Sally Ride, David Leestma, Paul Scully-Power, and Marc Garneau (Canadian) as crewpersons. Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) deployed less than nine hours into flight. Office of Space and Terrestrial Applications-3 (OSTA-3) carried three experiments in payload bay. Landed at KSC, Oct 13, 12:26 p.m., EDT.

Mission Duration: 8 days, 5 hours, 23 minutes.

Kathryn Sullivan becomes first U.S. woman to walk in space.

20 Years Ago – 1989

Oct 18: STS 34, Shuttle “Atlantis” launched, 12:53 p.m., EDT, from Kennedy Space Center, Pad 39B, landed at Edwards Air Force Base,

CA, Oct 23, 9:32 a.m., PDT. Crewpersons: Don Williams, Mike McCulley, Franklin Chang-Diaz, Shannon Lucid and Ellen Baker. Mission Duration: 4 days, 23 hours, 39 minutes.

Oct 18: Spaceprobe Galileo launched from STS 34. Rendezvous with Jupiter, July 13, 1995 releasing descent probe.

15 Years Ago – 1994

October: Nimbus 7 was retired after more than 15 years of operation.

Oct 12: Magellan Burnup in Venus' Atmosphere.