CHRONOLOGY – SEPTEMBER 2008
3/21/06
50 Years Ago - 1958
Sep 17: NASA-ARPA Manned Satellite Panel established.
Sep 30: Last day of NACA,
45 Years Ago -
1963
Sep 18: Asset 1 flight (shuttle precursor), to altitude of 35
miles, ESMC.
Sep 28: Transit V-B launched, first all-nuclear spacecraft, USN,
WSMC.
40 Years Ago -
1968
Sep 5: Zond 5 (Soviet Circumlunar
Flight) launched from
35 Years Ago –
1973
Sep 25: Skylab with astronauts Bean, Garriott,
and Lousma, splashdown in
6:20 p.m., EDT.
Sep 26: Concorde 02 flew from
and 33 minutes.
25 Years Ago -
1983
Sep 8: RCA-Satcom 7 launched, 6:52 p.m.,
EDT, ESMC.
Sep 22: Galaxy 2 launched, 6:16 p.m., EDT, ESMC.
20 Years Ago -
1988
Sep 24: NOAA 11 launched, on Atlas E, 3:02 a.m., PDT, WSMC.
Sep 29: STS 26 launched, 11:37 a.m., EDT, KSC. Astronauts
Fred Hauck, Dick Covey, John Lounge, David Hilmers,
and George Nelson. Return to flight after Challenger loss. TDRS 3
deployed successfully from cargo bay of
orbiter Discovery. Landing October 3, 1988, 9:37 a.m. PDT, Runway 17, Edwards
Air Force Base, Calif. Mission Duration: Four days,
one hour, zero minutes, 11 seconds.
15 Years Ago –
1993
Sep 12: STS 51 launched, 7:45 a.m., EDT, KSC. Astronauts Frank L.
Culbertson, Jr., William F. Readdy, James H. Newman,
Daniel W. Bursch, and Carl E. Walz.
Deployment of two payloads: Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS)
and Orbiting and Retrievable Far and Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrograph-Shuttle
Pallet Satellite (OERFEUS- SPAS), first in series of ASTRO-SPAS astronomical
missions. Landing September 22 at 3:56 a.m., EDT.,
KSC.
Sep 27: SMART
1 (Small Missions for Advanced Research in
Technology 1), an ESA lunar mission to test solar electric propulsion technology
and to ascertain the surface minerals on the Moon was launched by an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou at
23:14 UT.