This Week In Space History


      Thursday March 11th:
            1960 Pioneer-5 first deep space probe. 22 million miles from Earth.
            2008 Launch of STS-123, Endeavour to ISS with Japanes Logistics Module (JLP) and Canadian Dextre manipulator.
Gorie, Johnson, Linnehan, Behnken, Foreman, Doi, and Reisman (joining Expedition 16).
Eyharts (ESA) returned after 50 days.

      Friday March 12th:
            1974 USSR Mars-6 Arrives Mars orbit. Deploys lander. Telemetry fails on landing.

      Saturday March 13th:
            1781 Uranus discovered by William Herschel (in Bath, England).
            1969 Apollo-9 Splashdown after 10 days.
            1981 Soyuz-T-4 Launch. Kovalyonok, Savinykh. Dock w/ Salyut 6.
            1986 Soyuz-T-15 Launch. Kizim, Solovyev. First Mir expedition.
            1986 Giotto Flyby of Halley's Comet.
            1989 Launch of STS-29 - Coats, Blaha, Buchli, Springer, Bagian.

      Sunday March 14th:
            1995 Soyuz TM-21 Launch. Dezhurov, Strekalov, Thagard (American)

      Monday March 15th:
            2009 Launch of STS-119, Discovery to ISS with S6 truss and solar arrays.
Archambault, Antonelli, Acaba, Phillips, Swanson, Arnold and Wakata (Japan, ISS Expeditions 18 and 19).

      Tuesday March 16th:
            1926 First flight of a liquid-fueled rocket (Goddard).
            1966 Launch of Gemini 8 - Armstrong, Scott (100 x 169nm, 28.9 degrees, first docking in space).
Aborted due to thruster short circuit after 6.5 orbits.
            1966 Gemini-8 Splashdown 10 hrs. 41 mins.
            1969 Venera-5 Probe decends 22 miles into atmosphere. 53 minutes of data.
            1975 Mariner-10 3rd flyby Mercury (203 miles). Now in solar orbit.
            1978 Soyuz-27 Lands. Romanenko, Grechko. New endurance record of 96 days.

      Wednesday March 17th:
            1969 Venera-6 Probe decends 23.5 miles into atmosphere. 51 minutes of data.
            1992 Soyuz TM-14 Launch. Viktorenko, Kaleri, Flade (German). To MIR.




Space history data compiled by Jay Apt.   Thanks to the following good sources:
TRW Space Log, NASA Glenn Research Center Space Calendar,
Rick von Glahn's CompuServe SpaceForum archive,
Jonathan's Space Report, and astronautix.com


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