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Space History for June 10
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760
Halley's Comet passed perihelion in its fourteenth known passage, as determined from records by Chinese astronomers.
In 2000 years of observations since 240 BCE, Chinese records have never missed a return of Halley's Comet. From those records, Cowell and Crommelin computed the dates of perihelion passage as:
1. 15 May 240 BCE
2. 20 May 163 BCE
3. 15 August 87 BCE
4. 8 October 12 BCE
5. 26 January 66 CE
6. 25 March 141 CE
7. 6 April 218 CE
8. 7 April 295 CE
9. 13 February 374 CE
10. 3 July 451 CE
11. 15 November 530 CE
12. 26 March 607 CE
13. 26 November 684 CE
14. 10 June 760 CE
15. 25 February 837 CE
16. 17 July 912 CE
17. 2 September 989 CE
18. 25 March 1066 CE
19. 19 April 1145 CE
20. 10 September 1222 CE
21. 22.7 October 1301 CE
22. 8.8 November 1378 CE
23. 8.2 January 1456 CE
24. 25.8 August 1531 CE
25. 26.9 October 1607 CE
26. 14.8 September 1682 CE
27. 12.6 March 1758 CE
28. 15.9 November 1835 CE
29. 19.7 April 1910 CE
30. 9 February 1986 CE
Note that the precision of the dates from passage 21 onward could be computed with increased accuracy because of additional observations. However, at the time of their computation, the 1986 passage was still a future event. (The actual date was found from other sources.)
On 19 April 607, Comet 1P/607 H1 (Halley) approached within 0.0898 AU (13.5 million km, 8.4 million miles) of Earth. On 374-April-1.9, it had approached closer, having come within 0.0884 AU (13.2 million km, 8.2 million miles), and on 837-April-10.5, it became the third closest approach in history prior to 1900, passing within 0.0334 AU (5 million km, 3.1 million miles).
On 16 October 1982, astronomers David Jewitt and G. Edward Danielson using a CCD camera with the 5.1 m Hale telescope at Mt. Palomar Observatory were the first to detect Halley's Comet on its thirtieth recorded return.
See also The past orbit of Halley's Comet (SAO/NASA ADS)
See also Comet Close Approaches prior to 1900 (CNEOS)
See also History of Halley's Comet (Wikipedia)
See also Halley's Comet (CQ Press)
See also Comet 1P/Halley (Halley's Comet) (Smithsonian NASM)
https://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1934PA.....42..191T
1706
Born (O.S. date, 21 June N.S.), John Dollond, received the first patent for an achromatic lens
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dollond
1808
Born, Frederik (or Friedrich) Kaiser, Dutch astronomer (Mars' rotational period, director of the Leiden Observatory from 1838 until his death in 1872)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederik_Kaiser
1836
Died, Andre-Marie Ampere, French physicist generally credited as one of the main discoverers of electromagnetism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9-Marie_Amp%C3%A8re
1854
Georg F. B. Reimann proposed that space is curved in a lecture required to land a faculty position at Gottingen, Germany.
https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/201306/physicshistory.cfm
1909
Born, Ludwig Roth, German engineer, rocket technical designer during World War II, member of the German Rocket Team in the United States after the war
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Roth
1929
Born, James Alton "Jim" McDivitt (at Chicago, Illinois, USA), Brig. General USAF, astronaut (Gemini 4, Apollo 9; nearly 14d 3h total time in spaceflight)
Astronaut Jim McDivitt, NASA photo (1971)
Source: Wikipedia (www.jsc.nasa.gov unavailable June 2019)
https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/mcdivitt_james.pdf
1961
Preparing for NOVA rocket motor tests, the US National Bureau of Standards broke ground for a new research facility at Gaithersburg, Maryland, planned to include a megapound deadweight tester to provide measuring standards for multimillion pound thrusts.
https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/Timeline/1961-2.html
1965
A. R. Klemola discovered asteroid #2370 van Altena.
1969
The US Department of Defense announced cancellation of the planned Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) program from Space Launch Complex 6 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, resulting in ten thousand aerospace workers being laid off.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_Orbiting_Laboratory#Cancellation
1971
Died, Aleksei Mikhailovich Isayev, Russian engineer (rocket engines)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksei_Isaev_%28engineer%29
1973 14:13:00 GMT
NASA launched the Explorer 49 (RAE-B) Moon orbiting radio astronomy satellite.
The Radio Astronomy Explorer B (RAE-B) mission was the second of a pair of RAE satellites. It was placed into Lunar orbit to provide radio astronomical measurements of the planets, the Sun, and the galaxy over the frequency range of 25 kHz to 13.1 MHz. The experiment complement consisted of two Ryle-Vonberg radiometers (nine channels each), three swept-frequency burst receivers (32 channels each), and an impedance probe for calibration. The experiment antennas consisted of travelling wave antennas forming an X configuration: a 229 meter upper V-antenna pointed away from the Moon; a 229 meter lower V-antenna pointed toward the Moon; and a 37 meter dipole antenna parallel to the Lunar surface. There was also a 129 meter boron libration damper boom system used to damp out any spacecraft oscillations about the equilibrium position. The spacecraft body had a mass of 328 kg at launch and 200 kg in Lunar orbit, a truncated cylinder 92 cm in diameter and approximately 79 cm high, with four fixed solar paddles. The maneuvering system consisted of a hydrazine velocity correction package, a cold gas attitude control system, and a solid fuel Lunar insertion motor. Data were returned to Earth via either a low power UHF (400 MHz) transmitter in real time, or stored in an onboard tape recorder and transmitted via a high power UHF transmitter (also 400 MHz). Two tape recorders provided backup storage. A VHF transmitter served primarily for range and range-rate measurements and as a backup. Commands were received on a VHF (148 MHz) receiver, which also was a part of the range and range-rate system. Spacecraft attitude was determined by (1) a solar aspect system, (2) a horizon sensor system, and (3) a panoramic attitude sensor system, and was accurate to 1 degree. The spacecraft was gravity gradient oriented (Z axis parallel to local vertical).
RAE-B was launched 10 June 1973, placed into Lunar orbit on 15 June after a 20 second firing of the orbit insertion motor, and began operations on 20 June. Initially only the 37 meter dipole antenna was deployed, during which the spacecraft was operated in a 4 rpm spin stabilized mode with the spin axis in the ecliptic plane normal to the spacecraft-Sun line. After three weeks the dipole booms were retracted, the spacecraft reoriented, the long-V antennas and libration damper were extended, and the dipole was redeployed. The lower V-antenna was initially extended to 183 meters during the first 16 months of flight, and was extended to its full 229 meters length in November 1974. The Lunar orbit and position of the Earth as a radio source imposed periodicities on the observations of 29.5 days (the Lunar synodic month) and 24.8 hours (the interval between consecutive sweeps of a given Earth geographic position past the Moon.
NASA ilustration of RAE-B orbiting the Moon
Source: NSSDCA Master Catalog
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1973-039A
1976 00:09:00 GMT
Comsat launched the Marisat 2 maritime communications satellite from Cape Canaveral, positioned in geosynchronous orbit over the Pacific at 176 deg E in 1976-1991, at 178 deg W in 1991-1996.
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1976-053A
1977
The Apple II went on sale, the first practical personal computer. Its popularity demonstrated the microcomputer market had a broad base, leading to the ubiquity of computers in daily life.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_II
1981 12:38:00 GMT
USSR's Soyuz T-4 landed, returning from Salyut 6 with cosmonauts Vladimir Kovalyonok and Viktor Savinykh on board .
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1981-023A
1982
Maneuvers were started to take NASA's ISEE 3/ICE probe out of its halo orbit about the Sun-Earth L1 point and into a comet-passing heliocentric orbit.
The Explorer-class heliocentric spacecraft, International Sun-Earth Explorer 3, was part of the mother/daughter/heliocentric mission (ISEE 1, 2, and 3). The purposes of the mission were: (1) to investigate solar-terrestrial relationships at the outermost boundaries of the Earth's magnetosphere; (2) to examine in detail the structure of the solar wind near the Earth and the shock wave that forms the interface between the solar wind and Earth's magnetosphere; (3) to investigate motions of and mechanisms operating in the plasma sheets; and, (4) to continue the investigation of cosmic rays and solar flare emissions in the interplanetary region near 1 AU.
The three spacecraft carried a number of complementary instruments for making measurements of plasmas, energetic particles, waves, and fields. The mission thus extended the investigations of previous IMP spacecraft. The launch of three coordinated spacecraft in this mission permitted the separation of spatial and temporal effects. ISEE 3, launched 12 August 1978, had a spin axis normal to the ecliptic plane and a spin rate of about 20 rpm. It was initially placed into an elliptical halo orbit about the Lagrangian libration point (L1) 235 Earth radii on the sunward side of the Earth, where it continuously monitored changes in the near-Earth interplanetary medium. In conjunction with the mother and daughter spacecraft, which had eccentric geocentric orbits, this mission explored the coupling and energy transfer processes between the incident solar wind and the Earth's magnetosphere. In addition, the heliocentric ISEE 3 spacecraft also provided a near-Earth baseline for making cosmic-ray and other planetary measurements for comparison with corresponding measurements from deep-space probes. ISEE 3 was the first spacecraft to use the halo orbit.
In 1982, ISEE 3 began the magnetotail and comet encounter phases of its mission. A maneuver was conducted on 10 June 1982 to remove the spacecraft from the halo orbit around the L1 point and place it in a transfer orbit involving a series of passages between Earth and the L2 (magnetotail) Lagrangian libration point. After several passes through the Earth's magnetotail, with gravity assists from Lunar flybys in March, April, September and October of 1983, a final close Lunar flyby (119.4 km above the Moon's surface) on 22 December 1983 ejected the spacecraft out of the Earth-Moon system and into a heliocentric orbit ahead of the Earth, on a trajectory intercepting that of Comet Giacobini-Zinner. At this time, the spacecraft was renamed International Cometary Explorer (ICE). A total of fifteen propulsive maneuvers (four of which were planned in advance) and five Lunar flybys were needed to carry out the transfer from the halo orbit to an escape trajectory from the Earth-Moon system into a heliocentric orbit.
The primary scientific objective of ICE was to study the interaction between the solar wind and a cometary atmosphere. As planned, the spacecraft traversed the plasma tail of Comet Giacobini-Zinner on 11 September 1985, and made in situ measurements of particles, fields, and waves. It also transited between the Sun and Comet Halley in late March 1986, when other spacecraft (Giotto, Planet-A, MS-T5, VEGA) were also in the vicinity of Comet Halley on their early March comet rendezvous missions. ICE became the first spacecraft to directly investigate two comets. ICE data from both cometary encounters are included in the International Halley Watch archive.
Tracking and telemetry support were provided by the DSN (Deep Space Network) starting in January 1984. The ISEE-3/ICE bit rate was nominally 2048 bps during the early part of the mission, and 1024 bps during the Giacobini-Zinner comet encounter. The bit rate then successively dropped to 512 bps (on 9/12/85), 256 bps (on 5/1/87), 128 bps (on 1/24/89) and finally to 64 bps (on 12/27/91).
As of January 1990, ICE was in a 355 day heliocentric orbit with an aphelion of 1.03 AU, a perihelion of 0.93 AU and an inclination of 0.1 degree.
An update to the ICE mission was approved by NASA headquarters in 1991. It defined a Heliospheric mission for ICE consisting of investigations of coronal mass ejections in coordination with ground-based observations, continued cosmic ray studies, and special period observations such as when ICE and Ulysses were on the same solar radial line. By May 1995, ICE was being operated with only a low duty cycle, with some support being provided by the Ulysses project for data analysis. Termination of operations of ICE/ISEE3 was authorized 5 May 1997.
In 1999, NASA made brief contact with ICE to verify its carrier signal.
On 18 September 2008, NASA located ICE with the help of KinetX using the Deep Space Network after discovering it had not been powered off after the 1999 contact. A status check revealed that all but one of its 13 experiments were still functioning, and it still had enough propellant for 150 m/s (490 ft/s) of Δv (velocity change).
In early 2014, space enthusiasts started discussing reviving ICE when it approached the Earth in August. However, officials with the Goddard Space Flight Center said the Deep Space Network equipment required for transmitting signals to the spacecraft had been decommissioned in 1999, and was too expensive to replace.
On 15 May 2014, the ISEE-3 Reboot Project successfully raised $125,000 through crowdfunding to re-establish communications with the probe.
On 29 May 2014, the reboot team commanded the probe to switch into Engineering Mode to begin to broadcast telemetry. Project members, using the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex DSS-24 antenna, achieved synchronous communication on 26 June and obtained the four ranging points needed to refine the spacecraft's orbital parameters, data needed to calculate maneuvers required to bring the satellite out of heliocentric orbit. The reboot project successfully fired the thrusters on 2 July for the first time since 1987. They spun up the spacecraft to its nominal roll rate, in preparation for the upcoming trajectory correction maneuver in mid-July. However, a longer sequence of thrusters firings on 8 July failed, apparently due to a loss of the nitrogen gas used to pressurize the fuel tanks. The ISEE-3 Reboot Team announced that all attempts to change orbit using the ISEE-3 propulsion system had failed on 24 July. They began shutting down propulsion components to maximize the electrical power available for the science experiments.
In late July 2014, ISEE-3 Reboot Project announced the ISEE-3 Interplanetary Citizen Science Mission would gather data as the spacecraft flies by the Moon on August 10 and continues in heliocentric orbit. With five of the 13 instruments on the spacecraft still working, the science possibilities include listening for gamma ray bursts, where observations from additional locations in the solar system can be valuable. The team plans to acquire data from as much of ISEE-3's 300-day orbit as possible and the project is recruiting additional receiving sites around the globe to improve diurnal coverage. They may upload additional commands while the spacecraft is close to Earth, after which they will mostly be receiving data.
On 10 August 2014, ICE passed the Moon at a distance of approximately 15,600 km (9600 mi) from the surface and continued into heliocentric orbit. It will return to Earth's vicinity in about 17 years.
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1978-079A
1984
A (US) HOE 4 antimissle missile, launched from Kwajalein, shot down an incoming missile (launched from Vandenburg) in space for the first time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Defense_Initiative#Timeline
1986 00:49:00 GMT
USSR launched the Gorizont 12 communications satellite from Baikonur, which was positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 14 deg W in 1986-1989; 40 deg E in 1989-1990.
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1986-044A
1989 22:19:00 GMT
The US Air Force launched Navstar 2-02 (USA 38), a GPS Block 2 satellite, part of the Global Positioning System.
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1989-044A
1992
Spacewedge 2 made its first flight, a second vehicle for testing autonomous parasail spacecraft recovery, fabricated with the same external geometry and weight as Wedge 1.
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/pdf/120300main_FS-045-DFRC.pdf
1992 00:00:00 GMT
The Intelsat K communications satellite was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Intelsat K, launched 10 June 1992, was a single spacecraft purchased to meet critical requirements for Ku-band capacity over the Atlantic region, driven primarily by international broadcasters. It was purchased from GE Americom while under construction (as Satcom K4) and required extensive payload modifications. Based on the GE 5000 series bus, the spacecraft was 3-axis stabilised using magnetotorquers and had a hydrazine propulsion system. Two large solar panels with 1-axis articulation provided 4800 W at installation, with power storage in four 50 A/hr NiH batteries. The satellite payload was 16 Ku-band transponders which could be configured into 32 high quality television channels to permit access from ground antennas 1.2 meters in diameter and smaller. The launch vehicle, an Atlas IIA, put its payload into a geosynchronous transfer orbit with a GCS trajectory option. Intelsat K was positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 21 deg W in 1992-1999. As of 6 September 2001, it was at 21.54 deg W, drifting at 0.011 deg W per day.
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1992-032A
1995 00:24:00 GMT
The DBS 3 commercial TV satellite was launched from Kourou on an Ariane 42P, and positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 101 deg W in 1995-1999.
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1995-029A
1997 12:01:00 GMT
China launched the Fengyun 2A weather satellite from Xichang, which was operated in geosynchronous orbit at 105 deg E in 1997-2000, 85 deg E in 2000, and retired in April 2000.
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1997-029A
1998 00:35:00 GMT
Norway's Thor 3 communications satellite was launched from Cape Canaveral on a Delta booster.
Norway's Thor 3 communications satellite was launched 10 June 1995. The spacecraft was delivered to its final orbit through a complex series of five engine burns by the three upper rocket stages. The Delta's second stage demonstrated its restart capability in 4 burns: Burn 1 placed the rocket and payload into a low circular orbit; Burn 2 raised the apogee to 1400 km; Burn 3 circularised the orbit at 1400 km. The second stage then separated, and Burn 4 was used to lower the spent stage's perigee to ensure the stage would decay quickly and not add to the space junk already in orbit. Stage 3 burned once to place the payload and its kick motor into a high 1400 km perigee geosynchronous transfer orbit. The Stage 4 Star 30 apogee kick motor then circularized the spacecraft's orbit at geostationary altitude. Thor 3 was then positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 1 deg W in 1998-1999. As of 4 September 2001, it was at 0.83 deg W drifting at 0.000 deg E per day.
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1998-035A
1999 13:48:00 GMT
Four Globalstar communications satellites (Globalstar 25, 47, 49 and 52) were launched into orbit from Cape Canaveral on a Delta booster.
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1999-031C
2002 01:14:00 GMT
Russia launched the Ekspress 41R communications satellite into geostationary orbit from Baikonur.
The Ekspress 41R Russian domestic communications satellite, launched 10 June 2002, was built by NPO Prikladnoy Mekhaniki and Alcatel for Kosmicheskiya Svyaz, the Russian satcom operator. The parking orbit the Proton left the satellite in was off nominal, but the 11S861-01 Blok DM-2M upper stage corrected for the error, and delivered the payload to the correct orbit. The parking orbit was about 180 x 185 km x 51.6 deg; the transfer orbit after the first DM-2M burn was 328 x 36133 km x 47.4 deg; the orbit at spacecraft separation was 36102 x 36171 km x 0.2 deg. Two SOZ ullage motors were left in the transfer orbit.
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=2002-029A
2003 13:56:00 GMT
The UAE Thuraya 2 communication satellite was launched from the Pacific Ocean near Kiritimati (Christmas Island).
Thuraya 2 was launched 10 June 2003, a UAE (United Arab Emitrate) geostationary communications spacecraft. It was lofted into orbit by a Zenit 3SL rocket fired from Odyssey, the floating launch platform in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. The Boeing 'GEM' satellite was a modified BSS-702 with a 12 meter wide antenna for L-band mobile communications. The 5.2 ton (with fuel), 11 kW satellite carried many transponders to relay mobile telephone calls from/to countries in and around the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent, after parking over 44 deg E longitude. Its 200 spot beams could be steered to meet varying call densities, and enabled it to handle 13,750 calls simultaneously.
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=2003-026A
2003 13:58:47 EDT (GMT -4:00:00)
NASA launched MER-A (Spirit) toward Mars.
NASA's MER-A ("Spirit") was the first of the agency's two Mars Exploration Rover Missions. Spirit was launched 10 June 2003, and successfully landed on Mars on 3 January 2004 at 20:35 PST (4 January 04:35 UTC).
No communication has been received from Spirit since Sol 2210 (22 March 2010). The project concluded the Spirit recovery efforts on 25 May 2011. The remaining, pre-sequenced ultra-high frequency (UHF) relay passes scheduled for Spirit on board the Odyssey orbiter were completed on 8 June 2011.
At the time it stopped communicating, Spirit had traveled 7,730.50 meters (4.80 miles) on the surface of Mars, ending at a winter position embedded in the area called "Troy" on the west side of "Home Plate" where the battery system apparently failed due to insufficient solar power collection.
See also axonchisel.net
See also NSSDCA Master Catalog
https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/
2005
Died (complications from a heart valve replacement), Curtis Pitts, designer of the Pitts Special and other aircraft
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Pitts
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