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Space History for December 15
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Race To Space
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1612
Simon Marius was the first to observe the Andromeda galaxy through a telescope.
http://www.messier.seds.org/xtra/Bios/marius.html
1852
Born, Antoine Henri Becquerel, Nobel 1903 "in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity"
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1903/becquerel/biographical/
1852
J. R. Hind discovered asteroid #23 Thalia.
1857
Died, George Cayley, naturalist, physical scientist, engineer, inventor, politician, built the first human-carrying heavier than air vehicle (glider, 1853)
Sir George Cayley (27 December 1773 - 15 December 1857) was an exuberant polymath from Brompton-by-Sawdon, near Scarborough in Yorkshire, England. He was a naturalist, physical scientist, engineer, inventor and politician. His most celebrated achievement was to design and build a functional piloted (though unpowered) aeroplane in the middle of 1853, nearly fifty years before the Wright Brothers.
A prolific inventor, Cayley keenly observed and chronicled the natural world throughout his life. A number of his inventions were forgotten and then "re-invented" by others, many years later. Among the many things that he invented are self-righting lifeboats, tension-spoke wheels, caterpillar tractors (which he called the Universal Railway), cow-catchers for railway locomotives, automatic signals for railway crossings, seat belts, experimental designs for helicopters, and a kind of prototypical internal combustion engine fueled by gunpowder. He also made contributions in the fields of prosthetics, heat engines, electricity, theatre architecture, ballistics, optics and land reclamation.
He is mainly remembered, however, for his flying machines and considered by some to be the first aeronautical engineer. He built a "whirling-arm apparatus" so that he could measure the force of the air on variously shaped specimens at various airspeeds and angles of attack. He also experimented with free flying model gliders of various wing sections, in the stairwells at Brompton Hall. These meticulously documented scientific experiments led him to develop an efficient cambered airfoil and to identify the four vector forces that influence an aircraft: thrust, lift, drag, and weight. He discovered the importance of dihedral for lateral stability in flight, and deliberately set the center of gravity of many of his models well below the wings for this reason. Investigating many other theoretical aspects of flight, many now acknowledge him as the first analyst of aerodynamics.
By 1804 he was producing model gliders of a pattern that is similar to that of modern aircraft: a pair of large monoplane wings towards the front, with a smaller tailplane at the back comprising horizontal stabilizers and a vertical fin. His experimental models grew in size until eventually he built a machine that could carry a person. After demonstrating that animals could fly in it safely, in late June or early July 1853 he persuaded his coachman to have a go. Launched from a hill on the Brompton Estate by teams of estate workers, Sir George Cayley's coachman flew the machine for a distance of between 100 and 200 meters across Brompton Dale, landing safely into a meadow on the other side. This was the earliest recorded manned flight in a heavier-than-air machine.
Sir George is believed to have worked entirely alone on his development of a theory of flight. Most of his contemporaries considered it to be no more than a whimsical hobby, but today we recognise his enormous achievements in this field.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Cayley
1859
Gustav R. Kirchhoff described the chemical composition of the Sun as determined using spectroscopy.
https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SENL/SENL200212.pdf
1863
Born, Arthur Dehon Little, US chemist (patented rayon, instrumental in developing chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology), founded a consulting company where solar power satellites were first proposed (among other things)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Dehon_Little
1923
Born, Freeman Dyson, physicist and mathemetician
Freeman John Dyson (15 December 1923 - ) is an English-born American physicist and mathematician who moved to Princeton after World War II. In the following years, Dyson was responsible for demonstrating the equivalence of the two formulations of quantum electrodynamics which existed at the time - Richard Feynman's path integral formulation and the variational methods developed by Julian Schwinger and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga.
From 1957 to 1961 he worked on the Orion project, which proposed the possibility of space-flight using nuclear propulsion: a prototype was demonstrated using conventional explosives, but a treaty banning the use of nuclear weapons in space caused the project to be abandoned.
In one of his scientific papers, Dyson theorized that a technologically advanced society could completely surround its native star in order to maximize the capture of the star's available energy. Eventually, the civilization would completely enclose the star, intercepting electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths from visible light downwards and radiating waste heat outwards as infrared radiation. Therefore, one method of searching for extraterrestrial civilisations would be to look for large objects radiating in the infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum. Dyson conceived that such structures would be clouds of asteroid-sized space habitats, though science fiction writers have preferred a solid structure: either way, such an artifact is often referred to as a Dyson sphere.
Dyson has also proposed the creation of a Dyson tree, a genetically-engineered plant capable of growing on a comet. He suggested that comets could be engineered to contain hollow spaces filled with a breathable atmosphere, thus providing self-sustaining habitats for humanity in the outer solar system.
As of 2004, Dyson was serving as the President of the Space Studies Institute, the space research organization founded by Gerard K. O'Neill. In 2021, he is continuing to serve on their Board of Trustees.
https://www.sns.ias.edu/dyson/
1938
Y. Vaisala discoverd asteroids #1488 Aura and #1503 Kuopio.
1957
Goethe Link Observatory discovered asteroids #1765 Wrubel and #1853 McElroy.
1958
Died, Wolfgang Ernst Pauli, physicist (quantum mechanics, spin, relativity), Nobel 1945 "for the discovery of the Exclusion Principle, also called the Pauli Principle"
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1945/pauli/biographical/
1964
The Italian-built satellite San Marco 1 was launched on a NASA Scout booster by an Italian crew.
The first Italian satellite, San Marco I
Source: NSSDCA Master Catalog
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1964-084A
1965 13:37:26 GMT
NASA launched the Gemini 6A Earth orbiting mission carrying Walter Schirra and Tom Stafford to rendezvous with Gemini 7 in Earth orbit.
Gemini 6A was scheduled to launch on 12 December 1965, but the launch was aborted one second after engine ignition because an electrical umbilical separated prematurely. This was the first time an astronaut mission was aborted after ignition start.
Gemini 6A was the fifth crewed Earth-orbiting spacecraft of the Gemini series, launched 15 December 1965 after Gemini 7 (which was launched 4 December 1965), with the intent of making rendezvous with Gemini 7 in Earth orbit. The astronauts on the 26 hour mission were Walter Schirra and Thomas Stafford. The mission priorities were to demonstrate on-time launch procedures, closed-loop rendezvous capabilities, and stationkeeping techniques with Gemini 7. Other objectives were to evaluate the spacecraft reentry guidance capabilities, and conduct spacecraft systems tests and four experiments. This mission was originally designated Gemini 6 and scheduled for launch on 25 October but was cancelled when the Agena target vehicle failed to go into orbit an hour earlier.
Upon orbit insertion, Gemini 6A trailed Gemini 7 by about 1900 km. Four major thruster burns were performed starting at 9:11 a.m. EST to catch up to Gemini 7. The first radar lock indicated a distance of 396 km. Two more major thruster burns preceded the final braking maneuver at 2:27 p.m. EST. Rendezvous was technically achieved and stationkeeping begun on 15 December at 2:33 p.m. EST with the two Gemini spacecraft in zero relative motion at a distance of 110 meters. Stationkeeping maneuvers involving the spacecraft circling each other and approaching and backing off continued for 5 hours 19 minutes over three and a half orbits. During the maneuvers, all four astronauts on both spacecraft took turns in the formation flying activities and photographs were taken from both spacecraft. This marked the first time two spacecraft were maneuvered with respect to each other by their crews. At the end of stationkeeping Gemini 6A fired thrusters to move to a position roughly 50 km away from Gemini 7 for drifting flight during a sleep period.
Near the end of the 15th revolution the retrorockets were fired at 9:53:24 a.m. EST on 16 December and splashdown occurred at 10:28:50 at 23.58 N, 67.83 W only 13 km from the target. This was the first successful controlled reentry to a predetermined point in the U.S. manned spaceflight program. The crew remained inside the spacecraft during recovery operations. The spacecraft and crew were brought aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Wasp at 11:32 a.m. Total mission elapsed time was 25:51:24.
All primary mission objectives were achieved. The only major malfunction was the failure of the delayed time telemetry tape recorder at 20 hours 55 minutes into the mission, resulting in loss of the last 4:20 of delayed time telemetry. The crew conducted three scientific experiments -- (1) synoptic terrain photography, (2) synoptic weather photography, and (3) dim light photography. The fourth experiment, measurement of radiation in spacecraft, was only partly completed.
Gemini 6A photographed from Gemini 7, NASA photo
Source: NSSDCA Master Catalog
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1965-104A
1965 13:46:00 GMT
With the launch of NASA's Gemini 6A mission, four people were in space simultaneously for the first time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spaceflight_records#Human_spaceflight_firsts
1965 14:33:00 EST (GMT -5:00:00)
NASA's Gemini 6A and Gemini 7 spacecraft performed the first rendevous in space of manned spacecraft, the first time two spacecraft were maneuvered with respect to each other by their crews.
Gemini 7 was the fourth crewed Earth-orbiting spacecraft of the Gemini series, launched on 4 December 1965. It carried astronauts Frank Borman and Jim Lovell on the 14 day mission. Its mission priorities were (1) to demonstrate a 2-week flight, (2) to perform stationkeeping with the Gemini launch vehicle stage 2, (3) to evaluate the 'shirt sleeve' environment and the lightweight pressure suit, (4) to act as a rendezvous target for Gemini 6, and (5) to demonstrate controlled reentry close to the target landing point. The crew members had three scientific, four technological, four spacecraft, and eight medical experiments to perform.
Gemini 6A caught up to Gemini 7 and rendezvous was technically achieved and stationkeeping begun on 15 December at 2:33 p.m. EST with the two Gemini spacecraft in zero relative motion at a distance of 110 meters. Stationkeeping maneuvers involving the spacecraft circling each other and approaching and backing off continued for 5 hours 19 minutes over three and a half orbits. During the maneuvers, all four astronauts on both spacecraft took turns in the formation flying activities and photographs were taken from both spacecraft. This marked the first time two spacecraft were maneuvered with respect to each other by their crews. At the end of stationkeeping Gemini 6A fired thrusters to move to a position roughly 50 km away from Gemini 7 for drifting flight during a sleep period.
Gemini 7 fired its retrorockets at the end of revolution 206 on 18 December at 8:28:07 a.m. to begin the reentry sequence. Splashdown followed at 9:05:04 EST in the western Atlantic southwest of Bermuda at 25.42 N, 70.10 W, only 12.2 km from the target point. The astronauts were recovered by helicopter and brought aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Wasp at 9:37. The spacecraft was recovered at 10:08. Total mission elapsed time was 330:35:01, making this the longest anyone had ever stayed in space. The astronauts were pronounced in "better than expected" physical condition after their two week flight.
All primary mission objectives were successfully completed. The three scientific experiments: synoptic terrain photography, synoptic weather photography, and visual acuity in the space environment were all completed successfully. All other onboard experiments were performed except landmark contrast measurement and star occultation navigation, due to equipment failure. Only partially completed were in-flight sleep analysis, proton-electron spectrometer, and optical communication. Minor malfunctions related to fuel cells and attitude control thruster occurred but did not hamper the mission.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_6A
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1965-100A
1966
Audouin Dollfus discovered the tenth known satellite of Saturn, Janus.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janus_(moon)
1970
USSR Venera 7 landed on Venus and became the first spacecraft to return data after landing on another planet.
Venera 7 was launched 17 August 1970 from a Tyazheliy Sputnik in an Earth parking orbit towards Venus to study the Venusian atmosphere and other phenomena of the planet. Venera 7 entered the atmosphere of Venus on 15 December 1970, and a landing capsule was jettisoned. After aerodynamic braking, a parachute system was deployed. The capsule antenna was extended, and signals were returned for 35 minutes during descent through the atmosphere. Another 23 minutes of very weak signals were received after the spacecraft landed on Venus. The capsule was the first human-made object to return data after landing on another planet.
USSR Venera 7 Venus probe
Source: NSSDCA Master Catalog
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1970-060A
1972 06:50:21 GMT
The Apollo 17 LEM ascent stage impacted the Moon at 19.96 N, 30.50 E after astronauts Cernan and Schmitt returned to the command module.
Apollo 17 was launched 7 December 1972, the last manned mission launched by the Saturn V rocket, the eleventh manned space mission in the NASA Apollo program, and the sixth and last mission to date (2021) to land on the Moon. It was the first night launch, and the final mission, of the Apollo program. Crew members were Gene Cernan, commander; Ron Evans, Command Module pilot; and Harrison Schmitt, Lunar Module pilot.
Approximately five hours after launch, while en route to the Moon, the crew took a photograph of Earth called "The Blue Marble" at a distance of approximately 55,000 km. It is one of the most widely distributed photograph images in existence.
One of the last two men to set foot on the Moon was also the first scientist-astronaut, Schmitt, a geologist. While Evans circled in the command module "America," Schmitt and Cernan landed on the Moon on 11 December 1972. The crew collected a record 108.86 kilograms of rocks during three moonwalks, roamed 33.80 kilometers from the "Challenger" LEM through the Taurus-Littrow valley in their rover, discovered orange-colored soil, and left the most comprensive set of instruments in the ALSEP on the Lunar surface.
At 05:40:56 GMT on 14 December 1972, Apollo 17 Mission Commander Gene Cernan returned to the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), ending the last Extravehicular Activity (EVA) of what would prove to be the final expedition of the Apollo program. To date (2021), no other humans have yet returned to set foot on the Lunar surface, foisting on Captain Cernan the dubious honor and title of being "The Last Man on the Moon."
The LEM ascent stage was released after Cernan and Schmitt returned to the Command Module, and impacted the Moon on 15 December 1972.
Apollo 17 splashed down on 19 December 1972 at 17 deg 53 min S, 166 deg 7 min W, 350 nautical miles SE of the Samoan Islands and 6.5 km (4 mi) from the recovery ship USS Ticonderoga.
See also NASA HISTORICAL DATA BOOK, Apollo 17 Characteristics
See also "The Blue Marble" on Wikipedia
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1972-096A
1981 23:35:00 GMT
NASA launched the Intelsat 5 F-3 communications satellite for COMSAT Corporation.
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1981-119A
1984 09:16:24 GMT
USSR launched Vega 1 toward Venus and Comet Halley.
The Vega mission combined a Venus swingby and a Comet Halley flyby by two identical spacecraft, Vega 1 and Vega 2, which were launched 15 December 1984 and 21 December 1984, respectively. After carrying Venus entry probes to the vicinity of Venus on 11 and 15 June 1985, respectively, the two spacecraft used Venus' gravity to get speed boosts to intercept Comet Halley. The first spacecraft encountered Comet Halley on 6 March 1986, and the second three days later. The flyby velocity was 77.7 km/s. Although the spacecraft could be targeted with a precision of 100 km, the position of the spacecraft relative to the comet nucleus was estimated to be known only to within a few thousand kilometers because of variations in the comet's orbit. This, together with the problem of dust protection, led to estimated flyby distances of 10,000 km for the first spacecraft and 3000 km for the second. Data were taken from 2.5 hours before through 0.5 hours after the closest approaches, with several periods of data taking before and after, each lasting about 2 hours.
The Venus instrumentation packages each consisted of a sphere 240 cm in diameter, which separated from the spacecraft bus two days before arrival at Venus and entered the planet's atmosphere on an inclined path, without active maneuvers, as was done on previous Venera missions. The lander probes (identical to those of Venera 9 through 14) had two objectives, the study of the atmosphere and the study of the superficial crust. In addition to temperature and pressure measuring instruments, the descent probes carried a UV spectrometer for measurement of minor atmospheric constituents, an instrument dedicated to measurement of the concentration of H2O, and other instruments for determination of the chemical composition of the condensed phase: a gas-phase chromatograph; an X-ray spectrometer observing the fluorescence of grains or drops; and a mass spectrograph measuring the chemical composition of the grains or drops. The X-ray spectrometer separated the grains according to their sizes using a laser imaging device, while the mass spectrograph separated them according to their sizes using an aerodynamical inertial separator. A toroidal system similar to that on Veneras 13 and 14 was designed to absorb shock on landing. After landing, a small surface sample near the probe was to be analyzed by gamma spectroscopy and X-ray fluorescence. The UV spectrometer, the mass spectrograph, and the pressure- and temperature-measuring instruments were developed in cooperation between French and Soviet investigators.
After separation, the Vega 1 lander entered the Venus atmosphere on 11 June 1985 at 01:59:49 UT at 10.75 km/s with an entry angle of 18.23 degrees. The pilot parachute was deployed at 02:00:27 UT at an altitude of 65 km and the braking parachute opened 11 seconds later at 64.5 km. The upper heat protection hemisphere was released at that time and the lower hemisphere 4 seconds later at 64.2 km. The upper hemisphere contained the deployment system for the balloon aerostat. The parachute was released at 02:09:37 at 47 km, after which the lander used aerobraking to descend through the thick Venus atmosphere, with drag devices minimizing vibrations and spin and providing stability. At an altitude of 18 km a mechanical shock of unknown origin (possibly due to a jammed valve in an upper compartment suddenly releasing) triggered a ground-contact accelerometer which caused early deployment of the soil drill of the X-ray flourescence spectrometer. The drill was rendered unusable at landing due to the premature deployment. The lander touched down at 03:02:54 UT on 11 June 1985 at 7.5 N, 177.7 E, just north of eastern Aphrodite Terra. The altitude of the touchdown site was 0.6 km below the planetary mean radius, the measured pressure at the landing site was 95 atm and the temperature was 740 K.
After separation, the Vega 2 lander entered the Venus atmosphere on 15 June 1985 at 01:59:30 UT at 10.80 km/s with an entry angle of 19.08 degrees. The pilot parachute was deployed at 02:00:05 UT at an altitude of 65 km and the braking parachute opened 11 seconds later at 64.5 km. The upper heat protection hemisphere was released at that time and the lower hemisphere 4 seconds later at 64.2 km. The upper hemisphere contained the deployment system for the balloon aerostat. The parachute was released at 02:09:15 at 47 km, after which the lander used aerobraking while descending through the thick Venus atmosphere, with drag devices minimizing vibrations and spin and providing stability. The lander touched down at 03:00:50 UT on 15 June 1985 at 8.5 S, 164.5 E, in eastern Aphrodite Terra. The altitude of the touchdown site was 0.1 km above the planetary mean radius, and the measured pressure and temperature at the landing site were 91 atm and 736 K. The surface sample was found to be an anorthosite-troctolite.
In addition to the lander probes, constant-pressure instrumented balloon aerostats were deployed immediately after entry into the atmosphere at an altitude of 54 km. Each 3.4 meter diameter balloon supported a total mass of 25 kg, including a 5 kg payload that hung suspended 12 meters below the balloon. It floated at approximately 50 km altitude in the middle, most active layer of the Venus three-tiered cloud system. Data from the balloon instruments were transmitted directly to Earth for the lifetime of the mission. Onboard instruments were to measure temperature, pressure, vertical wind velocity, and visibility (density of local aerosols). Very long baseline interferometry was used to track the motion of the balloon to provide the wind velocity in the clouds. Tracking was done by a 6 station network on Soviet territory and by a network of 12 stations distributed world-wide (organized by France and the NASA Deep Space Network). The balloons measured downward gusts of 1 meter/s and showed horizontal wind velocities up to 240 km/hr. After two days and 9000 km, the balloons entered the dayside of Venus where they expanded and burst due to solar heating.
See also NASA, Vega 1
See also NASA, Vega 2
USSR Vega 1 Venus probe descent craft
Source: NSSDCA Master Catalog
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1984-125A
1990
Eleanor F. Helin discovered asteroid 4957 Brucemurray.
1996
Boeing and McDonnell Douglas aircraft manufacturers announced that they would merge, creating the world's largest aerospace company.
http://edition.cnn.com/US/9612/15/boeing.mcdonnell/
1998 21:53:00 CST (GMT -6:00:00)
NASA's STS 88 (Endeavor 13) mission landed after assembling the first two components of the International Space Station.
STS 88 was launched 4 December 1998, grappled the Russian Zarya Control Module on 6 December 1998, and released the fledgling International Space Station on 12 December 1998. The mission ended when Endeavor landed on 15 December 1998. Orbit altitude: 208 nautical miles. Orbit inclination: 51.6 degrees. Mission duration: 11 days, 19 hours, 18 minutes.
STS-88 was the first human International Space Station assembly flight. The crew attached the first two modules, the previously launched Russian Zarya Control Module and the American Unity Node that was launched aboard the shuttle, providing the foundation for future station components.
Commander Bob Cabana flew Endeavour to a rendezvous with Zarya, and Currie used the shuttle's robotic arm to capture the Russian-built spacecraft and attach it to the Unity Node in the payload bay. At the time, Zarya was the most massive object ever moved with the shuttle's remote manipulator system.
Mission Specialists Jerry Ross and Jim Newman completed three spacewalks during the mission. After the assembly work was completed and it undocked from the station, Endeavour released two small science satellites.
The STS 88 flight crew was: Robert D. Cabana, Commander; Frederick (Rick) W. Sturckow, Pilot; Jerry L. Ross, Mission Specialist 1; Nancy J. Currie, Mission Specialist 2; James H. Newman, Mission Specialist 3; Sergei Krikalev, Mission Specialist 4.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/archives/sts-88.html
2001 17:28:00 GMT
NASA's STS 108 (Endeavor) mission undocked from the International Space Station.
STS 108 was launched 5 December 2001, and docked at the International Space Station on 7 December 2001, where it remained until 15 December 2001. The mission ended when Endeavor landed on 17 December 2001. Orbit altitude: 122 nautical miles. Orbit inclination: 51.6 degrees. Mission duration: 11 days, 19 hours, 36 minutes.
STS-108 was the 12th shuttle flight to visit the International Space Station, and the first since the installation of the Russian Pirs airlock. Endeavour delivered the Expedition Four crew -- Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Carl Walz and Dan Bursch -- to the orbital outpost. The Expedition Three crew -- Commander Frank Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin -- returned to Earth on Endeavour.
While at the station, the crew conducted one spacewalk and attached the Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module to the station so that about 2.7 metric tons (3 tons) of equipment and supplies could be unloaded. The crew later returned Raffaello to Endeavour's payload bay for the trip home.
The Student-Tracked Atmospheric Research Satellite for Heuristic International Networking Experiment (STARSHINE 2) was deployed from Endeavour's payload bay 16 December 2001, one day before landing.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/archives/sts-108.html
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