This Week In Space History


      Saturday September 25th:
            1973 SkyLab-3 2nd Crew Returns after 59 day mission.
            1992 Launch of Mars Observer.
            1997 Launch of STS-86 - Weatherbee, Bloomfield, Parazynski, Titov, Chretien, Lawrence,
Wolf (to Mir), Foale (return).
            2008 Shenzhou 7 launch. Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng.
            2010 Return of Skvortsov, Kornienko, and Dyson aboard Soyuz TMA-18 after 178 days.
            2013 Launch of Soyuz TMA-10M. Kotov, Ryanzanskiy, and Hopkins to join ISS Expedition 37/38.
            2014 Launch of Soyuz TMA-14M. Samokutyaev, Serova, and Wilmore to join ISS Expedition 41/42.
            2018 Arianspace's 100th Ariane 5 launch.
            2019 Launch of Skripochka, Meir, and Hazza al Mansouri (United Arab Emirates) aboard Soyuz MS-15 to join ISS Expedition 61/62.

      Sunday September 26th:
            1980 Soyuz-38 Lands.
            1996 Landing of STS-79 at Kennedy Space Center (runway 15).
Shannon Lucid sets 188-day US record.

      Monday September 27th:
            1973 Soyuz-12 Launch. Lazarev, Makarov. Post-disaster systems test.
            1983 Soyuz-T-10A Titov, Strekalov. Pad fire. First use of escape tower.
            1985 Soyuz-T-13 Lands. Dzhanibekov, Grechko return.
            2007 Launch of Dawn to Ceres and Vesta with xenon ion drive and hydrazine.
            2008 First Chinese EVA, by Zhai Zhigang and Liu Boming from Shenzhou 7. 45 minutes at vacuum.

      Tuesday September 28th:
            1971 Luna-19 Launched to Lunar orbit. Hi-resolution mapping.
            2008 First successful lauch of Elon Musk's SpaceX Falcon 1, after 3 failures.

      Wednesday September 29th:
            1962 Launch of Alouette 1, first Canadian satellite (on US Delta rocket)
            1973 Soyuz-12 Lands.
            1977 Salyut-6 Launch. Scientific mission.
            1988 Launch of STS-26 - Hauck, Covey, Hilmers, Lounge, Nelson
Recovered Shuttle program after 51-L accident.
            2004 First of 2 SpaceShip One flights for the Ansari X-Prize.
Mike Melvill piloted to 102.9 km.
            2006 Return of ISS Expedition 13 crew after 183 days, aboard Soyz TMA-8
Vinogradov, Williams and Ansari (tourist).
            2011 Launch of Tiangong-1 spacelab by China.

      Thursday September 30th:
            1994 Launch of STS-68 - Baker, Wilcutt, Bursch, Jones, Wisoff, Smith.
Second Space Radar Laboratory.
            2009 Launch of Soyuz TMA-16. Suraev and J. Williams with Laliberte (tourist).

      Friday October 1st:
            2005 Soyuz TMA-7 Launch. Tokarev and McArthur (Expedition 12) and Olsen (tourist) to ISS.




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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