This Week In Space History


      Thursday April 2nd:
            1963 Luna-4 Launch. First of 5 flights to test soft landing on Moon.
            1964 Zond-1 Launched toward Venus. Fails during interplanetary cruise.
            2010 Launch of Soyuz TMA-18. Skvortsov, Kornienko, and Dyson to join ISS Expedition 23.

      Friday April 3rd:
            1973 Salyut-2 Launch. Never occupied.
            1984 Soyuz-T-11/T-10B Launch. Malyshev, Strekalov, Sharma (India). Dock with Salyut-7.
            2008 ESA Jules Verne ATV docks to ISS.

      Saturday April 4th:
            1960 Tiros-1 First weather sat launched.
            1968 Second Saturn V launch. First stage pogo, 2nd stage engine malfunction,
3rd stage failure to restart. The next one was piloted!
            1983 Launch of STS-6 - Weitz, Bobko, Peterson, Musgrave. First Shuttle EVA.
            1997 Launch of STS-83 - Halsell, Still, Gernhardt, Janice Voss, Thomas, Crouch, Linteris.
Spacelab mission.
            2000 Soyuz TM-30 Launch. Zaletin, Kaleri. Re-occupy Mir for MirCorp.
            2011 Launch of Soyuz TMA-21. Samokutyaev, Borisenko, and Garan to join ISS Expedition 27/28.

      Sunday April 5th:
            1973 Pioneer-11 Launched to Jupiter/Saturn flybys.
            1975 Soyuz-18A Launch. Lazarev, Makarov. First abort after launch.
            1991 Launch of STS-37 - Nagel, Cameron, Godwin, Ross, Apt
Fixed & Deployed Gamma Ray Observatory; Performed two EVAs.
            2002 Aqua (EOS-PM) Earth Observing System satellite launch.
            2010 Launch of STS-131, Discovery to ISS
Poindexter, Dutton, Mastracchio, Metcalf-Lindenberger, Wilson, Yamazaki, Anderson
Leonardo logistics module and MPESS carrier.
            2019 Japan's Hayabusa-2 creates a new crater on asteroid Ryugu with a 2kg cpper impactor.

      Monday April 6th:
            1979 Soyuz-33 Lands.
            1984 Launch of STS 41-C - Crippen, Scobee, Nelson, van Hoften, Hart.
On-orbit repair of Solar Maximum Mission spacecraft.

      Tuesday April 7th:
            1968 Luna-14 Launched to Moon. Lunar gravity, communication technology experiments.
            1991 Crew of STS-37 performs a successful unscheduled EVA
to repair and deploy the Gamma Ray Observatory.
            2007 Launch of Soyuz TMA-10. Yurchikin and Kotov (Expedition 15), with Simonyi (tourist) to ISS.

      Wednesday April 8th:
            1964 Gemini-1 Launch. unpiloted test of craft and Titan II launcher.
            1968 OAO-1 Launch. First Orbiting Astronomical Observatory. Fails 3rd day.
            1984 China-15 Launch. First GEO success. Transmits TV.
            1993 Launch of STS-56 - Cameron, Oswald, Foale, Cockrell, Ochoa. ATLAS-2.
            1997 STS-83 Lands after 4 days due to Fuel Cell #2 problem.
Third Minimum Duration Flight (STS-2 Fuel Cell, STS-44 IMU).
            2002 Launch of STS-110 - Bloomfield, Frick, Walheim, Ochoa, Morin, Ross, S. Smith.
ISS Assemby Flight 8A S0 Truss.
Jerry Ross becomes first person to make 7 spaceflights.
            2006 Return of ISS Expedition 12 crew after 189 days, aboard Soyuz TMA-7
McArthur and Tokarev with Pontes (Brazil).
            2008 Launch of Soyuz TMA-12. S. Volkov, Kononenko (Expedition 17) with Dr. Yi Soyeon (S. Korea).
            2009 Return of ISS Expedition 18 crew after 179 days aboard Soyuz TMA-13
Fincke and Lonchakov with Simonyi (tourist).
            2010 Launch of ESA's CryoSat-2 to study thickness of the polar ice caps.
            2016 Launch of Dragon CRS-8 on a Falcon-9 and first successful landing on a ship of the first stage (following the Dec 2015 CCAFS landing).




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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