This Week In Space History


      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.

      Thursday March 18th:
            1899 Saturn's moon Phoebe discovered (Pickering).
            1965 Launch of Voskhod 2, first EVA (20 minutes); Leonov & Belyayev (107 x 308 nm, 65 degrees, 17 orbits).

      Friday March 19th:

      Saturday March 20th:

      Sunday March 21st:
            2001 Return of ISS Expedition 1 crew after 140 days, aboard STS-102.
Shepherd, Gidzenko, and Krikalev.




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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Space History