1972 – Apollo 16 Launch. Crew John W. Young, Thomas K. Mattingly II, Charles M. Duke, Jr. First study of lunar highlands area. Mission duration 11 Days, 01 hours, 51 min, seconds.
1946 – First American assembled V-2 rocket launched from White Sands Proving Ground
Birthdays
1956 – David McDowell Brown an American physician mission specialist astronaut who perished in Columbia shuttle re-entry. 1 spaceflight, 15.9 days in space. NASA selection NASA Group 16 (1996). Flew to orbit on STS-107 (2003). Time in Space: 15d 22h 20m (d. 1 February 2003)
1959 – Micheal Barratt American physician and a NASA astronaut. Board certified in internal and aerospace medicine, he served as a flight surgeon for NASA before his selection as an astronaut and has played a role in developing NASA’s space medicine programs for both the Shuttle–Mir program and International Space Station. Selection NASA Group 18 (2000). His first spaceflight was a long-duration mission to the International Space Station as a flight engineer on the Expedition 19 and 20 crew. 3 EVAs 5 hrs 37 mins. Total time in space: 446 days, 15 hours, 21 minutes
Soyuz TMA 14 (Expedition 19/20), STS-133, SpaceX Crew-8 (Expedition 70/71/72)
1867 – Wilbur Wright. Wilbur and brother Orville invented powered human flight and on December 17 in 1903 fly the first heavier than air machine. Born at Millville, Indiana. He dies of typhoid in 1912.