2008 – ISS Expedition 16 Crew Commander Peggy Whitson and cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and spaceflight participant Yi So-yeon landed on the steppes of Kazakhstan.
2007 – Landing of Soyuz TMA-9 López-Alegría and Mikhail Tyurin undocked from ISS at 09:11 UTC, and landed at 12:31:30 UTC, after a seven-month stay on the station.
Explosion
2002 – A Sun eruption on this date provided an excellent opportunity for a large suite of instruments on the SOHO, TRACE and RHESSI spacecraft to gather data that could be compared to the Lin & Forbes model of CMEs. “TRACE and RHESSI observed the initiation of the eruption and the UVCS instrument on SOHO observed the event above the surface in the region of peak acceleration. Its observations provided direct evidence of the hot gas identified with the current sheet predicted by the Lin & Forbes model. This is the strongest evidence yet that the Lin & Forbes model is an accurate description of how CMEs are produced.
1999 – The UoSat-12 spacecraft is launched, a technology-demonstration platform by Surrey Space Technologies, Ltd. (SSTL), UoSat-12 contains three onboard processors, four RF transponders, two onboard LANs, and a number of instruments, including a multi-spectral image scanner.
1994 – The first discoveries of extrasolar planets are announced by astronomer Alexander Wolszczan
1972 – EVA Apollo 16-1 – Duke, Young. Apollo LM. Explored lunar surface near LM and deployed ALSEP unmanned scientific station equipment, deployed the LRV, and explored surrounding craters in a 4.2 km traverse. During ALSEP set up Young tripped on the cable to the heat flow experiment and broke it, rendering the instrument inoperable.
1969 – Space Shuttle Task Group formed – The Director of Apollo Test in the NASA Hq. Apollo Program Office, LeRoy E. Day, was detailed to head the MSF Space Shuttle Task Group. The group would provide NASA with material for a report on the Space Shuttle to the President’s Space Task Group.
1964 – A Transit-5bn satellite fails to reach orbit after launch; as it re-enters the atmosphere, 2.1 pounds (0.95 kg) of radioactive plutonium in its SNAP RTG power source is widely dispersed.
Every year – April 21-22 The usual peak of the Lyrids Meteor Shower: Associated Comet C/1861 G1 (Thatcher): Meteors per Hour 15
Birthdays
1962 – Sergey Viktorovich Zalyotin
Selection: 1990 TsPK Cosmonaut Group
Missions: Soyuz TM-30, Soyuz TMA-1/TM-34
Time in Space: 83d 16h 36m
1951 – Aleksandr Ivanovich Laveykin a Russian engineer cosmonaut 1978-1994. 1978 Cosmonaut Group. 1 spaceflight, Time in space: 174.1 days in space. Flew to orbit on Soyuz TM-2 and stayed on Mir EO-2.
