2025 – The NASA Curiosity rover captured an image of three intersecting ridges on Mars, a feature known as “Ayopaya,” offering clues about the planet’s ancient water-rich river systems.
2017 – A total solar eclipse crossed the continental United States, a significant astronomical event that was the first of its kind in 99 years.
2007 – STS 118, Shuttle Endeavour Returns to Earth. Touchdown at 12:32:16 p.m. wrapped up a 5.2-million-mile voyage spanning 12 days 17 hours 55 minutes and 34 second over 201 complete orbits.
1910-1995
1995 – Death of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, one of the greatest astrophysicists of modern times and
Nobel Laureate 1983. The term “Chandrasekhar’s limit” refers to those stars which retain an end of life
mass above a certain limit undergo further collapse. This discovery was contrary to thinking at the time
which assumed that all stars ended their lives as white dwarfs
1993 – NASA loses contact with Mars Observer three days before its planned entry into Mars atmosphere. The Coffey Board determined the most likely (of five scenarios) cause of the failure was a rupture of the fuel (monomethyl hydrazine (MMH)) pressurization side of the spacecraft’s propulsion system.
1972 – HEASARC Copernicus satellite launched into a nearly circular 7123 km radius orbit, inclined at 35 degrees. The main experiment was an ultraviolet telescope. It also contained a cosmic X-ray experiment provided by University College London/MSSL. It operated till February 1981.
1965 – Gemini 5 Launch. Evaluate rendezvous Guidance and Navigation system and demonstrate 8-day capability of spacecraft and crew. With this flight, the US took the manned spaceflight endurance record from the USSR, while demonstrating that the crew could survive in zero gravity for the length of time required for a lunar mission.
Birthdays
1932 – George William Samuel Abbey was an American NASA administrator and United States Air Force pilot. He subsequently became director of flight crews for the Space Shuttle, then director of the Johnson Space Center. Honors include the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, three NASA Distinguished Service Medals and the 1970 Presidential Medal of Freedom.