1999 – JCSat6 Atlas IIAS Launch, to meet increased demand for Internet access.
1993 – Egret (Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope) onboard CGRO
(Compton Gamma Ray Observatory) detects the brightest burst of gamma rays ever recorded – the Super Bowl Burst.
1971 – Launch of Apollo14, the third Moon landing mission.
1966 – Luna 9 Launch (Soviet Moon Lander). It performed the first soft landing on another planetary body.
1961 – Mercury-Redstone 2 – A significant step forward in human space adaptation. Space monkey Ham is launched into Earth orbit. The task was to stay focused as Ham pushed levers in response to onboard indicator lights. The space monkey lost focus only twice and electrical shock brought him back to the task. At landing he was rewarded with an apple and half an orange.
1958 – Space Race: The Explorer 1, the first successful American satellite, detects the Van Allen radiation belt.
1948 – First research photos taken using the Hale 5-meter (200-inch) telescope at Mt. Palomar.
1862 – Alvan Graham Clark, Jr. discovers the faint companion of Sirius,dubbed Sirius B or the Pup, during testing of an 18-inch refractor being built for the Dearborn Observatory by his father, brother, and himself. Friedrich Bessel had proposed the existence of an unseen companion in 1844.