2018 – The Opportunity Mars rover sent its last message from Mars, marking the end of its 14-year mission traveling 45.16 km (28.06 mi) by sol 5111 across Mars and unveiling critical discoveries about the planet’s geology.
2003 – Launch of Spirit, the Mars Rover, from Cape Canaveral. ‘Spirit’ and ‘Opportunity’ were part of the Mars Exploration Rover program. Spirit, which lasted 20 times longer than its expected lifetime ended its mission on May 25, 2011, after it got stuck in soft sand.
1999 – Asteroid 1995 LG Closest Approach To Earth (0.958 AU)
1973 – Explorer 49 Launch (Moon Orbiter) It was placed into lunar orbit to provide radio astronomical measurements of the planets, the sun, and the galaxy.
Birthdays
1929 – James Alton McDivitt Jr. NASA Group 2 (1962) Missions: Gemini 4 and Apollo 9. (d. 13 Oct 2022)
1927 – Eugene N. Parker was a pioneering American solar and plasma physicist, best known for his 1950s theory predicting the existence of the solar wind and the spiral shape of the Sun’s magnetic field. He was also the namesake of NASA’s Parker Solar Probe. (d. 15 March 2022)