2009 – STS 119 Discovery launch on a mission to ISS.
2004 – Sloan Digital Sky Survey releases 6 terabytes of data.
1972 – On January 5th, President Richard M. Nixon had announced that NASA would proceed with the development of a reusable low cost space shuttle system. On this day, NASA announces it would use two solid propellant rocket motors for the space system based on studies that showed that the solid rocket system offered lower development cost and lower technical risk. (news release unavailable in 2025)
Birthdays
1713 – Nicolas Lacaille – Student of Cassini. His precise measurements confirmed the Earth’s equatorial bulge. He returned from South African astronomy expedition and named fourteen southern constellations. He died at age 49 on March 21, 1762. His honors are many. On Earth, and in space, many places bear his name.
1799 – William Rutter Dawes was an English astronomer. He set up his private observatory at his home. He became a member of the Royal Society in 1865, for his astronomical work. Dawes craters on the Moon and Dawes crater on Mars are named after him, as is a gap within Saturn‘s C Ring. An optical phenomenon, the Dawes limit, is named after him.(d. 15 February 1868)