2024 – at 5:57 p.m. EDT Dragon Crew 9 splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. Coming home are Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov in space since 29 September 2024 and Sunni Williams and Butch Wilmore in space since June 5, 2024. Dolphins greeted their homecoming.
2012 – Messenger spacecraft, begins extended Mercury mission for an additional year.
2011 – Messenger spacecraft, Orbit Insertion at Mercury 00:45 UTC.
2010 – Soyuz landing ends Expedition 22.
2004 – 2004 FH, is roughly 30 meters (100 feet) in diameter and passes just 43,000 km (26,500 miles, or about 3.4 Earth diameters) above the Earth’s surface. It is discovered on March 15, just three days before it’s approach.
2002 – Comet 153P/Ikeya-Zhang makes its closest approach to our star passed perihelion at a distance of 0.5 AU.7.
1965 – First “space walk” completed by Alexei Leonov, outside of Voskshod 2. His walk lasts 12 minutes.
1899 – Phoebe, a satellite of Saturn, becomes the first to be discovered with photographs, taken in August 1898, by William Henry Pickering.
Birthdays
1957 – Christer Fuglesang, Swedish physicist and astronaut was first launched aboard the STS-116 Space Shuttle making him the first Swedish national in space. He then flew on STS-128.