2011 – Spacecraft DAWN opens eyes after a six month hibernation in preparation for the May approach and July
arrival at Vesta.
2018 – Launch of Soyuz MS-08 from Baikonur Cosmodrome to the International Space Station for a five month mission as Expedition 55. Russian Federation Artemyev Oleg Germanovich Commander, USA Feustel Andrew Jay “Drew” Flight Engineer, and USA Arnold Richard Robert II “Ricky” Flight Engineer
2001 – Landing of STS-102 at Kennedy Space Center, SLF Runway 15. It was Space Station Assembly Flight ISS-5A.1 Time docked to ISS: 8 days, 21 hours, 54 minutes The mission also included two spacewalks.
1993 – Three interplanetary spacecraft, ESA’s Ulysses and NASA’s Mars Observer and Galileo, began operating in a joint experiment to prove the existence of gravitational waves. This joint experiment would make observations simultaneously, greatly increasing the reliability of any detection.
1965 – Launch of Ranger IX, 21:36 UT. The Ranger program was a probe series to transmit close-up black and white photographs of the Moon before crashing into the lunar surface. Only three (7, 8, 9) of the nine Rangers were successful. Ranger 9, the last of the unmanned series, impacted the moon on March 24, 1965.
Birthdays
1941 – Dirk Dries David Damian Frimout a Belgian astronaut who flew as a payload specialist on STS-45 Atlantis (24 March to 2 April 1992).
1927 – Halton Arp was an American astronomer known for his 1966 book Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, which catalogued unusual-looking galaxies and presented their images.(d. 28 December 2013)
1913 – Dr. Guillermo Haro Barraza was a Mexican astronomer. Through his own astronomical research and the formation of new institutions, Haro was influential in the development of modern observational astronomy in Mexico. Internationally, he is best known for his contribution to the discovery of Herbig–Haro objects. (d. 26 April 1988)
1866 –
Antonia Maury, astronomer who published an important early stellar catalog. (d. 8 January 1952)