Mar 24

1993 – Discovery of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 by Carolyn and Eugene Shoemaker and David Levy in a photograph taken with the 46 cm (1.51 ft) Schmidt telescope at the Palomar Observatory in California. And then confirmed by at the It was their ninth periodic comet discovery. On July 16, 1994, the now shattered comet smashed into Jupiter.

(l-r) David Levy, Gene Shoemaker, Carolyn Shoemaker AP Photo
(l-r) David Levy, Gene Shoemaker, Carolyn Shoemaker – AP Photo

1992 – Launch of STS-45 carried the first Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science (ATLAS-1) experiments, placed on Spacelab pallets mounted in the orbiter’s payload bay.

Standing: Lichtenberg, Foale, Leestma, Sullivan and Frimout
Seated: Duffy and Bolden
Standing: LichtenbergFoaleLeestmaSullivan and Frimout
Seated: Duffy and Bolden

1965 – NASA spacecraft Ranger 9 crash lands on the moon.

Birthdays

sts-51-b mission patch van den Berg Insignia
van den Berg Insignia

1932Lodewijk van den Berg was a Dutch-born American chemical engineer. He studied crystal growth and in 1985, at the age of 58, he flew to space on STS-51-B  Space Shuttle Challenger  as a payload specialist conducting crystal growth experiments. (d. 16 October 2022)

van den Berg
Walter Baade
Walter Baade

1893Walter Baade was the first to resolve the Andromeda galaxy’s companions into individual stars and developer of the concept of stellar populations in galaxies. He discovered 10 asteroids and was awarded the Bruce Medal in 1955. (d. 25 June 1960)