2006 – Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, one of the comets discovered by astronomers by Arnold Schwassmann and Arno Arthur Wachmann, broke into fragments on its re-entry to the inner Solar System, in a reaction triggered by the Sun’s heating the comet as it emerged from the frozen space of the outer Solar System.
1949 – Neptune‘s moon Nereid is discovered by Gerard Kuiper.
2001 – Landing of STS-100 at Edwards Air Force Base.
1979 – First space shuttle roll-out. Non-flight shuttle Enterprise, mated to External Tank number 2, and two inert solid rocket motors, is rolled out to LC39A for facility checks.
1961 – NASA Administrator Webb issued a statement concerning the 2-year Mercury manned space flight program, which said, in part: “NASA has not attempted to encourage press coverage of the first Mercury-Redstone manned flight. It has responded to press and television requests, with the result that over 100 representatives of the press, radio, and TV are now at Cape Canaveral. . . . We must keep the perspective that each flight is but one of the many milestones we must pass. Some will completely succeed in every respect, some partially, and some will fail. From all of them will come mastery of the vast new space environment on which so much of our future depends.”
1959 – Goddard Space Flight Center established. NASA’s Administrator announced the naming of Goddard Space Flight Center under construction near Greenbelt, Md., in commemoration of Robert H. Goddard, American pioneer in rocket research.
1930 – The dwarf planet Pluto is officially named by Vesto Slipher.
Birthdays
1925 – Scott Carpenter, one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts selected by NASA on April 9, 1959. He flew Mercury Aurora 7 and was the second American to orbit Earth and the fourth American in Space. (d. 10 October 2013)
