Space History for March 16

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1750
Born, Caroline Herschel, Germany, the first modern woman astronomer

Caroline Lucretia Herschel (16 March 1750 - 9 January 1848) was a German-born English astronomer. She worked with her brother Sir William Herschel. Her main contribution to astronomy was the discovery of some new comets. In particular, the periodic comet 35P/Herschel-Rigollet bears her name.
ref: en.wikipedia.org

1789
Born, Georg Simon Ohm, German physicist, discoverer of Ohm's law (V=I/R)
ref: en.wikipedia.org

1836
Born, Andrew S. Hallidie, inventor (cable car, similar technology may be used for transportation within space colonies)
ref: en.wikipedia.org

1838
Died, Nathaniel Bowditch, American mathematician, astronomer, navigation expert, author, inventor (marine sextant)
ref: en.wikipedia.org

1895
M. Wolf discovered asteroid #401 Ottilia.

1912
Born, Rudolf F. Hoelker, German rocket engineer, member of the German Rocket Team in the United States after World War II, Deputy Director, Aeroballistics Division, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (1960)
ref: www.legacy.com

1918
Born, Frederick Reines, American physicist (Nobel 1995 with Martin Perl "for the detection of the neutrino")
ref: www.nobelprize.org

1926
Robert Goddard launched the world's first liquid-fuel rocket, which flew 184 feet (56 meters) in 2.5 seconds, at Auburn, Massachusetts. This event is considered the "Kitty Hawk" of rocketry.
ref: www.nasa.gov

1927
Born, Vladimir M. Komarov (at Moscow, Russian SFSR), Colonel Soviet AF, Soviet cosmonaut (Voshkod I, Soyuz 1; 2d 3h total time in spaceflight), the first human to die during a space mission (Soyuz 1) (deceased)

Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov, 1 July 1965
Source: RIA Novosti archive, image #888102, via Wikipedia

Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov (16 March 1927 - 24 April 1967) was a Soviet cosmonaut who became the first human to die during a space mission, after having commanded the first mission with a crew of more than one, and as the first person to fly to space twice.

Born in Moscow, Komarov showed an early interest in aviation. At the age of fifteen, he entered the "First Moscow Special Air Force School" where he graduated with honors in 1945. After attending two Air Force colleges, he entered the Soviet Air Force as a lieutenant. He received further promotions, and became a test pilot at the Central Scientific Research Institute at Chkalovsky.

Komarov was one of twenty cosmonaut candidates selected for "Air Force Group One" in 1960. In spite of medical conditions that had him in and out of training, including a heart condition similar to the one that grounded Deke Slayton, he continued his path into space.

Komarov was named as the prime crew commander for Voskhod 1 by the State Commission on 4 October 1964, just eight days before its scheduled launch. The flight of three cosmonauts, launched 12 October 1964 at 07:30:01 UTC, lasted 24 hours 17 minutes, and was the first space flight with a crew of more than one. Its success earned Komarov the awards of the Order of Lenin and Hero of the Soviet Union.

Assigned to the Soviet Soyuz program, Komarov and his fellow cosmonauts became increasingly anxious about the lack of response to their concerns over the design and manufacture of spacecraft. Komarov was selected in 1967 to command Soyuz 1, with Yuri Gagarin as his backup. Although they knew the spacecraft had major safety problems, Komarov chose to fly because if he refused, Gagarin would be forced to go instead. He insisted before the flight that his funeral be open-casket so that the Soviet leadership could see what they had done.

Launched 23 April 1967 at 00:35:00 UTC, Soyuz 1 immediately started having problems. One of the solar panels failed to deploy, leaving the spacecraft short of power and obscuring some of the navigation equipment. Radio systems failed, so telemetry coverage and contact with the capsule was incomplete. Komarov experienced difficulty orienting the ship as well due to thruster failures. Because of the problems, the launch of Soyuz 2, which was supposed to rendezvous for an EVA crew transfer, was cancelled. (The official reason for the launch cancellation was "heavy rains at the launch site.") In spite of the problems, Komarov was able to successfully re-orient the craft for its deorbit burn after the mission was cut short. However, the main parachute failed to deploy due to a pressure sensor failure and the manually deployed reserve chute became tangled with the drag chute. As a result, the reentry module hit the ground in Orenburg Oblast at about 40 m/s (140 km/h; 89 mph), and Komarov died on impact.

Komarov received several honors posthumously, including a second Order of Lenin and Hero of the Soviet Union, being named in two memorials left on the Moon by Apollo astronauts, and having a Lunar crater and an asteroid named in his honor.

See also Wikipedia
ref: www.spacefacts.de

1928
A. Schwassmann discovered asteroid #1303 Luthera.

1931
C. W. Tombaugh discovered asteroid #3754.

1932
Born, R. Walter M. Cunningham (at Creston, Iowa, USA), Colonel USMC, NASA astronaut (Apollo 7; over 10d 20h time in spaceflight)

Astronaut Walter Cunningham, NASA photo (10 September 1964)
Source: Wikipedia (www.jsc.nasa.gov unavailable March 2019)
ref: www.nasa.gov

1936
L. Boyer discovered asteroids #1380 Volodia and #1392 Pierre.

1947
The Convair CV-240 made its maiden flight, the first twin-engine pressurized airliner.
ref: en.wikipedia.org

1953
Born, Richard Stallman, Free Software activist, founder of GNU; the Free Software movement has dramatically reduced the cost of software for space systems (among others)
ref: en.wikipedia.org

1959
Born, Michael John "Bloomer" Bloomfield (at Flint, Michigan, USA), Colonel USAF, NASA astronaut (STS 86, STS 97, STS 110; nearly 32d 11h total time in spaceflight)

Astronaut Michael "Bloomer" Bloomfield, NASA photo (2004)
Source: Wikipedia
ref: en.wikipedia.org

1962
The first launch of a Titan 2 rocket was performed. Titan 2 rockets were later used for launching NASA's Gemini spacecraft.
ref: en.wikipedia.org

1962
USSR launched the first satellite given a Cosmos designation. Cosmos 1 (aka Sputnik 11) employed radio methods to study the structure of the ionosphere.
ref: nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov

1966 16:41:02 GMT
NASA launched Gemini 8 carrying Neil Armstrong and David Scott for the first manual docking in space.

Gemini 8 launch preparations, NASA photo
Source: NSSDCA Master Catalog

Gemini 8, launched 16 March 1966, was the sixth crewed Earth orbiting spacecraft of the Gemini series, manned by astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott. The primary mission objectives were to perform rendezvous and four docking tests with an Agena target vehicle, and to execute an ExtraVehicular Activity (EVA) experiment. Other objectives included parking the Agena in a 410 km circular orbit, performing a rerendezvous with the Agena, conducting systems evaluations, evaluating the auxiliary tape memory unit, and demonstration of controlled reentry. Ten technological, medical, and scientific experiments were carried on board.

During the first six hours after launch, the spacecraft performed 9 maneuvers to rendezvous with the Gemini Agena Target Vehicle (GATV), launched earlier the same day. The rendezvous phase ended at 4:39 p.m. EST, with the spacecraft 45 meters apart with zero relative motion. Stationkeeping and other maneuvers were performed for about half an hour, and then Gemini 8 moved in and docked with the GATV on the 5th revolution at 5:14 p.m. EST, the first docking ever to take place in space.

About 27 minutes after docking, at 5:41 p.m. EST, the combined vehicle began to go into a violent yaw and tumble. Armstrong disengaged the Gemini capsule from the GATV causing it to roll, pitch, and yaw even more rapidly than when it was connected to the GATV, approaching a rate of one revolution per minute. The astronauts fought to control the spacecraft for three minutes. Armstrong managed to deactivate the Orbit Atitude and Maneuver System (OAMS), and in a final attempt to counteract the violent tumbling all 16 reentry control system (RCS) thrusters were utilized to damp out the roll. This manuever succeeded in stabilizing the spacecraft at 6:06:30 p.m. EST, but ended up using 75% of the RCS fuel. It was then discovered that one of the 25-pound OAMS roll thrusters (thruster no. 8) on Gemini 8 had been firing continuously, causing the tumbling. Apparently it had short-circuited while being used to maneuver the Gemini-GATV combination and had stuck open.

Due to the premature use of the reentry control system, an immediate landing was required by Gemini safety rules, so the planned EVA and other activities were cancelled. Retrofire took place on the 7th revolution at 9:45:49 p.m. EST, just over 10 hours after launch, and the spacecraft splashed down in the western Pacific Ocean about 800 km west of Okinawa at 25.22 N, 136.00 E, 2 km from the target.
ref: nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov

1972
T. Gehrels discovered asteroid #2272.

1975
NASA's Mariner 10 passed Mercury at a range of 203 miles (327 km), its closest approach, on the third encounter with the planet.

Mariner 10 was the seventh successful launch in the Mariner series, the first spacecraft to use the gravitational pull of one planet (Venus) to reach another (Mercury), and the first spacecraft mission to visit two planets. Mariner 10 was the first spacecraft to visit Mercury. The spacecraft flew by Mercury three times in a retrograde heliocentric orbit and returned images and data on the planet. Mariner 10 returned the first-ever close-up images of Venus and Mercury. The primary scientific objectives of the mission were to measure Mercury's environment, atmosphere, surface, and body characteristics and to make similar investigations of Venus. Secondary objectives were to perform experiments in the interplanetary medium and to obtain experience with a dual-planet gravity-assist mission.

Mariner 10 was launched 3 November 1973 on a mission to explore Mercury and Venus. The television and ultraviolet experiments were trained on the comet Kohoutek while the spacecraft was en route to its destination. Using a near-ultraviolet filter, it produced photographs of the Venusian chevron clouds, and performed other atmospheric studies. Mariner 10 took 4,000 photos of Venus, which revealed a nearly round planet enveloped in smooth cloud layers. On 29 March and 21 September 1974, and 16 March 1975, Mariner 10 passed Mercury, and was able to map 40-45% of the planet. Its radiometer readings suggested Mercury has a nighttime temperatures of -297 degrees F (-183 degrees C) and maximum daytime temperatures of 368 F (187 C). The closest encounter with Mercury on the first pass was at 2047 UT on 29 March 1974 at a range of 436.5 miles (703 kilometers). Having looped around the Sun, Mariner 10 flew by Mercury again on 21 September 1974 at a range of 29,850 miles (48,069 kilometers), and photographed the sunlit side of the planet and the south polar region. The spacecraft used solar pressure on its solar panels and high-gain antenna for attitude control. A third and final encounter, the closest to Mercury, took place on 16 March 1975 at a range of 203 miles (327 kilometers). Contact with the spacecraft was terminated on 24 March 1975.

Mariner 10 (also known as Mariner Venus Mercury 1973) was placed in a parking orbit after launch for approximately 25 minutes, then placed in orbit around the Sun en route to Venus. The protective cover of the sunward-facing electrostatic analyzers did not open fully after launch, and these intruments, part of the Scanning Electrostatic Analyzer and Electron Spectrometer experiment, could not be used. It was also discovered that the heaters for the television cameras had failed, so the cameras were left on to prevent low temperatures from damaging the optics.

A trajectory correction maneuver was made 10 days after launch. Immediately following this manuever the star-tracker locked onto a bright flake of paint which had come off the spacecraft and lost lock on the guide star Canopus. An automated safety protocol recovered Canopus, but the problem of flaking paint recurred throughout the mission. The on-board computer also experienced unscheduled resets occasionally, which would neccesitate reconfiguring the clock sequence and subsystems. Periodic problems with the high-gain antenna also occurred during the cruise. In January 1974, Mariner 10 made ultraviolet observations of Comet Kohoutek and another mid-course correction was made on 21 January. The spacecraft passed Venus at 1701 UT on 5 February 1974 at a closest range of 5768 km, and returned the first close-up images of Venus. This also marked the first time a spacecraft used a gravity assist from one planet to help it reach another.

Enroute to Mercury an attitude control anomaly occurred for the second time, using up much of the attitude control gas. Some new procedures were used from that point on to orient the spacecraft, including Sun-line maneuvers and the use of solar wind on the solar panels to orient the spacecraft. Mariner 10 crossed the orbit of Mercury at 2046 UT on 29 March 1974, at a distance of about 704 km from the surface. A second encounter with Mercury, when more photographs were taken, occurred on 21 September 1974, at an altitude of 48,069 km. Unfortunately, the lighted hemisphere was almost the same as the first encounter, so a large portion of the planet remained unimaged. A third and last Mercury encounter at an altitude of 327 km, with additional photography of about 300 frames and magnetic field measurements occurred on 16 March 1975. Engineering tests were continued until 24 March 1975, when the supply of attitude-control gas was depleted and the mission was terminated.

Mariner 10 results showed a Hadley-type circulation existed in Venus' atmosphere and showed that Venus had at best a weak magnetic field, and the ionosphere interacted with the solar wind to form a bow shock. At Mercury, it was confirmed the planet had only a faint atmosphere of mostly helium, and an intensely cratered, dormant Moon-like surface was shown in the images. Mercury was shown to have a small magnetic field and a relatively large iron-rich core.
ref: nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov

1978 11:19:00 GMT
USSR Soyuz 27 returned to Earth with cosmonauts Yuri Romanenko and Georgi Grechko aboard who had launched to the Salyut 6 space station on Soyuz 26.
ref: nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov

1980
C. I. Lagerkvist discovered asteroids #2902 Westerlund and #3634; and L. Brozek discovered asteroid #3386.

1983
E. Barr discovered asteroid #3445.

2003
Died, Lawrence Hugh Aller, US astronomer (gaseous nebulae)
ref: en.wikipedia.org

2880
The predicted closest approach to Earth of Near-Earth object 1950 DA will occur, which might impact Earth. If a collision with the 1.1 km diameter asteroid occurs, it would cause an extinction event, destroying most life on the planet.
ref: ssd.jpl.nasa.gov

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