Space History for March 17

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1764
Died, George Parker, English astronomer

1782
Died, Daniel Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (fluid equation)
Daniel Bernoulli (February 8, 1700 - March 17, 1782) was a Dutch-born mathematician who spent much of his life in Basel, Switzerland. He worked with Leonhard Euler on the equations bearing their names. Bernoulli's principle is of critical use in aerodynamics. It is applicable to steady, inviscid, incompressible flow, along a streamline.

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Bernoulli_Daniel.html

1846
Died, Friedrich W Bessel, German astronomer (measured distance to 61 Cygni), mathematician (systematized Bessel functions discovered by Daniel Bernoulli)
http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Bessel.html

1852
A De Gasparis discovered asteroid #16 Psyche.

1853
Died, Christian Doppler, physicist
Christian Andreas Doppler (November 29, 1803 - March 17, 1853) was an Austrian mathematician, most famous for deducing the phenomenon known as the Doppler effect which causes the frequency of a wave to apparently change as its source moves toward or away from you.

1884
John Joseph Montgomery made his first glider flight at Otay, California.

1893
A Charlois discovered asteroid #363 Padua.

1898
The first practical submarine first submerged, in New York City, for 1 hour 40 minutes.

1909
Born, Vladimir Pavlovich Barmin, Russian Chief Designer 1941-1993 of GSKB SpetsMash; pre-eminent designer of Soviet rocket launch complexes
Vladimir Pavlovich Barmin (March 17, 1909 - July 17, 1993) received his engineering degree from the Bauman MVTU (Moscow Higher Technical University) in 1935, and began work in the Kompresor Factory. By 1941, he had become the head of the design bureau that designed the Katyusha barrage rocket system which was very effectively used by Soviet forces in World War II. After the war, he was assigned to develop launch equipment for the Russian copies of German missiles. He went on to become the pre-eminent Soviet designer of rocket mobile launchers, fixed launch complexes, and missile silos, culminating in the design and construction of the immense facilities at Baikonur for launch of the N1 and Energia super-boosters. Barmin also supervised design of the planned Soviet Lunar base until that project was terminated in 1974. He received innumerable awards and decorations for his service to the Soviet Union in the missile and space race, and was named an Academician of the Academy of Sciences in 1966.

1930
Born, James Benson Irwin (at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA), Colonel US Air Force, astronaut (Apollo 15), eighth person to walk on the Moon (deceased)

1931
A Schwassmann discovered asteroid #1192 Prisma.

1936
Born, Thomas K Mattingly II, Chicago Illinois, Capt USN, astronaut (Apollo 16, STS-4, 51C)

1939
Y Vaisala discovered asteroid #1757 Porvoo.

1950
University of California, Berkeley researchers Stanely Thompson, Kenneth Street, Jr., Albert Ghiorso and Glenn T. Seaborg announced the creation of element 98, the sixth transuranium element to be discovered, which they named "Californium".

1956
Died, Irene Joliot-Curie, French physicist (neutrons, nuclear fission), recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

1958 12:15:41 GMT
The US Navy launched Vanguard 1 into Earth orbit, the satellite was the first to use solar-cell power.
Vanguard 1, launched 17 March 1958, was a small Earth orbiting satellite designed to test the launch capabilities of a three stage launch vehicle and the effects of the environment on a satellite and its systems in Earth orbit. It also was used to obtain geodetic measurements through orbit analysis, and was the first satellite to use solar cells for power.

The spacecraft was a 1.47 kg (3.25 lb) aluminum sphere 15.2 cm (6") in diameter. It contained a 10 mW mercury battery powered transmitter on the 108 MHz band used for IGY scientific satellites, and a 5 mW, 108.03 MHz transmitter powered by six solar cells mounted on the body of the satellite. Six short aerials protruded from the sphere. The transmitters were used as part of a radio phase-comparison angle-tracking system. The tracking data were used to show that the Earth is pear shaped with the stem at the North Pole. The radio signals were also used to determine the total electron content between the satellite and selected ground-receiving stations. Vanguard also carried two thermistors which measured the interior temperature over 16 days in order to track the effectiveness of the thermal protection.

The three stage launch vehicle placed Vanguard into a 654x3969 km (406x2466 mi) 134.2 minute orbit inclined at 34.25 degrees. Original estimates were the orbit would lasting 2000 years, but it was discovered that solar radiation pressure and atmospheric drag during high levels of solar activity produced significant perturbations in the satellite's perigee height, which caused a significant decrease in its expected lifetime to only about 240 years. The battery powered transmitter stopped operating in June 1958 when the batteries ran down. The solar powered transmitter operated until May 1964 (when the last signals were received in Quito, Ecuador) after which the spacecraft was optically tracked from Earth.

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/MasterCatalog?sc=1958-002B

1975
Purple Mountain Observatory discovered asteroids #2387 and #2425.

1977
Harvard College discovered asteroid #2395 Aho.

1992
The Russian manned space craft TM-14 was launched into orbit.

1993
Died (natural causes), Robert Aitken Rushworth (at Camarillo, California, USA), Major General US Air Force, test pilot (X-15)

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