Space History for April 16

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1178 B.C.
A solar eclipse occurred that may mark the return of Odysseus, legendary King of Ithaca, to his Kingdom after the Trojan War.
ref: en.wikipedia.org

1495
Born, Petrus Apianus [Latinized from Peter Bennewitz or Bienewitz], German astronomer
ref: en.wikipedia.org

1682
Born, John Hadley, English mathematician, inventor (precision aspheric and parabolic objective mirrors for reflecting telescopes)
ref: en.wikipedia.org

1756
Died (carriage accident), Jacques Cassini, French astronomer (rings of Saturn)
ref: messier.seds.org

1783
Died, Christian Mayer, Czech astronomer (binary stars)
ref: en.wikipedia.org

1867
Born, Wilbur Wright, aviator

Wilbur Wright (16 April 1867 - 30 May 1912) and his younger brother Orville are generally credited with the design and construction of the first practical airplane, and making the first flight by a controllable, self powered, heavier than aircraft which took off under its own power, on 17 December 1903, along with many other aviation milestones.
ref: en.wikipedia.org

1906
M. Wolf discovered asteroid #597 Bandusia.

1914
Died, George William Hill, mathematician, astronomer (three-body problem, four-body problem)
ref: en.wikipedia.org

1946
The first test launch of a captured German V-2 rocket in the United States was made, to an altitude of 5 miles (8 km), at White Sands, New Mexico.
ref: www.airspacemag.com

1956
Born, David M. Brown (at Arlington, Virginia, USA), Captain USN, NASA astronaut (STS 107 Mission Specialist 1; 15d 22h 20m in spaceflight) (deceased, Columbia re-entry disaster)

Astronaut David M. Brown, NASA photo (25 September 2001)
Source: Wikipedia (spaceflight.nasa.gov killed 25 Feb 2021)
ref: history.nasa.gov

1959
Born, Michael Reed Barratt (at Vancouver, Washington, USA), NASA astronaut (ISS 19/20, STS 133; over 211d 11.75h total time in spaceflight)

Astronaut Michael R. Barratt, NASA photo JSC2010-E-177742 (13 July 2010)
Source: Wikipedia (spaceflight.nasa.gov killed 25 Feb 2021)
ref: www.nasa.gov

1960 16:07:41 GMT
USSR launched Luna 1960B, a second unsuccessful attempt in two days to repeat Luna 3's feat of photographing the far side of the Moon.

Luna E-3 No.2, initially identified by NASA as Luna 1960B, was launched 16 April 1960 as an attempt to duplicate the Luna 3 achievement of photographing the far side of the Moon, with the goal of passing closer to the Lunar surface with higher resolution cameras. At launch, the four strap-on blocks of the SL-3/A-1 launcher failed to operate correctly and broke loose, firing off in random directions. The accident caused considerable damage to the launch pad.
ref: nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov
ref: en.wikipedia.org

1972 17:54:00 GMT
NASA launched Apollo 16, the fifth astronaut mission to land on the Moon.

Apollo 16 (AS 511) consisted of the Command and Service Module (CSM) "Casper" and the Lunar Module (LM) "Orion." The launch on 16 April 1972 was postponed from the originally scheduled 17 March date because of a docking ring jettison malfunction. It was the fifth mission in which humans walked on the Lunar surface and returned to Earth. On 21 April 1972 two astronauts (Apollo 16 Commander John W. Young and LM pilot Charles M. Duke, Jr.) landed in the Descartes region of the Moon in the Lunar Module (LM) while the Command and Service Module (CSM) (with CM pilot Thomas K. Mattingly, II) continued in Lunar orbit. During their stay on the Moon, the astronauts set up scientific experiments, took photographs, and collected Lunar samples. The LM took off from the Moon on 24 April and the astronauts returned to Earth on 27 April.

The primary mission goals of inspecting, surveying, and sampling materials in the Descartes region, emplacement and activation of surface experiments, conducting inflight experiments and photographic tasks from Lunar orbit, engineering evaluation of spacecraft and equipment, and performance of zero-gravity experiments were achieved despite the mission being shortened by one day. Young, 41, was a Navy Captain who had flown on three previous spaceflights (Gemini 3, Gemini 10, and Apollo 10; he later flew on STS-1 and STS-9), Mattingly, 36, was a Navy Lt. Commander on his first spaceflight (he later flew STS-4 and STS-51C), and Duke, 36, was an Air Force Lt. Colonel also on his first spaceflight.

Apollo 16 was launched at 17:54:00 (12:54:00 p.m. EST) on Saturn V SA-511 from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The spacecraft entered Earth parking orbit at 18:05:56 UT and translunar injection took place at 20:27:37 UT. The CSM and S-IVB stage separated at 20:58:59 UT and CSM-LM docking was achieved at 21:15:53 UT. The S-IVB stage was released into a Lunar impact trajectory, but due to an earlier problem with the auxiliary propulsion system (APS) helium regulators, which resulted in continuous venting and loss of helium, the second APS burn could not be made. Tracking of the S-IVB was lost on 17 April at 21:03 UT due to a transponder failure. (The S-IVB stage impacted the Moon on 19 April at 21:02:04 UT at 1.3 N, 23.8 W with a velocity of 2.5 to 2.6 km/s at a 79 degree angle from the horizontal, as estimated from the Apollo 12, 14 and 15 seismic station data.) A mid-course correction was performed at 00:33:01 UT on 18 April. During translunar coast a CSM navigation problem was discovered in which a false indication would cause loss of inertial reference, this was solved by a real-time change in the computer program. The SIM door was jettisoned on 19 April at 15:57:00 UT and Lunar orbit insertion took place at 20:22:28 UT. Two revolutions later, the orbit was lowered to one with a perilune of 20 km.

At 15:24 UT on 20 April, Young and Duke entered the LM. The LM separated from the CSM at 18:08:00 UT, but the LM descent was delayed almost 6 hours due to a malfunction in the yaw gimbal servo loop on the CSM which caused oscillations in the service propulsion system (SPS). Engineers determined that the problem would not seriously affect CSM steering and the mission was allowed to continue with the LM descent. The LM landed at 02:23:35 UT on 21 April in the Descartes highland region just north of the crater Dolland at 9.0 S, 15.5 E. Young and Duke made three moonwalk EVAs totaling 20 hours, 14 minutes. During this time they covered 27 km using the Lunar Roving Vehicle, collected 94.7 kg of rock and soil samples, took photographs, and set up the ALSEP and other scientific experiments. Other experiments were also performed from orbit in the CSM during this time.

The LM lifted off from the Moon at 01:25:48 UT on 24 April after 71 hours, 2 minutes on the Lunar surface. After the LM docked with the CSM at 03:35:18 UT the Lunar samples and other equipment were transferred from the LM and the LM was jettisoned at 20:54:12 UT on 24 April. The LM began tumbling, apparently due to an open circuit breaker in the guidance and navigation system. As a result the planned deorbit and Lunar impact could not be attempted. The LM remained in Lunar orbit with an estimated lifetime of one year. The instrument boom which carried the orbital mass spectrometer would not retract and was jettisoned. Because of earlier problems with the SPS yaw gimbal servo loop the mission was shortened by one day. The orbital shaping maneuver was cancelled, and the subsatellite was spring-launched at 21:56:09 UT into an elliptical orbit with a lifetime of one month, rather than the planned one-year orbit. Transearth injection began at 02:15:33 UT on 25 April. On 25 April at 20:43 UT Mattingly began a cislunar EVA to retrieve camera film from the SIM bay and inspect instruments, two trips taking a total of 1 hour, 24 minutes. The CM separated from the SM on 27 April at 19:16:33 UT. Apollo 16 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on 27 April 1972 at 19:45:05 UT (2:45:05 p.m. EST) after a mission elapsed timeof 265 hours, 51 minutes, 5 seconds. The splashdown point was 0 deg 43 min S, 156 deg 13 min W, 215 miles southeast of Christmas Island and 5 km (3 mi) from the recovery ship USS Ticonderoga.

The Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP), which contained scientific experiments that were deployed and left on the Lunar surface, operated until it was commanded to shut down on 30 September 1977.

The Apollo 16 Command Module "Casper" is on display at the Alabama Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

1980
L. Brozek discovered asteroid #2696 Magion.

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