!! L5Development.com - Space History for May 31

Space History for May 31

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1799
Died, Pierre Lemonnier, French astronomer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Lemonnier

1872
Born, Charles G Abbot, US astronomer (Constant Sun)

1908
Miss Pottelsberghe de la Pottery became the first airplane passenger, in Belgium.

1912
Born, Georgi Ivanovich Petrov, Russian scientist, Director of the Soviet Institute of Space Research 1965-1973, who conducted aerodynamic research at NII-1 before being named Director

1912
Born, Martin Schwarzschild, US astronomer (evolution)

1918
M Wolf discovered asteroids #892 Seeligeria and #893 Leopoldina.

1919
The first wedding held in an aircraft took place over Houston, Texas.

1928
The first successful transpacific flight, from the US to Australia, was begun by two Americans and two Australians in a Fokker trimotor aircraft, leaving Oakland, California for Brisbane, Austrailia. The flight ended on 8 June.

1929
K Reinmuth discovered asteroid #1108 Demeter.

1930
Comet 73P/1930 (Schwassmann-Wachmann 3) approached to within 0.0617 AUs of Earth.

1935
A Goddard A series rocket reached 7,500 feet. The 15 ft. 1.5 in. rocket had a new lift indicator, weighed 84 lb, showed excellent stabilization, and landed 5500 ft from the launch tower, digging a hole 10 in. deep, with a loud whistle on descent.

1937
Born, Vladislav Ivanovich Gulyayev, Russian engineer, cosmonaut

1938
K Reinmuth discovered asteroid #1466 Mundleria.

1951
S Arend discovered asteroid #1591 Baize.

1955
Groundbreaking occurred for the Baikonour Cosmodrome, the main Soviet launch site.

1956 02:57:00 GMT
USSR launched the R-1 Test/Solar Ultraviolet mission which carried dogs to an altitude of 100 km. The payload, instruments, left and right animal containers were all recovered, but the smoke container failed.

1957 18:08:00 GMT
The first fully successful launch of the US Jupiter IRBM (Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile) rocket reached an altitude of over 250 miles.
The US Army Jupiter IRBM was first successfully fired 1,500 miles, the limit of its designed range, to an altitude of 250-300 miles, on 31 May 1957. It was fired from AMR to test the range capability and performance of rocket engine and control system. Although the missile was 253 nm short of its estimated 1,400 nm impact point, this was the first successful flight of the Jupiter. All phases of the test were successful during this first firing of an IRBM in the Western world.

1960
NASA launched the Shotput E60 Echo test mission from Wallops Station, Virginia, to an altitude of 210 miles, to test the payload configuration, carrying a 100-foot inflatable sphere with two beacon transmitters, a development flight of Project Echo.

1960
NASA selected North American Aviation's Rocketdyne Division to develop the J-2, a 200,000 pound thrust rocket engine burning liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, later chosen for the upper stages of the Saturn C-5.

1962 03:01:00 GMT
Australia launched a Long Tom aeronomy mission from Woomera, which reached an apogee of 125 km.

1962 17:08:00 GMT
The US Air Force launched the Blue Scout Junior ERCS/279L 1 communications mission from Point Arguello, California, which reached an apogee of 1,000 km.

1966 17:16:00 GMT
US LRL/NMC launched an Iris LRL BOX-4 X-ray astronomy mission from a Pacific Ocean launch site which reached an apogee of 188 km.

1966 19:19:00 GMT
A joint Australia/UK Skylark ionosphere mission was launched from Woomera which reached an apogee of 161 km.

1967
The US Air Force launched a Thor Agena D from Vandenburg carrying nine separate calibration, gravity gradient stabilization and navigation experiment satellites into orbit. The Timation 1 experiments eventually led to the Navstar/GPS system.

1968 08:49:00 GMT
The joint Australia/UK Skylark UK SL762 aeronomy mission was launched from Woomera, which reached an apogee of 242 km.

1968 20:39:00 GMT
The joint Australia/UK Skylark UK SL761 aeronomy mission was launched from Woomera, which achieved an apogee of 238 km.

1972 06:19:00 GMT
The joint USA/Norway Nike Apache Ferdinand 34 ionosphere mission was launched from Andoya, Norway, which reached an apogee of 154 km.

1972 06:53:00 GMT
The joint USA/Norway Nike-Cajun Ferdinand 33 ionosphere mission was launched from Andoya, which reached an apogee of 110 km.

1972 22:25:00 GMT
NASA launched a Black Brant Solar mission from White Sands, New Mexico, which reached an apogee of 207 km.

1975
The European Space Agency (ESA) began operating, after the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO) was merged with the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO).

1979
J Kveton discovered asteroid #2672 Pisek.

1979 17:58:00 GMT
USSR launched the Cosmos 1104 military communications satellite.

1981 05:00:00 GMT
India launched the Rohini 2 technology satellite from Sriharikota, a partial failure because the satellite ended up in an orbit that was too low.

1986
The Mir EO-1-2 EVA was performed at the Mir space station to test a truss structure.

1986 00:53:00 GMT
The Intelsat-5A 14 communication satellite, targeted for geostationary orbit, was lost when the Ariane 2/3 third stage had an ignition failure and the rocket was destroyed by range safety.

1988 07:45:00 GMT
USSR launched the Cosmos 1951 landsat for investigation of the natural resources of the Earth in the interests of various branches of the national economy of the USSR, and international cooperation.

1989 08:31:00 GMT
USSR launched a Proton booster from Baikonur carrying two Glonass satellites (Cosmos 2022 and 2023) for testing the navigation system being developed, and Cosmos 2024 for geophysical and geodetic research and space apparatus identification testing.

1990 10:33:00 GMT
USSR launched the Kristall Mir module into orbit from Baikonur.
Mir's third expansion module, dedicated to materials processing, Kristall was launched 31 May 1990, and carried equipment for research on semiconductors and the purification of biologically active substances to the USSR/Russian Mir space station. It also carried astrophysical, geophysical and technical experiments. Its launch was originally planned for 30 March 1990, delayed to 18 April, then further delayed due to computer chip problems. Docking was scheduled for 6 June at 12:36, but was delayed due to problem with one of Kristall's orientation engines. Docking was successfully completed 10 June at 12:47. On 11 June, Kristall was moved to a side port. Work within the module began on 15 June 1990.

At launch, Kristall had a total mass of 19,500 kg (7,000 kg payload), which had been reduced to 17,200 kg on docking. It was 11.9 m long, 4.35 m in diameter, and its solar arrays spanned 36 m. Its main body was similar to Kvant 2, with a multiple docking port instead of an EVA airlock module. The docking system was planned to host a future Buran visit. It increased Mir's mass to 83 metric tons and restabilized the station, thrown off kilter with the addition of the Kvant 2 module.

Kristall consisted of two compartments: The Instrument-Payload Compartment contained food containers, and the industrial processing units Krater 3, Optizon 1, Zona 02, and Zona 03. A 0.8 m hatch led to the Junction-Docking compartment which contained a spherical universal docker with two APAS-89 androgynous docking units for docking with the Buran shuttle and the 1,000 kg X-ray telescope that was planned to be delivered by Buran in 1991. A third opening housed Earth observation cameras.

Officially, Kristall was a specialized module for experimental-industrial production of semi-conducting materials, refinement of biologically active substances for the production of new medicinal preparations, cultivation of crystals of different albumine compositions and hybridization of cells, and to conduct astrophysical and technical experiments.

1995 15:27:00 GMT
The US Navy launched USA 111 (UHF Follow-On #5), a Navy communications satellite. It was positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 72 deg E in 1995-1999. As of 9 July 1999, it was at 72.22 deg E drifting at 0.007 deg W per day.

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