Space Exploration

January 16, 2003

Famous for being the first Space Shuttle ever to be launched (mission STS-1), the Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107. This mission would prove to be its final one as Columbia disintegrated 16 days later on re-entry.

January 16, 1969

Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 perform the first-ever docking of manned spacecraft in orbit, the first-ever transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another, and the only time such a transfer was accomplished with a space walk.

January 14, 2005

The European Space Agency’s Huygens probe lands on Saturn‘s moon Titan. This was the first landing ever accomplished in the outer solar system.

January 11, 1997

Telstar 401, a satellite owned by AT&T that transmitted computer data, phone calls, and television programming, suddenly fails for no apparent reason. AT&T attempts for over a week to reestablish contact, but ultimately fails. While AT&T never officially acknowledges the possibility, many scientists believe that a major solar storm may have contributed to the failure of the satellite.

January 11, 1978

Soyuz 27 links with Salyut 6 & Soyuz 26, marking the first time that three spacecraft are docked together.

January 10, 1962

NASA announces plans to build the C-5 rocket booster. It became better known as the Saturn V moon rocket, which launched every Apollo moon mission.

January 10, 1946

The first RADAR contact with the Moon is made.

January 8, 1994

Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov on Soyuz TM-18 leaves for Mir. He would stay on the space station until March 22, 1995, for a record 437 days in space.

January 8, 1973

Soviet space mission Luna 21 is launched. Luna 21 successfully landed on the moon and deployed the second Soviet lunar rover, Lunokhod 2.

January 7, 1968

Surveyor 7 lifts off from launch complex 36A, Cape Canaveral. Surveyor 7 was the seventh and last lunar lander of the American unmanned Surveyor program sent to explore the surface of the Moon.