Space Exploration

March 1, 1966

The unmanned Soviet space probe Venera 3 crashes into the night side of Venus, becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet.

February 26, 1966

The first Saturn 1B rocket is launched from Cape Canaveral. The Saturn 1B was primarily used for testing the Apollo spacecraft while the larger Saturn V rocket that was necessary for travel to the Moon was being developed. Later, after completion of the Moon landing program, The Saturn 1B was used for manned Skylab flights and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. In total, the Saturn 1B was launched 9 times with no failures.

February 24, 2011

The Space Shuttle Discovery launches on flight STS-133, its 39th and final mission, transporting several items to the International Space Station, including a humanoid robot called Robonaut2, nicknamed R2. Discovery was the longest-serving orbiter, flying more missions than any other Space Shuttle.

February 24, 1949

Considered the first US rocket to reach outer space by NASA, Bumper 5 is launched from the White Sands Proving Grounds in New Mexico. The rocket was a combination of a modified captured German V-2 ballistic missile with a US-designed WAC Corporal rocket. It reached a record altitude at the time of 244 miles. The later named and established Kármán line, which is 62.1 miles (100 kilometers) above the Earth’s sea level, is considered the upper limit of Earth’s atmosphere and the beginning of Outer Space.

Interestingly, according to information found online there were other previous captured V-2 test flights launched from White Sands that reached higher than 100 km prior to Bumper 5. Still, the significance of Bumper 5 was that it was the first successful two-stage rocket launch, which proved the feasibility of the basic design of staged rockets that made successful space flight a reality.

February 20, 1986

The Soviet Union launches the core module of the Mir space station. The core module will provide living quarters for the cosmonauts, including a galley, cooking elements, storage, individual crew cabins and personal hygiene area. Five additional modules will be launched between March 1987 and April 1996.

February 20, 1962

John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth, riding aboard Friendship 7. Glenn orbits the Earth three times in four hours, fifty-five minutes. NASA accomplishes the landmark using an IBM 7030 Stretch supercomputer.

February 18, 1977

The first Space Shuttle orbiter, the Enterprise, embarks on its maiden flight in “captive mode,” attached to the top of a Boeing 747 jumbo jet. The flight is the first of five captive flights before the orbiter is finally released to land on its own. The nine month test program is conducted through November 1977 at the Dryden Flight Research Facility to demonstrate that the orbiter can fly and land like an airplane. The Enterprise, while the first shuttle to fly, was not the first space-worthy orbiter and was only used for testing purposes.

February 17, 1959

Vanguard 2, the first weather satellite in space, is launched to measure cloud-cover distribution. The satellite is still in orbit today and is expected to continue to orbit for about 300 years.

February 12, 2001

The NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touches down in the “saddle” region of asteroid 433 Eros, becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.

February 11, 1997

The Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. This was the second of five missions necessary to fix the flawed telescope. In most states, the entire thing could have been replaced as a lemon.