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This Month in Exploration - January
01.03.08
French aviator Henri Farman. Credit: D. Lam/R. Cooper100 Years Ago
January 13, 1908: French aviator Henri Farman became the first person to fly 1 kilometer in a circle, which earned him the 50,000-franc Deutsch-Archdeacon prize. At that time, airplanes were flying about 30 to 40 miles per hour.
75 Years Ago
January 2, 1933: Aviation pioneer Orville Wright received the first Honorary Fellowship of the Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences. In 1963, this organization joined the American Rocket Society to form the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).
50 Years Ago
January 31, 1958: The U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency launched Explorer-1, the first U.S. satellite, from Cape Canaveral, Fla., using a Jupiter-C rocket. This satellite later discovered the Van Allen Belts, a significant discovery of the International Geophysical Year.
40 Years Ago
January 22, 1968: NASA launched Apollo 5 → via a Saturn-1B rocket and successfully performed the first Earth orbital test of Lunar Module ascent and descent propulsion systems. This unmanned flight also evaluated the performance of the guidance system for the second stage of the Saturn-1B rocket.
Explorer-1 in flight. Credit: NASA30 Years Ago
January 16, 1978: NASA introduced its first female astronauts when it named the eighth class of astronaut candidates. This class of 35 included six women: Anna Fisher, Shannon Lucid, Judith Resnik, Sally Ride, Rhea Seddon and Kathryn Sullivan. All six eventually flew on the space shuttle. And Shannon Lucid set an endurance record for American astronauts with a six-month stay on Russia's Mir space station.
25 Years Ago
January 25, 1983: NASA launched the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), a collaborative effort with the Netherlands Space Agency and the Science and Engineering Research Council in the United Kingdom. This unique telescope system was used to survey the sky for infrared radiation and generate a collection of sky maps. Among its many discoveries, IRAS revealed the core of our galaxy, the Milky Way.
The six female members of the eighth astronaut candidate class from left to right: Lucid, Seddon, Sullivan, Resnik, Fisher, Ride. Credit: NASA15 Years Ago
January 13, 1993: NASA launched Space Shuttle Endeavour to begin the six-day STS-54 mission. The primary goal of this mission was to deploy the fifth Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, which is used for space communication. Endeavour also carried several microgravity science experiments and a Hitchhiker → experiment called the Diffuse X-ray Spectrometer.
10 Years Ago
January 6, 1998: NASA launched the Lunar Prospector Orbiter →, a spacecraft designed to study the moon in a low-altitude polar orbit. The Lunar Prospector analyzed the composition of the lunar surface and measured magnetic and gravity fields on the moon using six experimental instruments. At the end of the mission, the Lunar Prospector was crashed into a crater near the lunar south pole.
Infrared Astronomical Satellite. Credit: NASAFive Years Ago
January 16, 2003: NASA launched Space Shuttle Columbia to begin STS-107. During this 16-day research mission, the crew performed several experiments and sent much of the data to the ground by downlink. During re-entry on February 1, the shuttle and crew were lost over Texas just 16 minutes before their scheduled landing at Kennedy Space Center.
Present Day
Mid-January 2008: The European Space Agency plans to launch Jules Verne, the first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) from Kourou, French Guiana. After a 12- to 15-day journey, it is scheduled to automatically dock with the International Space Station to deliver refueling propellant, air, water and experiments.
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Emily Owens (Analex Corporation)
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