This Day In Space History: July 30

While I sat at the computer brainstorming fun and creative ideas for my next blog post, a lightbulb went off… why don’t I do a “This Day in Space History” segment? So I thought I would see what I could find on the internet. There were a plethora of relevant search results. So, I clicked today’s date (July 30th) and lo and behold, the first event on this day in space history ultimately made the decision for me. It was just too cool for me not to share! As I continued on through the list, there were many more events - but slightly boring (a lot of test missions/launches etc., as well as some births and deaths). Among the almost 100 events today, spanning a little more than a century (including an outlier -- see below), I picked out three to feature in today’s post. I can’t wait to check back each day and see what world-changing events might have happened in history on each respective day!

1610

(This is the outlier I referred to above - all other events didn’t start until the early 20th century)

In Italy, over four centuries ago, this was the day that Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) observed Saturn’s rings. This stuck out to me because it was so long ago and was monumental in observations and planetary science. I know it was such big of a deal because I actually remember writing this down in my notes from my high school World History textbook (granted, it was an AP level book, but still). I have a memory of sitting in the basement with my textbook and writing down the four main achievements of Galileo, the “father of modern science” (history.com) and author of Starry Messenger. Making note of rings on Saturn was one of them. The others: sunspots, Jupiter’s four moons, and mountains on the moon.

(p.s. Sorry for such a long commentary on this one, I’m just a sucker for some good history and also felt proud for remembering something from those long hours with that textbook!!!)

1971

Part of the Apollo 15 Mission, the lunar module Falcon (LM-10) landed on the moon at 6:16 EDT at Hadley Rille, where crew members David R. Scott and James B. Irwin explored the Hadley-Apennine region.

2001

The European Space Agency (ESA) and the China National Space Administration (CNSA) reached "an intention to collaborate" which would help China gain access to the International Space Station. The reason this event caught my attention is because China has since been banned from the ISS (2011-present) by NASA.

For a complete list of today’s Space History, see http://www.astronautix.com/j/july30.html