1885
Astronomer Harlow Shapley was born. During his life, Shapley studied stars and galaxies, proving through measurements of star dimensions that the Sun wasn't, in fact, positioned at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, but 30,000 light years away from its center. At the center of the galaxy were star clusters positioned spherically in Sagittarius. Shapley’s discoveries helped scientists formulate the first realistic estimate of the size of our galaxy which was 10x larger than previously thought. As a research professor at Harvard and the director of the College’s observatory, Shapley observed metagalaxies, proposing his “liquid water belt” or habitable zone theory.
1978
The crew of the USSR's Soyuz 29 mission returns back to Earth aboard Soyuz 31. The mission was launched June 16, 1978 and docked to Salyut 6. The craft returned to Earth September 3rd, but the crew stayed an additional two months. Soyuz 31 was launched August 26th and docked the next day, eventually bringing home Kovalyonok and Ivanchenkov of the former mission in November.
2000
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/international-space-station-is-15-years-old-first-commander-remembers/The first ISS crew, launched on October 31st, arrived at 5:23 am EST. The crew of Expedition 1, which would last four and a half months, consisted of Commander Bill Shepard and Russian cosmonauts, Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev. The current ISS Expedition is 53
For a complete list of today’s Space History, see http://www.astronautix.com/n/november02.html
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