This Day In Space History: August 23

1961

Lunar probe, Ranger 1, is launched and reaches 190 km away from Earth, before falling back and out of orbit. read about the mission here: https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/masterCatalog.do?sc=1961-021A

1966

http://www.yearinspace.com/the-week-in-space

Lunar Orbiter 1 photographs the first image of Earth taken from the moon.

1973

https://www.n2yo.com/satellite/?s=6796

Communications satellite INTELSAT 4-F7 is launched.

1974

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/540174/john-lennon-ufo-sighting-new-york-revelation-beatles-mary-peng
John Lennon and Mary Peng reportedly see a UFO from a balcony in New York City. "It definitely wasn't a helicopter," he said, as it was a silent dome with a red light on top that was "pulsating." The photographs they tried to take came out over-exposed, but seven other reports had also been made of the UFO, which, according to Lennon, he saw "turn right at the United Nations building, turn left and then down the [East] river."



For a complete list of today’s Space History, see  http://www.astronautix.com/a/august23.html

This Day In Space History: August 10

1966

http://www.astronautix.com/a/august10.html
Lunar Orbiter 1 is launched at 15:26 EDT from Cape Canaveral.

1972

https://www.space.com/37183-today-in-space.html

Meteor "Great Daylight Fireball" passes through the sky. Within just under two minutes, it entered the atmosphere over Utah and traveled north, leaving the atmosphere over Alberta, Canada.

1990

The Magellan spacecraft enters Venus' orbit.

1992

The TOPEX/Poseidon satellite, a project bewteeen the French space agency, Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and NASA, is launched. A goal was to measure the topography of the ocean surface, which led to many interesting feats. Learn more about them here: https://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/topex/ 

1999

http://www.astronautix.com/a/august10.html
Shuttle Mir experiences a computer failure, ending the over-a-decade-long Soviet mission.

2001

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/archives/sts-105.html
The Discovery shuttle STS-105 is launched at 17:10 EDT to the International Space Station.



For a complete list of today’s Space History, see  http://www.astronautix.com/a/august10.html