Jul 16, 2025July 16 marks the anniversary of the first atomic bomb test and the first mission to the moon. John Dickerson shares his thoughts on an event that revealed the terrifying, destructive power of human knowledge and another that revealed its daring ambition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Spaceflight/On_This_Day/Index
July 20, 1976 - first soft landing on Mars
Seventy-five years of launch from Florida's Space Coast celebrated at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum! Check out this piece in Florida Today recognizing this momentous occasion.
"Yikes!" "You Bet!" "Concur!" "We Don't Need Anymore of These!"July 23rd - on this day in 1999, NASA launched the Chandra X-ray Observatory from KSC onboard Shuttle Columbia (STS-93). It was the heaviest payload ever launched by the Space Shuttle. Columbia's crew included Commander Eileen Collins, Pilot Jeffrey Ashby, and Mission Specialists Michel Tognini (CNES), Steven Hawley, and Catherine Coleman.Approximately five seconds after liftoff, an electrical short disabled the center engine's primary digital control unit, DCU-A, and the right engine's backup unit, DCU-B. The center and right engines continued to operate on their remaining DCUs for the rest of powered flight to orbit. The redundant set of DCUs in each engine controller saved Columbia and her crew from potential catastrophe, as shutdown of two engines at that point in the flight would have resulted in a very risky contingency abort with no guarantee of successIt also resulted in the above-mentioned, memorable exchange by mission controllers, which is now also included in our YouTube intro.Columbia successfully deployed the Chandra telescope and safely landed at Cape Canaveral five days after launch.
From Viking 1 to today, @lmspace has played a role in every @NASA Mars mission.50 years ago, Viking 1 made history. Today, we celebrate that legacy and look ahead to the future of deep space exploration.
HAPPY SPACE COAST DAY!!! We collected proclamations from Brevard County and 16 local communities in celebration of this momentous event. Today, we celebrate 75 years of launch from Florida's Space Coast!@ccspacemuseum
"As a result of what you've done, the world has never been closer together before." Richard Nixon welcomed the crew of Apollo 11 after they splashed down in the Pacific Ocean #OTD in 1969, marking the successful completion of one of humanity's greatest feats.
The event was not without drama, however. Find out why the crew spent the next two weeks recovering in the hospital!
NASA History Office@NASAhistoryThis weekend, we commemorate the 20th anniversary of the launch of STS-114—the first shuttle flight after the tragic Columbia accident 2.5 years earlier.📷 The first Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver below the @Space_Station helped inspect Discovery's heat-resistant tiles for damage.
Ben Cooper@LaunchPhoto1/3 20 years ago today at 10:39 a.m. EDT, STS-114 Discovery rocketed back into space on the Return to Flight mission following the Columbia tragedy in early 2003. Hard to believe it's 20 years.
NASA History Office@NASAhistoryReady for launchThe crew of @NASA's Apollo 15 mission blasted into space #OTD in 1971 to begin their four-day journey to the Moon. Apollo 15 was the first of three "J" missions, which featured a longer stay on the Moon and greater mobility thanks to the lunar rover.
NSF - NASASpaceflight.com@NASASpaceflightOn this day...1971: Saturn V SA-510 launched Apollo 15 to the Moon.2005: Shuttle Discovery launched STS-114 to the ISS, the return to flight mission following the Columbia disaster.I will always respect the Space Shuttle, but its era represented a pause in exploration beyond Earth's orbit. Geopolitics and funding constraints during Apollo's conclusion delayed progress, but the next step should have been a permanent lunar base, then Mars exploration. Fortunately, the future path now pursues those goals and beyond. Challenges remain, but the days of human spaceflight to Mars being a distant plan masked in perpetual 20-year timelines are over.
NASA History Office@NASAhistorySTS-51F, the Spacelab 2 mission, took flight 40 years ago today!This 19th shuttle flight was the only one to perform an Abort to Orbit emergency procedure, so the mission's round-the-clock science experiments took place at a slightly lower altitude than originally planned.
