The astronauts visited geological features near the Apollo 15 landing site in the Hadley-Apennine region, collected samples, and deployed scientific experiments, while television images transmitted from the rover allowed audiences on Earth to observe the exploration.
At 11.39am Challenger lifted off, and seventy-three seconds later the Shuttle began to disintegrate following a huge fireball. All seven members of crew were killed, and the disaster led to NASA suspending all Space Shuttle missions for over two and a half years.
Galileo’s arrival at Jupiter on 7 December 1995 demonstrated the feasibility of long-duration operations in the outer Solar System and produced findings that shaped subsequent missions, including Juno and the planned Europa Clipper.
Telstar’s first broadcast involved relaying an image of a flag outside its base station at Andover Earth Station to the Pleumeur-Bodou earth station in France.
Over the course of nearly three days, Valentina Tereshkova orbited the Earth 48 times on board Vostock 6, maintaining radio contact with Bykovsky using the call sign “Chaika,” meaning “Seagull” in Russian.
Subsequent investigations revealed that a cabin vent valve had accidentally opened and depressurised the capsule when the service module was jettisoned at an altitude of 168 km, causing the crew to fall unconscious and suffer cardiac arrest in less than a minute.
The resulting emergency led to the calm announcement by the crew of, ‘Houston we’ve had a problem’.
28th June 2015
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