Beyond Earth History Blog

   STS-51-L – Space Shuttle Challenger disaster STS-51-L crew. Crew members are (left to right, front row) astronauts Michael J. Smith, Francis R. (Dick) Scobee and Ronald E. McNair; Ellison S. Onizuka, Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis and Judith A. Resnik. Credit: NASA On January 28, 1986, 1986, a catastrophic structural failure 73 seconds after liftoff of the Space Shuttle, mission STS-51-L, destroyed the orbiter OV-099 Challenger killing all seven crew members – Francis R. "Dick" Scobee (1939–1986), Michael J. Smith (1945–1986), Ellison S. Onizuka (1946–1986), Judith A. Resnik (1949–1986), Ronald E. McNair (1950–1986), Gregory B. Jarvis (1944–1986) and S. Christa McAuliffe (1948–1986).    The disaster was caused by the failure of the two redundant O-ring seals in a joint in the Space Shuttle's right solid rocket booster (SRB). The record-low temperatures of the launch reduced the elasticity of the rubber O-rings, reducing their ability to seal th...

   Apollo 1 (AS-204) Pad Fire Apollo 1 crew. Astronauts, left to right, Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee, pose in front of Launch Complex 34 which is housing their Saturn 1 launch vehicle. Credit: NASA Crew:  Virgil "Gus" Ivan Grissom Edward Higgins White, II Roger Bruce Chaffee Apollo Pad Fire: Emergency Transmission: Jan. 27, 1967; 6:31:05 p.m. EST (23:31:05 UTC) Launch Complex 34 Saturn-IB AS-204 CSM-012 On January 27, 1967, a cabin fire inside the Apollo Command Module 012 during a practice session for the first manned Apollo flight (AS-204, later redesignated Apollo 1), at Cape Kennedy Launch Complex 34, killed all three crew members — Lt. Col. Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom (1926–1967), a veteran of Mercury and Gemini missions; Lt. Col. Edward H. White II (1930–1967), the astronaut who had performed the first United States extravehicular activity during the Gemini program; and Roger B. Chaffee (1935–1967), an astronaut preparing for his first space flight. ...

 Mars Exploration Rover B (Opportunity) Artist's conception of Mars Exploration Rover on the surface of Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell University/Maas Digital LLC Official name: Mars Exploration Rover B (Opportunity) Spacecraft name: Mars Exploration Rover 1 (MER 1) COSPAR ID: 2003-032A Nation: USA Mission design and management: NASA / JPL Launch date and time: 8 July 2003, 03:18:15 UT Launch vehicle: Delta 7925H (no. D299) Launch site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, SLC-17B Objective: Mars surface lander and rover Mars Exploration Rover B (Opportunity) was launched on July 8, 2003. It landed in Meridiani Planum on the surface of Mars on January 25, 2004, embarking on a more than 14-year mission. The total distance driven by the rover was 45.16 km and the last communication with it was on June 10, 2018, wh...

    Voyager 2 Uranus Encounter Artist’s impression of Voyager passing Uranus, created for NASA in 1981. Credit: NASA/JPL/Don Davis Voyager 2 flew by Uranus on January 24, 1986. At the closest approach, at 17:58:51 UT, the spacecraft came within 81,500 km of the planet's cloudtops. The probe discovered new rings, eleven previously unknown moons, and a magnetic field tilted at 55° off-axis and off-center. Voyager 2 remains the only spacecraft to explore Uranus. After the encounter the probe proceeded on its journey to Neptune.    The spacecraft's observations at the distance of Uranus and Neptune were hampered by the need to take images in low light conditions. The intensity of sunlight on Uranus is about 360 times lower, and on Neptune about 900 times lower, than on Earth. This forced the spacecraft to take images of passing bodies using long exposure times, which risked blurring the images due to the spacecraft's own motion and vibrations. At the same ...

    Buzz Aldrin    Buzz Aldrin. This is the official NASA portrait of astronaut Edwin E. (Buzz) Aldrin from 1964 Buzz Aldrin, born Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr., American astronaut, engineer and fighter pilot was born on January 20, 1930, in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. Prior to joining NASA, Aldrin flew 66 combat missions in F-86s while on duty in Korea. At Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, he served as an aerial gunnery instructor. Following his assignment as aide to the dean of faculty at the Air Force Academy, Aldrin flew F-100s as a flight commander at Bitburg, Germany.     Aldrin was one of the third group of astronauts named by NASA in October 1963 and has logged 289 hours and 53 minutes in space, of which, 7 hours and 52 minutes were spent in Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA). On November 11, 1966, he launched into space aboard the Gemini XII spacecraft on a 4-day flight, which brought the Gemini program to a successful close. During that mission, Ald...