Daily Extra :
Did you know that there are 6 gyroscopes on the Hubble Space Telescope? The gyroscopes are used to point the telescope.
Who Was Born Today?:
Who Died Today?:
1974: Fritz Zwicky, Swiss/US astronomer (supernova), age 75
1995: B G Hooghoudt, radiotelescope build (Dwingeloo/Westerbork), age 70
Today in History:
1971: Apollo 14 - USA Lunar Manned Lander (January 31 to February 8, 1971) splashed down safely. Crew: Alan B. Shepard, Jr., Edgar D. Mitchell, Stuart A. Roosa. Shepard and Mitchell landed on the moon on February 5, 1971, in the Fra Mauro highlands, located at 3°40' S and longitude 17°28' E. They collected 42.9 kilograms of lunar samples and used a hand-held cart to transport rocks and equipment.
1974: Skylab 4's astronauts land
1984: 1st time 8 people in space
1984: Soyuz T-10 launches with crew of 3 to Salyut 7
1988: NASA launches DOD-2
1992: Ulysses - USA & Europe Solar Flyby made a Jupiter flyby. The Ulysses spacecraft is an international project to study the poles of the Sun and interstellar space above and below the poles. It used Jupiter for a gravity assist to swing out of the ecliptic plane and onward to the poles of the Sun. The first solar polar passage was in June 1994. The spacecraft passed the solar equator in February 1995 and passed over the north pole in June 1995.
1994: Clementine - USA Lunar Orbiter - (launched January 25, 1994) spent 70 days (between February 6 and May 5, 1994) in lunar orbit. The official name for Clementine is Deep Space Probe Science Experiment (DSPSE). It was a Department of Defense program used to test new space technology. Clementine was a new design using lightweight structure and propellant systems. Its four cameras mapped the surface of the Moon at 125-250 meters/pixel resolution. Clementine also used a laser to gather altimeter data which will make it possible to generate the first lunar topographic map.
