Daily Extra :
Astronomy & Space Fact
The Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) is NASA's center for aeronautical flight research and atmospheric flight operations. DFRC is chartered to research, develop, verify, and transfer advanced aeronautics, space and related technologies. It also serves as a backup landing site for the Space Shuttle and a facility to test and validate design concepts and systems used in development and operation of the Orbiters.
Today in History:
1592: Galileo Galilei gave his inaugural lecture at the University of Padua (the university of the Republic of Venice).
1905: Gerard Kuiper born, Dutch-born American planetary scientist who discovered moons of both Uranus (see Feb 16) and Neptune (May 1), and Titan's atmosphere, and studied the origins of comets and the solar system.
1972: Apollo 17 - USA Manned Lunar Lander (December 7-19, 1972) launched. Crew: Eugene A. Cernan, Harrison H. Schmitt, and Ronald B. Evans. Cernan and Schmitt landed on the moon on December 12, 1972. The landing site was Taurus-Littrow at latitude 20°10' N and longitude 30°46' E. They returned 110.5 kg of rock and soil samples. The astronauts covered 30.5 kilometers in the lunar rover during a 75-hour stay.