Daily Extra :
Astronomy & Space Word of The Day
geologic activity: The expression of the internal and external processes and events that affect a planetary body.
Today in History:
1964: San Marco 1, Italian-built satellite, launched on NASA Scout booster by Italian crew.
1965: Launch of Gemini 6A Earth orbiting mission carrying Walter Schirra and Tom Stafford.
1970: Venera 7 lands on Venus, becomes the first spacecraft to return data after landing on another planet. It used an external cooling device which allowed it to send back 23 minutes of data. The surface temperature was 475°C, and surface pressure was 90 bar.
1972: Apollo 17 - USA Manned Lunar Lander (December 7-19, 1972) 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.
1984: Launch of Vega 1 Venus lander and Halley's comet flyby. Vega 1 flew past Venus on June 11, 1985 on its way for a flyby with comet Halley. It dropped off a Venera style lander and a balloon to investigate the Venusian middle cloud layer. The lander's soil experiment failed. The balloon floated in the atmosphere for about 48 hours at an altitude of 54 kilometers. Between Vega 1 and 2, downward gusts of 1 meter/second were encountered and wind velocities of up to 240 kilometers/hour. The Comet Halley flyby took place on March 6, 1986. The Vega 1 probe is now in a solar orbit.