Daily Extra :
Astronomy & Space Word of The Day
Saturn: Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun. It is second in size only to Jupiter. It is named for the Roman god of agriculture.
Today in History:
1966: Launch of Luna 13 soft-lander to the Moon. Landed on the lunar surface.
1968: Launch of Apollo 8, first astronaut mission to reach and orbit the Moon. Crew: Frank Borman, James A. Lovell, Jr., William Anders. The crew undertook the first manned lunar fly-around and Earth return. The astronauts made 10 orbits of the moon on Christmas Eve.
1978: Venera 12 enters the Venus atmosphere and lands on the surface. Returned data for 110 minutes. Electrical discharges, probably from lightning, were recorded.
1984: Launch of Vega 2 Venus lander and Halley's comet flyby. Vega 2 flew past Venus on June 15, 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 sampled anorthosite-troctolite which is found in the lunar highlands but is rare on Earth. 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 9, 1986. The Vega 2 probe is now in a solar orbit.
