The Week in Space

  July 12-18, 2010

United Nations  The highlight of the first international human space flight occurred thirty-five years ago this week, when Apollo 18 and Soyuz 19 docked in orbit. Apollo, seen atop its Saturn IB launch vehicle on a modified launch platform prior to launch, carried a large docking adapter and executed the final docking maneuvers to bring the two ships together. For two days they remained connected while the three astronauts and two cosmonauts took turns visiting each other’s spacecraft. Apollo-Soyuz would be the last American human space flight for six years, until the first space shuttle flight in 1981. It would be another twenty years before the next joint U.S.-Russian docking mission, STS-71/Mir, would take place. The successful Apollo-Soyuz mission also set the stage for the International Space Station.

Image credit: NASA

Weekly Calendar

July 12-18, 2010

Holidays - Sky Events - Space History

Monday 12

Mercury 4° north of Moon

1966: First glide test of M2-F2 lifting body
2000: Zvezda Service Module launched to ISS
2001: STS-104 Atlantis launched

Tuesday 13

Moon at perigee

1995: STS-70 Discovery launched

Wednesday 14

Venus 6° north of Moon

1965: Mariner 4 completes first successful flyby of Mars
1967: Surveyor 4 launched

Thursday 15

1975: Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (Apollo 18) launched, last Apollo mission
2004: Aura satellite launched
2009: STS-127 Endeavour launched

Friday 16

Mars 6° north of Moon
Saturn 8° north of Moon

Saturday 17

Sunday 18

First Quarter Moon 6:11 AM ET

1966: Gemini X launched
1980: India becomes seventh nation to launch its own satellite

---

Article Tools - Share, subscribe, and bookmark this page: