September 7, 2020 - Howling at the Moon

Howling at the Moon A pack of five dogs rode the Space Shuttle Endeavour into orbit 25 years ago this week. The STS-69 mission included astronauts David Walker and James Voss, who continued a tradition they began on the STS-53 mission of assigning dogtags or nicknames to their crewmates. Walker (“Red Dog”) and Voss (“Dog Face”) were joined by Kenneth “Cujo” Cockrell, Michael “Underdog” Gernhardt, and James “Pluto” Newman. During their 11 days in orbit (that’s 77 dog days), the canine crew deployed and fetched two free-flying satellites (Spartan 201-03 and the Wake Shield Facility), a first for the shuttle program. On one of Endeavour’s 170 orbits, a lucky dog with a keen eye for composition photographed the nearly full Moon as it appeared to float just above the horizon.

Image credit: NASA

Weekly Calendar

September 7 - 13, 2020

Holidays - Sky Events - Space History

Monday 7

Labor Day

Uranus 3° north of Moon

1995: STS-69 Endeavour launched

Tuesday 8

1966: “Star Trek” premieres
1967: Surveyor 5 launched
2000: STS-106 Atlantis launched
2004: Genesis spacecraft crash-lands on return to Earth
2016: OSIRIS-REx launched