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March 11, 2013 - The Guests Who Wouldn’t Leave

The Guests Who Wouldn’t Leave When they began their journey to the International Space Station five years ago this week, the crew of the space shuttle Endeavour brought their ISS hosts some very nice gifts: the first parts of the Japanese Experiment Module Kibo, and Dextre, the Canadian-built Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator robotics system. While the shuttle was attached to the ISS, it used the new Station-to-Shuttle Power Transfer System that allowed it to operate off the station’s power and remain docked longer. The crew of STS-123 ended up spending nearly twelve days—a record—docked to the ISS. Seen here during the first mission space walk, astronaut Garrett Reisman works outside the Exposed Facility or “Terrace” portion of the Kibo module that will house unpressurized experiments.

Image credit: NASA

Weekly Calendar

March 11-17, 2013

Holidays - Sky Events - Space History

Moon phase Monday 11

New Moon 3:51 PM ET

1811: Urbain Le Verrier born
1965: Pioneer 5 launched
2008: STS-123 Endeavour launched

Moon phase Tuesday 12

1835: Simon Newcomb born
1981: Victor Savinykh becomes 100th person to travel in space, Soyuz T-4 mission

Moon phase Wednesday 13

1781: William Herschel discovers Uranus
1855: Percival Lowell born
1989: STS-29 Discovery launched

Moon phase Thursday 14

1835: Giovanni Schiaparelli born
1879: Albert Einstein born
1934: Gene Cernan born
1986: Giotto flies by Halley’s Comet
1995: Soyuz TM-21 launched, first Russian mission with American on board

Moon phase Friday 15

1713: Nicolas de Lacaille born
1932: Alan Bean born
1975: Helios 1 launched
2009: STS-119 Discovery launched

Moon phase Saturday 16

Mercury appears stationary

1750: Carolyn Herschel born
1926: Robert Goddard launches first liquid fuel rocket
1966: Gemini VIII launched
1975: Mariner 10’s 3rd Mercury flyby

Moon phase Sunday 17

St. Patrick’s Day

Jupiter 1.5° north of Moon

1930: Jim Irwin born
1958: Vanguard 1 launched, first solar-powered satellite
1972: NASA issues request for proposals for Space Shuttle
2011: MESSENGER becomes first spacecraft to orbit Mercury

Suggestions for new history dates or better links? Corrections for errors on this page? Please e-mail me.