October 14, 2013 - Don’t Lock The Hatch Behind You
Don’t Lock The Hatch Behind You Ten years ago this week, a Russian Soyuz rocket was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying the International Space Station’s Expedition Eight crew. Inside the Soyuz TMA-3 vehicle were crew members Michael Foale and Alexander Kaleri, as well as European Space Agency astronaut Pedro Duque. Foale and Kaleri relieved the Expedition Seven crew, who returned to Earth with Duque ten days later, leaving the duo the sole ISS occupants for six months. On February 24, 2004, Foale and Kaleri made history by conducting the first two-person space walk from the ISS and simultaneously becoming the first ISS crew to leave the station unattended, albeit briefly. After a four-hour space walk, the two were able to reenter the station successfully.
Image credit: NASA / Bill Ingalls
Weekly Calendar
October 14-20, 2013
Holidays - Sky Events - Space History
Monday 14
Thanksgiving Day (Canada)
Columbus Day
Mars 1° north of Regulus
1947: World’s first supersonic flight
1957: USAF announces X-20 Dyna-Soar project
1983: Venera 16 arrives in orbit around Venus
Tuesday 15
Neptune 6° south of Moon
1829: Asaph Hall born
1997: Cassini-Huygens launched
2003: Shenzhou 5 launched, Yang Liwei becomes first Chinese astronaut
Wednesday 16
Venus 1.6° north of Antares
Thursday 17
Uranus 3° south of Moon
Friday 18
Full Moon 7:38 PM ET
1967: Venera 4 makes first direct studies of Venus’s atmosphere
1989: STS-34 Atlantis launched
1993: STS-58 Columbia launched
2003: ISS Expedition 8 crew launched
Saturday 19
1910: Subramanyan Chandrasekhar born
1967: Mariner 5 flies past Venus
2005: Final Titan IV rocket launched
Sunday 20