January 27, 2014 - Free at Last
Free at Last For nearly two decades after Alexei Leonov’s pioneering space walk in 1965, orbiting astronauts who ventured outside were always attached in some way to their spacecraft—either by umbilical hoses that carried oxygen, or by tethers that prevented them from accidentally floating away. Not until the STS-41B shuttle mission, launched thirty years ago this week, did spacewalking astronauts sever the ties that previously bound them. During the eight-day mission, astronauts Bruce McCandless and Robert Stewart (shown here) each tested the Manned Maneuvering Unit, a backpack with nitrogen gas thrusters that the astronauts could operate with joysticks on the arm rests. At one point during McCandless’s spacewalk, he ventured nearly 100 meters (300 feet) from the safety of the shuttle.
Image credit: NASA
Weekly Calendar
January 27 - February 2, 2014
Holidays - Sky Events - Space History
Monday 27
1967: Apollo 1 astronauts Grissom, White, and Chaffee die in cockpit fire on launch pad during test
Tuesday 28
Mars 5° north of Spica
Venus 2° north of Moon
1611: Johannes Hevelius born
1986: Space Shuttle Challenger explodes, 7 astronauts die
Wednesday 29
1964: SA-5 launched, first Saturn I Block 2 rocket
1989: Phobos 2 enters orbit around Mars
Thursday 30
New Moon 4:39 PM ET
Moon at perigee
1964: Ranger 6 launched
Friday 31
Chinese New Year
Mercury at greatest elongation (18° E)
Venus appears stationary
1958: Explorer 1 launched
1961: Mercury Redstone 2 suborbital flight with chimpanzee Ham
1966: Luna 9 launched
1971: Apollo 14 launched
1985: ESA approves the Columbus program
Saturday 1
Mercury 4° south of Moon
Neptune 5° south of Moon
1956: Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) established
1959: First Titan I launch
2003: Space shuttle Columbia destroyed during reentry; 7 astronauts die
Sunday 2