November 24, 2014 - Game Changer
Game Changer Mariner 4, launched fifty years ago this week, became the first spacecraft to fly past Mars. When it arrived at the Red Planet in July 1965, the pictures it returned—the first up-close images of another planet—forever changed the way humans regarded Mars. Nearly a hundred years earlier, the belief that channel-like features visible from Earth were actually artificial canals fueled speculation that Mars was inhabited by a race of advanced beings. Later observations and spectroscopic studies ruled out the possibility of such water works, but the true nature of the planet—a sterile, cratered world with no sign of intelligent life—was not revealed until Mariner 4 returned a set of twenty-one stark images. This vintage depiction of Mariner 4 over Mars was based on the best pre-Mariner observations of the planet.
Image credit: NASA
Weekly Calendar
November 24-30, 2014
Holidays - Sky Events - Space History
Monday 24
1947: First Aerobee rocket launch
1991: STS-44 Atlantis launched
Tuesday 25
1970: First powered flight of M2-F3 lifting body
Wednesday 26
Mars 7° south of Moon
1965: France becomes third nation to launch a satellite
1975: Final X-24B lifting body flight
1985: STS-61B Atlantis launched
1989: Kvant 2 module launched
2011: Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity launched
Thursday 27
Thanksgiving Day
Moon at perigee
1885: First photo of a meteor shower
1971: Mars 2 probe becomes first artificial object to hit Mars
1997: Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission launched
Friday 28
1964: Mariner 4 launched
1983: STS-9 Columbia launched
Saturday 29
First Qtr Moon 5:06 AM ET
Neptune 4° south of Moon
1967: First Australian satellite launched
Sunday 30
First Sunday in Advent
1954: Elizabeth Hodges bruised by a ten-pound meteorite in Alabama
2000: STS-97 Endeavour launched