March 30, 2015 - Home Planet #Selfie
Home Planet #Selfie Although the dawn of the Space Age focused attention beyond Earth, one of the main reasons for going into space was, and still remains, to learn more about our home planet through observation. The Television Infrared Observation Satellite (TIROS-1), the very first Earth-monitoring satellite, was launched fifty-five years ago this week. TIROS-1 was operational for seventy-eight days, its pioneering video system relaying thousands of self-portraits of a cloud-covered Earth. TIROS-1 made space-based remote sensing of Earth a reality. More recently, the Landsat 7 remote sensing satellite captured this incredible image of the Namib Desert in Namibia. Coastal winds create the tallest sand dunes in the world here, with some dunes reaching 300 m (980 ft) in height.
Image credit: NASA Landsat Project Science Office and USGS EROS Data Center
Weekly Calendar
March 30 - April 5, 2015
Holidays - Sky Events - Space History
Monday 30
Jupiter 6° north of Moon
Tuesday 31
1962: NASA approves final design of Gemini spacecraft
1982: Kvant module launched to Mir space station
1997: Pioneer 10 mission officially ends
Wednesday 1
Moon at apogee
1960: TIROS 1 launched
1997: Comet Hale-Bopp’s closest approach to Sun
1998: TRACE launched
Thursday 2
1845: First photograph of Sun taken
2010: Soyuz TMA-18 launched carrying ISS Expedition 23/24 crew
Friday 3
Passover begins at sunset
Good Friday
1966: Luna 10 becomes first spacecraft to orbit the Moon
1973: Salyut 2 space station launched
Saturday 4
Full Moon 8:06 AM ET
Total lunar eclipse visible in Asia, Australia, Pacific, Americas
1930: American Rocket Society founded
1968: Apollo 6 launched
1983: STS-6 Challenger launched
1997: STS-83 Columbia launched
2000: First commercial mission to Mir
2011: Soyuz TMA-21 launched carrying ISS Expedition 27/28 crew
Sunday 5
Easter Sunday
1973: Pioneer 11 launched
1975: Soyuz 18-1, first in-flight abort
1990: Pegsat launched
1991: STS-37 Atlantis launched
2010: STS-131 Discovery launched