December 19, 2016 - NASA's Next Spacecraft
NASA’s Next Spacecraft Orion is NASA’s next-generation human spaceflight vehicle, built by Lockheed Martin to allow astronauts to soon travel farther than ever before: beyond low-Earth orbit, back to the Moon, to an asteroid, and one day to Mars. Orion’s first flight, EFT-1, occurred on December 5, 2014. An uncrewed and pared-down version of the vehicle was launched into a single orbit 5,800 km (3,600 mi) above Earth to test the flight, reentry, and splashdown capabilities of the spacecraft. The data gathered during the successful EFT-1 flight is being used to perfect the design of Orion and make sure that it is ready for future long-term deep-space missions by human explorers. Orion’s next launch, Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1), will be an uncrewed flight in 2018 aboard NASA’s new SLS rocket.
Image credit: NASA
Weekly Calendar
December 19-25, 2016
Holidays - Sky Events - Space History
Monday 19
Mercury appears stationary
1960: MR-1A launched, first Mercury capsule
1961: CNES founded
1966: United Nations approves Outer Space Treaty
1999: STS-103 Discovery launched
2012: Soyuz TMA-07M launched carrying ISS Expedition 34/35 crew
2013: Gaia spacecraft launched
Tuesday 20
Last Qtr Moon 8:56 PM ET
1904: Mount Wilson Solar Observatory founded
1972: Final M2-F3 lifting body flight
1978: Venera 12 lander lands on Venus
2009: Soyuz TMA-17 launched carrying ISS Expedition 22/23 crew
Wednesday 21
Solstice 5:44 AM ET
1968: Apollo 8 launched
1984: Vega 2 launched
1988: Cosmonauts Titov and Manarov return after spending one year aboard Mir space station
2011: Soyuz TMA-03M launched carrying ISS Expedition 30/31 crew
2015: SpaceX Falcon 9 makes first powered vertical landing of orbital booster
Thursday 22
Jupiter 2° south of Moon
Ursid meteor shower
1966: Luna 13 launched
1966: First glide test of the HL-10 lifting body
Friday 23
Ursid meteor shower
1672: Giovanni Cassini discovers Saturn’s moon Rhea
Saturday 24
Hanukkah begins at sunset
1968: Apollo 8 enters lunar orbit
1978: Venera 11 lands on Venus
1979: European Space Agency launches first Ariane rocket
Sunday 25
Christmas Day
Moon at apogee
1642: Isaac Newton born
2003: Mars Express and Beagle 2 arrive at Mars
2004: Huygens probe separates from Cassini spacecraft