November 5, 2018 - New Eyes over Mars
New Eyes over Mars The India Space Research Organization launched its first interplanetary mission five years ago this week. The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), also known as Mangalyaan, was launched by India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle and took 298 days to travel to the Red Planet. ISRO is the fourth space agency to reach Mars (after the Soviet space program, NASA, and the European Space Agency). MOM is a demonstrator project to develop the technologies for designing, planning, managing, and operating an interplanetary mission. It also carries five instruments that are advancing knowledge about Mars in support of its secondary scientific objective. Seen in this MOM image, Phobos, one of the two natural satellites of Mars, is silhouetted against the Martian surface.
Image credit: ISRO
Weekly Calendar
November 5 - 11, 2018
Holidays - Sky Events - Space History
Monday 5
Venus 10° south of Moon
2013: Mars Orbiter Mission launched, India's first interplanetary mission
Tuesday 6
Election Day
Mercury at greatest elongation (23° E)
1572: Tycho Brahe records bright new star (supernova SN 1572) in Cassiopeia
1966: Lunar Orbiter II launched
Wednesday 7
New Moon 11:02 AM ET
1963: First flight test of Apollo Launch Escape System
1967: Surveyor 6 launched
1996: Mars Global Surveyor launched
2013: Soyuz TMA-11M launched carrying ISS Expedition 38/39 crew
Thursday 8
1656: Edmund Halley born
1984: STS-51A Discovery launched
1995: STS-74 Atlantis launched
2005: ESA’s Venus Express launched
Friday 9
Mercury 1.8° north of Antares
Mercury 7° south of Moon
1934: Carl Sagan born
1967: Surveyor 6 lands on Moon
1967: Apollo 4 launched, first Saturn V launch
Saturday 10
1970: Luna 17 launched
Sunday 11
Remembrance Day (Canada)
Veteran’s Day
Saturn 1.5° south of Moon
1875: Vesto Slipher born
1966: Gemini XII launched
1982: STS-5 Columbia launched