April 15, 2019 - Going Out with a Bang

Going Out with a Bang  NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) was designed to study the lunar dust environment and the Moon’s thin exosphere, which helps scientists understand other planetary bodies with exospheres, like Mercury and some of Jupiter’s bigger moons. The LADEE mission tested several new technologies, including a modular spacecraft design, and demonstrated two-way high-rate laser communication for the first time from the Moon. One of LADEE’s scientific findings was the detection of neon in the thin lunar atmosphere. LADEE’s seven-month mission came to a dramatic close five years ago this week when controllers sent it into a planned impact on the Moon’s far side, where it would not possibly damage the historic Apollo landing sites.

Image Credit: NASA

Weekly Calendar

April 15 - 21, 2019

Holidays - Sky Events - Space History

 

Monday 15

1999: Landsat 7 launched

Tuesday 16

Mars 7° north of Aldebaran
Moon at perigee

1867: Wilbur Wright born
1946: First captured V2 rocket launched from White Sands, NM
1965: First test-firing of Saturn V rocket first stage (S-IC)
1972: Apollo 16 launched

Wednesday 17

1967: Surveyor 3 launched
1969: First X-24A lifting body glide test
1970: Apollo 13 crew returns to Earth
1998: STS-90 Columbia launched

Thursday 18

2014: LADEE spacecraft intentionally crashed into Moon at end of mission
2018: TESS spacecraft launched

Friday 19

Passover begins at sunset
Good Friday

Full Moon 7:12 AM ET

1967: Surveyor 3 lands on Moon
1971: Salyut 1 launched, first space station.
1982: Salyut 7 launched
1993: 200th Soviet / Russian spacewalk
2001: STS-100 Endeavour launched

Saturday 20

1972: Apollo 16 lands on Moon

Sunday 21

Easter Sunday

Lyrid meteor shower

1997: Cremated remains of 24 people launched into orbit aboard Pegasus rocket in first space funeral