January 20, 2020 - Birthday Buzz
Birthday Buzz Born ninety years ago this week, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin graduated from West Point and became a jet fighter pilot during the Korean War, later earning a doctorate in astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His thesis was about orbital rendezvous techniques, a subject relevant to the nascent American space program’s goal of landing astronauts on the Moon before the end of the decade. Selected as a NASA astronaut in October 1963, Aldrin flew on the Gemini XII mission in 1966, during which he performed three spacewalks. He was Lunar Module Pilot for the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, following crewmate Neil Armstrong onto the surface to become the second astronaut to walk on the Moon. Aldrin, seen here during Apollo 11, continues to be an advocate for space exploration.
Image credit: NASA
Weekly Calendar
January 20 - 26, 2020
Holidays - Sky Events - Space History
Monday 20
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Mars 2° south of Moon
1573: Simon Marius born
1930: Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin born
1966: Apollo A-004 launched, first flight test of CSM hardware
1978: Progress 1 launched
Tuesday 21
2018: First orbital launch from New Zealand
Wednesday 22
Jupiter 0.4° north of Moon
1592: Pierre Gassendi born
1968: Apollo 5 launched
1978: First automatic resupply ship docking (Progress 1)
1992: STS-42 Discovery launched
1998: STS-89 Endeavour launched
2003: Pioneer 10’s last signal to Earth
Thursday 23
Friday 24
New Moon 4:42 PM ET
1978: Cosmos 954 satellite reenters atmosphere over Canada
1985: STS-51C Discovery launched
1986: Voyager 2 flies past Uranus
1992: Magellan begins third mapping cycle of Venus
Saturday 25
Chinese New Year
1736: Joseph Lagrange born
1962: NASA authorizes Saturn V rocket
1983: Infrared Astronomical Satellite launched
1994: Clementine spacecraft launched
2004: Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity lands
Sunday 26
1978: International Ultraviolet Explorer launched