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A Day in the Past

Space

196 stories through the year, in calendar order. Tap one to visit its day.

January

1 Jan 1801 Astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi discovers the dwarf planet CeresItalian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi spotted Ceres from his observatory in Palermo, Sicily. It was announced as a new planet and named after the Roman …
2 Jan 1860 Urbain Le Verrier announces the discovery of planet VulcanFrench mathematician Urbain Le Verrier told the French Academy of Sciences in Paris about the discovery of a new planet. It was called Vulcan, and it…
2 Jan 1959 The Soviet Union launches Luna 1 towards the MoonThe Soviet Union launched the spacecraft Luna 1 on a Vostok rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Luna 1 became the first spacecraft to reach the area…
Photo: RIAN_archive_510848_Interplanetary_station_Luna_1.jpg: Alexander Mokletsov / Александр Моклецов derivative work: Craigbo, CC BY-SA 3.0
2 Jan 2004 The Stardust probe collects dust from Comet Wild 2NASA's Stardust space probe flew past Comet Wild 2 and collected tiny specks of dust from its coma, the cloudy envelope around a comet. The samples c…
Photo: NASA, Public domain
3 Jan 2019 Chang'e 4 makes the first landing on the far side of the MoonChina's Chang'e 4 spacecraft made the first ever soft, or gentle, landing on the far side of the Moon. It then sent out a small robot vehicle, the Yu…
Photo: NASA, Public domain
4 Jan 1958 Sputnik 1, the first satellite, falls back to EarthSputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, fell out of orbit and back into Earth's atmosphere. The Soviet Union had launched it three months earlier,…
Photo: Andrey Butko, CC BY-SA 3.0
4 Jan 2004 NASA's Spirit rover lands on MarsSpirit, a robot vehicle called a rover, landed safely in Gusev crater on Mars. Its twin, Opportunity, landed three weeks later on the other side of t…
5 Jan 1972 President Nixon announces the Space Shuttle programmeUS President Richard Nixon announced the Space Shuttle programme. NASA's Space Shuttle was a reusable spacecraft that carried astronauts and cargo be…
Photo: Department of Defense. Department of the Army. Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations. U.S. Army Audiovisual, Public domain
5 Jan 2005 Astronomers discover Eris, a dwarf planet beyond NeptuneA team led by astronomer Mike Brown discovered Eris, using pictures from the Samuel Oschin telescope at Palomar Observatory in California. Eris is a …
6 Jan 1957 Born: Michael FoaleMichael Foale is a British-American astrophysicist and former NASA astronaut who flew on six space missions. He was the second Briton in space and th…
7 Jan 1610 Galileo spots four of Jupiter's moons through his telescopeLooking through his telescope, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei saw Jupiter's four largest moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. At first he co…
Photo: WhatADrag07, CC BY-SA 4.0
8 Jan 1942 Born: Stephen HawkingStephen Hawking was an English scientist who studied black holes and the universe. He was born in Oxford and became a professor at the University of …
8 Jan 1973 Luna 21 sets off to carry a rover to the MoonThe Soviet Union launched Luna 21, a spacecraft with no crew. It landed on the Moon and released Lunokhod 2, the second Soviet Moon rover. The missio…
8 Jan 1994 Valeri Polyakov begins a record 437 days in spaceRussian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov set off on Soyuz TM-18 for the Mir space station. He stayed on board until 22 March 1995, spending a record 437 day…
9 Jan 1962 NASA announces plans for a giant Moon rocketNASA announced plans to build a huge rocket, then called the 'Advanced Saturn', to carry people to the Moon. It became the Saturn V, a rocket with th…
Photo: NASA, Public domain
9 Jan 1992 The first planets outside our Solar System are confirmedRadio astronomers Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail announced that they had found two planets orbiting a pulsar called PSR B1257+12. They were the …
10 Jan 1946 Project Diana bounces radar signals off the MoonThe US Army Signal Corps sent radar signals to the Moon and picked up the echoes that bounced back. The experiment was called Project Diana, after th…
11 Jan 1787 William Herschel discovers two moons of UranusAstronomer William Herschel spotted two moons travelling around the planet Uranus. His son John later named them Titania and Oberon. Herschel was bor…
Photo: Lemuel Francis Abbott, Public domain
11 Jan 1996 Space Shuttle Endeavour launches to catch a Japanese spacecraftSpace Shuttle Endeavour blasted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Its main job was to catch a Japanese research spacecraft called the Space F…
Photo: NASA, Public domain
12 Jan 2005 NASA launches Deep Impact to crash into a cometNASA's Deep Impact space probe was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida. Its mission was to find out what the inside of a comet is made of. In Jul…
Photo: NASA/JPL, Public domain
12 Jan 2007 Comet McNaught becomes the brightest comet in 40 yearsComet McNaught made its closest approach to the Sun and became the brightest comet for more than 40 years. For a few days it was bright enough to be …
15 Jan 2005 Europe's SMART-1 spacecraft detects elements on the MoonSMART-1, a European Space Agency spacecraft orbiting the Moon, detected chemical elements on the Moon's surface, including calcium, aluminium, silico…
Photo: European Space Agency, CC BY-SA 3.0 igo
16 Jan 1969 Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 make the first crewed space dockingTwo Soviet spacecraft, Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5, joined together in orbit. It was the first time two spacecraft with people on board had docked. Cosmonaut…
19 Jan 2024 Japan's 'Moon Sniper' lands on the MoonJapan's SLIM spacecraft, nicknamed the 'Moon Sniper', made a soft landing on the Moon. Japan became the fifth country to do this, after the Soviet Un…
Photo: Hms1103, CC BY-SA 4.0
20 Jan 1930 Born: Buzz AldrinBuzz Aldrin is an American astronaut who was the second person to walk on the Moon. During the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, he stepped onto the Moon 19…
21 Jan 1960 Miss Sam the monkey flies in a Mercury spacecraft testA Little Joe rocket lifted off from Wallops Island, Virginia, carrying a rhesus monkey called Miss Sam inside a Mercury spacecraft. The flight tested…
21 Jan 2004 NASA's Mars rover Spirit stops sending messages to EarthNASA's Mars rover Spirit suddenly stopped communicating with mission control, less than three weeks after landing on Mars. The fault was in the way t…
Photo: NASA, Public domain
22 Jan 1968 Apollo 5 gives NASA's Moon lander its first test flightApollo 5 lifted off from Cape Kennedy on a Saturn IB rocket, carrying NASA's Lunar Module into space for the first time. The Lunar Module was the spa…
23 Jan 2003 The last signal is received from the space probe Pioneer 10Scientists picked up the final signal from NASA's space probe Pioneer 10, then about 12 billion kilometres from Earth. Launched in 1972, Pioneer 10 w…
Photo: NASA/Don Davis, Public domain
24 Jan 1986 Voyager 2 makes the first close visit to UranusNASA's Voyager 2 space probe made its closest approach to Uranus, the seventh planet from the Sun. It is the only spacecraft to have visited Uranus o…
Photo: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Public domain
24 Jan 1990 Japan launches Hiten, its first probe to the MoonJapan launched the Hiten spacecraft, its first probe to the Moon. It was the first Moon probe launched by any country other than the Soviet Union or …
25 Jan 2004 NASA's rover Opportunity lands on MarsNASA's rover Opportunity landed on Mars and rolled into a small crater called Eagle crater, on a plain called Meridiani Planum. It arrived three week…
Photo: NASA/JPL/Cornell University, Maas Digital LLC, Public domain
26 Jan 1949 The giant Hale Telescope looks at the sky for the first timeThe Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory in California saw 'first light', meaning it was used to look at the sky for the first time. Its main mirror…
26 Jan 1962 NASA's Ranger 3 probe is launched but misses the MoonNASA launched the space probe Ranger 3 to study the Moon. A series of faults sent it off course, and it missed the Moon by about 22,000 miles (35,000…
27 Jan 1967 The UK, USA and Soviet Union sign the Outer Space TreatyThe United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Outer Space Treaty. It bans countries from placing nuclear weapons in space, an…
27 Jan 2011 Astronomers record a white dwarf star with a record-hot surfaceAstronomers reported that H1504+65, a white dwarf star in the constellation Ursa Minor, had the hottest surface temperature then known: about 200,000…
30 Jan 2013 South Korea's Naro-1 rocket reaches orbitSouth Korea's Naro-1 rocket placed a small satellite called STSAT-2C into orbit around the Earth. It was the first time a South Korean rocket had rea…
31 Jan 1862 Alvan Graham Clark discovers the white dwarf star Sirius BAmerican astronomer and telescope-maker Alvan Graham Clark discovered Sirius B, a faint partner star of Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. …
31 Jan 1958 Explorer 1, America's first satellite, is launchedExplorer 1, the first satellite launched by the United States, lifted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida late in the evening, local time. It followed…
31 Jan 1961 Ham the chimpanzee is launched into spaceA chimpanzee named Ham was launched into space from Cape Canaveral, Florida, inside a Mercury spacecraft. He was the first great ape in space. The fl…
Photo: NASA, Public domain
31 Jan 1966 The Soviet Union launches Luna 9 to the MoonThe Soviet Union launched the robot spacecraft Luna 9. On 3 February it became the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon and send back …
Photo: Pline, CC BY-SA 3.0
31 Jan 1971 Apollo 14 blasts off for the MoonAstronauts Alan Shepard, Stuart Roosa and Edgar Mitchell lifted off on a Saturn V rocket on the Apollo 14 mission. It became the third mission to lan…
Photo: Edgar D. Mitchell / NASA, Public domain

February

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December