1965:
NASA launches the Surveyor 6 lunar lander
aboard an Atlas-Centaur rocket from Kennedy Space Center, Fla. It is the fourth in the lander series to
touch down successfully on the Moon.
1966:
NASA launches the Lunar Orbiter 2 aboard an Atlas-Agena D rocket from Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Its primary mission was to photograph and verify potential landing sites for the Apollo and Surveyor missions.
Nov. 7
1958:
NASA holds a conference to take bids from contractors on the Mercury project.
1962:
NASA selects Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp.
to build the lunar lander for the Apollo missions.
Nov. 8
1955:
The United States begins its military ballistic missile program with the approval of the
intermediate-range ballistic missiles Jupiter and Thor
.
1984:
The Space Shuttle Discovery launches from Kennedy Space Center, Fla. During the STS-51A mission, the crew released
a U.S. defense communications satellite, Syncom 4-1, and a Canadian communications satellite, Telesat H. The crew also made the first satellite recovery, when they retrieved Palapa-B2 and Westar-6 and brought them aboard the shuttle to return to Earth for repairs.
Nov. 9
1967:
NASA test launches the unmanned Apollo 4 capsule aboard a Saturn-5 rocket from Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
2005:
The European Space Agency’s Venus Express orbiter launches aboard a Russian Soyuz-Fregat from the BaikonurCosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Nov. 11
1966:
NASA launches the Gemini 12 orbiter aboard a Titan-2 rocket from Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Crewmembers James Lovell and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin performed a 5-hour spacewalk but were unable to dock as planned with a Gemini Agena target vehicle because the
target vehicle
was not in the proper orbit.
