Feb. 25
1969:
NASA launches its Mariner 6 spacecraft on an Atlas/Centaur rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla. The probe
photographed
Mars as it flew by the red planet.
Its twin Mariner 7 was launched a month later.
Feb. 26
1964:
NASA’s communications satellite Relay 2, which launched January 1964 from Cape Canaveral, Fla., sends out the first visual telecast via a communications satellite. The satellite
telecast
the championship boxing match between heavyweight champion Sonny Liston and challenger Cassius Clay
.
1966:
NASA performs an unmanned suborbital
test flight of the Saturn 1B rocket carrying
an Apollo capsule from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
1987:
NASA launches the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) 7 on a Delta 3000 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s GOES satellites monitor weather patterns for the United States.
1999:
An Arianespace Ariane 4 rocket launches the Arabsat 3A commercial satellite and the British military communications satellite Skymet 4E from Kourou, French Guiana.
2005:
The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency launches Himawari 6, a weather and air-traffic control support satellite, from Tanegashima on an H-2A launch vehicle. The launch was the first commercial launch for the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries-made rocket.
Feb. 28
1959:
A U.S. Air Force Thor-Agena A rocket launches the Advanced Research Project Agency’s prototype satellite Discoverer 1 into polar orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
March 1
2002:
The U.S. Space Shuttle Columbia launches from Kennedy Space Center, Fla. The crew for the STS-109 mission performs the third servicing mission for the Hubble Space Telescope.
2005:
Sea Launch lofts XM Satellite Radio’s XM-3 satellite on a Zenit-3SL rocket from its sea-based Odyssey platform
.
March 2
1991:
An Ariane 4 rocket launches Luxembourg’s Astra 1B direct-to-home television
satellite and Europe’s weather-monitoring Meteosat Operational Programme (MOP-2) satellite from Kourou, French Guiana.
