1993:
A bipartisan group of senators sends a letter to the White House arguing that U.S. President Bill
Clinton’s proposal to relax restrictions on U.S. exports of
space launch technology would harm the nation’s efforts to curb the global proliferation of ballistic missiles.
Aug. 7
1968:
The Apollo Design Certification Review Board declares the Apollo LM-3
flight worthy for manned missions, contingent upon the completion of “open work and action items during the review.”
2004:
An unpiloted test vehicle from Armadillo Aerospace of Mesquite, Texas, competing for the $10 million Ansari X
Prize to send an individual twice to 100 kilometers within two weeks,
explodes at less than 300 meters above Queets, Wash.
Aug 8
1989:
After being grounded for 18 months for an almost complete
refurbishing
, Space Shuttle Columbia returns to flight and deploys two classified satellites
.
Aug. 9
1961:
In the first major contract of the Apollo program, NASA selects the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Instrumentation Laboratory to develop Apollo’s guidance-navigation system.
1969:
The U.S.S.R. launches an unmanned Zond 7 orbiter
. The Zond program was a largely secret program
used as a springboard for an eventual manned mission to the Moon. It returned the first color photographs of the Moon to the Earth.
1975:
The European Space Agency’s first satellite with a single payload, Cos-B,
launches
aboard a Delta 2 rocket from Western Test Range, Calif. Cos–B studied sources of gamma-ray output.
2004:
NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe gives the go-ahead to plans for a proposed robotic servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope to replace the shuttle mission he canceled. The robotic mission is canceled after O’Keefe’s successor reinstates the shuttle misison.
Aug. 10
1994:
Brasilsat
B1 and Turksat 1C are launched on an Ariane 44LP rocket
from French Guiana.
Aug. 11
1962:
Vostok 3 is launched on a 4-day mission, followed
the next day by a launch from the same pad of Vostok 4 on a 3-day mission.
The two manned spacecraft came to within 6.5 kilometers of one another in low Earth orbit.
