Aviation News

2012-07-26

Apollo 15 Blasts Off for the Moon: July 26 in Aviation History

Apollo 15 blasts off from Cape Canaveral. (Photo by NASA)

1910: Capt. G. W. P. Dawes is awarded an aviator’s certificate, becoming first British Army officer to do so.

1944: the first German V-2 rocket hits Great Britain. The V-2 would be known as the world’s first ballistic missile, and essentially the forebearer of all modern rockets.

1946: Trans-Pacific Airlines, later known as Aloha Airlines, completes its first flight. First flight: Honolulu-Maui-Hilo using a World War II surplus Douglas C-47.

1955: Capital Airlines takes delivery of the Vickers Viscount, becoming the first US airline to fly a British aircraft.

1958: Explorer 4, a spacecraft tasked with studying the effects of nuclear detonations on earth’s Van Allen Belts, is launched.

1962: the world’s first geosynchronous communications satellite, Syncom 2, is launched from Cape Canaveral aboard a Delta B rocket.

1963: The world’s first geosynchronous satellite, Syncom 2, is launched from Cape Canaveral.

1971: Apollo 15 is launched on its way to becoming the fourth lunar landing.

1972: Rockwell International is announced as the lead contractor for the NASA Space Shuttle program.

1993: After two missed bad-weather approaches to Mokpo Airport (MPK) in South Korea, Asiana Airlines Flight 733, from Seoul, slams into a ridge of Ungeo Mountain on the third approach, killing 68 of the 116 people on board. It was the first loss of a 737-500 and the worst aviation accident in South Korean history at the time. An investigation subsequently blames the captain, who died in the crash.

2005: Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on mission STS-114, marking the first scheduled flight since the Columbia disaster in 2003.

2010: An Israeli Air Force (IAF) Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopter crashes during an exercise in Romania, killing all seven onboard.

2011: A Royal Moroccan Air Force Lockheed C-130 Hercules crashes near Guelmim, Morocco, killing all 80 people onboard.



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PHOTOS: The Three Remaining WB-57Fs Take Flight Over Houston

Residents of Houston Texas were given a rare treat last Thursday: A formation flight by the only three remaining airworthy B-57s, NASA's WB-57Fs.
by Nathan Moeller
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Space Travel’s Biggest Benefit – World Peace? Why We Must Venture Further

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The Apollo 17 spacecraft, containing astronauts Eugene A. Cernan, Ronald E. Evans, and Harrison H. Schmitt, glided to a safe splashdown at 2:25 p.m. EST on Dec. 19, 1972, 648 kilometers (350 nautical miles) southeast of American Samoa. The astronauts were flown by recovery helicopter to the U.S.S. Ticonderoga slightly less than an hour after the completion of NASA's sixth and last manned lunar landing in the Apollo program. (Photo by NASA)

Today in Aviation History: December 19th

The world's first airport opens near Paris, the last moon mission returns to earth, a Chalk's Ocean Airways crash is captured on video, and more...
by NYCAviation Staff

 
 

WATCH LIVE: Orion EFT-1 Launch Will Test Human Flight Into Deep Space

Orion, NASA’s newest spacecraft, is set to launch atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 7:05 a.m. Watch it live!
by Sarina Houston
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Cool NASA Animation Beautifully Details Every Step of Orion’s First Launch!

A cool animation details NASA’s Orion Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) mission, which will go farther than any human spacecraft has in the past 40 years.
by Ken Kremer, UniverseToday.com
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