November 10, 2014 - Bull's-Eye

Bull’s-Eye Less than four months after Apollo 11’s historic Moon landing, NASA launched a second crew of lunar explorers on a mission highlighted by precision flying. Apollo 12 lifted off forty-five years ago this week, and after a four-day journey Command Module Pilot Dick Gordon remained in lunar orbit while Commander Pete Conrad and Lunar Module Pilot Alan Bean descended in the lunar module Intrepid. After a journey of 400,000 km (250,000 mi), Intrepid landed within walking distance of its target, the unmanned Surveyor III spacecraft, which landed on the Moon more than two years earlier. In this image, Conrad stands next to Surveyor while Intrepid can be seen in the distance. The two astronauts removed Surveyor’s television camera and other equipment for later analysis back on Earth.

Image credit: NASA

Weekly Calendar

November 10-16, 2014

Holidays - Sky Events - Space History

 

Monday 10

1970: Luna 17 launched

Tuesday 11

Remembrance Day (Canada)
Veteran’s Day

1875: Vesto Slipher born
1966: Gemini XII launched
1982: STS-5 Columbia launched

Wednesday 12

1833: Great Leonid Meteor Shower
1980: Voyager 1 flies past Saturn
1981: STS-2 Columbia launched
2014: Philae probe becomes first spacecraft to land on a comet

Thursday 13

1971: Mariner 9 becomes first spacecraft to orbit Mars
1978: Einstein Observatory (HEAO-2) launched

Friday 14

Last Qtr Moon 10:16 AM ET
Jupiter 5° north of Moon
Moon at apogee

1969: Apollo 12 launched, second lunar landing mission
2008: STS-126 Endeavour launched
2011: Soyuz TMA-22 launched carrying ISS Expedition 29/30 crew

Saturday 15

1738: William Herschel born
1973: First powered flight of X-24B lifting body
1988: Green Bank 300-foot radio telescope collapses
1988: Soviet Shuttle Buran launched

Sunday 16

Neptune appears stationary

1962: Saturn SA-3 launched
1973: Skylab 4 crew launched on 84-day mission
1974: Interstellar message broadcast from Arecibo radio telescope
2009: STS-129 Atlantis launched