Portal:Astronomy/Anniversaries

Portal:Astronomy/Anniversaries/January

• 1 January 1925 – Astronomer Edwin Hubble formally presents his discovery of galaxies outside the Milky Way at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society
• 1 January 1952 – The Kyiv Planetarium opens in Kyiv, Ukraine
• 3 January 1888 – The 91-centimeter refracting telescope at Lick Observatory, the world's largest telescope from 1888 to 1897, sees its first light
• 3 January 1999 – The Mars Polar Lander is launched by NASA to study the soil and climate of Planum Australe, a region near the south pole on Mars
• 4 January 2004 – The Mars rover Spirit lands, three weeks ahead of twin rover Opportunity, and begins exploring the Red Planet
• 14 January 2005 – The probe Huygens lands on Titan, a moon of Saturn, in the first successful landing in the outer Solar System
• 26 January 1949 – Hale Telescope, which introduced several innovations to telescope construction and was the world's largest telescope for nearly 30 years, has its first light

Portal:Astronomy/Anniversaries/February

• 5 February 1974 – Mariner 10 becomes the first spacecraft to use a gravity assist when it flies by Venus in order to reach Mercury
• 5 February 2002 – HESSI (High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager) solar flare observatory is launched on a mission to explore the physics of particle acceleration and energy release in solar flares
• 10 February 2002 – Solar Orbiter is launched to perform detailed measurements of the inner heliosphere and nascent solar wind, and perform close observations of the polar regions of the Sun
• 15 February 1845 – The Leviathan of Parsonstown, the world's largest telescope from 1845 to 1917, sees first light
• 18 February 1930 – 23-year-old astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto by using a blink comparator on photographs he took in the previous month at Lowell Observatory
• 25 February 2002 – Mariner 6 is launched to study the surface and atmosphere of Mars during close flybys

Portal:Astronomy/Anniversaries/March

• 7 March 2009 – The Kepler space telescope is launched by NASA to discover Earth-like planets orbiting other stars
• 13 March 1781 – William Herschel observes Uranus, which he initially believes to be a comet, eventually leading to Uranus being identified as a planet
• 14 March 1986 – The European robotic spacecraft Giotto becomes the first satellite to observe a comet up close when it flies through and photographs Halley's Comet
• 16 March 1926 – Using a mixture of gasoline and liquid oxygen, Robert H. Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket
• 18 March 2011 – MESSENGER becomes the first spacecraft to orbit around the planet Mercury
• 23 March 1912 – Wernher von Braun, a German-American aerospace engineer and space architect is born

Portal:Astronomy/Anniversaries/April

• 2 April 1968 – The epic science fiction film, 2001: A Space Odyssey is released
• 3 April 2014 – NASA announces that the Cassini orbiter has found evidence of an underground body of water on Enceladus, a moon of Saturn
• 7 April 2001 – Mars Odyssey orbiter is launched to map and search for water on Mars
• 12 April 1961 – Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to enter outer space when he is launched into orbital flight in Vostok 1
• 19 April 1971 – The first space station, Salyut 1, is launched into orbit
• 24 April 1990 – The Hubble Space Telescope, a powerful research tool and public relations boon for astronomy, is launched into orbit

Portal:Astronomy/Anniversaries/May

• 1 May 1959 – The former Beltsville Center is renamed to Goddard Space Flight Center in honor of Dr. Robert H. Goddard, rocket pioneer who achieved first launch of a liquid-fueled rocket
• 4 May 1967 – Lunar Orbiter 4 is launched to perform a photographic survey of lunar surface features
• 7 May 1975 – Explorer 53 (SAS-C), a NASA X-ray astronomy space telescope, is launched from the San Marco Range in Kenya, Africa
• 7 May 1997 – English-language French science fiction action film, The Fifth Element is released showing passenger inter-constellation vehicles, spacefighter craft, and various non-human creatures
• 14 May 1935 – The planetarium at Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, California opens
• 14 May 1973 – The first American space station, Skylab, is launched
• 18 May 1969 – The Apollo 10 human spaceflight is launched, testing all aspects of the lunar landing mission, except the actual lunar landing
• 20 May 1978 – Pioneer Venus is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida becoming the first spacecraft placed in orbit around Venus
• 30 May 1971 – Mariner 9 robotic space probe is launched becoming the first spacecraft to orbit Mars

Portal:Astronomy/Anniversaries/June

• 2 June 1966 – Surveyor 1 lands on the Moon, first US spacecraft to do so
• 3 June 1966 – Gemini 9 (Gemini Titan 9A) launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida
• 19 June 1976 – The Viking 1 orbiter arrives in Mars orbit
• 24 June 2004 – First private spaceflight, SpaceShipOne piloted by Mike Melvill
• 27 June 1996 – Galileo probe, flyby of Ganymede (Jupiter's largest moon)
• 30 June 2001 – The NASA Explorer mission, MAP (Microwave Anisotropy Probe), is launched to measure the temperature of cosmic background radiation (remnant heat from the Big Bang)

Portal:Astronomy/Anniversaries/July

• 1 July 2004 – The Cassini spacecraft arrives at Saturn after entering orbit
• 4 July 1997 – Mars Pathfinder and its rover, Sojourner, land on Mars, with the latter becoming the first rover to successfully travel the planet
• 5 July 1687 – Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, which formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation and applied them to celestial bodes, is first published
• 13 July 2007 – Gran Telescopio Canarias undergoes first light, becoming the largest telescope in the world
• 20 July 1969 – As part of the Apollo 11 mission, Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first men to walk on the Moon
• 20 July 1976 – Viking 1 becomes the first spacecraft to successfully land on Mars and perform its mission
• 26 July 1971 – Apollo 15 launches with Lunar Roving Vehicle payload

Portal:Astronomy/Anniversaries/August

• 4 August 2007 – The Phoenix Mars Lander is launched from Cape Canaveral, carrying science instruments to analyze soil samples of the Martian northern polar region
• 6 August 2012 – The Mars rover Curiosity lands on the Red Planet as part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission
• 7 August 1996 – Announcement of possible microfossils found in ALH84001 Martian Meteorite
• 20 August 1977 – Voyager 2 space probe is launched by NASA to study the outer planets and interstellar space beyond the Sun's heliosphere
• 21 August 2017 – NASA.gov conducts a broadcast of the total solar eclipse with more than 50 million views of the live broadcast, and almost 31 million unique views on Facebook before and after the eclipse
• 24 August 2006 – The International Astronomical Union votes to approve a new definition of "planet" that excludes Pluto
• 25 August 2003 – The Spitzer Space Telescope (SIRTF) is launched, dedicated to infrared astronomy
• 27 August 1962 – Mariner 2 launches on a journey to Venus, and is the first robotic space probe to conduct a successful planetary encounter
• 31 August 1913 – Bernard Lovell, a British physicist and radio astronomer is born

Portal:Astronomy/Anniversaries/September

• 2 September 1988 – Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), which first imaged a radio supernova remnant as it formed, has its first light.
• 5 September 1977 – Space probe Voyager 1 is launched on a mission to study Jupiter and Saturn
• 8 September 1966 – The first episode of a new television science fiction series Star Trek is shown on NBC-TV
• 12 September 2013 – NASA announces that 19 days earlier, Voyager 1 had become the first man-made object to cross the heliopause and enter interstellar space
• 15 September 2017 – The Cassini spacecraft plunges into the atmosphere of Saturn, ending its 13-year tour of the ringed planet
• 21 September 1866 – Science fiction writer, H. G. (Herbert George) Wells is born, in England
• 23 September 1846 – The planet Neptune is discovered by Johann Gottfried Galle using mathematical equations from John Couch Adams and Urbain Le Verrier
• 29 September 1971 – The Orbiting Solar Observatory 7 satellite launches with the first x-ray observations of a beginning solar flare and of solar streamers

Portal:Astronomy/Anniversaries/October

• 1 October 2003 – The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is formed from a merger of three previous Japanese space agencies
• 4 October 1957 – The first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, is launched into orbit by the Soviet Union, triggering the Space Race
• 5 October 2012 – CSIRO's Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope, which detected the first Odd radio circle in 2019, has its first light.
• 15 October 1997 – The Cassini space probe launches and is active in space for nearly 20 years
• 15 October 2003 – The People's Republic of China becomes the third nation to send a human into space when Yang Liwei is launched into outer space aboard Shenzhou 5
• 24 October 1946 – First motion pictures of Earth are taken from a V-2 rocket
• 29 October 1991 – Galileo probe flyby of Asteroid Gaspra
• 31 October 1961 – Murriyang, CSIRO's 64 m Parkes radio telescope at the Parkes Observatory on Wiradjuri Country in NSW, was inaugurated.

Portal:Astronomy/Anniversaries/November

• 2 November 1917 – The Hooker Telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory, the largest telescope in the world from 1917 until 1948, sees first light
• 14 November 1971 – Unmanned probe Mariner 9 arrives at Mars and becomes the first spacecraft to orbit around another planet
• 18 November 1989 – Explorer 66, a satellite designed to study cosmic microwave background radiation and supply evidence in support of the Big Bang theory, is launched
• 20 November 1998 – Zarya, the first module of the International Space Station, is launched
• 28 November 1967 – PSR B1919+21 becomes the first pulsar to be observed when it is discovered by Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Antony Hewish

Portal:Astronomy/Anniversaries/December

• 7 December 1972 – The Blue Marble photograph is taken by the Apollo 17 crew
• 8 December 1992 – Galileo completes the second Earth flyby
• 14 December 1962 – Mariner 2 becomes the first space probe to perform a flyby of a planet, when it passes within 35,000 kilometers of Venus
• 17 December 1917 – 2001: A Space Odyssey science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke is born
• 19 December 2013 – Gaia is launched for the mission to study billions of stars in the Milky Way
• 21 December 1968 – Apollo 8, is launched with the first crewed spacecraft to leave Earth orbit, reach the Moon, orbit it, and return safely to Earth
• 27 December 1571 – Astronomer, mathematician, and astrologer Johannes Kepler is born