10 July
1962: On 10 July 1962, Telstar 1, the world's first geosynchronous communications satellite, was launched.Its purpose was to relay television and telephone signals between the United States and Europe. When ...
27 FEB. 2004
publication date
1762
Views
1979: On 11 July 1979, Skylab fell to Earth.
Skylab was an orbiting space observatory manned by US astronauts, in operation during the early 1970s. After all crew activities had been completed and the crews had returned to Earth, Skylab was positioned into a stable attitude and systems were shut down. It was expected that Skylab would remain in orbit for eight to ten years.
However, in the autumn of 1977, Skylab was no longer flying in a stable attitude as a result of greater than predicted solar activity which affected Earth's upper atmosphere. On 11 July 1979, the empty Skylab spacecraft returned to Earth, scattering debris from the south-eastern Indian Ocean across a sparsely settled region of western Australia.
Media modal
9 July
1999: On 9 July 1999, solar scientists announced that they may have solved a long-standing enigma about the Sun.Working on data gathered from the ESA's SOHO and NASA's Spartan 201 ...
8 July
1998: On 8 July 1998, astronomers discovered a nearby star system that could be just like our own Solar System. An international team later announced the discovery of a ring ...
7 July
1816: On 7 July 1816, Rudolf Wolf was born.Wolf was a Swiss astronomer and astronomical historian. Wolf's main contribution was the discovery of the eleven-year sunspot cycle. He was also ...
Share this page
stay updated
Subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest news, mission updates, and exclusive insights directly in your inbox. Be the first to know about our upcoming projects and breakthroughs.