17 September
1789: On 17 September 1789, Sir William Herschel, the German-born British astronomer discovered Saturn's moon Mimas.The surface of Mimas is dominated by an impact crater 130 kilometres across (almost one ...
27 FEB. 2004
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2003: On 18 September 2003, the last preparations for ESA's SMART-1 spacecraft were made in Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, to make it ready for its launch the following week.
SMART-1's Solar Array protections were removed and the space capsule made ready for flight. It was then enclosed by a 2.6 metre 'raising cylinder' on which was placed the second spacecraft to be launched at the same time, E-Bird. The previous day, 17 September, SMART-1 had been placed on top of its Ariane 5 launcher.
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16 September
1662: On 16 September 1662 there was a solar eclipse, witnessed in Derby, England, by a sixteen-year-old boy called John Flamsteed.Flamsteed's interest in astronomy was stirred by this eclipse, and ...
15 September
1968: On 15 September 1968, Zond 5 was launched. Part of the Soviet space programme, it became the first spacecraft to orbit the Moon and return. At the time it ...
14 September
1926: On 14 September 1926, Johan Ludvig Emil Dreyer died.Dreyer was a Danish astronomer who compiled the New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (NGC) in 1888.He had ...
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