4 January
1958: On 4 January 1958, the Soviet Sputnik I satellite, the first man-made object to orbit Earth, fell back into the atmosphere and disintegrated, after 92 days in space.
31 DEC. 2003
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1969: On 5 January 1969, the Soviet Venera 5 probe was launched towards Venus to obtain atmospheric data.
On arrival, a capsule weighing 405 kilograms and containing scientific instruments was jettisoned from the main spacecraft. During its descent towards the surface of Venus, a parachute opened to slow the rate of descent. On 16 May 1969, while the capsule was suspended from the parachute, data about the Venusian atmosphere were returned for 53 minutes.
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3 January
2002: On 3 January 2002, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope team released an image of strangely glowing dark clouds - known as 'globules' - silhouetted against against the red glow of hydrogen gas and bright stars in a busy star forming region, IC 2944.
2 January
1905: On 2 January 1905, Argentinian astronomer Charles Perrine discovered Elara, then the twelfth of Jupiter's known satellites.
1 January
1995: On 1 January 1995, Finland joined the European Space Agency as a full member.
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