5 January
1969: On 5 January 1969, the Soviet Venera 5 probe was launched towards Venus to obtain atmospheric data.
31 DEC. 2003
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1998: On 6 January 1998, NASA launched Lunar Prospector, a satellite designed for a low-polar orbit investigation of the Moon.
After launch, the Lunar Prospector had a 105-hour cruise to the Moon, followed by insertion into a near-circular 100-kilometre altitude polar orbit. In December 1998, the orbit was lowered to 40 kilometres. The nominal mission ended after one year, at which time the orbit was lowered to 30 kilometres.
On 31 July 1999, Lunar Prospector impacted on the Moon near the south pole in a controlled crash to look for evidence of water ice - none was observed.
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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.
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.
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