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January

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

February

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

March

Portal:Astronomy/Anniversaries/March

7 March 2009 – The space observatory Kepler 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

April

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

May

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

June

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)

July

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 rover payload

August

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

September

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

October

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.

November

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

December

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