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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · Dec 7

View of the Earth as seen by the Apollo 17 crew traveling toward the Moon on Dec. 7, 1972. This translunar coast photograph extends from the Mediterranean Sea area to the Antarctica south polar ice cap. This is the first time the Apollo trajectory made it possible to photograph the south polar cap.

View of the Earth as seen by the Apollo 17 crew traveling toward the moon. This translunar coast photograph extends from the Mediterranean Sea area to the Antarctica south polar ice cap. This is the first time the Apollo trajectory made it possible to photograph the south polar ice cap. Note the heavy cloud cover in the Southern Hemisphere. Almost the entire coastline of Africa is clearly visible. The Arabian Peninsula can be seen at the northeastern edge of Africa. The large island off the east coast of Africa is Madagascar. The Asian mainland is on the horizon toward the northeast.
This classic photograph of the Earth was taken on December 7, 1972.

NASA photograph AS17-148-22727, processed by Andrzej Mirecki

beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 11h

#OTD in 2003, Shenzhou 5, the first Chinese human spaceflight, with astronaut Yang Liwei, was launched. The spacecraft orbited the Earth 14 times. The launch made China the third country to independently launch a person into space, after the Soviet Union and the United States.

beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 12h

#OTD in 1783, the first confirmed human flight was accomplished by Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier in a tethered Montgolfière No 7 hot air balloon, from the yard of the workshop in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, one of the suburbs of Paris.
beyondearthsky.blogspot.com/2025/10/firs...

Portrait of Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier. Engraving by Le Grand, 1784. Credit: Smithsonian Libraries

The tethered flight of Montgolfière balloon on October 19, 1783. Credit: Bibliothèque nationale de France

beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 1d

Europa Clipper was launched #OTD in 2024. The spacecraft will reach Jupiter in April 2030 and perform dozens of close flybys of Jupiter’s moon Europa, gathering detailed measurements to investigate the moon.

beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 1d

#OTD in 1947, U.S. Air Force test pilot Charles E. “Chuck” Yeager (1923–2020) flew the experimental Bell XS-1 #46-062, rocket plane, named "Glamorous Glennis", and broke the sound barrier for the first time, reaching a speed of Mach 1.06 over Muroc Army Airfield in the Mojave Desert in California.

Chuck Yeager next to experimental aircraft Bell X-1 #1 "Glamorous Glennis"

beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 2d

Psyche spacecraft to the metallic main belt asteroid 16 Psyche was launched #OTD in 2023. Psyche will begin its prime mission in August 2029. It will spend about two years orbiting the asteroid to take pictures, map the surface, and collect data to determine its composition.

Artist's impression of Psyche spacecraft near the mission's target, the metal asteroid Psyche.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State Univ./Space Systems Loral/Peter Rubin

beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 3d

Voskhod 1 with three cosmonauts: Vladimir Komarov, Konstantin Feoktistov and Boris Yegorov was launched #OTD in 1964. It was the first spaceflight with multi-member crew.

beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 3d

The Large Binocular Telescope on Mount Graham, Arizona, saw its first light #OTD in 2005. With two 8.4-meter diameter mirrors, it forms the largest single-mount telescope in the world, providing a collecting area equal to a single 11.8-meter mirror and the resolution of a 22.8-meter-wide one.

beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 3d

#OTD in 1915 Robert Innes published the discovery of Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun. Proxima Centauri lies just 4.2 light-years from Earth, but is not visible to the naked eye. It is actually part of a triple star system with two companions, Alpha Centauri A and B.

$False color Hubble Space Telescope image of Proxima Centauri. The bright lines are diffraction spikes.$

beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 4d

Apollo 7, the first crewed flight of an Apollo spacecraft, launched on the Saturn IB #OTD in 1968, with astronauts Walter M. Schirra, Jr., Donn F. Eisele, and Walter Cunningham on board. The 10-day mission tested hardware and procedures essential for the flights to the Moon.

beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 4d

Soyuz MS-10 spaceflight with cosmonaut Aleksey Ovchinin and astronaut Nick Hague on board was aborted after launch due to a failure of the Soyuz-FG launch vehicle boosters #OTD in 2018. The crew returned safely to Earth 19 minutes 41 seconds after the launch.

Nick Hague (above) and Aleksey Ovchinin (below), pictured at Pad 1/5 on Baikonur before Soyuz MS-10 launch.

The failure of of the Soyuz-FG launch vehicle boosters.

beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 4d

Able 2, the second in the series of probes with the ambitious goal to orbit the Moon was launched #OTD in 1958. The mission was officially named Pioneer. The probe reached altitude of 113,810 km and reentered Earth’s atmosphere 43 hours 17 min after launch.
beyondearthsky.blogspot.com/2025/10/2.html

Project Able-1 lunar probe. Credit: NASA

Pioneer I lift-off from Pad 17A at Cape Canaveral. Credit: USAF

beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 5d

Venera 15, the first of two Soviet radar imaging orbiter designed to make detailed radar maps of Venus' surface at a resolution of 1 to 2 km, entered orbit around Venus #OTD in 1983. Last contact was made with the spacecraft on January 5, 1985.

Venera 15 or Venera 16 spacecraft during tests. Credit: NPO Lavochkin

Fragment of the Venera radar map of Venus with Anahit and Pomona Coronas. Credit: NPO Lavochkin

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 5d

The first attempt to launch a spacecraft to the vicinity of another planet took place #OTD in 1960. The 1M No. 1 probe was the first of two Soviet spacecraft intended to fly past Mars. The launch attempt failed without reaching Earth orbit.
beyondearthsky.blogspot.com/2025/10/firs...

Mars 1M spacecraft. Credit: NASA/Wikimedia Commons

Preparations of the Molniya 8K78 launch vehicle carrying the 1M Mars flyby spacecraft. Credit: Jonathan McDowell: Jonathan's Space Report, edited.

beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 5d

Triton, the largest moon of Neptune, was discovered by William Lassell #OTD 1846 just 17 days after the discovery of Neptune. It is the only large moon in the Solar System with a retrograde orbit, an orbit in the direction opposite to its planet's rotation
beyondearthsky.blogspot.com/2025/10/nept...

Neptune's moon Triton, seen in images captured by Voyager 2 on August 25, 1989. Approximate natural color.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Voyager Imaging Team/Jason Major

William Lassell (1799–1880), an English astronomer, the discoverer of Triton.

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 6d

One of the most powerful explosions ever recorded, Gamma-Ray Burst GRB 221009A, was detected #OTD in 2022. It occurred 1.9 billion light-years away and was the most energetic and one of the nearest gamma-ray bursts ever observed.
beyondearthsky.blogspot.com/2025/10/2210...

beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 6d

#OTD In 2009, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) and its Centaur upper stage crashed as planned on the lunar surface. The mission successfully confirmed that water ice resides in a permanently shadowed crater at the lunar south pole.

Artist's illustration of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) Centaur rocket stage and the Shepherding Spacecraft as they approach impact with the lunar south pole on October 9, 2009. Credit: NASA

The visible camera of the LCROSS spacecraft image showing the ejecta plume at about 20 seconds after the LCROSS Centaur upper stage impact. Credit: NASA

beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 6d

The first confirmed manned powered flight was made by French inventor and engineer Clément Ader in an uncontrolled monoplane Éole of his own design #OTD in 1890. He achieved a short flight of around 50 metres at a height of around 20 cm.
beyondearthsky.blogspot.com/2025/10/ader...

Clément Ader's Ader Éole in flight in a drawing published on French magazine L'Illustration in 1891

beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 6d

Supernova SN 1604, also known as Kepler's Star, in Ophiuchus, was first seen by observers in northern Italy #OTD 1604. It was named after Johannes Kepler, even though he was not its first observer, as his observations tracked the object for an entire year.
beyondearthsky.blogspot.com/2025/10/kepl...

A composite image of the remnant of Kepler’s Supernova. The X-rays, observed by the Chandra X-ray Observatory, are shown in five colors from lower to higher energies: red, yellow, green, blue, and purple. An optical image from the Digitized Sky Survey shows stars in the field.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/NCSU/M.Burkey et al; Optical: DSS

beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 7d

#OTD in 2009, a superbolide – a large atmospheric fireball blast – was seen above Sulawesi island. The meteoritic impactor broke up at a height of 15–20 km, with an energy of 10 to 50 kiloton TNT, its likely size was 5–10 m diameter. The explosion was detected by many infrasound monitoring stations.

Still from a TV news reporting a fireball in Sulawesi

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 8d

#OTD in 2008, asteroid 2008 TC3 exploded above the Nubian Desert in Sudan. It was discovered just 19 hours before the impact by Richard A. Kowalski at the Catalina Sky Survey. It was the first predicted asteroid impact. The asteroid had a diameter of 4.1 meters and a mass of 80 tonnes.

2008 TC3 fragment found on February 28, 2009, by Peter Jenniskens, with help from students and staff of the University of Khartoum

beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 9d

#OTD in 1995, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz of the University of Geneva announced the discovery of 51 Pegasi b (now officially named Dimidium), the first definitive detection of an exoplanet orbiting a main-sequence star.

Artist's impression of 51 Pegasi b (center) and its star (right).
Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser/Nick Risinger (skysurvey.org)

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 9d

Ulysses, the first mission to study the environment of space above and below the poles of the Sun, was launched aboard Space Shuttle Discovery #OTD 1990. The gravity-assist manoeuvre at Jupiter in February 1992 swung the craft into its unique solar orbit.
beyondearthsky.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...

Artist's impression of the Ulysses upon deployment from Space Shuttle Discovery. Credit: NASA

beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 10d

Robert Hutchings Goddard, American engineer and physicist, considered one of the founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics, was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, #OTD in 1882. In 1926 he successfully launched the world’s first liquid-fueled rocket.
beyondearthsky.blogspot.com/2025/10/hutc...

Dr. Robert Hutchings Goddard. Credit: NASA

Robert H. Goddard standing next to the world’s first liquid-fueled rocket and its launch frame in Auburn, Massachusetts, in 1926.
Credit: Esther Goddard/Wikimedia Commons

beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 11d

#OTD 2004, SpaceShipOne rocketplane, flight 17P, with pilot Brian Binnie, reached a maximum altitude of 112.01 km and broke the record for a rocket plane set by the X-15 in 1963. It was the third of three record-setting flights to win the Ansari X-Prize.
beyondearthsky.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...

SpaceShipOne in gliding configuration. Credit: SpaceFacts

SpaceShipOne pilot William Brian Binnie. Credit: SpaceFacts

beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 11d

Soviet Automatic Interplanetary Station (retroactively named Luna 3), the first spacecraft to return images of the lunar far side, was launched #OTD in 1959. A total of 17 resolvable but noisy photographs were transmitted to Earth.
beyondearthsky.blogspot.com/2025/10/3-an...

Model of Luna 3 lunar probe. Credit: RKK Energiya

This is the first image returned by Luna 3, taken by the wide-angle (200 mm) lens. It showed the far side of the Moon was very different from the near side, most noticeably in its lack of lunar maria (the dark areas). The right three-quarters of the disk are the far side. The dark spot at upper right is Mare Moscoviense, the dark area at lower left is Mare Smythii. The small dark circle at lower right with the white dot in the center is the crater Tsiolkovskiy and its central peak.