JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC
DECEMBER 1
* First successful sporting balloon flight by Charles and Marie-Noel Robert in a 27.5 foot diameter hydrogen-filled balloon (1783).
* First helium-filled balloon flight (1921).
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* The Solar Max Mission (SMM) Satellite entered the Earth's atmosphere (1989).
* The first an atom was split by humans (1942).
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* First fly-by of Jupiter by a spacecraft (Pioneer 10, 1973).
(Click on Pioneer to read the story of the Pioneer planetary exploration program.)
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* Gemini 7 was launched and was the longest of the Gemini flights. It lasted 320 hours (1965).
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* The Pioneer 11 planetary spacecraft flew by Jupiter (1974).
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* This was the date of the first attempt made by the United States to launch a satellite. Unfortunately, it went only a few feet before exploding on the launch pad (1957).
* Pioneer 3 reached the distance of 63,580 miles before falling back to Earth (1958).
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* Pilot Wiley Post discovered a jet stream of air current existed over the United States (1934).
* The last Apollo flight, Apollo 17, was launched for the Moon (1972).
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* Langley tried to fly his "Aerodrome" aircraft over the Potomac River. This, his second attempt, failed (1903).
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* First time a monoplane (single wing) flew in the U.S. (1909).
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DECEMBER 10
* U.S. Air Force dropped its Dyna-
Soar program (the X-20). The
project was to have launched one
person into orbit on a space glider
which would orbit Earth then return
to land on a runway (1963).
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