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Space History for November 29

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1803
Born, Christian Doppler, Austrian mathematician and physicist (Doppler effect)

Christian Andreas Doppler (29 November 1803 - 17 March 1853) was an Austrian mathematician, most famous for deducing the phenomenon known as the Doppler effect which causes the frequency of a wave to apparently change as its source moves toward or away from you.
ref: en.wikipedia.org

1849
Born, Sir Ambrose Fleming, physicist

Sir John Ambrose Fleming (sometimes also listed as Ambrose J. Fleming, 29 November 1849 - 18 April 1945) was a British electrical engineer and physicist. In November 1904 he invented and patented the two-electrode radio rectifier, which he called the oscillation valve. It was also called a thermionic valve, vacuum diode, kenotron, thermionic tube, or Fleming valve. This invention is often considered to have been the beginning of electronics.
ref: en.wikipedia.org

1908
Born, Kurt Heinrich Debus, rocket engineer, member of the German Rocket Team in the US after World War II, Director of Launch Operations during the Apollo program

Kurt Heinrich Debus (29 November 1908 - 10 October 1983) was a German rocket engineer. He earned a BS in mechanical engineering (1933), an MS (1935) and PhD (1939) in electrical engineering, all from the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany. He became an assistant professor at the university after receiving his degree. During World War II, he became an experimental engineer at the A-4 (V-2) test stand at Peenemuende, rising to become superintendent of the test stand and test firing stand for the rocket. In 1945, he moved to the United States with a group of engineers and scientists headed by von Braun. From 1945-1950, the group worked at Fort Bliss, Texas, and then moved to the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. From 1952-1960, Debus was chief of the missile firing laboratory of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA), working at Cape Canaveral, Florida, where he supervised the launching of the first ballistic missile fired from there, an Army Redstone. When ABMA became part of NASA, Debus continued to supervise missile and space vehicle launchings, first as director of the Launch Operations Center and then of the Kennedy Space Center as it was renamed in December 1963. He retired from that position in 1974. In 1975, he became a supervisory board chairman of the German firm OTRAG, which sought to develop storable liquid propellant rockets in the Congo and Libya. Debus died at Cocoa Beach, Florida. (Reports vary about the date of his death, some indicating it was 4 October.)

From a Web page previously found at http://www.urbin.de/konstrukteure/debus.htm, Google provided this (somewhat amusing) translation:

 Kurt Debus (1908-1983)

The physicist and rocket technical designer Kurt Heinrich Debus were born on 29 November 1908 in Frankfurt/Main.
It was prominently active with the attempts with the A-4-Rakete starting from 1942 in Peenemuende. In the year 1944 he became director/conductor of the test stand P-7 in Pennemuende. He took over the place of Dieter Huzel, which became a technical assistant from who ago by brown. To end of war Kurt Debus with many different went, to former Peenemuendern into the USA and made career there rapid. From 1952 to 1960 he was a boss of the rocket launchings of the US Army, from 1960 to 1962 boss of the rocket launchings of NASA and from July 1962 until November 1974 director John of the F. Kennedy space of center.
Kurt Debus deceased on 10 October 1983.

(Of note, "who ago by brown" referred to above is Werner von Braun, whose translated biography was even more amusing.)
ref: en.wikipedia.org

1921
K. Reinmuth discovered asteroid #970 Primula.

1924
K. Reinmuth discovered asteroid #1048 Feodosia.

1932
E. Delporte discovered asteroid #1366 Piccolo.

1937
M. B. Protitch discovered asteroid #1550 Tito.

1940
Liisi Oterma discovered asteroids #2717 Tellervo, #2803 Vilho and #3132 Landgraf.
ref: en.wikipedia.org

1949
Born, Kenneth D. Cameron, (at Cleveland, Ohio, USA), Colonel USMC, NASA astronaut (STS 37, STS 56, STS 74; over 23d 10h total time in spaceflight)

Astronaut Ken Cameron, NASA photo (1985)
Source: Wikipedia (www.jsc.nasa.gov unavailable November 2019)
ref: en.wikipedia.org

1953
American Airlines began the first regular commercial air service between New York and Los Angeles, using Douglas DC-7 airplanes.
ref: airlinehistory.co.uk

1961 15:07:57 GMT
NASA launched Mercury-Atlas 5 with Enos the chimp aboard for two orbits, the first animal sent into orbit around the Earth by the USA.

Mercury-Atlas 5 lifts off from Kennedy Space Center carrying space chimp "Enos" 29 November 1961
Source: Wikipedia

Mercury-Atlas 5 was an American unmanned spaceflight of the Mercury program, launched 29 November 1961 at 15:07:57 UTC with "monkeynaut" Enos aboard, a 17 kg, five-year-old chimpanzee. It was the second and final orbital qualification flight of the Mercury systems prior to manned orbital flight, planned as a three orbit mission. The craft orbited the Earth twice and splashed down off the coast of Puerto Rico in the eastern Caribbean at 18:28:56 UTC. Enos was unharmed.

A metal chip in a fuel supply line caused a problem with the attitude control system, leading to the failure of a roll reaction jet. This resulted in the spacecraft drifting 30 degrees, at which point the automatic controls brought the spacecraft back to nominal attitude. Each iteration of this process caused an extra pound of fuel to be consumed. The spacecraft repeated this drift and correction process nine times before retrofire, and once more between retrofire and the 0.05 g light telemetry signal. In addition, a problem developed in an inverter in the electrical system, resulting in a capsule interior temperature problem. Cconsequently, ground control decided to shorten the mission and bring it down after the second orbit.

The spacecraft was recovered 410 km southeast of Bermuda by the USS Stormes one hour and fifteen minutes following splashdown. Handling during the recovery process cracked the spaceship's window. Enos had performed various psychomotor activities during the flight and was found to be in excellent physical condition following splashdown.

Enos died 4 November 1962 at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, one year after his historic flight. He had been under day and night observation for two months prior to his death with a case of shigella dysentary, a type resistant to antibiotics. His illness and death were unrelated to his orbital flight.

See also the Wikipedia Mercury-Atlas 5 page.
ref: nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov

1973
E. F. Helin discovered asteroid #2083 Smither.

1980
E. Bowell discovered asteroid #2649 Oongaq.

1983
E. Bowell discovered asteroids #3210 Lupishko and #3615 Safronov.

1996
Evidence suggesting that water might be present on the Moon was published in Science magazine, resulting from interpretation of data from a Clementine spacecraft experiment.
ref: nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov

2010
Died, Maurice Wilkes, inventor (designed and built EDSAC, the first computer with an internally stored program)
ref: amturing.acm.org

2020
Died, Benjamin William "Ben" Bova, US science and science fiction author, six-time Hugo award winner, past president of the National Space Society and the Science Fiction Writers of America
ref: en.wikipedia.org

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