The month of July boasts two special anniversaries for space events. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human being to set foot on the Moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission. On July 4, 1997, the Mars Pathfinder robotic lander mission symbolized America's return to Mars. This past July 4 weekend marks the two-year anniversary since the Pathfinder mission. The Mars Polar Lander, currently enroute to Mars, represents the follow-on mission to Pathfinder and will touch down near the Martian South Pole this December.

Many exciting events will be happening on July 20, which will be celebrated as the 30th anniversary of the first Moon landing. The most visible event will be the launching of the STS-93 mission where Eileen Collins will become the first female commander of a space mission. The shuttle Columbia will deploy the long-awaited Chandra X-Ray Observatory, which promises to spark off another revolution in space-based astronomy.

Back here on Earth, many groups will be celebrating this day by looking forward to the next thirty years in space. The Caltech chapter of the Mars Society will hold an event to promote their new mission plan, which was recently shown to officials at NASA and is quickly gaining acceptance as the cheapest and fastest plan available to get humans to Mars in less than a decade. Their event will also boast talks by director and Mars Society member James Cameron and Planetary Society chairman Louis Freedman.

July 20th will also mark the launch of Space.com, a new Space media outlet which is headed by former CNN anchor Lou Dobbs.

Related Websites
Mars Pathfinder - MarsNews.com Mission Archive
Mars Pathfinder - Official website
Apollo 11 - NASA History website

Special Events
Caltech Mars Society Celebration
Space.com website

Posted by jburk at July 11, 1999 12:00 PM | TrackBack