An Atlas rocket leaves the launch pad at Cape Canaveral with Mariner
2 on board
Mariner 2 was the first robotic space probe to conduct a successful planetary
encounter when it passed within 22,000 miles of Venus on December 14, 1962.
Dr. William H. Pickering, (center) Jet Propulsion Laboratory Director, is
presenting a Mariner 2 spacecraft model to President John F. Kennedy
in 1963.
NASA’S Echo 1, nicknamed a “Satelloon”, is seen here inflated in a Navy
hanger
The balloon satellite Echo One was launched by NASA from Cape Canaveral, FL.
on August 12, 1960. The project was the first passive communications satellite experiment. It functioned as a reflector, not a transceiver, so that after it was
placed in a low Earth orbit, a signal would be sent to it, reflected or bounced
off its surface, and then returned to Earth.
Sandy Kozel
Camille Bohannon
Robin McLaurin Williams is 63 today
1993
Tim Maguire
