Project Vanguard was a program of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. When 
the agency launched Vanguard 1, it became the second artificial satellite to be
placed successfully in Earth orbit by the United States. It was the first solar-
powered satellite. It is the oldest satellite still in space, as it’s predecessors,
Sputnik 1, Sputnik 2, and Explorer 1, have fallen out of orbit.

Frank Frederick Borman, II is a retired NASA astronaut and engineer, who 
is best remembered as the Commander of Apollo 8, the first mission to fly 
around the Moon along with fellow crew mates Jim Lovell and Bill Anders.

After leaving NASA, Borman was the CEO of Eastern Air Lines from 1975
to 1986. He is a recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

1968

John Glenn became the fifth person in space, the third American in space and the
first American to orbit the Earth, aboard Friendship 7 on Tuesday,February 20, 1962,
on the Mercury-Atlas 6 mission, circling the globe three times during a flight lasting 4 hours, 55 minutes, and 23 seconds.

At left is John Glenn with Scott Carpenter. The two men are the lone survivors of the original Mercury 7 astronauts. They joined the remaining veterans of NASA’s Project
Mercury team on Saturday at Kennedy Space Center in celebrating Glenn’s 50th
anniversary of his historic orbital flight.   

The National Weather Service (now the U.S. Weather Bureau) was established
on February 9, 1870 through a joint resolution of Congress signed by President
Ulysses S. Grant with a mission of providing meteorological observations at
military stations in the interior of the continent and other points in the States
and Territories”. The new agency was placed under the Secretary of War and
was then assigned to the U.S. Signal Corps under General Albert J. Myer.

President Grant

General Myer

 

Left: Exterior view of the Headquarters Building of the U. S. Meteorological Service of the United States Signal Service. Right: A meteorologist reading
a barometer (1880).

The NASA Skylab space station orbited the Earth from 1973 to 1979. It included a
workshop, a solar observatory, and other systems. Three manned missions to the
station were conducted between 1973 and 1974. The fourth and final Skylab crew returned to Earth on Friday, February 8, 1974.

The Skylab 4 crew included from left: Commander Gerald Carr, Pilot William Pogue,
and Science Pilot Edward Gibson. They were launched on November 16, 1973 atop
a Saturn B rocket. The three astronauts spent 6,051 man hours performing scientific experiments that covered medical activities, and solar observations,