April 16th

On this day - 16 April 1972 - Apollo 16 launched

On April 16th 1972 Apollo 16 launched from Kennedy Space Center. Apollo 16 was the tenth manned mission in the Apollo space program and the fifth to land on the moon. The mission was crewed by commander John W. Young, commander Thomas K. Mattingly II and pilot Charles M. Duke, Jr. Mattingly was supposed to join the Apollo 13 launch, but he contracted measles and was replaced three days before the launch. Young and Duke spent 71 hours on the moon. The mission returned with almost a 100 kg of lunar samples. Apollo 16 returned to earth on April 27th spending a total of 11 days and almost two hours in space. 

November 3

On this day – November 3, 1957 – Sputnik2, with the dog Laika, was launched into orbit

Sputnik 2 was launched by the Soviet Union almost a month after Sputnik 1. Sputnik 2 is most famous because it contained a dog, Laika, who thereby became the first animal to enter the earth’s orbit. The spacecraft also contained a radio transmitter, a programming unit and a temperature-control system. Laika was a 6kg large dog of unknown breed. She had been selected out of 10 other possible dogs. Her compartment in the spacecraft was large enough for her to bot lie down and stand, and it was fitted with food and water. Sadly, Laika only survived a few hours in the spacecraft due to overheating. The spacecraft orbited the earth for 162 days.