UPCOMING IMPORTANT CALENDAR DATES

Attention Docents, Teachers, Educators: As you know, I keep track of the anniversary dates for milestone events in aviation and Space exploration, along with dates for notable events and people, to help engage learner interest with familiar connections. It can be worthwhile to look ahead to see keys dates in 2025 that you may wish to use, or avoid, when planning educational programs, class activities, or other outreach interactions. Having info you don’t need is better than needing info you don’t have!

2026 ANNIVERSARY-RELATED PROGRAMMING OPPORTUNITIES! Round-number anniversaries/birthdays, etc. for 2026 can be found in the Archive: Other Stuff section of the website. Such dates likely attract media and other attention, and can be used in aviation, astronomy, and Space exploration programming to engage audiences.

Upcoming Round-Number Calendar Anniversaries:

February 17, 1996: Launch of the Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission, which flew by asteroid 253 Mathilde en route to first orbiting, then actually landing on, asteroid 433 Eros.

February 20, 1986: Launch of Soviet Space Station Mir. 

February 24, 1996: Launch of the Polar spacecraft, part of the International Solar-Terrestrial Physics program suite of six satellites. Polar was designed to return information about the ionosphere under aurora conditions.

February 26, 1966: The Gemini 9 prime crew, Elliot See and Charles Bassett, died in the crash of a T-38 in St. Louis.