1993 nasa launches space shuttle discovery on sts 51
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1993 33 years ago Historical Events September 12

NASA launches Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-51.

On September 12, in the year 1993, NASA launches Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-51. This event is recorded as a Historical Events event in the history of September 12, one of 423 recorded events on this date across all of history.

STS-51 was a NASA Space Shuttle Discovery mission that launched the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) in September 1993. Discovery's 17th flight also featured the deployment and retrieval of the SPAS-ORFEUS satellite and its IMAX camera, which captured spectacular footage of Discovery in space. A spacewalk was also performed during the mission to evaluate tools and techniques for the STS-61 Hubble Space Telescope (HST) servicing mission later that year. STS-51 was the first shuttle mission to fly a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, a Trimble TANS Quadrex. It was mounted in an overhead window where limited field of view (FoV) and signal attenuation from the glass severely impacted receiver performance. Full triple-redundant 3-string GPS would not happen until 14 years later with STS-118 in 2007.

Key Facts

  • This event took place on September 12, 1993 (AD era).
  • It is categorised as a Historical Events event in recorded history.
  • Referenced in 1 Wikipedia article.
  • Wikipedia source last updated on 15 July 2025.

On This Date in History 423

Type Year Date Event
Notable Deaths 2024 Sep 12 Sitaram Yechury, Indian politician and leader of CPI(M) (born 1952)
Historical Events 2021 Sep 12 Siberian Light Aviation Flight 51 crashes short of the runway at Kazachinskoye Airport, killing four.
Notable Deaths 2019 Sep 12 ʻAkilisi Pōhiva, Tongan politician and activist, Prime Minister of Tonga (born 1941)
Notable Deaths 2018 Sep 12 Shen Chun-shan, Taiwanese academic (born 1932)
Notable Deaths 2017 Sep 12 Allan MacEachen, Canadian economist and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Canada (born 1921)
Notable Deaths 2017 Sep 12 Edith Windsor, American LGBT rights activist and technology manager at IBM (born 1929)
Notable Deaths 2015 Sep 12 Claudia Card, American philosopher and academic (born 1940)
Selected Events 2015 Sep 12 An explosion involving illegally stored mining detonators in Petlawad, India, killed 104 people and injured more than…
Historical Events 2014 Sep 12 Synagogue Church building collapse saw the deaths of 115 people and several injured, in the Church run by Nigeria's,…
Notable Deaths 2014 Sep 12 Atef Ebeid, Egyptian academic and politician, 47th Prime Minister of Egypt (born 1932)
Notable Deaths 2014 Sep 12 John Gustafson, English singer-songwriter and bass player (born 1942)
Notable Deaths 2014 Sep 12 Ian Paisley, Northern Irish evangelical pastor (Free Presbyterian Church) and politician, 2nd First Minister of…
Notable Deaths 2014 Sep 12 Joe Sample, American pianist and composer (born 1939)
Historical Events 2013 Sep 12 NASA confirms that its Voyager 1 probe has become the first manmade object to enter interstellar space.
Notable Deaths 2013 Sep 12 Ray Dolby, American engineer and businessman, founded Dolby Laboratories (born 1933)
Notable Deaths 2013 Sep 12 Warren Giese, American football player, coach, and politician (born 1924)
Notable Deaths 2013 Sep 12 Erich Loest, German author and screenwriter (born 1926)
Notable Deaths 2013 Sep 12 Candace Pert, American neuroscientist and pharmacologist (born 1946)
Historical Events 2012 Sep 12 Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Air Flight 251 crashes on approach to Palana Airport, killing 10 and injuring four.
Notable Deaths 2012 Sep 12 Arkadii Dragomoshchenko, Russian poet and author (born 1946)
Notable Deaths 2012 Sep 12 Jon Finlayson, Australian actor and screenwriter (born 1938)
Notable Deaths 2012 Sep 12 Tom Sims, American skateboarder and snowboarder, founded Sims Snowboards (born 1950)
Notable Deaths 2011 Sep 12 Alexander Galimov, Russian ice hockey player (born 1985)
Notable Deaths 2010 Sep 12 Claude Chabrol, French actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1930)
Notable Deaths 2010 Sep 12 Giulio Zignoli, Italian footballer (born 1946)
Notable Deaths 2009 Sep 12 Norman Borlaug, American agronomist and humanitarian, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1914)
Notable Deaths 2009 Sep 12 Jack Kramer, American tennis player and sportscaster (born 1921)
Notable Deaths 2009 Sep 12 Willy Ronis, French photographer and author (born 1910)
Historical Events 2008 Sep 12 The 2008 Chatsworth train collision in Los Angeles between a Metrolink commuter train and a Union Pacific freight…
Notable Deaths 2008 Sep 12 Bob Quinn, Australian footballer and coach (born 1915)
Notable Deaths 2008 Sep 12 David Foster Wallace, American novelist, short story writer, and essayist (born 1962)
Historical Events 2007 Sep 12 Former Philippine President Joseph Estrada is convicted of plunder.
Historical Events 2007 Sep 12 Two earthquakes measuring 8.4 and 7.9 on the Richter Scale hits the Indonesian island of Sumatra, killing 25 people…
Notable Deaths 2007 Sep 12 Bobby Byrd, American singer-songwriter and producer (born 1934)
Historical Events 2005 Sep 12 Israeli–Palestinian conflict: the Israeli disengagement from Gaza is completed, leaving some 2,530 homes demolished.
Notable Deaths 2005 Sep 12 Serge Lang, French-American mathematician, author and academic (born 1927)
Historical Events 2003 Sep 12 The United Nations lifts sanctions against Libya after that country agreed to accept responsibility and recompense the…
Historical Events 2003 Sep 12 Iraq War: In Fallujah, U.S. forces mistakenly shoot and kill eight Iraqi police officers.
Historical Events 2003 Sep 12 Typhoon Maemi, the strongest recorded typhoon to strike South Korea, made landfall near Busan.
Notable Deaths 2003 Sep 12 Johnny Cash, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (born 1932)
Notable Deaths 2003 Sep 12 Arthur Johnson, canoeist (born 1921)
Historical Events 2001 Sep 12 Ansett Australia, Australia's first commercial interstate airline, collapses due to increased strain on the…
Notable Births 2001 Sep 12 Ziaire Williams, American basketball player
Notable Deaths 2000 Sep 12 Stanley Turrentine, American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader (born 1934)
Notable Births 1999 Sep 12 Jerome Ford, American football player
Notable Births 1997 Sep 12 Sydney Sweeney, American actress
Notable Births 1997 Sep 12 Almida de Val, Swedish curler
Notable Deaths 1997 Sep 12 Judith Merril, American-Canadian science fiction writer, editor and political activist (born 1923)
Notable Births 1996 Sep 12 Colin Ford, American actor
Notable Deaths 1996 Sep 12 Ernesto Geisel, Brazilian general and politician, 29th President of Brazil (born 1907)

This article draws on content from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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