Henry Gerber, born June 29, 1892 in Bavaria, Germany, was an early advocate for gay rights in the U.S. He emigrated to the United States in 1913 and settled in Chicago because of its large German immigrant population.
He founded the group Society for Human Rights (SHR) with John Graves, an African-American clergyman, and was granted a charter by the State of Illinois on December 10, 1924, becoming the first documented gay organization in the U.S.
Gerber also created the first known American gay publication called Friendship and Freedom, which was the SHR newsletter. However, at the time all gay publications were considered obscene until 1958 and the Friendship and Freedom last only two issues.
He died in Washington, DC December 31, 1972, at the age of 80.
John "Mike" Lounge, born June 28, 1946 in Denver, Colorado, was a veteran of three space shuttle mission as well as a Vietnam War veteran. He spent nine months in Southeast Asia aboard the USS Enterprise participating in 99 combat missions after graduating from the U.S. Naval academy in 1969.
His first mission was aboard Discovery (STS-51-I) as mission specialist August-September 1985. Their objective was to deploy 3 communications satellites.
His second flight was as mission specialist aboard Discovery (STS-26), the first mission after the Challenger disaster in January 1986. It was the first all-veteran crew mission since Apollo 11.
His third and final mission was on Columbia (STS-35) in December 1990.
Lounge passed away March 1, 2011 from liver cancer.
Almost 10 years before the Stonewall riots, Los Angeles became the site of the first LGBT uprising in the U.S. In May 1959, Cooper's Do-nuts was a 24-hour cafe on Main Street in the Skid Row neighborhood of downtown Los Angeles. Transgender and gay customers felt safe and welcome, since Cooper's was the only place in town that did not turn away transgender folks. It was illegal for a person's perceived gender not to match the gender on their ID.
One night, two police officers entered the cafe, asking for ID. They attempted to arrest two drag queens, two male sex workers and a gay man, John Rechy, who would chronicle the event in his novel City of Night. Cooper's patrons had had enough and pelted the officers with donuts, coffee and paper plates until they were forced to retreat.
The police showed up in a larger presence and shut down Main Street for an entire day.
The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous-Shoemaker spacecraft, launched in February 1996, made its closest approach to the asteroid Mathilde (officially 253 Mathilde) June 27, 1997.
The flyby lasted only about 25 minutes, since NEAR was traveling over 20,000 miles an hour, but it took about 500 pictures of the asteroid.
Mathilde was discovered in November 1885 and is approximately 50 km (30 miles) in diameter
Joseph P. Allen, born June 27, 1937 in Crawfordsville, Indiana, is a veteran of two Space Shuttle missions. After obtaining his PhD in Physics from Yale, he was selected as an astronaut by NASA in August 1967 and completed flight training Vance Air Force Base in Oklahoma(!).
His first flight was as mission specialist on Columbia (STS-5) in November 1982. He was scheduled to perform a spacewalk with fellow astronaut William Lenoir, but was cancelled when Lenoir got sick.
His second and final mission was on Discovery (STS-51-A) in November 1984 also as mission specialist. He completed two EVAs with fellow astronaut Dale Gardner, logging almost 11 hours in space.
Mark Takano, born December 10, 1960 in Riverside, California, became the first U.S. Representative in Congress to be openly gay and of Asian descent. His family was among the many Japanese who were interned into a War Relocation Camp during WWII.
In college, he was a Republican but became a member of the Democratic Party after leaving college.
In 2011, he announced he would run for the U.S. House of Representatives in the newly redrawn California 41st congressional district. In the November 2012 general election he defeated his Republican challenger 58-42%, becoming the first openly gay, non-white member of the House. He assumed office January 3, 2013.
Pavel Belyayev, born June 26, 1925 in the former Soviet Union, made space history when he commanded the Voskhod 2 mission, which involved the first spacewalk ever. In March 1965, Belyayev and fellow cosmonaut Alexey Leonov launched in Voskhod 2. Leonov made the first successful EVA.
Belyayev had to perform a manual re-entry when the automatic system failed. It took time for him to perform the maneuver, and it caused them to overshoot their landing position by 2000 km.
Belyayev was scheduled to fly the Voskhod 8 mission but it was cancelled.
June 23, 2015, the Stonewall Inn became a New York City Landmark, making it the city's first landmark to commemorate LGBT rights.
On June 24, 2016, President Barack Obama officially dedicated the Stonewall National Monument, the first U.S. national monument for LGBT history. The dedication came just two weeks after the Orlando nightclub shooting, which took the lives of 49 people.
In October 2017, a rainbow LGBT flag was raised on the monument.
STS-50 (L-R): Ellen Baker, Kenneth Bowersox, Bonnie Dunbar, Richard Richards, Carl Meade, Eugene Trinh, Lawrence DeLucas
Mission patch
Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-50), launched June 25, 1992, was the first flight of the U.S. Microgravity Laboratory and the first to land at Kennedy Space Center due to bad weather at Edwards caused by the remnants of Hurricane Darby. Its crew consisted of Commander Richard Richards, Pilot Kenneth Bowersox, Bonnie Dunbar, Ellen Baker, Carl Meade, Lawrence DeLucas and Eugene Trinh (the first Vietnamese astronaut).
I watched the Russian movie Salyut 7 over the weekend and
was very impressed with the whole film, which is based on the rescue of the
space station after contact had been lost with it. In June 1985, the crew of Soyuz T-13,
Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Viktor Savinykh, traveled to Salyut 7 and brought it
back to life. The mission has been
called the “Apollo 13” of the Soviet space program.
At first, I got confused because the two main characters,
the cosmonauts, were not given the full names of the real life cosmonauts. Vladimir Vdovichenkov played Vladimir
Fyodorov (Dzhanibekov) and cutie(!) Pavel Derenvyanko played Viktor Alyokhin
(Savinykh).
As I expected, the events of the real mission were
embellished and over-dramatized for the film version. For instance, Salyut 7 was crippled by a
faulty electrical sensor, which determined when batteries needed charging. Not meteorites, as in the film.
Also, a fire did not break out on the Soyuz module, causing Vladimir
to don a space suit and blow the hatch putting out the fire.
Still, the movie had a lot of suspenseful moments and had
some awesome special effects. The version
I saw has English subtitles, so it was easy to watch. Even if you are not a space history buff like
me, you will enjoy it for the drama and suspense.
The original gay pride Rainbow flag flew at the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade, June 25, 1978. Gilbert Baker, at the request of his friend Harvey Milk, created the flag as a symbol of pride for the gay community.
The original design had eight stripes, with each color having a special meaning.
Hot pink
Sex
Red
Life
Orange
Healing
Yellow
Sunlight
Green
Nature
Turquoise
Magic/Art
Indigo
Serenity
Violet
Spirit
After Milk's assassination in November 1978, demand for the flag sky-rocketed. Hot pink fabric became unavailable and so that stripe was dropped. In 1979, the turquoise stripe was dropped and since then the flag has been the six color version.
The arson attack on the UpStairs Lounge June 24, 1973 was the largest mass-murder of gay men until the Pulse nightclub attack in 2016. The UpStairs Lounge was on the second floor of a building on Chartres Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana.
On the last day of Pride Weekend, the Metropolitan Community Church held services inside the club and then the club hosted a dinner party with free beer for their patrons. Sixty people were inside when the fire was discovered. Some people managed to make it to the roof from where they could access the nextdoor building and escape. Others were trapped on the second floor.
Thirty-two people died from either smoke inhalation or fire. The only suspect was a gay man who had been kicked out of the bar earlier, but there hasn't been any evidence that the murders were motivated by hate or homophobia.
Afterwards, several families refused to claim the bodies of their relatives. Three men were unidentified.
Alan Turing, born June 23, 1912 in London, England, was the gay man who helped break Germany's Enigma code during WWII and went on to pioneer today's modern computing.
Frm an early age, Turing showed signs of genius, especially at mathematics, but did not exactly earn him respect from his teachers at Sherbourne, the independent school he attended. While there, he had his first love, with Christopher Morcom, but their relationship was cut short by Morcom's death.
When England entered WWII, Turing went to work for the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, Britain's codebreaking center. He devised techniques that could break the German ciphers faster than before. He deciphered coded messages that helped the Allies defeat the Nazis in many engagements. Estimates say his work shortened the year in Europe by more than two years and saved over fourteen million lives.
After the war, he went to work at the National Physical Laboratory where he designed on of the first stored-program computers.
In 1952, he started a relationship with Arnold Murray, who was just 19 (Turing was 39). Shortly afterwards, Turing's house was burgled and Murray said it was an acquaintance of his. During the police investigation, Turing admitted have a sexual relationship with Murray, which was illegal. Given the options of prison or hormonal castration. He chose the latter and was subjected to horrible injections of a synthetic estrogen. His conviction led to the removal of his security clearance and barred him from continuing to work for British intelligence.
On June 8, 1954, he was found dead of an apparent suicide, although there has been some speculation to that conclusion.
In September 2009, the British government formally apologized to Turing's prosecution for being gay.
Stephen Lachs is the first openly gay judge appointed to the bench in the U.S. In September `1979 he was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown to the Los Angeles County Superior Court. He served from 1979-1999.
In 1999, he was hired by Michael Jackson and his ex-wife to mediate their custody dispute.
Yang Liwei, born June 21, 1965 in the Liaoning province of China, is the first person sent into space by the Chinese space program. He was launched on October 15, 2003 in Shenzhou 5 spacecraft, making China the third country to send humans into space independently.
Although he was the first Chinese citizen in space, he is the second Chinese astronaut. Taylor Wang, born in Shanghai flew on Challenger (STS-51-B) in April 1985, but had become a U.S. citizen in 1975.
He was promoted to Major General in 2008 and has not been in space since.
June 1912, the Cave of the Golden Calf opened in London, probably the world's first gay pub. It was founded by Frida Strindberg in an underground location on Heddon Street just off Regent Street, and it quickly gained a reputation as a heathen den of iniquity.
The purpose of The Cave was to promote arts and encourage artists and other persons interested in literature and the arts to gather. The opening night was packed with journalists, artists and curiosity seekers.
It went bankrupt in 1914 but it helped set London as a place for artistic expression and progressiveness.
I have no words for this, but the closest ones I can come up with are 'disgusting' 'horrific' and 'evil'. The jurists in this case convicted a gay man of murder, but when it came to deciding on his punishment, they opted for the death penalty, because...get this...they thought he would enjoy being in prison. The jurists had "a lot of disgust" for Charles Rhines because it was known he was gay. So they thought prison is just where he wanted to be.
They asked questions such as:
Would he “be allowed to mix with the general inmate population?” Would he be permitted “to discuss, describe or brag about his crime to other inmates?” Would he “have a cellmate?”
The hatred, stupidity and bigotry is clear.
The Supreme Court has ruled that jury deliberations aren't necessarily sacrosanct if there is evidence of racial bias in the jury room. The reporter Ms. Tabacco Mar cited a case where evidence existed that the jury decided to convict an accused man of unlawful sexual contact and harassment because “he’s Mexican, and Mexican men take whatever they want,” in the words of one juror.
Although the Supreme Court has said states should prevent the harms of discrimination against LGBT people, they have decided not to step in.
Do straight people really think this is what we want?
If that was the case, why aren't gay men committing heinous crimes to be sent to prison every day?
Currently, Maryland is heading to the primaries so, to all my Maryland friends, get out and vote! This year, we have the first openly gay gubernatorial candidate for Maryland. Richard Madaleno was born in Fort Lauderdale but grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland.
He was elected to Maryland's 18th District in the House of Delegates in 2002. In April 2006, he ran for and won the Senate seat for District 18.
He announced his candidacy for governor in July 2017.
One of his commercials has raised some eyebrows and a lot of ire.
Moe Howard, born Moses Horwitz on June 19, 1897, is best known as the bully in The Three Stooges. He was the real-life brother of Curly and Shemp. His trademarks were the bowl haircut and the omnipresent scowl.
Although he was a bully on screen, he was a gentle person in life and very protective of his brother Curly. Moe was the business-minded one of the group. He began saving his money while acting realizing that his career might not last forever and died a wealthy man. Curly and Larry Fine had a propensity of spending their money, so Moe convinced them to give him part of their paycheck and he would invest it for them. Although they weren't as wealthy as Moe, they came out much better than if they hadn't.
Tammy Baldwin, born February 11, 1962 in Madison, Wisconsin, is the first openly LGBT person to be elected to the U.S. Senate. In 1992, she ran for Wisconsin's 78th Assembly District and won, becoming one of six openly gay candidates to win public office in 1992. She got re-elected 3 times.
When Representative Scott Klug announced he would retire in 1998, Baldwin ran for his seat and defeated the Republican candidate in the general election, becoming the first openly gay woman elected to the House of Representatives.
In 2011, she announced her candidacy for the U.S. Senate and won the election on November 19, 2012, becoming the first openly gay U.S. Senator in history.
ABC and just about every other news outlet on the planet is reporting that Germany will not meet its climate goals set for 2020. According to the Paris Climate Agreement, Germany aimed to reduce its greenhouse emissions by 40% compared to 1990 levels. It seems now they will only obtain a 32% reduction.
Therefore, everyone's calling them a failure, they won't be able to be a leader in climate change, they're unable to take drastic steps.
No, achieving 32% is still an improvement. Period.
That's almost a third lower emissions, and that doesn't happen by accident. Whatever Germany is doing works! I think the failure in here is in over-estimating the results their programs would have.
According to the German website dw.com, Germany is still ahead of the rest of the EU!
Vitaly Zholobov, born June 18, 1937 in the former Soviet Union, went into space once aboard Soyuz 21. He and fellow cosmonaut Boris Volynov spent 49 days aboard Salyut 5. Their original two-month stay was cut short when a noxious odor was detected on board.
STS-7 crew (L-R): Sally Ride, John Fabian, Robert Crippen, Norman Thagard, Fred Hauck
Mission patch
Challenger (STS-7) launched on June 18, 1983 carrying the first American first female astronaut, Sally Ride, into space. The rest of the crew consisted of Commander Robert Crippen (only non-rookie on board), Pilot Fred Hauck, John Fabian and Norman Thagard.
During the mission, the crew deployed several satellites and conducted a variety of experiments.
They returned to Earth June 24 at Edwards Air Force base.
Bob Paris, born December 14, 1959, is one of the first bodybuilders to come out as gay while he was at the peak of his competitive career. He began competing in California and won Mr. Los Angeles in 1981 and in 1982 he won Mr. Southern California and the California Muscle Classic in Pasadena. He won two more title in 1983. He posed for Mr. Olympia in 1984, 1985, 1988, 1989 and 1991 but never got higher than 7th. But in 1983 he won the IFBB World Championship Mr. Universe and professional qualifier in the Heavyweight Class and Overall!
In July 1989, he came out in an issue of Ironman. His career suffered afterwards, losing about 80% of bookings and endorsements. He and his partner at the time Rod Jackson co-authored a book, which I read, Straight from the Heart, in which Bob talks about struggling with his career and being gay.
Paris retired from bodybuilding in 1991. Since coming out, he has been a vocal advocate for gay marriage and gay rights. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with his husband Brian LeFurgey.
In 2006, Flex Magazine ranked him as the most aesthetic athlete in the history of bodybuilding.
James Hormel, born January 1, 1933 in Austin, Minnesota, is the first openly gay man to serve as a U.S. Ambassador. He is a grandson and an heir to the founder of the Hormel Foods.
In 1994, President Clinton considered him to be the ambassador to Fiji, but at the time gay sex in Fiji was punishable by prison sentences so his nomination was never forwarded.
In 1997, Clinton nominated him as ambassador to Luxembourg, which had removed laws prohibiting consensual same-sex acts in the 1800s. Despite vigorous opposition, his nomination was approved and he was sworn in as ambassador in June 1999.
Okay, I admit it. I really liked this movie, even though it basically ended the series. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, released June 15, 2007, performed a little better than its predecessor but soon after, lost steam. Although it made back its budget, it was panned by critics and fans.
I suppose that since I read Silver Surfer in the comics in the 70s, I enjoyed seeing him and the Fantastic Four on the big screen. Of course, watching Chris Evans for 2 hours is not at all a bad thing. Ioan Gruffudd is easy on the eyes, too. And Jessica Alba is on my top 5 women list.
I liked Michael Chiklis until American Horror Story.
Soyuz 29, launched June 15, 1978, was the fourth successful docking with Salyut 6. Its crew consisted of Commander Vladimir Kovalyonok and Flight Engineer Aleksandr Ivanchenkov. They docked with the space station June 17. Salyut 6 had been vacant for three months since Soyuz 26 left, after their record-setting stay in space. Kovalyonok became the first cosmonaut to visit the same station twice.
About a week later, Soyuz 30 with Pyotr Klimuk and Miroslaw Hermaszewski arrived at the station but returned July 5.
The second visit, Soyuz 31 with Valery Bykovsky and Sigmund Jahn, arrived at the end of August, bringing food and supplies. The Soyuz 31 crew left in the Soyuz 29 spacecraft and returned to Earth September 3.
Jacob Candelaria, born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is the first openly gay man to serve in the New Mexico State Legislature. He won 69% of the vote during the Democratic primary election in June 2012. He then ran unopposed in the 2012 November election.
Vostok 5, launched June 14, 1963, carried one cosmonaut and holds the record for the longest solo space flight. The Soviets intended Valery Bykovsky to stay in orbit for eight days but circumstances caused them to shorten his flight to five days.
The sun was experiencing increased solar flare activity and scientists were concerned that the spacecraft's orbit might decay sooner than eight days.
ONE Inc., one of the first gay rights organizations, began publishing ONE magazine in January 1953, the first gay publication in the U.S. It sold in Los Angeles openly for a quarter, but in 1954 the US Post Office refused to continue delivering it because it was deemed to be 'obscene'.
The Incredible Hulk (version 2?) was released June 13, 2008 and starred Edward Norton, Liv Tyler and William Hurt. Eric Bana was asked to recreate his role as Bruce Banner but he turned it down. Sam Elliott wanted to reprise his role as General Ross but it was given to William Hurt instead. I prefer Sam Elliott but I don't like it when he plays a bad guy, so I guess I was okay with it.
This movie pitted the big, green guy up against a new adversary, Abomination. Played by Tim Roth, Emil Blonsky is infected with some of Banner's radioactive blood and turns him into a very, ugly version of the Hulk. Lots of Hulk smashing stuff, and Abomination smashing Hulk.
Spoiler Alert:
At the end, Hulk defeats Abomination but the baddie is still alive. How are they going to continue restraining him? Will Bruce have to remain Hulk forever to keep Abomination under control?
Ronald John Grabe, born June 13, 1945 in New York City, New York, is a veteran of four space shuttle flights. In 1969 he was assigned as F-100 pilot in Vietnam where he flew 200 combat missions.
He became an astronaut in 1981 and his first flight into space was aboard the maiden voyage of Atlantis (STS-51-J) as pilot in October 1985. It was the second shuttle mission dedicated completely to the Department of Defense.
His second flight was back aboard Atlantis (STS-30) as pilot in May 1989. The crew deployed the Magellan probe, to study Venus.
His third flight was as commander aboard Discovery (STS-42) in January 1992. This mission carried Canada's first female astronaut Roberta Bondar.
Grabe's last flight was aboard Endeavour (STS-57) as commander June-July 1993.
Neil Giuliano, born October 26, 1956, is the first openly gay mayor in the United States. He was elected for four consecutive terms as mayor of Tempe, Arizona from 1994 to 2004. He wasn't out at the time of the first election, but came out during prior to the second election.
In 2008, he changed his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat, and there was speculation that he would run for governor of Arizona in 2010, but he did not.
Giuliano also served as president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), a group dedicated to ensuring the LGBT community have accurate, fair and inclusive representation in the media.
June 12, 2016, a security guard who had pledged allegiance to ISIL walked into the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida and killed 49 people with a semi-automatic rifle. Fifty-three more were injured. The club was hosting a Latino night so most of the victims were Latin. It is the worst attack against the LGBT in history. It was the deadliest mass shooting until the massacre in Las Vegas the following year.
Vega 1 Lander/Balloon capsule entered the Venusian atmosphere June 11, 1985. It had been launched December 15, 1984 from Baikonur in Kazakhstan. The Vega 1 space probe continued on to rendezvous with Halley's Comet, while the lander/balloon capsule was to study the planet.
The balloon probe and the lander separated in the upper atmosphere. The lander touched down successfully on the Mermaid Plain inside the Aphrodite Terra. Unfortunately, the lander experienced severe turbulence on its descent, which caused some of the surface experiments to activate early. As a result, only the mass spectrometer was able to transmit data.
The balloon traveled about 30% around the planet, continuing to transmit data during the day. It stopped sending signals on June 13, so it is not known how far the balloon traveled after that point.
One of the most beloved science fiction movies and one of the best of all time, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, was released June 11, 1982. From the master Steven Spielberg, it was the highest-grossing film of 1982 and was the best-selling film of all time until Spielberg broke his own record with Jurassic Park in 1993.
It won 4 Academy Awards: Best Music, Original Score; Best Effects, Visual Effects and Best Sound Editing; and Best Sound. John Williams won a LOT of awards for his music for this movie.
James Dougal Adrianus van Hoften, born June 11, 1944 in Fresno, California is a veteran of two space shuttle flights. He received a PhD in Hydraulic Engineering from Colorado State University and did two tours in Southeast Asia where he flew over 60 combat missions.
He was selected as an astronaut in January 1978. His first mission was aboard Challenger (STS-41-C) as mission specialist in April 1984. He conducted two EVAs during the mission with fellow astronaut George Nelson, logging just over 10 hours in space.
His second and last mission was aboard Discovery (STS-51-I) as mission specialist August-September 1985, where he performed two more EVAs with William Fisher, logging almost 12 hours in space.
In what would be a small but milestone victory for the LGBT community, the East Lansing City Council passed the very first anti-discrimination ordinance that included sexual orientation in the U.S. March 7, 1972.
The following month, Ann Arbor one-upped its neighbor by prohibiting discrimination against gays, not only for employment but for housing and public accommodations. It was the first community-wide gay right legislation in the U.S.
In 1971, University of Michigan in Ann Arbor became the first U.S. college to establish an LGBT office on campus.
Guy Erwin, born in Pawhuska, Oklahoma(!), is the first openly gay bishop elected to office in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA), in the Southwest California Synod. He is also a member of the Osage Nation, and is the first Native American bishop in the ELCA.
He married his long-term partner, Rob Flyn, in 2013.
Reg Park, born June 7, 1922 in Leeds, England, was a bodybuilder and actor, but also Arnold Schwarzenegger's idol and mentor. He entered his first Mr. Britain contest in 1946 (coming in 4th) but won the title in 1949. After that, he went to the U.S. and met publisher Joe Weider, who began to feature Park prominently in his Muscle & Fitness magazine.
Park came in second to Steve Reeves (another bodybuilder/actor) in 1950 for the inaugural Mr. Universe in London. He broke the American monopoly on bodybuilding titles by winning Mr. Universe in 1951, 1958 and 1965. He was edged out of the title in 1970 by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
In the 1960s, he starred in five Italian 'sword and sandals' movies as Hercules (4) and one as Samson. He met Arnold in the 1960s when the Austrian was training in London. Park became Arnold's idol, mentor, and close friend. He encouraged Arnold to appear in Hercules in New York in 1970.
Park was inducted into the IFBB Hall of Fame in 1999.
He passed away at his home in Johannesburg, South Africa from melanoma in 2007.
Jose Julio Sarria, born December 13, 1922, became the first openly gay man to run for public office in the United States, when he ran for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1961. The issue of the city government becoming lenient toward homosexuals had become an issue in San Francisco's mayoral election in 1959.
Sarria had been performing in drag at the Black Cat bar, which seemed to be under constant police harassment, when raids on gay bars were routine. He did not expect to win but almost did because of default. Less than five candidates had filed to run on the final day to register, which would have guaranteed Sarria a seat. However, by the end of that day, thirty-four candidates had filed. Sarria came in ninth but garnered about 6000 votes. That stunned many politicos in the city, who now realized that the gay voting bloc had power.
Sarria continued to perform in drag but also remained very active in fighting for gay rights.
He passed away in August 2013 from adrenal cancer in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Soyuz T-13 crew: Vladimir Dzhanibekov, Viktor Savinykh
Soyuz T-13, launched June 6, 1985, was the rescue mission for Salyut 7 space station. Its crew consisted of Commander Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Flight Engineer Viktor Savinykh. Salyut 7 had been rendered inoperable due to a solar array problem and ground crews had lost contact with it.
Dzhanibekov maneuvered his ship to match the station's rotation and managed to dock with it. They first recharged the batteries (two of eight were destroyed) by re-aligning the solar arrays to their proper position. They wore winter clothes until they could turn on the air heaters, June 10. They used Soyuz T-13 for the air regeneration system until Salyut 7's system was fixed.
Normal atmospheric humidity was achieved at the end of July, nearly two months after docking.
Soyuz T-13 landed with Dzhanibekov and Georgi Grechko September 26, 1985. Savinykh returned on Soyuz T-14 in November.
Al McAffrey, born in Konawa, Oklahoma and raised in Sulfur, is the first openly gay person to be elected to the Oklahoma Legislature. He served in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, representing District 88 (Oklahoma City), after winning the 2006 election. He served three consecutive terms.
When Senator Andrew Rice announced he would resign from the Oklahoma Senate in January 2012, McAffrey announced his candidacy for the seat and won the special election.
He has made two bids for the US House of Representatives, but has not been successful.
Soyuz MS-09 crew (L-R): Sergey Prokopyev, Alexander Gerst, Serena Aunon-Chancellor
Mission patch
Soyuz MS-09 launched this morning, taking the crew members of Expedition 56-57 to the International Space Station. Its crew is Commander Sergey Prokopyev (Roscosmos), Alexander Gerst (ESA and only non-rookie) and Serena M. Aunon-Chancellor (NASA and second Hispanic woman in space).
They will join Andrew Feustel, Oleg Artemyev and Richard Arnold already aboard the ISS for the second part of Expedition 56. The crew of Soyuz MS-09 will remain on board until December.
