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On this day in 1784 - July 22nd - Friedrich Bessel was born.

Bessel was a German astronomer and mathematician. He was the first to succeed in determining the distance from the Sun to another star using parallax.

On this day in 1999 - July 23rd - Eileen Collins became the first woman to command a space shuttle mission.

Of additional interest is that one of the mission objectives was the deployment of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, a highly sophisticated space telescope that is still producing results at wavelengths that are impossible to detect through the Earth's atmosphere.

On this day in 1851 - July 28th - the first successful photo was taken of a total solar eclipse.

The photographer was Johann Julius Friedrich Berkowski, and he took the daguerrotype at the Royal Observatory in Koningsberg, Prussia (now Kalingrad, Russia).

On this day in 1958- July 29th - NASA was created.

President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act that would make NASA a reality.

On this day in 1818 - August 1st - Maria Mitchell was born.

Mitchell was awarded a gold medal by the King of Denmark for discovering a comet. As professor of astronomy at Vassar, she was the first woman to become a college professor in America.

On this day in 1786 - August 1st - Caroline Herschel first sighted the comet which would make her famous.

Caroline Herschel was the first woman to be credited with the discovery of a comet. She and her brother William were a formidable partnership in astronomy.

On this day in 2004 - August 3rd - NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft was launched.

MESSENGER was the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury. After a successful primary mission plus two mission extensions, it deorbited on April 30, 2015.

On this day in 1930 - August 5th - Neil Armstrong was born.

Neil Armstrong - astronaut, test pilot, aerospace engineer, university professor - was the first person to walk on the Moon.

On this day in 1989 - August 8th - ESA launched its Hipparcos mission.

Hipparcos measured the positions of tens of thousands of stars to an accuracy never before achieved.