|
|
NASA The Road of Manned Space Flight Written by: Heath Bixel NASA was created in 1958 by the National Aeronautics and Space Act. NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, started out as the NACA, The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, and soon replaced it. NASA has many facilities across the United States such as John F. Kennedy Space Center, Merit Island, Florida; Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas; Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland; and the George C. Marshal Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama.
NASA has launched many manned space vessels. Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo, were the first American manned vessels in space. They were very small, one time use, and were used to prepare for a mission to the moon.
On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American to achieve space flight. He flew in the Mercury spacecraft Freedom 7. Less than one year later John Glenn became the first American to achieve orbit. In 1965, Edward White was the first American to leave his space craft while in orbit. All of these men flew the one man, nonreusable, Mercury space craft.
Next came the Gemini project. The Gemini spacecraft held two people and was not reusable. The Gemini 6 and 7 were the first spacecraft to rendezvous on space. Gemini 8 made the first docking in space with a Agenda Target rocket.
On July 21, 1969 The lunar module Eagle Landed at Tranquillity Base on the moons surface, and a radio message sent to Mission Control said, "Houston, This is Tranquillity Base, The Eagle has landed." A few minuets later Neil Armstrong stepped on the surface and said, "That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." He was followed on to the Surface by Edwin "Buzz" Aldrich. Five other Apollo missions went to the moon, allowing twelve men to spend one hundred twenty hours on the lunar surface.
In 1973-1974 the United States launched Skylab to prepare for the later launch of Spacelab. Skylab was largely damaged on the launch, but was repaired by the first crew. However by 1978 the space station was unusable, and in 1979 the space station burned up in the atmosphere.
In 1981 the United States launched the first reusable space vehicle called the space shuttle. The first space shuttle was named Columbia. It could be used to perform experiments, or launch, retrieve or repair satellites.
In 1983 space shuttle Columbia launched a new space station Spacelab. It took many photos of earth as well as performed many scientific experiments.
January 28,1986 the space shuttle Challenger exploded seventy-three seconds after launch due to a defective O-ring. All seven crew members were killed including a teacher from New Hampshire who was to be the first civilian in space. After the Challenger accident, the space shuttle program was shut down, and four thousand refinements were made to the shuttle program. The shut down lasted over two years.
What the future holds is anybody’s’ guess. The schedule was made but has not been followed. A trip to Mars, an American space station, or a space colony, will ever happen? The road to the future a long one and only is getting longer. We can ask, will this ever happen? Bibliography
The World Book Encyclopedia ã 1996 World Book Inc.
The Encyclopedia Americana ã 1993 Grolier Inc.
The World of Space ã 1989 Cass R. Sandak [Return to Exceptional Student Work]
|