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    Historic Journeys Into Space
    Historic Journeys Into Space
    Historic Journeys Into Space
    Ebook212 pages1 hour

    Historic Journeys Into Space

    By Lynn M. Homan and Thomas Reilly

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    About this ebook

    From the January 1958 launch of the first American satellite to the creation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration by President Eisenhower just a few months later, from the heated space race of the Cold War era to the heroes of shuttle launches, the United States has been on the leading edge of space exploration and technology. Initially developed from one of Adolph Hitler s most feared weapons, the V2 rocket, the space program has accomplished much in just a few short decades. The first American manned space flight, which put astronaut Alan Shepard into space, was launched in 1961; in 1965, Edward White became the first American to walk in space for a total of 21 minutes. In 1969, Neil Armstrong uttered those now-famous words as he became the first human to walk on the Moon. These and many other achievements, once considered unimaginable, have inspired and amazed the American people and engaged our brightest scientific minds.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateDec 30, 1999
    ISBN9781439610459
    Historic Journeys Into Space
    Author

    Lynn M. Homan

    As museum exhibit designers and the authors of more than 15 books, Lynn M. Homan and Thomas Reilly enjoy telling the stories behind the pictures. So grab a cool drink and a shady spot under a palm tree, and join the authors as they re-create the experience that is the Florida Keys.

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      Book preview

      Historic Journeys Into Space - Lynn M. Homan

      accordingly.

      INTRODUCTION

      The countdown had begun—10, 9, 8, 7. On April 12, 1981, millions of people waited in anticipation—6, 5, 4, 3. With tightened muscles in the backs of their necks, American television viewers stared blankly at their television sets. Another disappointment would not be easily accepted; there had already been too many. Only two days earlier, the scheduled launch of America’s first space shuttle mission, STS-1 Columbia, was scrubbed because of a computer problem. The sight on the television screen was overwhelming. Columbia, named after an 18th-century Massachusetts-based sailing ship, was the size of a modern jetliner. Its empty weight was almost 200,000 pounds. Two men, John W. Young and Robert L. Crippen, sat inside Columbia’s cockpit waiting for liftoff from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. There was a great deal riding on this mission. This reusable spacecraft was the culmination of a $9 billion investment. It was the first American space mission in six years.

      The countdown continued—2, 1, liftoff. At only a few seconds past 7:00 a.m. eastern standard time, America’s first shuttle mission was launched. Columbia would soon be 166 miles above the Earth. During the two-and-one-quarter-day mission, Columbia traveled a distance of 1,074,567 miles and orbited the Earth 37 times. A tremendous success, Columbia demonstrated a safe launch into orbit and the successful return of a reusable spacecraft—the space shuttle.

      The aerodynamically beautiful space shuttles that Americans have come to expect as a new millennium dawns were a long time in the works. For years the race for conquest of space had gone on between America and the Soviet Union. It was ironic that one of Adolph Hitler’s most feared weapons of World War II, the V2 rocket, would have been the beginning vehicle of America’s space program. At the end of the war, 100 German V2 rockets had been transported to the United States and were eventually configured for the launch of the earliest unmanned missions. Launch of the Soviet Union’s artificial satellite, Sputnik I, on October 4, 1957, pushed the American space program out of the doldrums. With wounded patriotic pride, Americans feared for their national security as the cold war raged. An American satellite was launched into space in January 1958. The space race was on in earnest.

      Created by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was announced on October 1, 1958. One week later, on October 7, Project Mercury was approved. Its mission was to send the first American into orbit. Six months later, a press conference was held in Washington, D.C. The date was April 9, 1959, and the first American astronauts, the Mercury seven, were presented to the American public. The selection criteria required that they be less than 40 years old, less than 5 feet, 11 inches in height, in excellent physical condition, and have a test pilot background with at least 1,500 flight hours. Nearly 1,000 American men applied for these few precious slots. The select seven included Walter M. Schirra Jr., Donald K. Slayton, John H. Glenn Jr., Malcolm Scott Carpenter, Alan S. Shepard Jr., Virgil I. Grissom, and L. Gordon Cooper Jr. The goal of the Mercury project was to put an American into space before 1960 came to an end.

      Only 20 years separated the launches of the first American shuttle and Mercury 3, the first American manned space flight. Launched atop a Mercury-Redstone rocket on May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American astronaut in space. As dramatic as the 15-minute, 22-second Mercury 3 launch had been, America was still playing catch-up with the Soviet Union. Soviet cosmonaut Yury Gagarin, on April 4, 1961, had earned the distinction of being the first man in space.

      President John F. Kennedy presented Alan Shepard the Distinguished Service Medal on May 8, 1961. On May 25, before Congress, Kennedy requested funding for a mission, before this decade is out of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth. The gauntlet had been thrown; Kennedy wanted to beat the Soviets to the Moon. By the mid-1960s, six Mercury launches would put six Americans into space at a cost of $392 million. Donald Slayton was the only one of the original seven Mercury astronauts who did not have the opportunity to fly a Mercury mission.

      In December 1961, NASA announced plans for a two-man spacecraft that was to be named Gemini after the mythological heavenly twins. Gemini was intended to be the foundation by which to gain the necessary experience to allow completion of NASA’s goal—a manned mission to the Moon. Instead of an Atlas rocket, a two-stage booster Titan intercontinental ballistic missile was to be used for launches.

      Gemini 3, the first manned Gemini mission, took place on March 23, 1965, with astronauts Gus Grissom and John Young riding on board a two-man capsule nicknamed Molly Brown. Only three months later, on June 3, James McDivitt and Edward White were launched into space. In a four-day Gemini 4 mission, Edward White became the first American to walk in space. Speeding above the Earth at 17,500 miles per hour, while attached to a 27-foot-long tether, White walked in space for 21 minutes. In a total of ten missions, the Gemini program accomplished what it had set out to do. Long periods of weightlessness had been experienced, precision docking of a pair of spacecraft had been accomplished, and man had walked in space. Gemini had propelled the United States far ahead of the Soviet space program; it proved that the United States could send a manned mission to the Moon.

      The three-man Apollo project was designed to take an American to the Moon. Safety was obviously of paramount importance. The decade of the sixties had not been kind to America’s astronauts. No American astronaut had yet died while on a mission. However, four astronauts had lost their lives. Theodore Freeman, an astronaut for a year, died in October 1964, when his T-38 airplane hit a flock of geese. Gemini crewmen Elliott See and Charles Bassett also died while flying a T-38 in 1966. Edward Givens perished in a car crash on June 6, 1967, in Houston, Texas. Almost as if jinxed, a T-38 jet took the life

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