1.
Buran programme
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The Buran-class space shuttle orbiters used the expendable Energia rocket as a launch vehicle. The Buran programme was started by the Soviet Union as a response to the United States Space Shuttle program, the project was the largest and the most expensive in the history of Soviet space exploration. Development work included sending BOR-5 test vehicles on multiple sub-orbital test flights, Buran completed one unmanned orbital spaceflight in 1988 before its cancellation in 1993. Orbiter K1, which flew the test flight in 1988 was crushed in a collapse on 12 May 2002 in Kazakhstan. The OK-GLI resides in Technikmuseum Speyer, although Soviet/Russian Buran spacecraft was similar in appearance to NASAs Space Shuttle, and could similarly operate as a re-entry spaceplane, its internal and functional design was distinct. For example, the engines during launch were on the Energia rocket and were not taken into orbit by the spacecraft. Smaller rocket engines on the body provided propulsion in orbit. The Buran orbital vehicle programme was developed in response to the U. S, Space Shuttle programme, which in the 1980s raised considerable concerns among the Soviet military and especially Defense Minister Dmitriy Ustinov. An authoritative chronicler of the Soviet and later Russian space programmes, the Soviet government asked the TsNIIMash for an expert opinion. Institute director, Yuri Mozzhorin, recalls that for a time the institute could not envisage a civilian payload large enough to require a vehicle of that capacity. Officially, the Buran orbital vehicle was designed for the delivery to orbit and return to Earth of spacecraft, cosmonauts, before the Mriya was ready, the Myasishchev VM-T Atlant, a variant on the Soviet Myasishchev M-4 Molot bomber, fulfilled the same role. The Soviet reusable space-craft programme has its roots in the beginning of the space age. The idea of Soviet reusable space flight is very old, though it was neither continuous, before Buran, no project of the programme reached production. The idea saw its first iteration in the Burya high-altitude jet aircraft, several test flights are known, before it was cancelled by order of the Central Committee. The Burya had the goal of delivering a nuclear payload, presumably to the United States, the cancellation was based on a final decision to develop ICBMs. The next iteration of the idea was Zvezda from the early 1960s, decades later, another project with the same name was used as a service module for the International Space Station. After Zvezda, there was a hiatus in reusable projects until Buran, the development of the Buran began in the early 1970s as a response to the U. S. Soviet officials were concerned about a military threat posed by the U. S
2.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
3.
Spacecraft
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A spacecraft is a vehicle, or machine designed to fly in outer space. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, planetary exploration, on a sub-orbital spaceflight, a spacecraft enters space and then returns to the surface, without having gone into an orbit. For orbital spaceflights, spacecraft enter closed orbits around the Earth or around other celestial bodies, robotic spacecraft used to support scientific research are space probes. Robotic spacecraft that remain in orbit around a body are artificial satellites. Only a handful of interstellar probes, such as Pioneer 10 and 11, Voyager 1 and 2, orbital spacecraft may be recoverable or not. By method of reentry to Earth they may be divided in non-winged space capsules, Sputnik 1 was the first artificial satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957, the launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments, while the Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the Space Age. Apart from its value as a technological first, Sputnik 1 also helped to identify the upper atmospheric layers density and it also provided data on radio-signal distribution in the ionosphere. Pressurized nitrogen in the satellites false body provided the first opportunity for meteoroid detection, Sputnik 1 was launched during the International Geophysical Year from Site No. 1/5, at the 5th Tyuratam range, in Kazakh SSR. The satellite travelled at 29,000 kilometers per hour, taking 96.2 minutes to complete an orbit and this altitude is called the Kármán line. In particular, in the 1940s there were several test launches of the V-2 rocket, as of 2016, only three nations have flown manned spacecraft, USSR/Russia, USA, and China. The first manned spacecraft was Vostok 1, which carried Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into space in 1961, there were five other manned missions which used a Vostok spacecraft. The second manned spacecraft was named Freedom 7, and it performed a sub-orbital spaceflight in 1961 carrying American astronaut Alan Shepard to an altitude of just over 187 kilometers, there were five other manned missions using Mercury spacecraft. Other Soviet manned spacecraft include the Voskhod, Soyuz, flown unmanned as Zond/L1, L3, TKS, China developed, but did not fly Shuguang, and is currently using Shenzhou. Except for the shuttle, all of the recoverable manned orbital spacecraft were space capsules. Manned space capsules The International Space Station, manned since November 2000, is a joint venture between Russia, the United States, Canada and several other countries, some reusable vehicles have been designed only for manned spaceflight, and these are often called spaceplanes. The first example of such was the North American X-15 spaceplane, the first reusable spacecraft, the X-15, was air-launched on a suborbital trajectory on July 19,1963. The first partially reusable spacecraft, a winged non-capsule, the Space Shuttle, was launched by the USA on the 20th anniversary of Yuri Gagarins flight
4.
Takeoff and landing
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Aircraft can have different ways to take off and land. Conventional airplanes accelerate along the ground until sufficient lift is generated for takeoff, some airplanes can take off at low speed, this being a short takeoff. Some aircraft such as helicopters and Harrier Jump Jets can take off, rockets also usually take off vertically, but some designs can land horizontally. Takeoff is the phase of flight in which an aircraft goes through a transition from moving along the ground to flying in the air, for balloons, helicopters and some specialized fixed-wing aircraft, no runway is needed. Takeoff is the opposite of landing, Landing is the last part of a flight, where a flying aircraft or spacecraft returns to the ground. When the flying object returns to water, the process is called alighting, although it is commonly called landing, a normal aircraft flight would include several parts of flight including taxi, takeoff, climb, cruise, descent and landing. STOL is an acronym for short take-off and landing, aircraft with short runway requirements. CATOBAR is a used for the launch and recovery of aircraft from the deck of an aircraft carrier. Under this technique, aircraft are launched using a catapult and land on the ship using arrestor wires, although this system is more costly than alternative methods, it provides greater flexibility in carrier operations, since it allows the vessel to support conventional aircraft. Alternate methods of launch and recovery can only use aircraft with STOVL or STOBAR capability, STOBAR is a system used for the launch and recovery of aircraft from the deck of an aircraft carrier, combining elements of both STOVL and CATOBAR. It is also used for the upcoming Tier 1b SpaceShipTwo/WhiteKnightTwo combination, a prominent example of its use was the North American X-15 program. In these examples the space craft are carried to altitude on a ship before launch. The failed proposals for NASA Space Shuttle replacements, Rockwell X-30 NASP used this mode of operation but were conceived as single stage to orbit. The Lynx rocketplane is a suborbital HTHL spaceplane that was slated to begin flight testing in late 2011. Reaction Engines Skylon, a descendant of the 1980s British HOTOL design project, is an HTHL spaceplane currently in the early stages of development in the United Kingdom. An early example was the 1960s Northrop HL-10 atmospheric test aircraft where the HL stands for Horizontal Lander, different terms are used for takeoff and landing depending on the source of thrust used. VTVL uses rockets, whereas VTOL uses air, propelled via some kind of rotor system, VTOL is an acronym for vertical take-off and landing aircraft. This classification includes fixed-wing aircraft that can hover, take off and land vertically as well as helicopters and other aircraft with powered rotors, the terminology for spacecraft and rockets is VTVL
5.
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union was dissolved on December 26,1991. It was a result of the declaration number 142-Н of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union and that evening at 7,32, the Soviet flag was lowered from the Kremlin for the last time and replaced with the pre-revolutionary Russian flag. Previously, from August to December, all the individual republics, the week before the unions formal dissolution,11 republics signed the Alma-Ata Protocol formally establishing the CIS and declaring that the Soviet Union had ceased to exist. The Revolutions of 1989 and the dissolution of the USSR also signalled the end of the Cold War, on the other hand, only the Baltic states have joined NATO and the European Union. Mikhail Gorbachev was elected General Secretary by the Politburo on March 11,1985, Gorbachev, aged 54, was the youngest member of the Politburo. His initial goal as general secretary was to revive the Soviet economy, the reforms began with personnel changes of senior Brezhnev-era officials who would impede political and economic change. On April 23,1985, Gorbachev brought two protégés, Yegor Ligachev and Nikolai Ryzhkov, into the Politburo as full members. He kept the power ministries happy by promoting KGB Head Viktor Chebrikov from candidate to full member and this liberalisation, however, fostered nationalist movements and ethnic disputes within the Soviet Union. Under Gorbachevs leadership, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1989 introduced limited competitive elections to a new central legislature, in May 1985, Gorbachev delivered a speech in Leningrad advocating reforms and an anti-alcohol campaign to tackle widespread alcoholism. Prices of vodka, wine, and beer were raised in order to make these drinks more expensive and a disincentive to consumers, unlike most forms of rationing intended to conserve scarce goods, this was done to restrict sales with the overt goal of curtailing drunkenness. Gorbachevs plan also included billboards promoting sobriety, increased penalties for public drunkenness, however, Gorbachev soon faced the same adverse economic reaction to his prohibition as did the last Tsar. The disincentivization of alcohol consumption was a blow to the state budget according to Alexander Yakovlev. Alcohol production migrated to the market, or through moonshining as some made bathtub vodka with homegrown potatoes. The purpose of these reforms, however, was to prop up the centrally planned economy, unlike later reforms. The latter, disparaged as Mr Nyet in the West, had served for 28 years as Minister of Foreign Affairs, gromyko was relegated to the largely ceremonial position of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, as he was considered an old thinker. In the fall of 1985, Gorbachev continued to bring younger, at the next Central Committee meeting on October 15, Tikhonov retired from the Politburo and Talyzin became a candidate. Finally, on December 23,1985, Gorbachev appointed Yeltsin First Secretary of the Moscow Communist Party replacing Viktor Grishin, Gorbachev continued to press for greater liberalization. The CTAG Helsinki-86 was founded in July 1986 in the Latvian port town of Liepāja by three workers, Linards Grantiņš, Raimonds Bitenieks, and Mārtiņš Bariss and its name refers to the human-rights statements of the Helsinki Accords
6.
Farnborough Airshow
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The Farnborough International Airshow is a week-long event that combines a major trade exhibition for the aerospace and defence industries with a public airshow. The event is held in mid-July in even-numbered years at Farnborough Airport in Hampshire, the first four days are dedicated exclusively to trade, with the final three days open to the public. The show is used for the announcement of new developments and orders. It is one of the largest air shows, after Frances Salon du Bourget, the UK show is organised by Farnborough International Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of ADS Group Limited. According to the organisers, the 2012 Farnborough show attracted 109,000 trade visitors over the first five days, orders and commitments for 758 aircraft were announced, worth US$72 billion. Flying occurs on all seven days, and there are static displays of aircraft outside and booths. On the Saturday and Sunday most of the halls are shut. The airshow alternates with the Paris Air Show, which is held in odd-numbered years and has a similar format, the Farnborough Airshow has its origins in the annual RAF Airshow at Hendon from 1920 to 1937. On 27 June 1932, the Society of British Aircraft Constructors held an exhibition of 35 aircraft by 16 companies at Hendon as a showpiece for the British aircraft industry. In 1952,31 people were killed when a DH.110 jet fighter disintegrated in flight, at the 1958 show, the Black Arrows executed a 22-plane formation loop. This was a record for the greatest number of aircraft looped in formation. Initially an annual event, the show has been biennial since 1962 and it has become an international event that attracts exhibitors from all over the world — with the exception, during the Cold War, of countries behind the Iron Curtain. From 1996 the show has had its own radio station operated by the staff and students of nearby Farnborough College of Technology
7.
Kazakhstan
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Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in northern Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Kazakhstan is the worlds largest landlocked country, and the ninth largest in the world, Kazakhstan is the dominant nation of Central Asia economically, generating 60% of the regions GDP, primarily through its oil/gas industry. It also has vast mineral resources, Kazakhstan is officially a democratic, secular, unitary, constitutional republic with a diverse cultural heritage. Kazakhstan shares borders with Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, the terrain of Kazakhstan includes flatlands, steppe, taiga, rock canyons, hills, deltas, snow-capped mountains, and deserts. Kazakhstan has an estimated 18 million people as of 2014, Given its large area, its population density is among the lowest. The capital is Astana, where it was moved in 1997 from Almaty, the territory of Kazakhstan has historically been inhabited by nomadic tribes. This changed in the 13th century, when Genghis Khan occupied the country as part of the Mongolian Empire, following internal struggles among the conquerors, power eventually reverted to the nomads. By the 16th century, the Kazakh emerged as a distinct group, the Russians began advancing into the Kazakh steppe in the 18th century, and by the mid-19th century, they nominally ruled all of Kazakhstan as part of the Russian Empire. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, and subsequent civil war, the territory of Kazakhstan was reorganised several times, in 1936, it was made the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, part of the Soviet Union. Kazakhstan was the last of the Soviet republics to declare independence during the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Kazakhstan has worked to develop its economy, especially its dominant hydrocarbon industry. Kazakhstans 131 ethnicities include Kazakhs, Russians, Uzbeks, Ukrainians, Germans, Tatars, the Kazakh language is the state language, and Russian has equal official status for all levels of administrative and institutional purposes. The name Kazakh comes from the ancient Turkic word qaz, to wander, the name Cossack is of the same origin. The Persian suffix -stan means land or place of, so Kazakhstan can be translated as land of the wanderers. Kazakhstan has been inhabited since the Neolithic Age, the regions climate, archaeologists believe that humans first domesticated the horse in the regions vast steppes. Central Asia was originally inhabited by the Scythians, the Cuman entered the steppes of modern-day Kazakhstan around the early 11th century, where they later joined with the Kipchak and established the vast Cuman-Kipchak confederation. Under the Mongol Empire, the largest in history, administrative districts were established. These eventually came under the rule of the emergent Kazakh Khanate, throughout this period, traditional nomadic life and a livestock-based economy continued to dominate the steppe. Nevertheless, the region was the focus of ever-increasing disputes between the native Kazakh emirs and the neighbouring Persian-speaking peoples to the south, at its height the Khanate would rule parts of Central Asia and control Cumania
8.
Hangar
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A hangar is a closed building structure to hold aircraft, spacecraft or tanks in protective storage. Most hangars are built of metal, but other such as wood. The word hangar comes from Middle French hanghart, of Germanic origin, from Frankish *haimgard, from *haim, hangars are used for protection from the weather, direct sunlight, maintenance, repair, manufacture, assembly and storage of aircraft on airfields, aircraft carriers and ships. The Wright brothers stored and repaired their aircraft in a wooden hangar constructed in 1902 at Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina for their glider, after completing design and construction of the Wright Flyer in Ohio, the brothers returned to Kill Devil Hill only to find their hangar damaged. They repaired the structure and constructed a new workshop while they waited for the Flyer to be shipped, bleriot was in a race to be the first man to cross the English Channel in a heavier-than-air aircraft and set up his headquarters in the unused shed. In Britain, the earliest aircraft hangars were known as aeroplane sheds and these were built in 1910 for the Bristol School of Flying and are now Grade II* Listed buildings. Examples of the latter survive at Farnborough, Filton and Montrose airfields, during World War I, other standard designs included the RFC General Service Flight Shed and the Admiralty F-Type of 1916, the General Service Shed and the Handley Page aeroplane shed. Airship hangars or airship sheds are generally larger than conventional aircraft hangars, most early airships used hydrogen gas to provide them with sufficient buoyancy for flight, so their hangars had to provide protection from stray sparks to keep the gas from exploding. Hangars that held several airships were at risk from chain-reaction explosions, for this reason, most hangars for hydrogen-based airships were built to house only one or two such craft. During the Golden Age of airship travel from 1900, mooring masts and sheds were constructed to build, steel rigid airship hangars are some of the largest in the world. Hangar 1, Lakehurst, is located at Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst, the structure was completed in 1921 and is typical of airship hangar designs of World War I. The site is best known for the Hindenburg disaster, when on May 6,1937, Hangar No.1 at Lakehurst was used to build and store the American USS Shenandoah. The hangar also provided service and storage for the airships USS Los Angeles, Akron, Macon, as well as the Graf Zeppelin and the Hindenburg. The largest hangars ever built include the Goodyear Airdock measuring 1, 175x325x211 feet, the Goodyear Airdock, is in Akron, Ohio and the structure was completed on November 25,1929. The Airdock was used for the construction of the USS Akron and her sister ship, Hangar One at Moffett Federal Field, is located in Mountain View, California. The structure was completed in 1931, the US Navy established more airship operations during WWII. As part of this ten lighter-than-air bases across the United States were built as part of the defense plan. Hangars at these bases are some of the worlds largest freestanding timber structures, an alternative to the fixed hangar is a portable shelter that can be used for aircraft storage and maintenance
9.
OK-GLI
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OK-GLI was a test vehicle in the Buran programme. It was constructed in 1984, and was used for 25 test flights between 1985 and 1988 before being retired and it is now an exhibition at the Technik Museum Speyer in Germany. The development of the Buran began in the late 1970s as a response to the U. S, the construction of the orbiters began in 1980, and by 1984 the first full-scale Buran was rolled out. The first suborbital test flight of a scale-model took place as early as July 1983, as the project progressed, five additional scale-model flights were performed. The OK-GLI test vehicle was constructed in 1984 and it was fitted with four AL-31 jet engines mounted at the rear. This Buran could take off under its own power for flight tests, in contrast to the American Enterprise test vehicle, which was entirely unpowered and relied on an air launch. The jets were used to take off from a landing strip, and once it reached a designated point. Nine taxi tests and twenty-five test flights of OK-GLI were performed, all tests and flights were carried out at Baikonur. After the program was cancelled, OK-GLI was stored at Gromov Flight Research Institute, near Moscow, in 2000, Analog Buran was sold to an Australian company called the Buran Space Corporation, owned by Australian astronaut Paul Scully-Power. Upon reassembly, OK-GLI was put on display in an enclosure for the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Visitors could walk around and inside the vehicle, and plans were in place for a tour of cities in Australia and Asia. The OK-GLI test vehicle was offered for sale, including by a radio auction on Los Angeles News 980 KFWB-AM with a starting price of US$6 million. In September 2004 a team of German journalists found the OK-GLI test vehicle in Bahrain and it was then bought by the Sinsheim Auto & Technik Museum, to be transported to Germany in 2005. Due to legal issues, it remained in Bahrain for several years, on 4 March 2008 OK-GLI began its journey by sea to the Technik Museum Speyer where it was refurbished and serves as walk-in exhibit. No one was hurt and both the ship and vehicle seemed to only minor damage. Space Shuttle program Space Shuttle Enterprise Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-105 — Soviet orbital spaceplane Elser, Heinz, Elser-Haft, Margrit, Lukashevich, history and Transportation of the Russian Space Shuttle OK-GLI to the Technik Museum Speyer. OK-GLI at Buran-Energia. com Buran Analogue entry at Encyclopedia Astronautica OK-GLI at K26. com OK-GLI at Technik Museum Speyer
10.
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-105
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The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-105 part of a programme known as the Spiral was a manned test vehicle to explore low-speed handling and landing. It was a result of a Soviet project to create an orbital spaceplane. The MiG105 was nicknamed Lapot Russian, лапоть, or bast shoe for the shape of its nose, the program was also known as EPOS. Work on this project began in 1965, two years after Dyna-Soars cancellation. The project was halted in 1969, to be resurrected in 1974 in response to the U. S. The test vehicle made its first subsonic free-flight test in 1976 and it was flown by pilot Aviard G. Fastovets to the Zhukovskii flight test center, a distance of 30.5 kilometres. Flight tests, totaling eight in all, continued sporadically until 1978, the actual space plane project was cancelled when the decision was made to instead proceed with the Buran project. The MiG test vehicle itself still exists and is currently on display at the Monino Air Force Museum in Russia, gleb Lozino-Lozinskiy was the leader of the Spiral development programme. Although having basically the same mission, Dyna-Soar and Spiral were radically different vehicles, for example, While the X-20 Dyna-Soar was designed for launch atop a conventional expendable rocket such as the Titan III-C or Saturn I, Soviet engineers opted for a midair launch scheme for Spiral. The mothership was to have built by the Tupolev Design Bureau and utilize many of the same technologies developed for the Tu-144 supersonic transport. Dyna-Soar was designed as a body, while Spiral was a conventional delta that featured an innovative variable-dihedral wing. During launch and reentry, these were folded upward at 60 degrees, after dropping to subsonic speeds post-reentry, the pilot lowered the wings into the horizontal position, giving the spaceplane better re-entry and flight characteristics. Spiral was built to allow for a landing and go-around maneuver in case of a missed landing approach. An air intake for a single Kolesov turbojet was mounted beneath the central vertical stabilizer and this was protected during launch and re-entry by a clamshell door which opened at subsonic speeds. By comparison, Dyna-Soar was designed primarily for a once-off, unpowered deadstick landing, high temperature superalloy metals such as niobium, molybdenum, tungsten and rene 41 were to have been used in the heatshield structure of the X-20. Several BOR craft were flown to test this concept, much like the Space Shuttle, Dyna-Soar was designed with a small payload bay behind the pressurized crew module. This could be used for lofting small satellites, carrying surveillance equipment, Spiral, on the other hand, was intended to carry only its pilot. Both Dyna-Soar and Spiral were designed to land on skids, the landing skids on Dyna-Soar were designed to deploy from insulated doors on the underside of the vehicle, like a conventional aircraft
11.
Space Shuttle program
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When its mission was complete, the orbiter would re-enter the Earths atmosphere and land like a glider at either the Kennedy Space Center or Edwards Air Force Base. The Shuttle is the only winged manned spacecraft to have achieved orbit and landing, and its missions involved carrying large payloads to various orbits, providing crew rotation for the space station, and performing service missions. The orbiter also recovered satellites and other payloads from orbit and returned them to Earth, the stalled plans for a U. S. space station evolved into the International Space Station and were formally initiated in 1983 by U. S. The first experimental orbiter Enterprise was a glider, launched from the back of a specially modified Boeing 747. The Space Shuttle program finished with its last mission, STS-135 flown by Atlantis, in July 2011, the Space Shuttle program formally ended on August 31,2011. Since the Shuttles retirement, many of its duties are performed by an assortment of government. The European ATV Automated Transfer Vehicle supplied the ISS between 2008 and 2015, classified military missions are being flown by the US Air Forces unmanned space plane, the X-37B. Crew service to the ISS is currently provided by the Russian Soyuz while work on the Commercial Crew Development program proceeds, for missions beyond low Earth orbit, NASA is building the Space Launch System and the Orion spacecraft. Before the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969, NASA began early studies of space shuttle designs, in 1969, President Richard Nixon formed the Space Task Group, chaired by Vice President Spiro T. Agnew. Smaller goals included a variety of vehicles for moving spacecraft around in orbit. Presenting the plans to Nixon, Agnew was told that the administration would not commit to a Mars mission and he was then told to select one of the two remaining proposals. During early shuttle development there was debate about the optimal shuttle design that best balanced capability, development cost. Ultimately the current design was chosen, using a reusable winged orbiter, reusable solid rocket boosters, the shuttle program was formally launched on January 5,1972, when President Nixon announced that NASA would proceed with the development of a reusable space shuttle system. The prime contractor for the program was North American Rockwell, the company responsible for building the Apollo Command/Service Module. The contractor for the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters was Morton Thiokol, for the tank, Martin Marietta. All Space Shuttle missions were launched from the Kennedy Space Center, the weather criteria used for launch included, but were not limited to, precipitation, temperatures, cloud cover, lightning forecast, wind, and humidity. The Shuttle was not launched under conditions where it could have been struck by lightning, the first fully functional orbiter was Columbia, built in Palmdale, California. It was delivered to Kennedy Space Center on March 25,1979, Challenger was delivered to KSC in July 1982, Discovery in November 1983, Atlantis in April 1985 and Endeavour in May 1991
12.
National Geographic Society
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The National Geographic Society, headquartered in Washington, D. C. United States, is one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational institutions in the world and its interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical conservation, and the study of world culture and history. In partnership with 21st Century Fox, the Society operates the magazine, TV channels, a website that features extra content and worldwide events, the National Geographic Society was founded in 1888 to increase and diffuse geographic knowledge. The Society believes in the power of science, exploration and storytelling to change the world, National Geographic is governed by a board of trustees, whose 21 members include distinguished educators, business executives, former government officials and conservationists. The organization sponsors and funds research and exploration. National Geographic maintains a museum for the public in its Washington and its Education Foundation gives grants to education organizations and individuals to improve geography education. Its Committee for Research and Exploration has awarded more than 11,000 grants for scientific research, National Geographic has retail stores in Washington, D. C. The locations outside of the United States are operated by Worldwide Retail Store S. L and it also publishes other magazines, books, school products, maps, and Web and film products in numerous languages and countries. National Geographics various media properties reach more than 280 million people monthly, the National Geographic Society began as a club for an elite group of academics and wealthy patrons interested in travel. After preparing a constitution and a plan of organization, the National Geographic Society was incorporated two weeks later on January 27, Gardiner Greene Hubbard became its first president and his son-in-law, Alexander Graham Bell, succeeded him in 1897. Bell and Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor devised the successful marketing notion of Society membership, the current National Geographic Society president and CEO is Gary E. Knell. The chairman of the board of trustees is John Fahey, the editor-in-chief of National Geographic magazine is Susan Goldberg. Gilbert Melville Grosvenor, a chairman of the Society board of trustees received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005 for his leadership in geography education. In 2004, the National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington, D. C. was one of the first buildings to receive a Green certification from Global Green USA. The National Geographic received the prestigious Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities in October 2006 in Oviedo, in 2013 the society was investigated for possible violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act relating to their close association with an Egyptian government official responsible for antiquities. This new, for-profit corporation, will own National Geographic and other magazines, as reported by The Guardian, a spokesman for National Geographic in a November 2,2015 e-mail statement, briefly discussed the rationale for the staff reductions as part of the. Process of reorganizing in order to move forward following the closing the National Geographic Partners deal. Additional specifics were provided to Photo District News by M. J. Jacobsen, National Geographic’s SVP of communications, similar to the contents of a formal announcement by the two companies
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