1.
NASA
–
President Dwight D. Eisenhower established NASA in 1958 with a distinctly civilian orientation encouraging peaceful applications in space science. The National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed on July 29,1958, disestablishing NASAs predecessor, the new agency became operational on October 1,1958. Since that time, most US space exploration efforts have led by NASA, including the Apollo Moon landing missions, the Skylab space station. Currently, NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, the agency is also responsible for the Launch Services Program which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management for unmanned NASA launches. NASA shares data with various national and international such as from the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite. Since 2011, NASA has been criticized for low cost efficiency, from 1946, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics had been experimenting with rocket planes such as the supersonic Bell X-1. In the early 1950s, there was challenge to launch a satellite for the International Geophysical Year. An effort for this was the American Project Vanguard, after the Soviet launch of the worlds first artificial satellite on October 4,1957, the attention of the United States turned toward its own fledgling space efforts. This led to an agreement that a new federal agency based on NACA was needed to conduct all non-military activity in space. The Advanced Research Projects Agency was created in February 1958 to develop technology for military application. On July 29,1958, Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, a NASA seal was approved by President Eisenhower in 1959. Elements of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency and the United States Naval Research Laboratory were incorporated into NASA, earlier research efforts within the US Air Force and many of ARPAs early space programs were also transferred to NASA. In December 1958, NASA gained control of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA has conducted many manned and unmanned spaceflight programs throughout its history. Some missions include both manned and unmanned aspects, such as the Galileo probe, which was deployed by astronauts in Earth orbit before being sent unmanned to Jupiter, the experimental rocket-powered aircraft programs started by NACA were extended by NASA as support for manned spaceflight. This was followed by a space capsule program, and in turn by a two-man capsule program. This goal was met in 1969 by the Apollo program, however, reduction of the perceived threat and changing political priorities almost immediately caused the termination of most of these plans. NASA turned its attention to an Apollo-derived temporary space laboratory, to date, NASA has launched a total of 166 manned space missions on rockets, and thirteen X-15 rocket flights above the USAF definition of spaceflight altitude,260,000 feet. The X-15 was an NACA experimental rocket-powered hypersonic research aircraft, developed in conjunction with the US Air Force, the design featured a slender fuselage with fairings along the side containing fuel and early computerized control systems
2.
McDonnell Aircraft
–
The McDonnell Aircraft Corporation was an American aerospace manufacturer based in St. Louis, Missouri. McDonnell Aircraft later merged with the Douglas Aircraft Company to form McDonnell Douglas in 1967, McDonnell & Associates in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1928 to produce a personal aircraft for family use. The economic depression from 1929 ruined his plans and the company collapsed and he went to work for Glenn L. Martin. He left in 1938 to try again with his own firm, McDonnell Aircraft Corporation, based near St. Louis, Missouri, world War II was a major boost to the new company. It grew from 15 employees in 1939 to 5,000 at the end the war and became a significant aircraft parts producer, McDonnell also developed the LBD-1 Gargoyle guided missile. McDonnell Aircraft suffered after the war with an end of government orders and a surplus of aircraft, the advent of the Korean War helped push McDonnell into a major military fighter supply role. In 1943, McDonnell began developing jets when they were invited to bid on a US Navy contest, Dave Lewis joined the company as Chief of Aerodynamics in 1946. He led the development of the legendary F-4 Phantom II in 1954, Lewis became Executive Vice President in 1958, and finally became President and Chief Operating Officer in 1962. Lewis went on to manage Douglas Aircraft Division in 1967 after the McDonnell Douglas merger, in 1969, he returned to St. Louis as President of McDonnell Douglas. The company was now a major employer, but was having problems, with no civilian side of the company, every peacetime downturn in procurement led to lean times at McDonnell. McDonnell Aircraft and Douglas Aircraft began to sound each other out about a merger, inquiries began in 1963, Douglas offered bid invitations from December 1966 and accepted that of McDonnell. The two firms were merged on April 28,1967 as the McDonnell Douglas Corporation. In 1967, with the merger of McDonnell and Douglas Aircraft, Dave Lewis, then president of McDonnell, was named chairman of what was called the Long Beach, Lewis managed the turnaround of the division. McDonnell Douglas would later merge with Boeing in August 1997, boeings defense and space division is based in St. Louis, Missouri, U. S. and is responsible for defense and space products and services. McDonnell Douglass legacy product programs include the F-15 Eagle, AV-8B Harrier II, F/A-18 Hornet, McDonnell, nephew of founder and later President, CEO and Chair of McDonnell Douglas. Francillon, René J. McDonnell Douglas Aircraft since 1920, McDonnell Aircraft history 1939-45 McDonnell Aircraft history 1946-56 McDonnell Aircraft history 1957-67 McDonnell Gemini Space Program 1963-1966 List of all McDonnell model numbers through 1974
3.
Wally Schirra
–
He flew the six-orbit, nine-hour Mercury-Atlas 8 mission on October 3,1962, becoming the fifth American, and the ninth human, to ride a rocket into space. In the two-man Gemini program, he achieved the first space rendezvous, in October 1968, he commanded Apollo 7, an 11-day low Earth orbit shakedown test of the three-man Apollo Command/Service Module. He was the first person to go into three times, and the only person to have flown in Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo. He retired from the U. S. Navy at the rank of Captain and from NASA after his Apollo flight and he joined Walter Cronkite as co-anchor for the seven Moon landing missions. Schirra died at the age of 84 on May 3,2007 of an attack while undergoing treatment for abdominal cancer. Schirra was born in Hackensack, New Jersey, on March 12,1923, Schirras father, Walter M. Schirra Sr. who was born in Philadelphia, joined the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War I, and flew bombing and reconnaissance missions over Germany. After the war he barnstormed at county fairs around New Jersey, Schirras mother, Florence Shillito Schirra, went along on her husbands barnstorming tours and performed wing walking stunts. By the time he was 15, Wally was flying his fathers airplane and his hobbies were skiing, hunting, sailing, and fishing. Schirra was a Boy Scout and earned the rank of First Class in Troop 36 in Oradell, Schirra attended elementary school in Oradell, graduating in 1936, and graduated from Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood, New Jersey in 1940. He attended the Newark College of Engineering, where he was a member of Sigma Pi fraternity and he was later appointed to the United States Naval Academy, and graduated with the accelerated Class of 1946 with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1945. He married the former Josephine Cook Jo Fraser of Seattle, Washington on February 23,1946 and they had two children, Walter M. Schirra, III, born June 23,1950 and Suzanne, born September 29,1957. Jo Schirra died April 27,2015 and he attended the United States Naval Academy from 1942 until graduation in 1945 when he was commissioned as an ensign in the United States Navy on June 6,1945. Schirra served during the months of World War II aboard the large battlecruiser USS Alaska. After the war ended, he trained as a Naval Aviator at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, received his wings in 1948 and he was the second Navy pilot to log 1,000 hours in jet aircraft. Upon the outbreak of the Korean War, Schirra was dispatched to South Korea as a pilot on loan to the U. S. Air Force. He served as a leader with the 136th Fighter Bomber Wing. He flew 90 combat missions between 1951 and 1952, mostly in F-84 Thunderjet, Schirra was credited with downing one MiG-15 and damaging two others. Schirra received the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with an oak leaf cluster for his service in Korea, after his tour in Korea, Schirra served as a test pilot
4.
Thomas P. Stafford
–
Thomas Patten Tom Stafford, is an American former Air Force officer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut. He flew aboard two Gemini space flights, and in 1969 was the Commander of Apollo 10, the manned mission to orbit the Moon. In 1975, Stafford was Commander of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project flight, a Brigadier General at the time, he became the first general officer to fly in space. He was the first member of his Naval Academy class to pin on the first, second and he made six rendezvous in space and logged 507 hours of space flight. He has flown over 120 different types of fixed wing and rotary aircraft, Stafford was born September 17,1930, in Weatherford, Oklahoma, where he graduated from Weatherford High School in 1948. He was a Boy Scout and he earned the rank of Star Scout, Stafford earned a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in 1952 from the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force. He received his wings at Connally AFB, Waco, Texas. He completed advanced training and was assigned to the 54th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, Ellsworth AFB, Rapid City. He attended the USAF Experimental Test Pilot School and received the A. B, honts Award as the outstanding graduate in 1959. He was an instructor in flight test training and specialized academic subjects-establishing basic textbooks and directing the writing of flight test manuals for use by the staff and he is co-author of the Pilots Handbook for Performance Flight Testing and the Aerodynamics Handbook for Performance Flight Testing. Stafford was selected among the group of NASA astronauts in September 1962 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to participate in Projects Gemini. Stafford was originally scheduled to fly with veteran astronaut Alan Shepard on the first manned Gemini mission, but when Shepard was removed from the flight rotation due to an inner ear problem, Stafford was reassigned to backup pilot for that mission. In June 1966 he commanded Gemini IX with Eugene Cernan due to the deaths of crew members Charlie Bassett. He performed a demonstration of a rendezvous that would be used in Apollo 10, the first optical rendezvous. Until the launch of STS-94 in 1997, he held the record for the briefest duration between spaceflights, at 5 months 19 days, from August 1966 to October 1968, Stafford headed the mission planning analysis and software development responsibilities for the astronaut group for Apollo program. Stafford was the member of the group which helped formulate the sequence of missions leading to the first lunar landing mission. He demonstrated and implemented the theory of a pilot flying the Saturn booster into orbit. Stafford also was responsible for NASA adopting color television for its spaceflights
5.
Titan II GLV
–
The Titan II GLV or Gemini-Titan II was an American expendable launch system derived from the Titan II missile, which was used to launch twelve Gemini missions for NASA between 1964 and 1966. Two unmanned launches followed by ten manned ones were conducted from Launch Complex 19 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the Titan II was a two-stage liquid-fuel rocket, using a hypergolic propellant combination of Aerozine 50 fuel and nitrogen tetroxide oxidizer. The first stage was powered by an LR87 engine, and the stage was propelled by an LR-91 engine. Redundant systems were fitted to reduce the chances of launch failures, the second stage propellant tanks were lengthened for longer burn time and unnecessary vernier engines and retro-rockets were removed. Because the second engine had had issues with combustion instability. The first stage was loaded with 13,000 pounds more propellant than the Titan ICBM although tank size remained unchanged, modifications were made to the tracking, electrical and hydraulics systems in the interest of improved reliability. The propellants were chilled to slightly improve vehicle performance, first stage engine thrust was reduced slightly to cut down on vibration and G loads. First stage engine burn would go until propellant depletion unlike Titan ICBMs which were designed to cut off when propellant flow/pressure and this was to prevent the possibility of a malfunctioning pressure sensor triggering an abort condition. Also running until depletion would slightly boost the Titans lift capacity, modifications were overseen by the Air Force Systems Command. Aerojet, the manufacturer of the Titans engines, had released a model during mid-1963 due to deficiencies in the original design. Film footage of Gemini 10s launch revealed that the first stage oxidizer tank ruptured shortly after staging, Gemini 12s launch vehicle also experienced a tank rupture after staging and film review of Titan II ICBM launches found several occurrences of this phenomenon. Since it did not appear to pose any safety risk to the astronauts, during Titan II ICBM development, it had been found that the first stage turbopump gearbox was prone to total failure caused by resonant vibration in the idler gear. This problem had not occurred on actual launches, only static firing tests, aerojet developed a totally redesigned gearbox and all Gemini launch vehicles except Gemini 1 used it. Combustion instability in the second engine was also a concern although that too had only been witnessed in static firing runs. A new injector with improved baffling was developed for the engine and flight-tested on a Titan IIIC launch, x-ray tests later found several more damaged propellant lines, most likely due to careless handling. The primary changes made to resolve pogo were adding oxidizer standpipes, increasing the pressure in the propellant tanks, another nuisance problem that occurred during the Gemini program was code-named Green Man and involved momentary pitch oscillations of the Titan second stage following engine cutoff. This phenomenon had happened on both Gemini and unmanned Titan II/III flights and had resulted in failure of the skirt on the second stage at least twice. Assembly was done at Martin-Mariettas Baltimore plant so as not to interfere with work at the Denver facility
6.
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
–
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is an installation of the United States Air Force Space Commands 45th Space Wing, headquartered at nearby Patrick Air Force Base. Located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida, CCAFS is the primary head of Americas Eastern Range with three launch pads currently active. The Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Skid Strip provides a 10, 000-foot runway close to the launch complexes for military airlift aircraft delivering heavy, a number of American space exploration firsts were launched from CCAFS, including the first U. S. Earth satellite, first U. S. astronaut, first U. S. astronaut in orbit, first two-man U. S. spacecraft, first U. S. unmanned lunar landing, and first three-man U. S. spacecraft. The CCAFS area had used by the United States government to test missiles since 1949. On June 1,1948, the U. S. Navy transferred the former Banana River Naval Air Station to the U. S. Air Force, with USAF renaming the facility the Joint Long Range Proving Ground Base on June 10,1949. On October 1,1949, the Joint Long Range Proving Ground Base was transferred from the Air Materiel Command to the Air Force Division of the Joint Long Range Proving Ground. On May 17,1950, the base was renamed the Long Range Proving Ground Base, in 1951, the Air Force established the Air Force Missile Test Center. Early American sub-orbital rocket flights were achieved at Cape Canaveral in 1956 and these flights occurred shortly after sub-orbital flights launched from White Sands Missile Range, such as the Viking 12 sounding rocket on February 4,1955. Following the Soviet Unions successful Sputnik 1, the US attempted its first launch of a satellite from Cape Canaveral on December 6,1957. However, the rocket carrying Vanguard TV3 blew up on the launch pad, NASA was founded in 1958, and Air Force crews launched missiles for NASA from the Cape, known then as Cape Canaveral Missile Annex. The row of Titan and Atlas launch pads along the coast came to be known as Missile Row in the 1960s, nASAs first manned spaceflight program was prepared for launch from Canaveral by U. S. Air Force crews. Mercurys objectives were to place a spacecraft in Earth orbit, investigate human performance and ability to function in space. Suborbital flights were launched by derivatives of the Armys Redstone missile from LC-5, Orbital flights were launched by derivatives of the Air Forces larger Atlas D missile from LC-14. The first American in orbit was John Glenn on February 20,1962, three more orbital flights followed through May 1963. Flight control for all Mercury missions was provided at the Mercury Control Center located at Canaveral near LC-14 and he had also convinced Gov. C. Farris Bryant to change the name of Cape Canaveral to Cape Kennedy and this resulted in some confusion in public perception, which conflated the two. This name was used through the Gemini and early Apollo programs, however, the geographical name change proved to be unpopular, owing to the historical longevity of Cape Canaveral
7.
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 19
–
Launch Complex 19 is a deactivated launch site on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida used by NASA to launch all of the Gemini manned spaceflights. It was also used by unmanned Titan I and Titan II missiles, LC-19 was in use from 1959 to 1966, during which time it saw 27 launches,10 of which were manned. The first flight from LC-19 was on August 14,1959 and ended in a pad explosion, extensively damaging the facility, the first successful launch from LC-19 was also a Titan I, on February 2,1960. After being converted for the Titan II ICBM program in 1962, after the program concluded in December 1966, LC-19 was closed down. The Gemini white room from the top of the booster erector has been restored and is on display at the Air Force Space
8.
USS Wasp (CV-18)
–
USS Wasp was one of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers built during World War II for the United States Navy. The ship, the ninth US Navy ship to bear the name, was originally named Oriskany, but was renamed while under construction in honor of the previous Wasp, which was sunk 15 September 1942. Wasp was commissioned in November 1943, and served in campaigns in the Pacific Theater of Operations. In her second career she operated mainly in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and she played a prominent role in the manned space program, serving as the recovery ship for five missions, Gemini IV, Gemini VI, Gemini VII, Gemini IX and Gemini XII. She was retired in 1972 and sold for scrap in 1973, the ship was laid down on 18 March 1942 at Quincy, Massachusetts, by the Bethlehem Steel Company, and renamed Wasp on 13 November 1942. Following a shakedown cruise which lasted through the end of 1943 and she returned to Boston five days later and prepared for service in the Pacific. Early in March, the ship sailed south, transited the Panama Canal, arrived at San Diego on 21 March, on 14 May, she and her sister carriers of TG58. As the force neared Marcus, it split, sending San Jacinto north to search for Japanese picket boats while Wasp and Essex launched strikes on 19 and 20 May, aimed at installations on the island. American planes encountered heavy fire but still managed to do enough damage to prevent Japanese forces on the island from interfering with the impending assault on Saipan. When weather canceled launches planned for 21 May, the two carriers rejoined San Jacinto and steamed to Wake, planes from all three carriers pounded that island on 24 May and were sufficiently effective to neutralize that base. After the strike on Wake, TG58.6 returned to Majuro to prepare for the Marianas campaign, on 6 June, Wasp—reassigned to TG58.2 which was also commanded by Rear Admiral Montgomery—sortied for the invasion of Saipan. During the afternoon of 11 June, she and her sister carriers launched fighters for strikes against Japanese air bases on Saipan and Tinian and they were challenged by some 30 land-based fighters, which they promptly shot down. Antiaircraft fire was heavy, but the American planes braved it as they went on to many of the Japanese aircraft still on the ground. During the next three days, the American fighters—now joined by bombers—pounded installations on Saipan to soften up Japanese defenses for American assault troops who would go ashore on 15 June. That day and thereafter until the morning of June, planes from TGs 58.2, Spruances 5th Fleet and to annihilate the American troops who had fought their way ashore on Saipan. Soon after the Japanese task force sortied from Tawi Tawi on the morning of 13 June, all day on 18 June 1944, each force sent out scout planes in an effort to locate its adversary. Because of their range, the Japanese aircraft managed to obtain some knowledge of Spruances ships. During the morning, carriers from Ozawas fleet launched four massive raids against their American counterparts, nearly all of the Japanese warplanes were shot down while failing to sink a single American ship
9.
Geocentric orbit
–
A geocentric orbit or Earth orbit involves any object orbiting the Earth, such as the Moon or artificial satellites. In 1997 NASA estimated there were approximately 2,465 artificial satellite orbiting the Earth and 6,216 pieces of space debris as tracked by the Goddard Space Flight Center. Over 16,291 previously launched objects have decayed into the Earths atmosphere, altitude as used here, the height of an object above the average surface of the Earths oceans. Analemma a term in astronomy used to describe the plot of the positions of the Sun on the celestial sphere throughout one year, apogee is the farthest point that a satellite or celestial body can go from Earth, at which the orbital velocity will be at its minimum. Eccentricity a measure of how much an orbit deviates from a perfect circle, eccentricity is strictly defined for all circular and elliptical orbits, and parabolic and hyperbolic trajectories. Equatorial plane as used here, an imaginary plane extending from the equator on the Earth to the celestial sphere, escape velocity as used here, the minimum velocity an object without propulsion needs to have to move away indefinitely from the Earth. An object at this velocity will enter a parabolic trajectory, above this velocity it will enter a hyperbolic trajectory, impulse the integral of a force over the time during which it acts. Inclination the angle between a plane and another plane or axis. In the sense discussed here the reference plane is the Earths equatorial plane, orbital characteristics the six parameters of the Keplerian elements needed to specify that orbit uniquely. Orbital period as defined here, time it takes a satellite to make one orbit around the Earth. Perigee is the nearest approach point of a satellite or celestial body from Earth, sidereal day the time it takes for a celestial object to rotate 360°. For the Earth this is,23 hours,56 minutes,4.091 seconds, solar time as used here, the local time as measured by a sundial. Velocity an objects speed in a particular direction, since velocity is defined as a vector, both speed and direction are required to define it. The following is a list of different geocentric orbit classifications, Low Earth orbit - Geocentric orbits ranging in altitude from 160 kilometers to 2,000 kilometres above mean sea level. At 160 km, one revolution takes approximately 90 minutes, medium Earth orbit - Geocentric orbits with altitudes at apogee ranging between 2,000 kilometres and that of the geosynchronous orbit at 35,786 kilometres. Geosynchronous orbit - Geocentric circular orbit with an altitude of 35,786 kilometres, the period of the orbit equals one sidereal day, coinciding with the rotation period of the Earth. The speed is approximately 3,000 metres per second, high Earth orbit - Geocentric orbits with altitudes at apogee higher than that of the geosynchronous orbit. A special case of high Earth orbit is the elliptical orbit
10.
Low Earth orbit
–
A low Earth orbit is an orbit around Earth with an altitude between 160 kilometers, and 2,000 kilometers. Objects below approximately 160 kilometers will experience very rapid orbital decay, with the exception of the 24 human beings who flew lunar flights in the Apollo program during the four-year period spanning 1968 through 1972, all human spaceflights have taken place in LEO or below. The International Space Station conducts operations in LEO, the altitude record for a human spaceflight in LEO was Gemini 11 with an apogee of 1,374.1 kilometers. All crewed space stations to date, as well as the majority of satellites, have been in LEO, objects in LEO encounter atmospheric drag from gases in the thermosphere or exosphere, depending on orbit height. Due to atmospheric drag, satellites do not usually orbit below 300 km, objects in LEO orbit Earth between the denser part of the atmosphere and below the inner Van Allen radiation belt. The mean orbital velocity needed to maintain a stable low Earth orbit is about 7.8 km/s, calculated for circular orbit of 200 km it is 7.79 km/s and for 1500 km it is 7.12 km/s. The delta-v needed to achieve low Earth orbit starts around 9.4 km/s, atmospheric and gravity drag associated with launch typically adds 1. 3–1.8 km/s to the launch vehicle delta-v required to reach normal LEO orbital velocity of around 7.8 km/s. Equatorial low Earth orbits are a subset of LEO and these orbits, with low inclination to the Equator, allow rapid revisit times and have the lowest delta-v requirement of any orbit. Orbits with an inclination angle to the equator are usually called polar orbits. Higher orbits include medium Earth orbit, sometimes called intermediate circular orbit, orbits higher than low orbit can lead to early failure of electronic components due to intense radiation and charge accumulation. Although the Earths pull due to gravity in LEO is not much less than on the surface of the Earth, people, a low Earth orbit is simplest and cheapest for satellite placement. It provides high bandwidth and low communication time lag, but satellites in LEO will not be visible from any point on the Earth at all times. Earth observation satellites and spy satellites use LEO as they are able to see the surface of the Earth more clearly as they are not so far away and they are also able to traverse the surface of the Earth. A majority of satellites are placed in LEO, making one complete revolution around the Earth in about 90 minutes. The International Space Station is in a LEO about 400 km above the Earths surface, since it requires less energy to place a satellite into a LEO and the LEO satellite needs less powerful amplifiers for successful transmission, LEO is used for many communication applications. Because these LEO orbits are not geostationary, a network of satellites is required to provide continuous coverage, lower orbits also aid remote sensing satellites because of the added detail that can be gained. Remote sensing satellites can also take advantage of sun-synchronous LEO orbits at an altitude of about 800 km, envisat is one example of an Earth observation satellite that makes use of this particular type of LEO. The LEO environment is becoming congested with space debris due to the frequency of object launches and this has caused growing concern in recent years, since collisions at orbital velocities can easily be dangerous, and even deadly
11.
Apsis
–
An apsis is an extreme point in an objects orbit. The word comes via Latin from Greek and is cognate with apse, for elliptic orbits about a larger body, there are two apsides, named with the prefixes peri- and ap-, or apo- added to a reference to the thing being orbited. For a body orbiting the Sun, the point of least distance is the perihelion, the terms become periastron and apastron when discussing orbits around other stars. For any satellite of Earth including the Moon the point of least distance is the perigee, for objects in Lunar orbit, the point of least distance is the pericynthion and the greatest distance the apocynthion. For any orbits around a center of mass, there are the terms pericenter and apocenter, periapsis and apoapsis are equivalent alternatives. A straight line connecting the pericenter and apocenter is the line of apsides and this is the major axis of the ellipse, its greatest diameter. For a two-body system the center of mass of the lies on this line at one of the two foci of the ellipse. When one body is larger than the other it may be taken to be at this focus. Historically, in systems, apsides were measured from the center of the Earth. In orbital mechanics, the apsis technically refers to the distance measured between the centers of mass of the central and orbiting body. However, in the case of spacecraft, the family of terms are used to refer to the orbital altitude of the spacecraft from the surface of the central body. The arithmetic mean of the two limiting distances is the length of the axis a. The geometric mean of the two distances is the length of the semi-minor axis b, the geometric mean of the two limiting speeds is −2 ε = μ a which is the speed of a body in a circular orbit whose radius is a. The words pericenter and apocenter are often seen, although periapsis/apoapsis are preferred in technical usage, various related terms are used for other celestial objects. The -gee, -helion and -astron and -galacticon forms are used in the astronomical literature when referring to the Earth, Sun, stars. The suffix -jove is occasionally used for Jupiter, while -saturnium has very rarely used in the last 50 years for Saturn. The -gee form is used as a generic closest approach to planet term instead of specifically applying to the Earth. During the Apollo program, the terms pericynthion and apocynthion were used when referring to the Moon, regarding black holes, the term peri/apomelasma was used by physicist Geoffrey A. Landis in 1998 before peri/aponigricon appeared in the scientific literature in 2002
12.
Orbital inclination
–
Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an objects orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a plane and the orbital plane or axis of direction of the orbiting object. For a satellite orbiting the Earth directly above the equator, the plane of the orbit is the same as the Earths equatorial plane. The general case is that the orbit is tilted, it spends half an orbit over the northern hemisphere. If the orbit swung between 20° north latitude and 20° south latitude, then its orbital inclination would be 20°, the inclination is one of the six orbital elements describing the shape and orientation of a celestial orbit. It is the angle between the plane and the plane of reference, normally stated in degrees. For a satellite orbiting a planet, the plane of reference is usually the plane containing the planets equator, for planets in the Solar System, the plane of reference is usually the ecliptic, the plane in which the Earth orbits the Sun. This reference plane is most practical for Earth-based observers, therefore, Earths inclination is, by definition, zero. Inclination could instead be measured with respect to another plane, such as the Suns equator or the invariable plane, the inclination of orbits of natural or artificial satellites is measured relative to the equatorial plane of the body they orbit, if they orbit sufficiently closely. The equatorial plane is the perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the central body. An inclination of 30° could also be described using an angle of 150°, the convention is that the normal orbit is prograde, an orbit in the same direction as the planet rotates. Inclinations greater than 90° describe retrograde orbits, thus, An inclination of 0° means the orbiting body has a prograde orbit in the planets equatorial plane. An inclination greater than 0° and less than 90° also describe prograde orbits, an inclination of 63. 4° is often called a critical inclination, when describing artificial satellites orbiting the Earth, because they have zero apogee drift. An inclination of exactly 90° is an orbit, in which the spacecraft passes over the north and south poles of the planet. An inclination greater than 90° and less than 180° is a retrograde orbit, an inclination of exactly 180° is a retrograde equatorial orbit. For gas giants, the orbits of moons tend to be aligned with the giant planets equator, the inclination of exoplanets or members of multiple stars is the angle of the plane of the orbit relative to the plane perpendicular to the line-of-sight from Earth to the object. An inclination of 0° is an orbit, meaning the plane of its orbit is parallel to the sky. An inclination of 90° is an orbit, meaning the plane of its orbit is perpendicular to the sky
13.
Project Gemini
–
Project Gemini was NASAs second human spaceflight program. Conducted between projects Mercury and Apollo, Gemini started in 1961 and concluded in 1966, the Gemini spacecraft carried a two-astronaut crew. Ten Gemini crews flew low Earth orbit missions between 1965 and 1966 putting the United States in the lead during the Cold War Space Race against the Soviet Union, geminis objective was the development of space travel techniques to support the Apollo mission to land astronauts on the Moon. With these new techniques proven by Gemini, Apollo could pursue its mission without doing these fundamental exploratory operations. All Gemini flights were launched from Launch Complex 19 at Cape Kennedy Air Force Station in Florida and their launch vehicle was the Gemini–Titan II, a modified Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. Gemini was the first program to use the newly built Mission Control Center at the Houston Manned Spacecraft Center for flight control, the astronaut corps that supported Project Gemini included the Mercury Seven, The New Nine, and the 1963 astronaut class. During the program, three died in air crashes during training, including the prime crew for Gemini 9. This mission was performed by the crew, the only time that had happened in NASAs history to date. Gemini was robust enough that the United States Air Force planned to use it for the Manned Orbital Laboratory program, geminis chief designer, Jim Chamberlin, also made detailed plans for cislunar and lunar landing missions in late 1961. He believed Gemini could perform lunar operations before Project Apollo, NASAs administration did not approve those plans. In 1969, McDonnell-Douglas proposed a Big Gemini that could have used to shuttle up to 12 astronauts to the planned space stations in the Apollo Applications Project. The only AAP project funded was Skylab – which used existing spacecraft and he presented two initial versions of Gemini at a NASA retreat at Wallops Island in March 1961. Scale models of Mercury Mark II were shown in July 1961 at McDonnell Aircraft Corporations offices in St. Louis, NASA approved Project Gemini on December 7,1961. The McDonnell corporation was contracted to build it on December 22,1961, when it was publicly announced on January 3,1962, it was formally re-christened Project Gemini. Gemini in Latin means twins or double, which reflected that the spacecraft would hold two astronauts, Gemini is also the name of the third constellation of the Zodiac and its twin stars, Castor and Pollux. He was previously the chief aerodynamicist on Avro Canadas Avro Arrow fighter interceptor program, Chamberlin joined NASA along with 25 senior Avro engineers after cancellation of the Arrow program, and became head of the U. S. Space Task Group’s engineering division in charge of Gemini, the prime contractor was McDonnell Aircraft Corporation, which was also the prime contractor for the Project Mercury capsule. Astronaut Gus Grissom was heavily involved in the development and design of the Gemini spacecraft, the Gemini program was managed by the Manned Spacecraft Center, located in Houston, Texas, under direction of the Office of Manned Space Flight, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D. C
14.
Gemini 7
–
Gemini 7 was a 1965 manned spaceflight in NASAs Gemini program. It was the fourth manned Gemini flight, the twelfth manned American flight, the crew of Frank F. Borman, II and James A. Lovell, Jr spent nearly 14 days in space, making a total of 206 orbits. Their spacecraft was the target for the first manned space rendezvous performed by the crew of Gemini 6A. Charles A. Bassett II Alan L. Bean Eugene A. Cernan Elliot M. See, at December 9 epoch, five days after launch, Mass,8,080 pounds Perigee,299 kilometers Apogee,302 kilometers Inclination,28. 9° Period,90. The objective of rendezvous was so important, that it was decided to fly the alternate Gemini 6A mission concurrently with Gemini 7, the original mission of Gemini 7 changed little with these new plans. It was always planned to be a long flight, investigating the effects of fourteen days in space on the human body. This doubled the length of time anyone had been in space. This 14-day mission required NASA to solve some of the problems of space flight. Timing their workday to match that of the prime shift ground crews, Gemini 7 conducted twenty experiments, the most of any Gemini mission, including studies of nutrition in space. The astronauts also evaluated a lightweight spacesuit, the G5C, which proved uncomfortable when worn for a time in the Gemini spacecrafts hot. The high point of the mission came on the day with the rendezvous with Gemini 6A. Both astronauts, heeding the advice of Pete Conrad who had flown for eight days on Gemini 5, took books along to read. Gemini 7 was the longest manned flight in U. S. history until the Skylab missions of the 1970s. Launch went without any problems and all systems on the Titan II performed nominally, after separating from the spent rocket stage, they turned the spacecraft around and proceeded to station keep with the rocket stage, a maneuver first tried on Gemini 4. The Gemini 4 attempt was unsuccessful, due to the knowledge at the time of the complex orbital mechanics involved. They spent the rest of their first day in space doing some experiments and their sleep periods were scheduled at the same time unlike previous missions and they were able to get some sleep. The next morning they were awoken at 9,06 am EST and given the mornings news, for the first time during a flight, one of the crew was allowed to take off his suit. Borman and Lovell had planned to take them off two days into the mission, when they were satisfied that the environmental system was working properly
15.
Gemini 8
–
Gemini 8 was the sixth manned spaceflight in NASAs Gemini program. The crew was returned to Earth safely, the only other time this happened was on the flight of Apollo 13. It was the twelfth manned American flight and the manned spaceflight of all time. Command pilot Neil Armstrongs flight marked the time a U. S. civilian flew into space. Armstrong had resigned his commission in the United States Naval Reserve in 1960, the Soviet Union had launched the first civilian, Valentina Tereshkova, aboard Vostok 6 on June 16,1963. This would become the crew on Gemini 11. This was to be the first space docking in history, a total of four separate dockings were planned. Then he was to back to the Gemini and test a minimum-reaction power tool by loosening and tightening bolts on a work panel. During the EVA, after Armstrong undocked from the Agena, Scott was to don and this was a backpack with a self-contained oxygen supply, extra Freon propellant for his Hand Held Maneuvering Unit, and a 75-foot extension to his tether. He would practice several maneuvers in formation with the Gemini and Agena vehicles (separated at distances up to 60 feet, Scott never got to perform this EVA, due to the aborting of the flight because of a critical in-flight emergency which occurred shortly after docking. The flight also carried an additional three scientific, four technological, and one medical experiment and this time, everything worked perfectly, the Agena put itself into a 298 kilometer circular orbit and oriented itself to the correct attitude for the docking. The Gemini spacecraft itself was launched into a 160 by 272 kilometer orbit by a modified Titan II on March 16,1966, Gemini 8s launch was nominal and no significant anomalies occurred with either the Titan II or the spacecraft. The second adjustment was made near apogee of the second orbit, the third adjustment was made over the Pacific Ocean, a southward orbital plane change, made with an 59 feet per second sideways thruster burn. When they were over Mexico, Jim Lovell, the Houston capsule communicator, told them they needed one last correction, the rendezvous radar acquired the Agena Target Vehicle at a distance of 179 nautical miles. At 3 hours,48 minutes and 10 seconds into the mission they performed another burn that put them in a circular orbit 15 nautical miles below the Agena. They first sighted it when they were 76 nautical miles away, after several small burns they were 151 feet away and with no relative velocity. After 30 minutes of visually inspecting the Agena to make sure that it had not been damaged by the launch, Armstrong started to move towards the Agena at 3.15 inches per second. In a matter of minutes, the Agenas docking latches clicked, yes, its really a smoothie, Scott radioed to the ground
16.
Space rendezvous
–
A space rendezvous is an orbital maneuver during which two spacecraft, one of which is often a space station, arrive at the same orbit and approach to a very close distance. Rendezvous requires a precise match of the velocities and position vectors of the two spacecraft, allowing them to remain at a constant distance through orbital station-keeping. Rendezvous may or may not be followed by docking or berthing, procedures which bring the spacecraft into physical contact, in its first human spaceflight program Vostok, the Soviet Union launched pairs of spacecraft from the same launch pad, one or two days apart. The initial separation distances were in the range of 5 to 6.5 kilometers, in 1963 Buzz Aldrin submitted his doctoral thesis titled, Line-Of-Sight Guidance Techniques For Manned Orbital Rendezvous. As a NASA astronaut, Aldrin worked to translate complex orbital mechanics into relatively simple flight plans for my colleagues. The first attempt at rendezvous was made on June 3,1965, McDivitt was unable to get close enough to achieve station-keeping, due to depth-perception problems, and stage propellant venting which kept moving it around. However, the Gemini 4 attempts at rendezvous were unsuccessful largely because NASA engineers had yet to learn the mechanics involved in the process. Simply pointing the active vehicles nose at the target and thrusting was unsuccessful, if the target is ahead in the orbit and the tracking vehicle increases speed, its altitude also increases, actually moving it away from the target. The higher altitude then increases orbital period due to Keplers third law, putting the tracker not only above, as GPO engineer André Meyer later remarked, There is a good explanation for what went wrong with rendezvous. The crew, like everyone else at MSC, just didnt understand or reason out the mechanics involved. As a result, we all got a lot smarter and really perfected rendezvous maneuvers. Rendezvous was first successfully accomplished by US astronaut Wally Schirra on December 15,1965, Schirra maneuvered the Gemini 6 spacecraft within 1 foot of its sister craft Gemini 7. The spacecraft were not equipped to dock with other. When you come to three miles, youve rendezvoused. If anybody thinks theyve pulled a rendezvous off at three miles, have fun and this is when we started doing our work. I dont think rendezvous is over until you are stopped – completely stopped – with no motion between the two vehicles, at a range of approximately 120 feet. Thats when you can go back and play the game of driving a car or driving an airplane or pushing a skateboard – its about that simple. The first docking of two spacecraft was achieved on March 16,1966 when Gemini 8, under the command of Neil Armstrong, Gemini 6 was to have been the first docking mission, but had to be cancelled when that missions Agena vehicle was destroyed during launch
17.
Soviet Union
–
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
18.
Vostok (spacecraft)
–
The Vostok was a type of spacecraft built by the Soviet Union. The first human spaceflight in history was accomplished on this spacecraft on April 12,1961, the spacecraft was part of the Vostok programme in which six manned spaceflights were made from 1961–63. Two further manned space flights were made in 1964 and 1965 by Voskhod spacecraft, by the late 1960s both were superseded by the Soyuz spacecraft, which are still used as of 2017. The Vostok spacecraft was designed for use both as a camera platform and as a manned spacecraft. This dual-use design was crucial in gaining Communist Party support for the program, the basic Vostok design has remained in use for some 40 years, gradually adapted for a range of other unmanned satellites. The descent module design was reused, in modified form. The craft consisted of a spherical descent module, which housed the cosmonaut, instruments and escape system, and a conical instrument module, which contained propellant and the engine system. On reentry, the cosmonaut would eject from the craft at about 7,000 m and descend via parachute, the reason for this was that the Vostok descent module made an extremely rough landing that could have left a cosmonaut seriously injured. The ejector seat also served as a mechanism in the event of a launch vehicle failure. If an accident occurred in the first 40 seconds after liftoff, from 40 to 150 seconds into launch, ground controllers could issue a manual shutdown command to the booster. When the launch vehicle fell to a low altitude, the cosmonaut would eject. Higher altitude failures after shroud jettison would involve detaching the entire spacecraft from the booster, one problem that was never adequately resolved was the event of a launch vehicle malfunction in the first 20 seconds, when the ejector seat would not have enough time to deploy its parachute. Molodsov stated that Chief Designer Sergei Korolev felt absolutely terrible about the provisions for crew escape on the Vostok during the opening seconds of launch. There were several models of the Vostok leading up to the manned version, the Vostok 3KA was the spacecraft used for the first human spaceflights. They were launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome using Vostok 8K72K launch vehicles, the first flight of a Vostok 3KA occurred on March 9,1961. The first flight with a crew—Vostok 1 carrying Yuri Gagarin—took place on April 12,1961, the last flight—Vostok 6 carrying the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova—took place on June 16,1963. A total of 8 Vostok 3KA spacecraft were flown,6 of them with a human crew, Specifications for this version are, Reentry Module, Vostok SA. SA stands for Spuskaemiy apparat - descent system, PA stands for Priborniy otsek - instrument section
19.
North American X-15
–
The X-15 set speed and altitude records in the 1960s, reaching the edge of outer space and returning with valuable data used in aircraft and spacecraft design. During the X-15 program,13 flights by eight pilots met the Air Force spaceflight criterion by exceeding the altitude of 50 miles, thus qualifying these pilots as being astronauts. The Air Force pilots qualified for astronaut wings immediately, while the pilots were eventually awarded NASA astronaut wings in 2005,35 years after the last X-15 flight. The only Navy pilot in the X-15 program never took the aircraft above the requisite 50 mile altitude and so as a result, of the 199 X-15 missions, two flights qualified as true space flights per the international definition of a spaceflight by exceeding 100 kilometers in altitude. The X-15 was based on a study from Walter Dornberger for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics for a hypersonic research aircraft. The requests for proposal were published on 30 December 1954 for the airframe, the X-15 was built by two manufacturers, North American Aviation was contracted for the airframe in November 1955, and Reaction Motors was contracted for building the engines in 1956. Like many X-series aircraft, the X-15 was designed to be carried aloft, Air Force NB-52A, The High and Mighty One, and NB-52B, The Challenger served as carrier planes for all X-15 flights. Release took place at an altitude of about 8.5 miles, the X-15 fuselage was long and cylindrical, with rear fairings that flattened its appearance, and thick, dorsal and ventral wedge-fin stabilizers. Parts of the fuselage were heat-resistant nickel alloy, the retractable landing gear comprised a nose-wheel carriage and two rear skids. The skids did not extend beyond the fin, which required the pilot to jettison the lower fin just before landing. The X-15 was a program and changes were made to various systems over the course of the program. Alternatively, if the engine was not started the pilot went directly to a landing. The main rocket engine operated only for a short part of the flight. Without main engine thrust, the X-15s instruments and control surfaces remained functional, because the X-15 also had to be controlled in an environment where there was too little air for aerodynamic flight control surfaces, it had a reaction control system that used rocket thrusters. There were two different X-15 pilot control setups, one used three joysticks, the other, one joystick, the X-15 type with multiple control sticks for the pilot included a traditional rudder and stick, and another joystick on the left which sent commands to the reaction control system. A third joystick on the side was used during high-G maneuvers to augment the center stick. In addition to input, the X-15 Stability Augmentation System sent inputs to the aerodynamic controls to help the pilot maintain attitude control. The reaction control system could be operated in two modes, manual and automatic, the automatic mode used a feature called Reaction Augmentation System that helped stabilize the vehicle at high altitude
20.
Gus Grissom
–
Virgil Ivan Gus Grissom, was one of the original NASA Project Mercury astronauts, a United States Air Force test pilot and a mechanical engineer. He was the second American to fly in space, and the first member of the NASA Astronaut Corps to fly in space twice. Grissom was killed along with fellow astronauts Ed White and Roger Chaffee during a pre-launch test for the Apollo 1 mission at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and he was the first of the Mercury Seven to die. He was a recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross and, posthumously, Grissom was born in Mitchell, Indiana, on April 3,1926, the second child of Dennis David Grissom and Cecile King Grissom. His father was a signalman for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and his older sister died shortly before his birth, and he was followed by three younger siblings, Wilma, Norman and Lowell. As a child he attended the local Church of Christ, where he remained a lifelong member, Grissom attended public elementary schools, and went on to Mitchell High School. He met and befriended Betty Lavonne Moore at school through their extracurricular activities and his boy scout troop carried the American flag at school basketball games, while she played the drum in the high school band. His first jobs were delivering newspapers for the Indianapolis Star in the morning, and he also worked at a local meat market, a service station, and a clothing store. He occasionally spent time at a airport in Bedford, Indiana. A local attorney who owned a plane would take him on flights for a $1 fee. World War II broke out while Grissom was still in high school and he enlisted as an aviation cadet in the United States Army Air Forces, and completed an entrance exam in November 1943. Grissom graduated from school in 1944, and was inducted into the United States Army at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana. As the war neared its end, Grissom sought to be discharged and he married Betty Moore on July 6,1945, at the First Baptist Church in Mitchell while on leave. His brother Norman served as his best man and he was discharged from the Army in November 1945. Grissom took a job at Carpenter Body Works, a bus manufacturing business. However, he had trouble earning a sufficient income and was determined to attend college, bill for partial payment of his school tuition, Grissom enrolled at Purdue University in September 1946. During his time in college, Betty returned to live with her parents, Grissom took summer classes to finish early and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering in February 1950. Grissom re-enlisted in the military after his graduation from Purdue, this time in the newly-formed United States Air Force and he was accepted into the air cadet basic training program at Randolph Air Force Base in Universal City, Texas
21.
John Young (astronaut)
–
In 1965, Young flew on the first manned Gemini mission, and commanded another Gemini mission the next year. In 1969, he became the first person to orbit the Moon alone during Apollo 10 and he drove the Lunar Roving Vehicle on the Moons surface during Apollo 16, and is one of only three people to have flown to the Moon twice. He also commanded two Space Shuttle flights, including its first launch in 1981, and served as Chief of the Astronaut Office from 1974–1987, Young retired from NASA in 2004. Young was born in San Francisco, California, on September 24,1930, to parents William Hugh Young and Wanda Howland Young. At 18 months old, due to the Great Depression, he moved with his family to Georgia, then to Orlando, Florida, Young was a Boy Scout and earned the rank of Second Class. After graduating from Georgia Tech in 1952, Young entered the United States Navy through the Navy ROTC and was commissioned on June 6,1952, as an ensign. He served as fire control officer on the destroyer USS Laws until June 1953, following this assignment, he was sent to flight training. After training at the U. S. Naval Test Pilot School in 1959, Young was assigned to the Naval Air Test Center at Naval Air Station Patuxent River and his test projects included evaluations of the XF8U-3 Crusader III and F-4 Phantom II fighter weapons systems. In 1962, he set two world records while flying his Phantom II, attaining 3,000 meters from a standing start in 34.523 seconds and 25,000 meters from a standing start in 227.6 seconds. He also served as officer of Fighter Squadron 143 from April to September 1962. Fellow astronaut Charles Bolden described Young and Robert Hoot Gibson as the two best pilots he had met during his career, Never met two people like them. Everyone else gets into an airplane, John and Hoot wear their airplane, Young retired from the Navy as a Captain in September 1976, after completing 25 years of active military service. He has logged more than 15,275 hours flying time in props, jets, helicopters, and rocket jets, more than 9,200 hours in T-38s, and 835 hours in spacecraft during six space flights. Young then trained as pilot for Gemini 6A, but after the sandwich episode. Other Group 2 astronauts with flight experience were quickly moved to the Apollo program, while astronauts such as Scott Carpenter, the assignment of Gemini 7 backup command pilot Ed White to Apollo, created an opening for Young as commander of Gemini 10 in 1966. The mission was the first to perform a rendezvous with two Agena target vehicles, and his pilot, Michael Collins, performed two spacewalks, in 1966, Young was assigned to an Apollo crew as Command Module pilot, with Commander Thomas Stafford and Lunar Module pilot Eugene Cernan. This crew was assigned as backup to the second manned Apollo mission, after that fire, both crews were assigned to the first actual manned mission, Apollo 7, which flew in October 1968. In May 1969, this crew flew to the Moon on Apollo 10, while Stafford and Cernan flew the Lunar Module in lunar orbit for the first time, Young flew the Command Module solo
22.
Gemini 3
–
Gemini 3 was the first manned mission in NASAs Gemini program, the second American manned space program. On March 23,1965, astronauts Gus Grissom and John Young flew three low Earth orbits in their spacecraft, which they nicknamed Molly Brown and this was the ninth manned US spaceflight, and the 17th world human spaceflight including eight Soviet flights. The crew of Gemini 3 was changed after Shepard was grounded with an inner ear disorder in late 1964, in space, the crew fired thrusters to change the shape of their orbit, shift their orbital plane slightly, and drop to a lower altitude. This was the first orbital maneuver made by any manned spacecraft, NASA management did not like this name, and asked him to change it. Grissom replied, How about the Titanic, the managers relented and allowed Grissom to keep Molly Brown, but this was the last Gemini flight they allowed the astronauts to name. The only major incident during the orbital phase involved a contraband corned beef sandwich that Young had smuggled on board, but Johns deadpan offer of this strictly non-regulation goodie remains one of the highlights of our flight for me. The crewmen each took a few bites before the sandwich was restowed, the crumbs it released could have wreaked havoc with the crafts electronics, so the crewmen were reprimanded when they returned to Earth. Other crews were warned not to pull the same type of stunt, the first was an experiment testing the synergistic effect of zero gravity on sea urchin eggs. A lever essential to the experiment broke off when pulled, the second involved the photographic coverage objective. It was only partially due to an improper lens setting on the 16 mm camera. Early in the flight, the crew noticed the craft gradually yawing left,001841 I seem to have a leak, there must be a leak in one of the thrusters, because I get a continuous yaw left. Understand that you get a continuous yaw left, first attributed to a stuck thruster, the problem was traced to a venting water boiler. The crewmen made their first orbit change an hour and a half into the flight, the burn lasted 75 seconds and moved them from a 122-by-175-kilometer orbit to a nearly circular one with a drop in speed of 15 meters per second. The second burn, changing the orbital inclination by 0.02 degrees, was made 45 minutes later, the last burn, during the third orbit, lowered the perigee to 72 kilometers. This was made so, in case the retrorockets had failed, during reentry, the crew commented that the colors matched ground simulations. On descent, the capsule shifted from a vertical to horizontal attitude under its parachutes, the change was so sudden that Grissom cracked his faceplate on the control panel in front of him. Later Gemini spacesuits and all Apollo and Space Shuttle used polycarbonate plastic, the craft landed 84 kilometers short of its intended splashdown point. Wind tunnel testing had incorrectly predicted the ability to compensate for course deviation
23.
Charles Bassett
–
Charles Arthur Charlie Bassett II, was an American electrical engineer and United States Air Force test pilot. He was selected as a NASA astronaut in 1963 and assigned to Gemini 9, Bassett was born in Dayton, Ohio, on December 30,1931. He was active in the Boy Scouts of America, where he achieved its second highest rank, Life Scout. After graduating from Berea High School in Berea, Ohio in 1950, he attended Ohio State University from 1950 to 1952 and he received a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in Electrical Engineering from Texas Tech, he did graduate work at University of Southern California. In 1952 he entered the United States Air Force as an Aviation Cadet and he trained at Stallings Air Force Base, North Carolina, Bryan Air Force Base, Texas, and Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, completing advanced work in April 1954. He went to Korea with the 8th Fighter Bomber Group and flew a F-86 Sabres and he was too late to fly any combat missions, and said, If you don’t have any challenge, you never know how good you are. Bassett was promoted to First Lieutenant in May 1955, in November 1960, Bassett went to Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, to attend Squadron Officer School. He also graduated from the Aerospace Research Pilot School and the Air Forces Experimental Test Pilot School and he then served as an experimental test pilot and engineering test pilot in the Fighter Projects Office at Edwards Air Force Base, California. He logged over 3,600 hours-flying time, including over 2,900 hours in a jet aircraft, Bassett was one of the third group of astronauts named by NASA in October 1963. In addition to participating in the astronaut training program, he had specific responsibilities pertaining to training. On November 8,1965, he was selected as pilot of the Gemini 9 mission with Elliot See as Command Pilot, according to chief astronaut Deke Slaytons autobiography, he chose Bassett for Gemini 9 because he was strong enough to carry both himself and See. Slayton had also assigned Bassett as Command Module Pilot for the second backup Apollo crew, alongside Frank Borman, building 101 was where the Gemini spacecraft was built, and they were going there to train for two weeks in a simulator. They died within 500 feet of their spacecraft, Bassett was decapitated, and his head was found in the buildings rafters. Both men were buried in Arlington National Cemetery, a NASA investigative panel later concluded that pilot error, caused by poor visibility due to bad weather, was the principal cause of the accident. The panel concluded that See was flying too low to the ground during his second approach, Bassett was survived by his wife and two children. Bassett was a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Phi Kappa Tau, Eta Kappa Nu, Tau Beta Pi and the Daedalians. Bassett is honored at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Centers Space Mirror Memorial and his name also appears on the Fallen Astronaut memorial plaque at Hadley Rille on the Moon. Texas Tech University dedicated an Electrical Engineering Research Laboratory building in Bassetts honor in November 1996, list of spaceflight-related accidents and incidents Codex Regius
24.
Alan Bean
–
Alan LaVern Bean, is an American former naval officer and aviator, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut, he was the fourth person to walk on the Moon. He was selected to become an astronaut by NASA in 1963 as part of Astronaut Group 3 and he made his first flight into space aboard Apollo 12, the second manned mission to land on the Moon, at the age of thirty-seven years in November 1969. He made his second and final flight into space on the Skylab 3 mission in 1973, Bean was born March 15,1932, in Wheeler, the seat of Wheeler County in the northeastern Texas Panhandle. As a boy, he lived in Minden, the seat of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana, Bean graduated from R. L. Paschal High School in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1950. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1955, at UT he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He was commissioned a U. S. Navy Ensign through the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps at UT Austin, after completing flight training, he was assigned to a jet attack squadron in Jacksonville, Florida. After a four-year tour of duty, he attended the U. S. Naval Test Pilot School and he then flew as a test pilot on several types of naval aircraft. Bean was a Boy Scout and he earned the rank of First Class, Bean logged more than 7,145 hours flying time, including 4,890 hours in jet aircraft. Bean was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Texas Wesleyan College in 1972, Bean was selected by NASA as part of Astronaut Group 3 in 1963. He was selected to be the command pilot for Gemini 10 but was unsuccessful in securing an early Apollo flight assignment. He was placed in the Apollo Applications Program in the interim, in that capacity, he is the first astronaut to dive in the Neutral Buoyancy Simulator and a champion of the process for astronaut training. When fellow astronaut Clifton Williams was killed in an air crash, Apollo 12 Commander Conrad, who had instructed Bean at the Naval Flight Test School years before, personally requested Bean to replace Williams. Bean was the lunar module pilot on Apollo 12, the lunar landing. In November 1969, Bean and Pete Conrad landed on the moons Ocean of Storms—after a flight of 250,000 miles and they explored the lunar surface, deployed several lunar surface experiments, and installed the first nuclear power generator station on the Moon to provide the power source. Dick Gordon remained in orbit photographing landing sites for future missions. Bean had planned on using a self-timer for his Hasselblad camera in order to take a photograph of himself and Pete Conrad while on the lunar surface near the Surveyor III spacecraft. Bean was hoping not only to record a wonderful photo, however, neither he nor Conrad could locate the timer in the tool carrier tote bag while at the Surveyor III site and thus lost the opportunity. Bean did not locate the self-timer until the end of the EVA when it was too late to use - at which point Bean threw it as hard as he could
25.
Eugene Cernan
–
Captain Eugene Andrew Gene Cernan was an American astronaut, naval aviator, electrical engineer, aeronautical engineer, and fighter pilot. On Apollo 17, Cernan became the person to walk on the Moon and, as the last man to re-enter the Lunar Module. He traveled into space three times, as Pilot of Gemini 9A in June 1966, as Lunar Module Pilot of Apollo 10 in May 1969, and as Commander of Apollo 17 in December 1972, the final Apollo lunar landing. Cernan was also a crew member for the Gemini 12, Apollo 7. Cernan was born on March 14,1934, in Chicago, Illinois and his father was of Slovak descent and his mother was of Czech ancestry. Cernan grew up in the towns of Bellwood and Maywood. Cernan was a Boy Scout and earned the rank of Second Class, after his sophomore year, he accepted a partial Navy ROTC scholarship, which also required him to serve aboard the USS Roanoke between his junior and senior years. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering in 1956 and his hobbies included love for horses, sports, hunting, fishing, and flying. Cernan was commissioned a U. S. Navy Ensign through the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps at Purdue, in 1958, Cernan became a Naval Aviator, flying FJ-4 Fury and A-4 Skyhawk jets in Attack Squadrons 126 and 113. Upon completion of his assignment in Miramar, California, he finished his education in 1963 at the U. S. Naval Postgraduate School with a Master of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering. Throughout his career, Cernan logged more than 5,000 hours of flying time, in addition to his flight hours, Cernan also landed on aircraft carriers 200 times. Cernan was selected among the group of NASA astronauts in October 1963 by NASA to participate in the Gemini. Cernan was originally selected as pilot for Gemini 9 with Thomas Stafford. When the prime crew was killed in the crash of NASA T-38A901 at Lambert Field on February 28,1966 and this was the first time the backup crew had become the flight crew. However, the crew performed a rendezvous that simulated procedures that would be used in Apollo 10, the first optical rendezvous, and a lunar orbit abort rendezvous. Cernan performed the second American EVA, but overexertion due to lack of limb restraints prevented testing of the AMU, Cernan was also a backup Pilot for the Gemini 12 mission. Cernan turned down the opportunity to walk on the Moon as Lunar Module Pilot of Apollo 16, after the cancellation of Apollo 18, NASA decided to send a scientist, Harrison Schmitt, to the Moon. This decision meant the original Lunar Module pilot, Joe Engle, Cernan fought to keep his crew together, however, public pressure from the scientific community cemented Schmitts position on the crew
26.
Elliot See
–
Elliot McKay See Jr. was an American engineer, naval aviator, test pilot, and NASA astronaut, selected in the second group of astronauts. See was born in Dallas, Texas on July 23,1927, See was active in the Boy Scouts of America and earned the rank of Eagle Scout. He later obtained a Master of Science degree in Engineering from UCLA in 1962 and he was married to Marilyn Denahy See, and had three children, Sally, born in 1956, Carolyn, born in 1957, and David, born in 1962. He worked for General Electric before and after serving as a Naval Aviator from 1953 to 1956 and he served as a project pilot for the J79-8 engine development program used in the F4H aircraft. See conducted powerplant flight tests on the J-47, J-73, J-79, CJ805 and this work involved flying in F-86, XF4D, F-104, F11F-1F, RB-66, F4H, and T-38 aircraft. He logged more than 3,900 hours flying time, including more than 3,300 hours in jet aircraft, in 1962, See was selected to be one of the new nine NASA astronauts. He served as pilot for Gemini 5 and was a CAPCOM in Houston during the Gemini 7/6A rendezvous mission in December 1965. He was in line to fly as prime crew Pilot for Gemini 8, according to chief astronaut Deke Slaytons autobiography, Slayton did not assign See to Gemini 8 because he did not consider him physically capable of performing an extravehicular activity. Slayton further stated that he assigned See to Gemini 9 because he had become sentimental about getting him a flight. Building 101 was where the Gemini spacecraft was built, and they were going there to do training for two weeks in a simulator, along with their backup crew. See and Bassett died within 500 feet of their spacecraft, both were buried in Arlington National Cemetery. A NASA investigative panel later concluded pilot error caused by poor visibility due to bad weather had been the principal cause of the accident. The panel concluded that See was flying too low to the ground during his second approach, Slayton would later express doubts about Sees flying ability, claiming that See flew too slowly and wasnt aggressive enough. The mission was launched three months later, in early June, as Gemini 9A, the shuffling of the Gemini prime and backup crew assignments that occurred after the deaths of See and Bassett impacted the crew selections for some of the early Apollo manned missions. See was a member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, Sees name is listed on the Space Mirror Memorial, as well as on the Fallen Astronaut plaque placed on the Moon by Apollo 15. See was honored as a Distinguished Alumnus of Highland Park High School in 2010, a family-approved account of Sees life and career appears in the 2003 book Fallen Astronauts by space historians Colin Burgess and Kate Doolan. List of spaceflight-related accidents and incidents Codex Regius, the Forgotten Astronauts, A rarely told Chapter of American Spaceflight History
27.
Mass
–
In physics, mass is a property of a physical body. It is the measure of a resistance to acceleration when a net force is applied. It also determines the strength of its gravitational attraction to other bodies. The basic SI unit of mass is the kilogram, Mass is not the same as weight, even though mass is often determined by measuring the objects weight using a spring scale, rather than comparing it directly with known masses. An object on the Moon would weigh less than it does on Earth because of the lower gravity and this is because weight is a force, while mass is the property that determines the strength of this force. In Newtonian physics, mass can be generalized as the amount of matter in an object, however, at very high speeds, special relativity postulates that energy is an additional source of mass. Thus, any body having mass has an equivalent amount of energy. In addition, matter is a defined term in science. There are several distinct phenomena which can be used to measure mass, active gravitational mass measures the gravitational force exerted by an object. Passive gravitational mass measures the force exerted on an object in a known gravitational field. The mass of an object determines its acceleration in the presence of an applied force, according to Newtons second law of motion, if a body of fixed mass m is subjected to a single force F, its acceleration a is given by F/m. A bodys mass also determines the degree to which it generates or is affected by a gravitational field and this is sometimes referred to as gravitational mass. The standard International System of Units unit of mass is the kilogram, the kilogram is 1000 grams, first defined in 1795 as one cubic decimeter of water at the melting point of ice. Then in 1889, the kilogram was redefined as the mass of the prototype kilogram. As of January 2013, there are proposals for redefining the kilogram yet again. In this context, the mass has units of eV/c2, the electronvolt and its multiples, such as the MeV, are commonly used in particle physics. The atomic mass unit is 1/12 of the mass of a carbon-12 atom, the atomic mass unit is convenient for expressing the masses of atoms and molecules. Outside the SI system, other units of mass include, the slug is an Imperial unit of mass, the pound is a unit of both mass and force, used mainly in the United States
28.
Agena target vehicle
–
Each ATV consisted of an Agena-D derivative upper rocket stage built by Lockheed and a docking adapter built by McDonnell. The Agena was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 14 on top of an Atlas booster built by the Convair division of General Dynamics, the Agena first burn would occur shortly after shroud jettison and separation from the Atlas over the Atlantic Ocean. Over Ascension Island, a second burn would place the Agena into a low circular orbit, the McDonnell Gemini spacecraft would then be launched from Launch Complex 19, as soon as 90 minutes later. Both countdowns would proceed in parallel and required close synchronization, the Gemini would rendezvous and dock with the Agena as soon as Geminis first orbit toward the end of the program. This required installing handrails on later flights to prevent excessive astronaut exertion, refiring the Agena engine to raise the spacecrafts apogee. Gemini 11 reached a record of 739.2 nautical miles, the modified Bell 8247 engine was qualified for up to 15 restarts. This technique is now known as Gravity-gradient stabilization, using a similar tether and a few thruster bursts to rotate the two craft around each other as an early test of artificial gravity. After rendezvous with its own ATV, Gemini 10 performed a rendezvous with the ATV from Gemini 8. After the Gemini capsule separated for the last time, the Agena remained in orbit for a time and was used to verify the command system. The first Gemini-Agena Target Vehicle was launched on October 25,1965 while the Gemini 6 astronauts were waiting on the pad, while the Atlas performed normally, the Agenas engine exploded during orbital injection. Since the rendezvous and docking was the objective, the Gemini 6 mission was scrubbed, and replaced with the alternate mission Gemini 6A. An investigation into the failure concluded that it was most likely caused by design modifications to the GATV versus a standard Agena D stage, the Agena D was designed to have its engine restarted just once while the GATV would need to be restarted five times. While this would not be a problem for the Agena D with its single restart, unfortunately, pumping the fuel into the combustion chamber first caused the engine to backfire and rupture from mechanical shock. It was found out that Lockheed-Martin engineers did not properly test the GATV to root out this problem, the solution to the problem was switching back to the normal oxidizer-first engine start and also testing the GATV in appropriate conditions. Bell Aerosystems, the manufacturer of the Agenas engine, were instructed to perform further ground-level tests. After the failure of the first GATV, McDonnell developed a vehicle in case this situation should happen again. This was the Augmented Target Docking Adaptor, a collar with attitude control propulsion identical to the Gemini reentry control section. However, Convair assured McDonnell that it would pose no technical issues with the booster, on May 17,1966, Gemini 9 astronauts Tom Stafford and Eugene Cernan were sitting on the pad awaiting the launch of their GATV
29.
White Sands, New Mexico
–
White Sands is a census-designated place in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, United States. It consists of the residential area on the White Sands Missile Range. As of the 2010 census the population of the CDP was 1,651 and it is part of the Las Cruces Metropolitan Statistical Area. The White Sands CDP is located in eastern Doña Ana County at 32°23′3″N 106°29′52″W and it is 4 miles south of U. S. Route 70 and 27 miles east of Las Cruces, the county seat. The entrance to White Sands National Monument is 34 miles to the northeast up US70, according to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 3.1 square miles, all of it land. As of the census of 2000, there were 1,323 people,432 households, the population density was 429.2 people per square mile. There were 667 housing units at a density of 216.4 per square mile. The racial makeup of the CDP was 71. 43% White,11. 56% African American,0. 98% Native American,3. 70% Asian,0. 08% Pacific Islander,6. 27% from other races, and 5. 97% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 17. 61% of the population,16. 4% of all households were made up of individuals and none had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.06 and the family size was 3.45. In the CDP, the population was out with 37. 3% under the age of 18,9. 4% from 18 to 24,39. 7% from 25 to 44,13. 0% from 45 to 64. The median age was 27 years, for every 100 females there were 105.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 103.7 males, the median income for a household in the CDP was $43,500, and the median income for a family was $47,750. Males had an income of $40,402 versus $21,250 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $16,186, about 1. 5% of families and 2. 6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3. 8% of those under age 18 and none of those age 65 or over. The desert is located in the Tularosa Basin of New Mexico and its white sands are not composed of quartz, like most desert sands, but of gypsum and calcium sulfate. Unlike other desert sands, it is cool to the touch, due to the rate of evaporation of surface moisture and the fact that the sands reflect, rather than absorb. At 1185 meters above sea level, there are approximately 442 square kilometers of dune fields and is known to be the worlds largest surface deposit of gypsum
30.
ITT Corporation
–
ITT Corporation is an American worldwide manufacturing company based in White Plains, New York, producing specialty components for the aerospace, transportation, energy and industrial markets. The company was founded in 1920 as International Telephone & Telegraph, ITT divested its telecommunications assets in 1986, and in 1995 spun off its non-manufacturing divisions, later to be purchased by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. In 1996, the current company was founded as a spinoff of ITT as ITT Industries, Inc. in 2011, ITT spun off its defense businesses into a company named Exelis, and its water technology business into a company named Xylem Inc. International Telephone & Telegraph was formed in 1920, created by brokers Colonel Sosthenes Behn, the brothers had acquired the Puerto Rico Telephone Company in 1914 along with the Cuban-American Telephone and Telegraph Company and a half-interest in the Cuban Telephone Company. ITTs first major expansion was in 1923 when it consolidated the Spanish Telecoms market into what is now Telefónica, from 1922 to 1925 it purchased a number of European telephone companies. In 1925, ITT purchased several companies from Western Electric, as Bell has agreed to divest itself of its international operations, Compagnie Générale dElectricité later purchased BTM, Nortel later purchased STC. Its only serious rival was the Theodore Gary & Company conglomerate, in the United States, ITT acquired the various companies of the Mackay Companies in 1928 through a specially organized subsidiary corporation, Postal Telegraph & Cable. These companies included the Commercial Cable Company, the Commercial Pacific Cable Company, Postal Telegraph, on 3 August 1933 Hitler received in one of the first meetings with US businessmen Sosthenes Behn, then the CEO of ITT, and his German representative, Henry Mann. Sutton, in his book Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler, lorenz AG, owned 25% of Focke-Wulf, the German aircraft manufacturer, builder of some of the most successful Luftwaffe fighter aircraft. In the 1960s, ITT Corporation won $27 million in compensation for damage inflicted on its share of the Focke-Wulf plant by Allied bombing during World War II. While ITT - Focke-Wulf planes were bombing Allied ships, and ITT lines were passing information German submarines, in 1943 ITT became the largest shareholder of Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau GmbH for the remainder of the war with 29%. This was due to Kaffee HAGs share falling to 27% after the death in May of Kaffee HAG chief, OMGUS documents reveal that the role of the HAG conglomerate could not be determined during WWII. In 1951, ITT purchased Philo Farnsworths television company to break into that market, at the time Farnsworth was also developing the Fusor fusion reactor, which was funded by ITT until 1967. ITT changed the name to ITT Kellogg. One prominent subsidiary of this was the American Cable and Radio Corporation and it bought Philadelphia based heating and air conditioning manufacturer John J. Nesbitt Inc. In 1968 the company purchased Levittown homebuilder Levitt and Sons for a reported $90 million and this equipment was also produced under license in Poznań, and in Yugoslavia, and elsewhere. ITT was the largest owner of the LM Ericsson company in Sweden, in 1959, Harold Geneen became CEO. Using leveraged buyouts, he turned the minor acquisitions of the 1950s into major growth during the 1960s, in 1963, ITT attempted to purchase the ABC television network for $700 million
31.
Intelsat I
–
Intelsat I was the first commercial communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit, on April 6,1965. It was built by the Space and Communications Group of Hughes Aircraft Company for COMSAT and it was based on the satellite that Hughes had built for NASA to demonstrate that communications via synchronous-orbit satellite were feasible. Its booster was a Thrust Augmented Delta, after a series of maneuvers, it reached its geosynchronous orbital position over the Atlantic Ocean at 28° west longitude, where it was put into service. It helped provide the first live TV coverage of a spacecraft splashdown and it was deactivated again in August 1969 and has been inactive since that time, although it remains in orbit. The Early Bird satellite was the first to direct and nearly instantaneous contact between Europe and North America, handling television, telephone, and telefacsimile transmissions. It was fairly small, measuring nearly 76 ×61 cm, Early Bird was one of the satellites used in the then record-breaking broadcast of Our World. A full-scale model, or a flight test model, hangs in the lobby of the Intelsat headquarters building, Washington. List of communications satellite firsts Syncom, the first geosynchronous and geostationary satellites The Room-Size World
32.
Atlas-Agena
–
The Atlas-Agena was an American expendable launch system derived from the SM-65 Atlas missile. It was a member of the Atlas family of rockets, and was launched 109 times between 1960 and 1978 and it was used to launch the first five Mariner unmanned probes to the planets Venus and Mars, and the Ranger and Lunar Orbiter unmanned probes to the Moon. The upper stage was used as an unmanned orbital target vehicle for the Gemini manned spacecraft to practice rendezvous. However, the launch vehicle family was developed for the Air Force. The Atlas-Agena was a rocket, with a stage-and-a-half Atlas missile as the first stage. Initially, Atlas D missiles, redesignated as the LV-3, were used as the first stage and these were later replaced by the standardized Atlas SLV-3, and its derivatives, the SLV-3A and B. The final Atlas-Agena launch used an Atlas E/F, the earliest Agena variant was the Agena A in 1959-60, which did not have restart capability. Most of these were flown on Thor-Agena boosters for the Discoverer program and only four used Atlases, late in 1960, Lockheed introduced the uprated Agena B stage which was restartable and had longer propellant tanks for more burn time. It first flew on the Thor and did not make its maiden voyage on an Atlas for months, Atlas-Agenas were then used for DoD and NASA programs, but proved a reliability nightmare as one failure after another happened. In late 1962, after Ranger 5 suffered another booster malfunction, the board recommended improved quality control, better hardware, and also establishing one standardized launch vehicle for all space programs. The end result was the Atlas SLV-3 and Agena D, standardized versions of the Atlas D core, the Agena D first flew in July 1963 for DoD launches, but NASA continued using Agena Bs for the remaining Ranger missions. The Atlas SLV-3 meanwhile first flew in August 1964, dozens of Atlas SLV-3/Agena D boosters were flown over the following years, mostly for the KH-7 GAMBIT program, also for a few NASA missions. The last Atlas-Agena was flown in 1978 to launch SEASAT, launches were conducted from Launch Complexes 12,13 and 14 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and Launch Complexes 1 and 2 at Point Arguello. These were mounted on the section between the two stages and if the Atlas were intentionally destroyed by the RSO in flight, the Agena would blow up with it. After SECO, the range safety charges would be disabled and destruction was not possible during the Agena burn, the Ranger spacecraft were designed to impact the Moon, returning photographs of the lunar surface until their destruction. However, the orbits were not as high as desired, the Block II missions, Ranger 3, Ranger 4, and Ranger 5, were launched away from Earth in January, April, and October 1962, but all three failed. Ranger 3 missed the Moon entirely, Ranger 4s solar panels failed to deploy, and the navigation system failed, sending the probe to impact the lunar far side without returning any pictures or data. Ranger 5 suffered a failure which deprived it of power
33.
Telemetry
–
Telemetry is an automated communications process by which measurements and other data are collected at remote or inaccessible points and transmitted to receiving equipment for monitoring. The word is derived from Greek roots, tele = remote, systems that need external instructions and data to operate require the counterpart of telemetry, telecommand. Many modern telemetry systems take advantage of the low cost and ubiquity of GSM networks by using SMS to receive, a telemeter is a device used to remotely measure any quantity. It consists of a sensor, a path, and a display, recording. Telemeters are the devices used in telemetry. Electronic devices are used in telemetry and can be wireless or hard-wired. Other technologies are possible, such as mechanical, hydraulic. Telemetry may be commutated to allow the transmission of data streams in a fixed frame. Telemetering information over wire had its origins in the 19th century, One of the first data-transmission circuits was developed in 1845 between the Russian Tsars Winter Palace and army headquarters. In 1874, French engineers built a system of weather and snow-depth sensors on Mont Blanc that transmitted real-time information to Paris, in 1901 the American inventor C. Michalke patented the selsyn, a circuit for sending synchronized rotation information over a distance, in 1906 a set of seismic stations were built with telemetering to the Pulkovo Observatory in Russia. In 1912, Commonwealth Edison developed a system of telemetry to monitor electrical loads on its power grid, the Panama Canal used extensive telemetry systems to monitor locks and water levels. Wireless telemetry made early appearances in the radiosonde, developed concurrently in 1930 by Robert Bureau in France, mochanovs system modulated temperature and pressure measurements by converting them to wireless Morse code. In the US and the USSR, the Messina system was replaced with better systems. Early Soviet missile and space telemetry systems which were developed in the late 1940s used either pulse-position modulation or pulse-duration modulation, in the United States, early work employed similar systems, but were later replaced by pulse-code modulation. Later Soviet interplanetary probes used redundant radio systems, transmitting telemetry by PCM on a decimeter band, telemetry has been used by weather balloons for transmitting meteorological data since 1920. Telemetry is used to transmit drilling mechanics and formation evaluation information uphole, in real time and these services are known as Measurement while drilling and Logging while drilling. Information acquired thousands of feet below ground, while drilling, is sent through the hole to the surface sensors
34.
Jim Lovell
–
James Arthur Jim Lovell Jr. Lovell was also the command module pilot of Apollo 8, the first Apollo mission to enter lunar orbit. He is a recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He is one of only 24 people to have flown to the Moon, Lovell was also the first person to fly in space four times. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1928, Lovell was the child of his mother Blanche, who was of Czech descent, and his father. For about two years, he and his mother resided with a relative in Terre Haute, Indiana and his mother then moved them to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he graduated from Juneau High School and became an Eagle Scout. As a child, Lovell was interested in rocketry, and built flying models, from the fall of 1946 to the spring of 1948, he attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison for two years under the Flying Midshipman program, where he joined the Alpha Phi Omega fraternity. While Lovell was attending pre-flight training in the summer of 1948, there were even worries that some or most of the pilots that graduated wouldnt have pilot billets to fill. He applied and was accepted to attend the United States Naval Academy in the fall of 1948 and he attended Annapolis for the full four years, graduating as an Ensign in the spring of 1952 with a B. S. degree. He then went to training at NAS Pensacola from October 1952 to February 1954. He married Marilyn Lillie Gerlach, the daughter of Lillie and Carl Gerlach, the two were high-school sweethearts at Juneau High School in Milwaukee. Marilyn initially was hesitant about dating Jim because he was two years older than she, but the two became inseparable after their first date. She transferred from Wisconsin State Teachers College to George Washington University in Washington D. C. so she could be near him while he was training in Annapolis and they married after his graduation from the Naval Academy on June 6,1952. They have four children, Barbara, James, Susan, due to her husband often being absent from the home because of training and missions, Marilyn was in charge of taking care of their household and four children. Their home life during the Apollo 13 mission of 1970 was portrayed in the 1995 film Apollo 13, Actress Kathleen Quinlan was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Marilyn Lovell. In 1999 the Lovell family opened Lovells of Lake Forest, a dining restaurant in Lake Forest. The restaurant displays many artifacts from Lovells time with NASA, as well as from the filming of Apollo 13 and his son James Jay Lovell III was the executive chef. He sold the restaurant to Jay and his wife Darice in 2006, the Lovell family announced that the restaurant building and surrounding property was on the market in February 2014. The restaurant closed on April 12,2015, and the property was auctioned on April 22,2015, upon completion of pilot training Lovell served at sea flying F2H Banshee night fighters from 1954 to 1957
35.
Frank Borman
–
Before flying on Apollo, he set a fourteen-day spaceflight endurance record on Gemini 7, and also served on the NASA review board which investigated the Apollo 1 fire. After leaving NASA, he was the Chief Executive Officer of Eastern Air Lines from 1975 to 1986, Borman is a recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. Borman was born on March 14,1928, in Gary, Indiana and he is of German descent, born as the only child to parents Edwin and Marjorie Borman. He started to fly at the age of 15, Borman graduated from Tucson High School in 1946. He received his Master of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1957, later, Borman was selected for the Aerospace Research Pilot School and became a test pilot. He completed the Harvard Business Schools Advanced Management Program in 1970, Borman married Susan Bugbee in 1950, and they have two sons, Frederick and Edwin, and four grandchildren. Following graduation, Borman was a career U. S. Air Force officer, in 1957, he became an assistant professor of thermodynamics and fluid mechanics at West Point, where he served until 1960. In 1960, Borman began serving as an experimental test pilot engaged in organizing and administering special projects for the USAF Aerospace Research Pilot School, during his military service, he logged over 6,000 hours of flying time. In 1966 and 1968, Borman served as special ambassador on trips throughout the Far East. In 1970, he undertook another special presidential mission, a tour to seek support for the release of American prisoners of war held by North Vietnam. Borman was selected by NASA for the second NASA astronaut group in 1962 and he was one of just four of this group chosen to command their first Gemini missions, the others being James McDivitt, Neil Armstrong, and Elliot See. Borman flew Gemini 7 in December 1965 with Pilot James A. Lovell and this was a long-endurance flight which set a fourteen-day record, and also acted as the target vehicle in the first space rendezvous performed by Gemini 6A. The two craft came within one foot of each other and they took turns flying around each other, however, in January 1967, the crew of the first manned Apollo mission Apollo 1, Virgil I. Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger B, chaffee were killed in a fire aboard their Command Module, delaying the Apollo program. In April 1967, while serving on the board, Borman was one of five astronauts who testified before a United States Senate committee investigating the Apollo 1 fire and his testimony helped convince U. S. Congress that Apollo would be safe to fly again. Borman was then reassigned to his LM test mission, now planned to fly as Apollo 9 in early 1969 after a first, Bormans Lunar Module Pilot was William Anders. The Command Module Pilot and navigator, Michael Collins, had to have surgery and was replaced by his backup, James Lovell. Apollo 8 went into orbit on December 24 and made ten orbits of the Moon in 20 hours before returning to Earth
36.
Ejection seat
–
In aircraft, an ejection seat or ejector seat is a system designed to rescue the pilot or other crew of an aircraft in an emergency. In most designs, the seat is propelled out of the aircraft by a charge or rocket motor. The concept of an escape crew capsule has also been tried. Once clear of the aircraft, the ejection seat deploys a parachute, Ejection seats are common on certain types of military aircraft. A bungee-assisted escape from an aircraft took place in 1910, in 1916 Everard Calthrop, an early inventor of parachutes, patented an ejector seat using compressed air. The modern layout for a seat was first proposed by Romanian inventor Anastase Dragomir in the late 1920s. The design, featuring a parachuted cell, was tested on 25 August 1929 at the Paris-Orly Airport near Paris and in October 1929 at Băneasa. Dragomir patented his catapult-able cockpit at the French Patent Office, the design was perfected during World War II. The first ejection seats were developed independently during World War II by Heinkel, early models were powered by compressed air and the first aircraft to be fitted with such a system was the Heinkel He 280 prototype jet-engined fighter in 1940. At 2,400 m, Schenk found he had no control, jettisoned his towline, the He 280 was never put into production status and the first operational type built anywhere, to provide ejection seats for the crew was the Heinkel He 219 Uhu night fighter in 1942. In Sweden, a version using compressed air was tested in 1941, a gunpowder ejection seat was developed by Bofors and tested in 1943 for the Saab 21. The first test in the air was on a Saab 17 on 27 February 1944, and the first real use occurred by Lt. Bengt Johansson on 29 July 1946 after a mid-air collision between a J21 and a J22. As the first operational military jet in late 1944 to ever feature one, the lightweight Heinkel He 162A Spatz featured a new type of ejection seat, in this system, the seat rode on wheels set between two pipes running up the back of the cockpit. When lowered into position, caps at the top of the seat fitted over the pipes to close them, cartridges, basically identical to shotgun shells, were placed in the bottom of the pipes, facing upward. When fired, the gases would fill the pipes, popping the caps off the end, after World War II, the need for such systems became pressing, as aircraft speeds were getting ever higher, and it was not long before the sound barrier was broken. Manual escape at such speeds would be impossible, the United States Army Air Forces experimented with downward-ejecting systems operated by a spring, but it was the work of Sir James Martin and his company Martin-Baker that was to prove crucial. The first live flight test of the Martin-Baker system took place on 24 July 1946, shortly afterward, on 17 August 1946, 1st Sgt. Larry Lambert was the first live U. S. ejectee, Lynch demonstrated the ejection seat at the Daily Express Air Pageant in 1948, ejecting from a Meteor. W.52 experimental flying wing
37.
Jingle Bells
–
Jingle Bells is one of the best-known and commonly sung American songs in the world. It was written by James Lord Pierpont and published under the title One Horse Open Sleigh in the autumn of 1857. Some area choirs adopted it as part of their repertoire in the 1860s and 1870s and it was first recorded by the Edison Male Quartette in 1898 on an Edison cylinder, and became a Christmas favorite in the early twentieth century. It is a question where and when Pierpont originally composed the song that would become known as Jingle Bells. According to the Medford Historical Society, the song was inspired by the towns popular sleigh races during the 19th century, Jingle Bells was originally copyrighted with the name One Horse Open Sleigh on September 16,1857. The song has passed into the public domain. In August of the year, James Pierpont married the daughter of the mayor of Savannah. He stayed on in the city even after the church closed due to its abolitionist leanings, Jingle Bells was often used as a drinking song at parties, people would jingle the ice in their glasses as they sang. Music historian James Fuld notes that the jingle in the title. The rhythm of the tune mimics that of a trotting horses bells, however, jingle bells is commonly taken to mean a certain kind of bell. Jingle Bells Although less well-known than the opening, the remaining verses depict high-speed youthful fun and it is unknown who replaced the words with those of the modern version. The original 1857 Jingle Bells had a different chorus featuring a more classical-style melody. The Jingle Bells tune is used in French and German songs, both songs celebrate winter fun, as in the English version. The French song, titled Vive le vent, was written by Francis Blanche and contains references to Father Time, Baby New Year, there are several German versions of Jingle Bells, including the popular Roy Black versions of Christkindl and Christmastime. The Swedish version titled Bjällerklang contains a few lines, eight bars long. Those were added by the Swedish lyricists, Eric Sandström and Gösta Westerberg, James Lord Pierponts 1857 composition Jingle Bells became one of the most performed and most recognizable secular holiday songs ever written, not only in the United States, but around the world. In recognition of achievement, James Lord Pierpont was voted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Jingle Bells was first recorded by the Edison Male Quartette in 1898 on an Edison cylinder as part of a Christmas medley entitled Sleigh Ride Party, in 1902, the Hayden Quartet recorded Jingle Bells
38.
Hohner
–
KG is a German company specialising in the manufacture of musical instruments. Founded in 1857 by Matthias Hohner, Hohner is identified especially with harmonicas, the Hohner company has invented and produced many different styles, and most of the harmonicas used by professionals. The company also makes kazoos, recorder flutes, melodicas, banjos, guitars, bass guitars, accordions, from the 1940s through 1990s, the company also manufactured various electric/electronic keyboards. Especially in the 1960s and 1990s, they manufactured a range of innovative and popular electromechanical keyboard instruments, the Cembalet, Pianet, Basset, Guitaret, and Clavinet. In the 1980s, several Casio synths were sold under the Hohner brand - for example, the Casio HT-3000/Hohner KS61midi, the roots of the Hohner firm are in Trossingen, Baden-Württemberg. Matthias Hohner, who was originally a clockmaker, started making harmonicas in 1857 with his wife,650 were made in the first year. Hohner harmonicas quickly became popular, and during Matthias lifetime he built the largest harmonica factory in the world, during the American Civil War Matthias Hohner gave harmonicas to family members in the United States who in turn gave them to the fighting soldiers. In the 1920s, Hohner began manufacturing chromatic harmonicas that can be played in any key, famous harmonicist Borrah Minevitch claimed he sold his design for the chromatic harmonica to Hohner. In the mid-1950s Hohner began producing electric guitars, in the 1970s Hohner began manufacturing acoustic guitars, and re-producing electric guitars. Matthias Karl Hohner, son of Dipl. -Ing and his son Matthias Francisco Hohner belonged to the first generation of direct descedents who did not enter into the family business. Many direct descedents of the founder are still active as members of the Deutsches Harmonika Museum, the Marine Band is the base model of the line. Technically named the Marine Band 1896/20 for the year it was introduced and it also has some tuning variations like the 1896N and the 1896H. The Marine Band has been Hohners most popular model of harmonica for generations, made in Germany on a wood comb, most blues and rock artists play a Marine Band. Several noted users are Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, Little Walter, there are various subdivisions of the Marine Band. The Special 20 was introduced in the mid 1970s and it has the same reeds as a Marine Band, but it has a plastic comb instead of a wooden comb, and rounded edges. It was the first Hohner harmonica to have a comb, which not only made the instrument more airtight. Made in Germany, this quickly became the preferred choice of many rock. Now, most harmonicas being manufactured from all companies are based upon the Special 20 and its most noted user is John Popper, who appears on the blister
39.
Harmonica
–
There are many types of harmonica, including diatonic, chromatic, tremolo, octave, orchestral, and bass versions. A harmonica is played by using the mouth to direct air into or out of one or more holes along a mouthpiece, behind each hole is a chamber containing at least one reed. A harmonica reed is a flat elongated spring typically made of brass, stainless steel, or bronze, when the free end is made to vibrate by the players air, it alternately blocks and unblocks the airway to produce sound. Reeds are pre-tuned to individual pitches, tuning may involve changing a reeds length, the weight near its free end, or the stiffness near its fixed end. Longer, heavier and springier reeds produce deeper, lower sounds, an important technique in performance is bending, causing a drop in pitch by making embouchure adjustments. Such two-reed pitch changes actually involve sound production by the normally silent reed, the basic parts of the harmonica are the comb, reed plates and cover plates. The comb is the body of the instrument, which. The term comb may originate from the similarity between this part of a harmonica and a hair comb, Harmonica combs were traditionally made from wood but now are also made from plastic or metal. Some modern and experimental designs are complex in the way that they direct the air. There is dispute among players about whether comb material affects the tone of a harmonica, among those saying yes are those who are convinced by their ears. Few dispute, however, that comb surface smoothness and air-tightness when mated with the reedplates can greatly affect tone, the main advantage of a particular comb material over another one is its durability. In particular, a comb can absorb moisture from the players breath. This can cause the comb to expand slightly, making the instrument uncomfortable to play, various types of wood and treatments have been devised to reduce the degree of this problem. Much effort is devoted by serious players to restoring wood combs, some players used to soak wooden-combed harmonicas in water to cause a slight expansion, which they intended to make the seal between the comb, reed plates and covers more airtight. Modern wooden-combed harmonicas are less prone to swelling and contracting, players still dip harmonicas in water for the way it affects tone and ease of bending notes. The reed plate is a grouping of several reeds in a single housing, the reeds are usually made of brass, but steel, aluminium and plastic are occasionally used. Individual reeds are usually riveted to the plate, but they may also be welded or screwed in place. Reeds fixed on the side of the reed plate respond to blowing
40.
Smithsonian Institution
–
The Smithsonian Institution, established in 1846 for the increase and diffusion of knowledge, is a group of museums and research centers administered by the Government of the United States. Originally organized as the United States National Museum, that ceased to exist as an administrative entity in 1967. Additional facilities are located in Arizona, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York City, Texas, Virginia, more than 200 institutions and museums in 45 states, Puerto Rico, and Panama are Smithsonian Affiliates. The Institutions thirty million annual visitors are admitted without charge and its annual budget is around $1.2 billion with 2/3 coming from annual federal appropriations. Other funding comes from the Institutions endowment, private and corporate contributions, membership dues, and earned retail, concession, Institution publications include Smithsonian and Air & Space magazines. The British scientist James Smithson left most of his wealth to his nephew Henry James Hungerford, Congress officially accepted the legacy bequeathed to the nation, and pledged the faith of the United States to the charitable trust on July 1,1836. The American diplomat Richard Rush was dispatched to England by President Andrew Jackson to collect the bequest, Rush returned in August 1838 with 105 sacks containing 104,960 gold sovereigns. Once the money was in hand, eight years of Congressional haggling ensued over how to interpret Smithsons rather vague mandate for the increase, unfortunately, the money was invested by the US Treasury in bonds issued by the state of Arkansas which soon defaulted. The United States Exploring Expedition by the U. S. Navy circumnavigated the globe between 1838 and 1842, in 1846, the regents developed a plan for weather observation, in 1847, money was appropriated for meteorological research. The Institution became a magnet for young scientists from 1857 to 1866, the Smithsonian played a critical role as the U. S. partner institution in early bilateral scientific exchanges with the Academy of Sciences of Cuba. The Smithsonian Institution Building began construction in 1849, designed by architect James Renwick Jr. its interiors were completed by general contract Gilbert Cameron and the building opened in 1855. The Smithsonians first expansion came with construction of the Arts and Industries Building in 1881, Congress had promised to build a new structure for the museum if the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition generated enough income. It did, and the building was designed by architects Adolf Cluss and Paul Schulze, meigs of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The National Zoological Park opened in 1889 to accommodate the Smithsonians Department of Living Animals and this structure was designed by the D. C. architectural firm of Hornblower & Marshall. More than 40 years would pass before the museum, the Museum of History. It was designed by the firm of McKim, Mead & White. That same year, the Smithsonian signed an agreement to take over the Cooper Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration, the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum opened in the Old Patent Office Building on October 7,1968. The first new building to open since the National Museum of Natural History was the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
41.
Turks and Caicos
–
They are known primarily for tourism and as an offshore financial centre. The resident population is 31,458 as of 2012 of whom 23,769 live on Providenciales in the Caicos Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands lie southeast of Mayaguana in the Bahamas island chain and north of the island of Hispaniola and the other Antilles archipelago islands. Cockburn Town, the capital since 1766, is situated on Grand Turk Island about 1,042 kilometres east-southeast of Miami, the islands have a total land area of 430 square kilometres. The first recorded European sighting of the now known as the Turks. In the subsequent centuries, the islands were claimed by several European powers with the British Empire eventually gaining control, for many years the islands were governed indirectly through Bermuda, the Bahamas, and Jamaica. When the Bahamas gained independence in 1973, the islands received their own governor, in August 2009, the United Kingdom suspended the Turks and Caicos Islands self-government following allegations of ministerial corruption. Home rule was restored in the islands after the November 2012 elections, the Turks and Caicos Islands are named after the Turks cap cactus, and the Lucayan term caya hico, meaning string of islands. The first inhabitants of the islands were Arawakan-speaking Taíno people, who crossed over from Hispaniola sometime from AD500 to 800, together with Taino who migrated from Cuba to the southern Bahamas around the same time, these people developed as the Lucayan. Around 1200, the Turks and Caicos Islands were resettled by Classical Taínos from Hispaniola, the southern Bahama Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands were completely depopulated by about 1513, and remained so until the 17th century. The first European documented to sight the islands was Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León, during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, the islands passed from Spanish, to French, to British control, but none of the three powers ever established any settlements. Bermudian salt collectors settled the Turks Islands around 1680, for several decades around the turn of the 18th century, the islands became popular pirate hideouts. From 1765–1783, the islands were under French occupation, and again after the French captured the archipelago in 1783, after the American War of Independence, many Loyalists fled to British Caribbean colonies, in 1783, they were the first settlers on the Caicos Islands. They developed cotton as an important cash crop, but it was superseded by the development of the salt industry, in 1799, both the Turks and the Caicos island groups were annexed by Britain as part of the Bahamas. The processing of sea salt was developed as an important export product from the West Indies. Salt continued to be an export product into the nineteenth century. In 1807, Britain prohibited the trade and, in 1833. British ships sometimes intercepted slave traders in the Caribbean, and some ships were wrecked off the coast of these islands, in 1837, the Esperanza, a Portuguese slaver, was wrecked off East Caicos, one of the larger islands. While the crew and 220 captive Africans survived the shipwreck,18 Africans died before the survivors were taken to Nassau, Africans from this ship may have been among the 189 liberated Africans whom the British colonists settled in the Turks and Caicos from 1833 to 1840
42.
NASA space-flown Gemini and Apollo medallions
–
NASA space-flown Gemini and Apollo medallions were mission-specific commemorative medallions—often astronaut-designed—which were approved by NASA and carried aboard the mission spacecraft into orbit. Beginning with the first manned Gemini mission in 1965, commemorative medallions were prepared for the astronauts at their request, a Fliteline medallion was designed and produced for Apollo 1, but was never officially flown after a disastrous cabin fire during a launch rehearsal killed the flight crew. The Robbins Company of Attleboro, Massachusetts, was contracted in 1968 to produce commemorative medallions beginning with Apollo 7, some of these were later sold in public auction for up to $60,000. A very small number of Apollo Robbins medallions were struck in 14k gold. Sterling silver Robbins medallions have continued to be struck for every manned NASA spaceflight, including Skylab, Numismatic souvenirs have accompanied astronauts on nearly every early spaceflight. Mercury astronauts carried small light-weight mementos on their missions, often in the form of US coins or banknotes, john Glenn, piloting the first manned U. S. orbital spaceflight Mercury-Atlas 6 also carried several one-dollar silver certificates. Space-flown numismatic items are known for early Gemini missions. On the first manned Gemini flight, Grissom and Young brought 50 two-dollar bills, Young also made history for smuggling contraband on board the flight, in the form of a corned-beef sandwich. Beginning with the first manned Gemini mission in March 1965, commemorative medallions were prepared for the astronauts at their request and it is unclear who prepared these early medallions, only that each individual box containing a medallion bore the word Fliteline. It is unknown how many gold and silver colored medallions were prepared for each mission, Fliteline medallions were prepared for each of the manned Gemini flights, as well as the ill-fated Apollo 1 mission. The Robbins Company was founded in 1892 by jeweler Charles M. Robbins, in Attleboro and they began designing and producing commemorative badges for Ohio in 1913, and South Dakota in 1917. In 1935, the first 1,000 badges of a new design for the Federal Bureau of Investigation were produced by Robbins, the Robbins Company also struck the Olympic medals for the 1932 Winter Games in Lake Placid, New York. The Apollo 1 cabin fire in January 1967 put manned spaceflight on hold, the crew of Apollo 7, designated to be the return to manned spaceflight, began working with the Robbins Company later in 1967 to produce commemorative mission medallions. Commissioned by the NASA Astronaut Flight Office, the medallions were financed entirely through the orders placed by astronauts, one of the astronauts from the flight crew worked directly with the Robbins Company to design the mission medallion. The basic elements of the design are consistent throughout the Project Apollo series. The main design element along with the name is located on the obverse. The names of the crew can be found on either the obverse or reverse. The mission dates are located on the reverse, beginning with Apollo 11, special fields were designed for the reverse of the medallion that allowed for engraved dates of launch, lunar landing, and return
43.
Oklahoma History Center
–
The Oklahoma History Center is the history museum of the State of Oklahoma. Located on an 18 acres plot across the street from the Governors mansion at 800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive in Oklahoma City and it preserves the history of Oklahoma from ancient Native American tribal nations to the present day. The Museum is open Monday through Saturday from 10,00 AM until 5,00 PM and it is closed on, New Years Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day. The OHC Research Center is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday and it is closed on Sunday, Monday and all state holidays. The hours are 10,00 AM to 4,45 PM each day, the Learning Center covers 215,000 square feet. The OHC is affiliated with the Smithsonian and is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the Inasmuch Foundation Gallery is located on the south end of the first floor. The gallery explores the breadth of Oklahoma’s artistic achievements as well as the impact of an extremely diverse immigrant population. The sections of the Inasmuch Foundation Gallery include, culture and the arts, cultural diversity, images of Oklahoma, sports, voice, radio and television, vacuum tubes, additionally, this gallery houses rotating exhibits on cultural diversity and the arts. The ONEOK Gallery is located on the end of the first floor. The ONEOK Gallery topics include, dwellings, Indian lives, languages, living ways, origins, sovereignty, spirituality, the Kerr-McGee Gallery is located on the south end of the third floor. The gallery offers a history of Oklahoma from our oil. The Kerr-McGee Gallery sections include, African American experience, business, military matters, natural resources, the oil and gas industry, people and pathways, the Noble Foundation Gallery is located on the north end of the third floor. Land runs and lotteries have played a role in our development and settlement as a state. Through artifacts, images, and first-hand accounts of participants, visitors can relive the lives of those souls who settled our great plains and turned homesteads into farms. It was their survival of and adaptation to the extremes of weather, economics, and politics that enabled them to create this magnificent state. The Noble Foundation Gallery sections include, education, farming and ranching, fashions, government and politics, kitchens, the Dust Bowl, land runs, law and order, urban frontiers, and weather. This exhibit explored the rock and roll artists, radio stations, personalities, venues, beyond the facts of each story, the exhibit showed how growing up in Oklahoma affected the music. These were displayed in a style to encourage visitor participation and to ensure that the visitor would take away a new perspective on the history of rock
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
