1.
Space Task Group
–
The Space Task Group was a working group of NASA engineers created in 1958, tasked with managing Americas manned spaceflight programs. Headed by Robert Gilruth and based at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, it managed Project Mercury, for instance, President Richard Nixon appointed such a group in February 1969 to outline a post-Apollo spaceflight strategy, chaired by Vice President Spiro T. Agnew. Created on November 5,1958, the Space Task Group was headed by Robert Gilruth, originally it consisted of 45 people, including eight secretaries and computers, the occupational title for women who ran calculations on mechanical adding machines. Of its 37 engineers,27 were from Langley Research Center, the head of the public affairs office was John Shorty Powers. In 1959, the group was expanded by the addition of 32 engineers from Canada and these new engineers included Jim Chamberlin, George Harris, John Hodge, Owen Maynard, Bryan Erb, Rodney Rose, and Tecwyn Roberts. Webb got the approval of Kennedy, and the Congress, on September 19, Webb announced the new Manned Spacecraft Center would be built on a Houston, Texas site donated by Rice University. By September 1962, his organization was moved to Houston and construction had begun, the MSC facility was completed in September 1963. This council was tasked with making recommendations on the direction of the US civilian, occasionally this council was referred to as a Space Task Group. President John F. Kennedy persuaded Congress to modify the law to him the authority to appoint the Vice President to chair the council in his place. As the Apollo program reached its climax in 1969, President Richard M. Nixon directed Vice President Spiro T. Agnews Space Task Group to recommend a future direction of the US manned space program. Agnew enthusiastically supported an ambitious Space Transportation System program including reusable spacecraft, permanent Earth and Lunar stations, arrows to the Moon - Avros Engineers and the Space Race. Apollo, The Race to the Moon, swenson, Jr. Loyd S. James M. Grimwood, Charles C. Alexander. This New Ocean, A History of Project Mercury, archived from the original on 2007-08-23
2.
Houston
–
Houston is the most populous city in the state of Texas and the fourth-most populous city in the United States. With a census-estimated 2014 population of 2.239 million within an area of 667 square miles, it also is the largest city in the southern United States and the seat of Harris County. Located in Southeast Texas near the Gulf of Mexico, it is the city of Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land. Houston was founded on August 28,1836, near the banks of Buffalo Bayou and incorporated as a city on June 5,1837. The city was named after former General Sam Houston, who was president of the Republic of Texas and had commanded, the burgeoning port and railroad industry, combined with oil discovery in 1901, has induced continual surges in the citys population. Houstons economy has an industrial base in energy, manufacturing, aeronautics. Leading in health care sectors and building equipment, Houston has more Fortune 500 headquarters within its city limits than any city except for New York City. The Port of Houston ranks first in the United States in international waterborne tonnage handled, the city has a population from various ethnic and religious backgrounds and a large and growing international community. Houston is the most diverse city in Texas and has described as the most diverse in the United States. It is home to cultural institutions and exhibits, which attract more than 7 million visitors a year to the Museum District. Houston has a visual and performing arts scene in the Theater District. In August 1836, two real estate entrepreneurs from New York, Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen, purchased 6,642 acres of land along Buffalo Bayou with the intent of founding a city. The Allen brothers decided to name the city after Sam Houston, the general at the Battle of San Jacinto. The great majority of slaves in Texas came with their owners from the slave states. Sizable numbers, however, came through the slave trade. New Orleans was the center of trade in the Deep South. Thousands of enslaved African Americans lived near the city before the Civil War, many of them near the city worked on sugar and cotton plantations, while most of those in the city limits had domestic and artisan jobs. Houston was granted incorporation on June 5,1837, with James S. Holman becoming its first mayor, in the same year, Houston became the county seat of Harrisburg County and the temporary capital of the Republic of Texas
3.
United States
–
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
4.
Ellen Ochoa
–
Ellen Ochoa is an American engineer, former astronaut, and the current Director of the Johnson Space Center. Ochoa became director of the center upon retirement of the director, Michael Coats. In 1993 Ochoa became the first Hispanic woman in the world to go to space when she served on a mission aboard the shuttle Discovery. Ochoa was born in Los Angeles, California, but considers La Mesa, Ochoa graduated from Grossmont High School in El Cajon in 1975. Her parents got divorced when she was in school and so she lived with her mother. She is married to Coe Fulmer Miles, with whom she has two children, Ochoa is a classical flutist and played with the Stanford Symphony Orchestra, receiving the Student Soloist Award. At the NASA Ames Research Center, she led a group working primarily on optical systems for automated space exploration. As Chief of the Intelligent Systems Technology Branch at Ames, she supervised the 35 engineers scientists in the research, Ochoa has presented numerous papers at technical conferences and in scientific journals. Ochoa was selected by NASA in January 1990 and became an astronaut in July 1991, Ochoa became the first Hispanic woman in the world to go to space when she served on a nine-day mission aboard the shuttle Discovery in 1993. The astronauts were studying the Earths ozone layer, a veteran of four space flights, Ochoa has logged nearly 1,000 hours in space. She was a mission specialist on STS-56, was payload commander on STS-66, Ochoa was in Mission Control during the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster and was one of the first personnel informed of television coverage showing Columbias disintegration. Since 2007, she has served as Deputy Director of the Johnson Space Center, helping to manage and direct the Astronaut Office and Aircraft Operations, on January 1,2013, Ochoa became the first Hispanic and second female director of NASAs Johnson Space Center. Ochoa was recognized during Hispanic Heritage Month activities in Cleveland, Ohio on September 14,2011, in addition, Grand Prairie, Texas has the Ellen Ochoa STEM Academy at Ben Milam Elementary School. Also, Pico Rivera, California has the Ellen Ochoa Prep Academy named after austronaut Ellen Ochoa. A flag with the logo of the Ochoa Middle School in Pasco. Ochoa returned the flag to the school when she visited as a special guest at the 2002 dedication, Ochoa has received many awards among which are NASAs Exceptional Service Medal, Outstanding Leadership Medal and Space Flight Medals. Ochoa and Michael Foale are announced as the 2017 class of the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame, list of Hispanic astronauts Biography of Ochoa from IEEE Ellen Ochoa Video produced by Makers, Women Who Make America Interview with Ochoa aimed at young women
5.
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
6.
Human spaceflight
–
Human spaceflight is space travel with a crew or passengers aboard the spacecraft. The first human spaceflight was launched by the Soviet Union on 12 April 1961 as a part of the Vostok program, humans have been continuously present in space for 16 years and 153 days on the International Space Station. All early human spaceflight was crewed, where at least some of the passengers acted to carry out tasks of piloting or operating the spacecraft, after 2015, several human-capable spacecraft are being explicitly designed with the ability to operate autonomously. Since the retirement of the US Space Shuttle in 2011, only Russia and China have maintained human spaceflight capability with the Soyuz program, currently, all expeditions to the International Space Station use Soyuz vehicles, which remain attached to the station to allow quick return if needed. The United States is developing commercial crew transportation to facilitate access to ISS and low Earth orbit. While spaceflight has typically been an activity, commercial spaceflight has gradually been taking on a greater role. NASA has also played a role to stimulate private spaceflight through programs such as Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, the vehicles used for these services could then serve both NASA and potential commercial customers. Commercial resupply of ISS began two years after the retirement of the Shuttle, and commercial crew launches could begin by 2017 and these rockets were large enough to be adapted to carry the first artificial satellites into low Earth orbit. The USSR launched the first human in space, Yuri Gagarin into an orbit in Vostok 1 on a Vostok 3KA rocket. The US launched its first astronaut, Alan Shepard on a flight aboard Freedom 7 on a Mercury-Redstone rocket. Unlike Gagarin, Shepard manually controlled his spacecrafts attitude, and landed inside it, the first American in orbit was John Glenn aboard Friendship 7, launched 20 February 1962 on a Mercury-Atlas rocket. The USSR launched five more cosmonauts in Vostok capsules, including the first woman in space, the US launched a total of two astronauts in suborbital flight and four in orbit through 1963. US President John F. Kennedy raised the stakes of the Space Race by setting the goal of landing a man on the Moon, Geminis objective was to support Apollo by developing American orbital spaceflight experience and techniques to be used in the Moon mission. They were able to launch two orbital flights in 1964 and 1965 and achieved the first spacewalk, made by Alexei Leonov on Voskhod 2 on 8 March 1965, but Voskhod did not have Geminis capability to maneuver in orbit, and the program was terminated. In July 1969, Apollo 11 accomplished Kennedys goal by landing Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon 21 July, a total of six Apollo missions landed 12 men to walk on the Moon through 1972, half of which drove electric powered vehicles on the surface. The crew of Apollo 13, Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise, survived a catastrophic in-flight spacecraft failure, meanwhile, the USSR secretly pursued human lunar orbiting and landing programs. On losing the Moon race, they concentrated on the development of stations, using the Soyuz as a ferry to take cosmonauts to. They started with a series of Salyut sortie stations from 1971 to 1986, after the Apollo program, the US launched the Skylab sortie space station in 1973, manning it for 171 days with three crews aboard Apollo spacecraft
7.
Lease
–
An asset-backed security is a security whose income payments and hence value are derived from and collateralized by a specified pool of underlying assets. The pool of assets is typically a group of small and illiquid assets which are unable to be sold individually. The pools of underlying assets can include common payments from credit cards, auto loans, often a separate institution, called a special purpose vehicle, is created to handle the securitization of asset backed securities. The special purpose vehicle, which creates and sells the securities, uses the proceeds of the sale to pay back the bank that created, or originated and this allows banks to invest more of their capital in new loans or other assets and possibly have a lower capital requirement. In the first case, collateralized debt obligations and mortgage-backed securities, are subsets and it has also interpreted the phrase discrete pool to exclude those that can change in composition over time. However, such securities may be shelf-registered on Form S-3 only if the value of the leased property represents less than 20% of the original securitized pool balance. However, consistent with current practice, shelf registration on will be only if delinquent assets constitute 20% or less of the original asset pool. Exceptions to the Discrete Pool Requirement, the new rules generally codify the SEC staff’s position that a security must be backed by a discrete pool of assets in order to be considered an ABS. However, the new rules establish the following exceptions to address market practices, any security issued in a master trust structure would meet the definition of asset-backed security without limitation. Asset-backed securities will also include securities with a period of up to one year during which up to 50% of the offering proceeds may be used for subsequent purchases of pool assets. The new rules also include within the definition of asset-backed security securities with revolving periods during which new financial assets may be acquired, however, the new assets added to the pool during the revolving period must be of the same general character as the original pool assets. Investors typically refer to HELs as any nonagency loans that do not fit either the jumbo or alt-A loan categories. While early HELs were mostly second lien subprime mortgages, first-lien loans now make up the majority of issuance, Subprime mortgage borrowers have a less than perfect credit history and are required to pay interest rates higher than what would be available to a typical agency borrower. The second largest subsector in the ABS market is auto loans, auto finance companies issue securities backed by underlying pools of auto-related loans. Auto ABS are classified into three categories, prime, nonprime, and subprime, Prime auto ABS are collaterized by loans made to borrowers with strong credit histories, nonprime auto ABS consist of loans made to lesser credit quality consumers, which may have higher cumulative losses. Subprime borrowers will typically have lower incomes, tainted credited histories, owner trusts are the most common structure used when issuing auto loans and allow investors to receive interest and principal on sequential basis. Deals can also be structured to pay on a pro-rata or combination of the two, Securities backed by credit card receivables have been benchmark for the ABS market since they were first introduced in 1987. Credit card holders may borrow funds on a basis up to an assigned credit limit
8.
Lyndon B. Johnson
–
A Democrat from Texas, he previously served as a United States Representative from 1937 to 1949 and then as a United States Senator from 1949 to 1961. He spent six years as Senate Majority Leader, two as Senate Minority Leader, and two more as Senate Majority Whip, Johnson ran for the Democratic nomination in the 1960 presidential election. Although unsuccessful, he was chosen by then-Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts to be his running mate and they went on to win a close election over Richard Nixon and Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. Johnson was sworn in as Vice President on January 20,1961. Two years and ten months later, on November 22,1963 and he successfully ran for a full term in the 1964 election, winning by a landslide over Republican opponent Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona. He is one of four people who have served as President, Vice President, Senator. Johnson was renowned for his personality and the Johnson treatment. Assisted in part by an economy, the War on Poverty helped millions of Americans rise above the poverty line during his administration. With the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, Johnson escalated American involvement in the Vietnam War. In 1964, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which granted Johnson the power to use force in Southeast Asia without having to ask for an official declaration of war. The number of American military personnel in Vietnam increased dramatically, from 16,000 advisors in non-combat roles in 1963 to 550,000 in early 1968, American casualties soared and the peace process bogged down. Growing unease with the war stimulated a large, angry antiwar movement based especially on university campuses in the U. S. and abroad. Johnson faced further troubles when summer riots broke out in most major cities after 1965, while he began his presidency with widespread approval, support for Johnson declined as the public became upset with both the war and the growing violence at home. In 1968, the Democratic Party factionalized as antiwar elements denounced Johnson, Republican Richard Nixon was elected to succeed him, as the New Deal coalition that had dominated presidential politics for 36 years collapsed. After he left office in January 1969, Johnson returned to his Texas ranch, historians argue that Johnsons presidency marked the peak of modern liberalism in the United States after the New Deal era. Johnson is ranked favorably by some historians because of his policies and the passage of many major laws, affecting civil rights, gun control, wilderness preservation. Lyndon Baines Johnson was born on August 27,1908, near Stonewall, Texas, in a farmhouse on the Pedernales River. Johnson had one brother, Sam Houston Johnson, and three sisters, Rebekah, Josefa, and Lucia, the nearby small town of Johnson City, Texas, was named after LBJs cousin, James Polk Johnson, whose forebears had moved west from Oglethorpe County, Georgia. Johnson had English, German, and Ulster Scots ancestry and he was maternally descended from pioneer Baptist clergyman George Washington Baines, who pastored eight churches in Texas, as well as others in Arkansas and Louisiana
9.
United States Senate
–
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress which, along with the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, composes the legislature of the United States. The composition and powers of the Senate are established by Article One of the United States Constitution. S. From 1789 until 1913, Senators were appointed by the legislatures of the states represented, following the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913. The Senate chamber is located in the wing of the Capitol, in Washington. It further has the responsibility of conducting trials of those impeached by the House, in the early 20th century, the practice of majority and minority parties electing their floor leaders began, although they are not constitutional officers. This idea of having one chamber represent people equally, while the other gives equal representation to states regardless of population, was known as the Connecticut Compromise, there was also a desire to have two Houses that could act as an internal check on each other. One was intended to be a Peoples House directly elected by the people, the other was intended to represent the states to such extent as they retained their sovereignty except for the powers expressly delegated to the national government. The Senate was thus not designed to serve the people of the United States equally, the Constitution provides that the approval of both chambers is necessary for the passage of legislation. First convened in 1789, the Senate of the United States was formed on the example of the ancient Roman Senate, the name is derived from the senatus, Latin for council of elders. James Madison made the comment about the Senate, In England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people. An agrarian law would take place. If these observations be just, our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation, landholders ought to have a share in the government, to support these invaluable interests, and to balance and check the other. They ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority, the senate, therefore, ought to be this body, and to answer these purposes, the people ought to have permanency and stability. The Constitution stipulates that no constitutional amendment may be created to deprive a state of its equal suffrage in the Senate without that states consent, the District of Columbia and all other territories are not entitled to representation in either House of the Congress. The District of Columbia elects two senators, but they are officials of the D. C. city government. The United States has had 50 states since 1959, thus the Senate has had 100 senators since 1959. In 1787, Virginia had roughly ten times the population of Rhode Island, whereas today California has roughly 70 times the population of Wyoming and this means some citizens are effectively two orders of magnitude better represented in the Senate than those in other states. Seats in the House of Representatives are approximately proportionate to the population of each state, before the adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, Senators were elected by the individual state legislatures
10.
Clear Lake (region)
–
Clear Lake, or the Clear Lake Area, is a region in parts of Harris and Galveston County in Texas, United States. It is part of the Galveston Bay Area, which itself is a section of the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown metropolitan area, the area is geographically characterized by the bodies of water in it and around it, including Clear Lake, Taylor Lake, Clear Creek, and Galveston Bay. Clear Lake is relatively affluent with a business community. The areas most important business sectors are aerospace and tourism and it is home to the Johnson Space Center and numerous aerospace contracting firms. The lake itself is home to one of the largest concentrations of recreational boats, the Clear Lake region is named, as it implies, for Clear Lake, a brackish lake, fed by Clear Creek, that empties into Galveston Bay. The name Clear Lake is often used in a variety of ways depending on the source, as of 2010 the Clear Lake Area Chamber of Commerce, established in 1962, provides the following definition for the area. The Clear Lake Area Chamber of Commerce recognizes the defined Clear Lake Area as its service territory. This composite community includes Clear Lake City, Clear Lake Shores, El Lago, Kemah, League City, Nassau Bay, Seabrook, Taylor Lake Village, Webster and these communities lie on or near the lake. They occupy an area lying between Houston, Pasadena, and the bay. Clear Lake City is itself a community within the Clear Lake Area that spans parts of Houston, Pasadena, Webster. At the time Europeans arrived the area around Galveston Bay was largely inhabited by Akokisa, the first substantial European presence in the area came as a result of the pirate kingdom established by Jean Lafitte in the early 19th century from his base on Galveston Island. One of the earliest settlers in the region was Anson Taylor, namesake of Taylor Lake, during most the 19th century the Clear Lake Area remained largely undeveloped. Ranches such as the famed Allen Ranch used much of the area as a cattle range, toward the end of the century small farming and fishing communities developed. Railroads grew up near the area as well connecting the commercial centers of Galveston, Harrisburg. In 1901 the oil gusher at Spindletop launched the Texas Oil Boom, soon oil wells and refineries were built in nearby Goose Creek and Texas City. Houston rapidly became established as the commercial center in the area for the oil industry. The Clear Lake Area became a recreational destination for the new class of wealthy oil businessmen. Much of the area was developed as retreats for the wealthy including a large estate owned by Houston businessman James West
11.
Nicknames of Houston
–
There are many nicknames for the city of Houston, the largest city in Texas and third-largest city in the United States. The citys nicknames reflect its geography, economy, multicultural population and they are often used by the media and in popular culture to reference the city. Cities adopt official nicknames such as one to establish a civic identity, promote civic pride. Houston has had other nicknames in the past which have faded in common usage, the city has recently accumulated several unofficial nicknames from among sub-groups within the city, including several whose origins are in the local hip-hop subculture. The most recently added nickname is The Big Heart, which refers to assistance given by Houston, Houston received its official nickname of Space City in 1967 because it is home to NASAs Manned Spacecraft Center. NASAs center in Houston has its origins in the Space Task Group which directed its first manned spaceflight program, in 1961, it grew into a bigger organization as the Manned Spacecraft Center, and in 1962 moved into a newly built campus on land donated by Rice University. It was renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in honor of Texas U. S. Senator, Vice President, and President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1973, the year Johnson died. As Senate Majority Leader, Johnson played a role in passage of the legislation which created NASA in 1958. Mission Control Center, which coordinates and monitors all human spaceflight for the United States, the visitors center of JSC is Space Center Houston. The first words transmitted by Neil Armstrong from the moon, Houston, the Eagle has landed, are written in 15 languages on bronze plaques placed along the main entrance of Tranquility Park in downtown Houston. A replica of one of the left on the moon by Neil Armstrong is also on display inside the park. Houston is popularly known as The Bayou City because it is home to ten winding waterways that flow through the surrounding area, other major bayous in the city include White Oak Bayou, Brays Bayou and Sims Bayou. H-Town is a popular modern nickname for Houston. It is commonly used in reference to the city locally and internationally, especially within the entertainment community. In addition, the H-Town Blues Festival is a festival held each year in the city. H-Town is also the name of an R&B hip hop band from Houston that was formed in 1992, the nickname of Clutch City was given to the city of Houston after the Houston Rockets won the 1994 and 1995 NBA championships. The moniker was adopted in response to a headline in the Houston Chronicle declaring Houston to be Choke City. The Rockets mascot, Clutch the Bear, was named the 5th-most recognizable mascot in sports by USA Today in February 2005, crush City is a nickname that derived from the 2015 Houston Astros season
12.
NASA Astronaut Corps
–
It is based at Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The first U. S. astronaut candidates were selected by NASA in 1959, the military services were asked to provide a list of military test pilots who met specific qualifications. After stringent screening, NASA announced its selection of the Mercury Seven as its first astronauts, since then, NASA has selected 20 more groups of astronauts, opening the corps to civilians, scientists, doctors, engineers, and school teachers. As of the 2009 Astronaut Class 61% of the selected by NASA have come from military service. NASA selects candidates from a pool of applicants with a wide variety of backgrounds. From the thousands of applications received, only a few are chosen for the intensive Astronaut Candidate training program, including the “Original Seven”,339 candidates have been selected to date. The Chief of the Astronaut Office is the most senior position for active astronauts in the Corps. The Chief Astronaut serves as head of the Corps and is the adviser to the NASA Administrator on astronaut training. The first Chief Astronaut was Deke Slayton, appointed in 1962, the current Chief Astronaut is Christopher Cassidy. Salaries for newly hired civilian astronauts are based on the federal governments General Schedule pay scale for grades GS-11 through GS-14, the astronauts grade is based on his or her academic achievements and experience. Astronauts can be promoted up to grade GS-15, as of 2015, astronauts based at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, earn between $66,026 and $158,700. Military astronauts are detailed to the Johnson Space Center and remain on duty for pay, benefits, leave. There are no age restrictions for the NASA Astronaut Corps, Astronaut candidates have ranged between the ages of 26 and 46, with the average age being 34. Candidates must be U. S. citizens to apply for the program, there are three broad categories of qualifications, education, work experience, and medical. Candidates must have a degree from an accredited institution in engineering, biological science. The degree must be followed by at least three years of related, progressively responsible, professional experience or at least 1,000 pilot-in-command time in jet aircraft, an advanced degree is desirable and may be substituted for experience. Teaching experience, including experience at the K -12 levels, is considered to be qualifying experience, blood pressure not to exceed 140/90 measured in a sitting position Standing height between 62 and 75 inches As of July 2015 the corps has 46 active astronauts and 36 management astronauts. The highest number of active astronauts at one time, was in 2000 when there were 149, all of the current astronaut corps are from the classes of 1996 or later
13.
Christopher C. Kraft Jr. Mission Control Center
–
The center is named after Christopher C. Kraft, Jr. a retired NASA engineer and manager who was instrumental in establishing the agencys Mission Control operation, prime contractor for systems integration at Houston was Philco Corp. selected by NASA in January 1963. The MCC currently houses one operational control room, from flight controllers command, monitor. This room has many computer and data-processing resources to monitor, command, the ISS control room operates continuously. All Mercury–Redstone, Mercury-Atlas, the unmanned Gemini 1 and Gemini 2 and this facility was in the Engineering Support Building at the east end of Mission Control Road, about 0.5 mile east of Phillips Parkway. Mercury and Gemini launches were conducted from separate blockhouses at the Cape, located in Building 30 at the Johnson Space Center, the Houston MCC was first used in June 1965 for Gemini 4. It housed two rooms known as Mission Operation Control Rooms. These two rooms controlled all Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, and Space Shuttle flights up to 1998, each MOCR tier was specialized, staffed by various controllers responsible for a specific spacecraft system. MOCR1, housed on the floor of Building 30, was used for Apollo 7, the Skylab. MOCR2 was used for all other Gemini and Apollo flights and was located on the third floor, as the flight control room for Apollo 11, the first manned moon landing, MOCR2 was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1985. It was last used in 1992 as the control room for STS-53 and was subsequently converted back almost entirely to its Apollo-era configuration. Together with several wings, it is now listed in the National Register of Historic Places as the Apollo Mission Control Center. When the Space Shuttle program began, the MOCRs were re-designated flight control rooms, FCR2 was used mostly for classified Department of Defense shuttle flights, then was remodeled to its Apollo-era configuration. From the moment a space shuttle cleared its launch tower in Florida until it landed on Earth, when a shuttle mission was underway, its control room was staffed around the clock, usually in three shifts. In 1992, JSC began building an extension to Building 30, the new five-story section went operational in 1998 and houses two flight control rooms, designated White, and Blue. The White FCR was used in tandem with FCR2 for seven missions, STS-70 through STS-76. When not in use for the program, the White FCR was reconfigured as a backup for the ISS FCR from time to time as needed. The newer section of Building 30 also houses the International Space Station Flight Control Room, the first ISS control room, originally named the Special Vehicles Operations Room, then the Blue FCR, was operational around the clock to support the ISS until the fall of 2006
14.
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
15.
Apollo program
–
Five subsequent Apollo missions also landed astronauts on the Moon, the last in December 1972. In these six spaceflights, twelve men walked on the Moon, Apollo ran from 1961 to 1972, with the first manned flight in 1968. It achieved its goal of manned lunar landing, despite the setback of a 1967 Apollo 1 cabin fire that killed the entire crew during a prelaunch test. After the first landing, sufficient flight hardware remained for nine follow-on landings with a plan for extended lunar geological and astrophysical exploration, Budget cuts forced the cancellation of three of these. The crew returned to Earth safely by using the Lunar Module as a lifeboat for these functions, Apollo set several major human spaceflight milestones. It stands alone in sending manned missions beyond low Earth orbit, Apollo 8 was the first manned spacecraft to orbit another celestial body, while the final Apollo 17 mission marked the sixth Moon landing and the ninth manned mission beyond low Earth orbit. The program returned 842 pounds of rocks and soil to Earth, greatly contributing to the understanding of the Moons composition. The program laid the foundation for NASAs subsequent human spaceflight capability, Apollo also spurred advances in many areas of technology incidental to rocketry and manned spaceflight, including avionics, telecommunications, and computers. The Apollo program was conceived during the Eisenhower administration in early 1960, while the Mercury capsule could only support one astronaut on a limited Earth orbital mission, Apollo would carry three astronauts. Possible missions included ferrying crews to a station, circumlunar flights. The program was named after the Greek god of light, music, and the sun by NASA manager Abe Silverstein, who later said that I was naming the spacecraft like Id name my baby. Silverstein chose the name at home one evening, early in 1960, in July 1960, NASA Deputy Administrator Hugh L. Dryden announced the Apollo program to industry representatives at a series of Space Task Group conferences. Preliminary specifications were laid out for a spacecraft with a mission module cabin separate from the module. On August 30, a feasibility study competition was announced, and on October 25, meanwhile, NASA performed its own in-house spacecraft design studies led by Maxime Faget, to serve as a gauge to judge and monitor the three industry designs. In November 1960, John F. Kennedy was elected president after a campaign that promised American superiority over the Soviet Union in the fields of space exploration and missile defense. Beyond military power, Kennedy used aerospace technology as a symbol of prestige, pledging to make the US not first but, first and, first if. Despite Kennedys rhetoric, he did not immediately come to a decision on the status of the Apollo program once he became president and he knew little about the technical details of the space program, and was put off by the massive financial commitment required by a manned Moon landing. On April 12,1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to fly in space, Kennedy was circumspect in his response to the news, refusing to make a commitment on Americas response to the Soviets
16.
Skylab
–
Skylab was the United States first space station, orbiting Earth from 1973 to 1979, when it fell back to Earth amid huge worldwide media attention. Launched and operated by NASA, Skylab included a workshop, a solar observatory and it was launched unmanned by a modified Saturn V rocket, with a weight of 170,000 pounds. Lifting Skylab into low earth orbit was the mission and launch of a Saturn V rocket. Skylabs solar observatory was one aspect of study, and solar science was significantly advanced by the telescope. Each of these missions delivered a three-astronaut crew, carried in the Apollo Command/Service Module launched atop the Saturn IB rocket, which is much smaller than the Saturn V. For the final two manned missions to Skylab, a backup Apollo CSM/Saturn IB was assembled and made ready in case a rescue mission was needed. This deprived Skylab of most of its power, and also removed protection from intense solar heating, threatening to make it unusable. However, the first crew was able to save Skylab by deploying a replacement heat shade and freeing the jammed solar panels, Skylab included the Apollo Telescope Mount, Multiple Docking Adapter, Airlock Module with extravehicular activity hatches, and the Orbital Workshop. Electrical power came from solar arrays, as well as cells in the docked Apollo CSM. The rear of the station included a large tank, propellant tanks for maneuvering jets. Numerous scientific experiments were conducted aboard Skylab during its operational life, the Earth Resources Experiment Package was used to view Earth with sensors that recorded data in the visible, infrared, and microwave spectral regions. Plans were made to refurbish and reuse Skylab by using the Space Shuttle to boost its orbit, however, due to delays with the development of the Space Shuttle, Skylabs decaying orbit could not be stopped. In the hours before re-entry, NASA ground controllers attempted to adjust Skylabs trajectory, NASAs attempted target was a spot 810 miles south-southeast of Cape Town, South Africa. Skylab did not burn up as fast as NASA expected, and Skylab debris landed southeast of Perth in Western Australia, over a single property in Esperance,24 pieces of Skylab were found. Analysis of some debris indicated that the Skylab station had disintegrated 10 mi above the Earth, after Skylab, NASA space station/laboratory projects included Spacelab, Shuttle-Mir, and Space Station Freedom. Rocket engineer Wernher von Braun, science fiction writer Arthur C, clarke, and other early advocates of manned space travel, expected until the 1960s that a space station would be an important early step in space exploration. Von Braun participated in the publishing of a series of articles in Colliers magazine from 1952 to 1954. He envisioned a large, circular station 250 feet in diameter that would rotate to generate gravity and require a fleet of 7
17.
Space Shuttle program
–
When its mission was complete, the orbiter would re-enter the Earths atmosphere and land like a glider at either the Kennedy Space Center or Edwards Air Force Base. The Shuttle is the only winged manned spacecraft to have achieved orbit and landing, and its missions involved carrying large payloads to various orbits, providing crew rotation for the space station, and performing service missions. The orbiter also recovered satellites and other payloads from orbit and returned them to Earth, the stalled plans for a U. S. space station evolved into the International Space Station and were formally initiated in 1983 by U. S. The first experimental orbiter Enterprise was a glider, launched from the back of a specially modified Boeing 747. The Space Shuttle program finished with its last mission, STS-135 flown by Atlantis, in July 2011, the Space Shuttle program formally ended on August 31,2011. Since the Shuttles retirement, many of its duties are performed by an assortment of government. The European ATV Automated Transfer Vehicle supplied the ISS between 2008 and 2015, classified military missions are being flown by the US Air Forces unmanned space plane, the X-37B. Crew service to the ISS is currently provided by the Russian Soyuz while work on the Commercial Crew Development program proceeds, for missions beyond low Earth orbit, NASA is building the Space Launch System and the Orion spacecraft. Before the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969, NASA began early studies of space shuttle designs, in 1969, President Richard Nixon formed the Space Task Group, chaired by Vice President Spiro T. Agnew. Smaller goals included a variety of vehicles for moving spacecraft around in orbit. Presenting the plans to Nixon, Agnew was told that the administration would not commit to a Mars mission and he was then told to select one of the two remaining proposals. During early shuttle development there was debate about the optimal shuttle design that best balanced capability, development cost. Ultimately the current design was chosen, using a reusable winged orbiter, reusable solid rocket boosters, the shuttle program was formally launched on January 5,1972, when President Nixon announced that NASA would proceed with the development of a reusable space shuttle system. The prime contractor for the program was North American Rockwell, the company responsible for building the Apollo Command/Service Module. The contractor for the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters was Morton Thiokol, for the tank, Martin Marietta. All Space Shuttle missions were launched from the Kennedy Space Center, the weather criteria used for launch included, but were not limited to, precipitation, temperatures, cloud cover, lightning forecast, wind, and humidity. The Shuttle was not launched under conditions where it could have been struck by lightning, the first fully functional orbiter was Columbia, built in Palmdale, California. It was delivered to Kennedy Space Center on March 25,1979, Challenger was delivered to KSC in July 1982, Discovery in November 1983, Atlantis in April 1985 and Endeavour in May 1991
18.
Robert R. Gilruth
–
Robert Rowe Gilruth was an American aviation and space pioneer, and the first director of NASAs Manned Spacecraft Center, later renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. He worked for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics from 1937 to 1958 and its successor NASA and he was involved with early research into supersonic flight and rocket-powered aircraft, and then with the United States manned space program, including the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. Gilruth was born October 8,1913, in Nashwauk, Minnesota and he graduated in 1931 from Duluth Central High School. As a teenager, Gilruth was fascinated by aeronautics and spent time building model airplanes and he was inspired to pursue a career in the field after reading about NACA’s Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in Virginia. Gilruth received a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Minnesota in 1935, while there he was a member of the Professional Engineering Fraternity Theta Tau, of which he was later inducted as a Hall of Fame Alumnus. In January 1937 Gilruth was hired at NACA’s Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, until this point, no set of guidelines for pilots and aircraft designers existed. Gilruth also pioneered the recording of data from instruments during flight test and this would go on to become the standard operating procedure. Gilruth had been working on hypersonic missile rockets as the assistant director of the Pilotless Aircraft Research Division of NACA and he and his team pushed their superiors to pursue a program to launch satellites into space, but he was rebuffed by administrators. The dynamic quickly changed after the Soviets succeeded in launching Sputnik, when NASA was created, Gilruth became head of the Space Task Group, tasked with putting a man in space before the Soviet Union. When President John F. Kennedy announced that America would put a man on the moon before the end of the decade in 1961, Gilruth was aghast and unsure that such a goal could be accomplished. He was integral in the creation of the Gemini program, which he advocated as a means for NASA to learn more about operating in space before attempting a lunar landing. Soon the Apollo program was born, and Gilruth was made head of the NASA center which ran it, Gilruth was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1969 and served as director of the MSC until his retirement in 1972. He oversaw a total of 25 manned space flights, from Mercury-Redstone 3 to Apollo 15, Gilruth died in Charlottesville, Virginia, at the age of 86. In the 1996 TV movie Apollo 11, Gilruth was played by William Mesnik, in the 1998 miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, he was played by John Carroll Lynch. In the 2016 film Hidden Figures, the character Al Harrison, requirements for satisfactory flying qualities of airplanes by Robert Gilruth
19.
Langley Research Center
–
Langley Research Center is the oldest of NASAs field centers, located in Hampton, Virginia, United States. It directly borders Langley Field and the city of Poquoson, LaRC has focused primarily on aeronautical research, but the Apollo lunar lander was flight-tested at the facility. In addition, a number of the earliest high-profile space missions were planned and designed on-site, established in 1917 by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, in the early 21st century the Center devotes two-thirds of its programs to aeronautics, and the rest to space. LaRC researchers use more than 40 wind tunnels to study improved aircraft and spacecraft safety, performance, between 1958 and 1963, when NASA started Project Mercury, LaRC served as the main office of the Space Task Group. In 1962-1963 this office was transferred to the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, the current director is David E. Bowles. After US-German relations had deteriorated from neutral to hostile around 1916, on February 15,1917, the newly established Aviation Week warned that the U. S. military aviation capability was less than what was operating in the European war. President Woodrow Wilson sent Hunsaker to Europe to investigate, and Hunsakers report prompted Wilson to command the creation of the nation’s first aeronautics laboratory, in 1917, less than three years after it was created, the NACA established Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory on Langley Field. Both Langley Field and the Langley Laboratory are named for aviation pioneer Samuel Pierpont Langley, the Aviation Section, U. S. Signal Corps had established a base there earlier that same year. The first research facilities were in place and aeronautical research was started by 1920, initially the laboratory included four researchers and 11 technicians. Langley Field and NACA began parallel growth as air power proved its utility during World War I, the center was originally established to explore the field of aerodynamic research involving airframe and propulsion engine design and performance. In 1934 the worlds largest wind tunnel was constructed at Langley Field with a 30 ×60 foot test section and it remained the worlds largest wind tunnel until the 1940s, when a 40 ×80 foot tunnel was built at NASA Ames in California. Early in 1945, the center expanded to include research, leading to the establishment of a flight station at Wallops Island. A further expansion of the research program permitted Langley Research Center to orbit payloads, as rocket research grew, aeronautics research continued to expand and played an important part when subsonic flight was advanced and supersonic and hypersonic flight were introduced. Langley Research Center can claim many firsts, some of which have proven to be revolutionary scientific breakthroughs. The center also developed standards for the grooving of aircraft based on a previous British design used at Washington National Airport. Grooved runways reduce aquaplaning which permits better grip by aircraft tires in heavy rain and this grooving is now the international standard for all runways around the world. Langley Research Center performs critical research on aeronautics, including wake vortex behavior, fixed-wing aircraft, rotary wing aircraft, air safety, human factors, LaRC supported the design and testing of the hypersonic X-43, which achieved a world speed record of Mach 9.6. LaRC assisted the NTSB in the investigation of the crash of American Airlines Flight 587, work began in July 2011 to remove the 1940s era 16 feet transonic wind tunnel
20.
Hampton, Virginia
–
Hampton is an independent city in Virginia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 137,436, as one of the seven major cities that compose the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, it is on the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula. Since consolidation in 1952, Hampton has included the former Elizabeth City County, in the 20th century, the area became the location of Langley Air Force Base, NASA Langley Research Center, and the Virginia Air and Space Center. Hampton features many miles of waterfront and beaches, for residents and visitors alike, the city features a wide array of business and industrial enterprises, retail and residential areas, and historical sites. Most recently, the new Peninsula Town Center development opened in May 2010 on the site of the former Coliseum Mall. Located in the adjacent to the Hampton Coliseum and the Convention Center. Development of new development and additional public facilities are underway at Buckroe Beach. Located on the Hampton Roads Beltway, it hosts the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel on Interstate 64, expanded in the 1970s, the HRBT remains Virginias busiest and deepest such facility. In December 1606, three ships carrying men and boys left England on a mission sponsored by a proprietary company, headed by Captain Christopher Newport, they sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to North America. After a long voyage, they first landed at the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay on the shore at a place they named Cape Henry. During the first few days of exploration, they identified the site of Old Point Comfort as a defensive location at the entrance to the body of water that became known as Hampton Roads. This is formed by the confluence of the Elizabeth, Nansemond, the latter is the longest river in Virginia. Slightly south, near the entrance to Hampton River, the colonists seized the Native American community of Kecoughtan under Virginias Governor, the colonists established their own small town, with a small Anglican church, on July 9,1610. This came to be known as part of Hampton, the area became part of Elizabeth Cittie in 1619, Elizabeth River Shire in 1634, and was included in Elizabeth City County when it was formed in 1643. By 1680, the settlement was known as Hampton, and it was incorporated as a town in 1705, in the latter part of August 1619, an English ship flying a Dutch flag, the White Lion, appeared off shore from Point Comfort. Its cargo included 20 plus Africans captured from the slave ship Sao Joao Bautista and these were the first Africans to come ashore on English-occupied land in what would become the United States. John Rolfe, the widower of Pocahontas, wrote in a letter that he was at Point Comfort, although these first Bantu men from Angola were considered indentured servants, their arrival marked the beginning of slavery in North America. Two of the first Africans to arrive at Old Point Comfort in 1619 were Antoney and their child, the first of African descent born in North America, was born baptized January 1624
21.
Goddard Space Flight Center
–
The Goddard Space Flight Center is a major NASA space research laboratory established on May 1,1959 as NASAs first space flight center. GSFC employs approximately 10,000 civil servants and contractors, and is located approximately 6.5 miles northeast of Washington, D. C. in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. GSFC, one of ten major NASA field centers, is named in recognition of Dr. Robert H. Goddard, GSFC is a major U. S. laboratory for developing and operating unmanned scientific spacecraft. GSFC conducts scientific investigation, development and operation of space systems, Goddard scientists can develop and support a mission, and Goddard engineers and technicians can design and build the spacecraft for that mission. Mather shared the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on COBE, past missions managed by GSFC include the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer, Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, SMM, COBE, IUE, and ROSAT. Goddard is NASAs first, and oldest, space center and its original charter was to perform five major functions on behalf of NASA, technology development and fabrication, planning, scientific research, technical operations, and project management. The center is organized into directorates, each charged with one of these key functions. Until May 1,1959, NASAs presence in Greenbelt, Maryland was known as the Beltsville Space Center and it was then renamed the Goddard Space Flight Center, after Dr. Robert H. Goddard. Goddard Space Flight Center contributed to Project Mercury, Americas first manned flight program. The Center assumed a role for the project in its early days and managed the first 250 employees involved in the effort. However, the size and scope of Project Mercury soon prompted NASA to build a new Manned Spacecraft Center, now the Johnson Space Center, in Houston, Project Mercurys personnel and activities were transferred there in 1961. However, the Center focused primarily on designing unmanned satellites and spacecraft for research missions. Goddard pioneered several fields of development, including modular spacecraft design. Goddards Solar Max satellite, launched in 1980, was repaired by astronauts on the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1984. The Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990, remains in service and continues to grow in capability thanks to its modular design, today, the center remains involved in each of NASAs key programs. Goddard has developed more instruments for planetary exploration than any other organization, Goddards partly wooded campus is a few miles northeast of Washington, D. C. in Prince Georges County. The center is on Greenbelt Road, which is Maryland Route 193, baltimore, Annapolis, and NASA Headquarters in Washington are 30–45 minutes away by highway. Greenbelt also has a station with access to the Washington Metro system
22.
Washington, D.C.
–
Washington, D. C. formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D. C. is the capital of the United States. The signing of the Residence Act on July 16,1790, Constitution provided for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress and the District is therefore not a part of any state. The states of Maryland and Virginia each donated land to form the federal district, named in honor of President George Washington, the City of Washington was founded in 1791 to serve as the new national capital. In 1846, Congress returned the land ceded by Virginia, in 1871. Washington had an population of 681,170 as of July 2016. Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the population to more than one million during the workweek. The Washington metropolitan area, of which the District is a part, has a population of over 6 million, the centers of all three branches of the federal government of the United States are in the District, including the Congress, President, and Supreme Court. Washington is home to national monuments and museums, which are primarily situated on or around the National Mall. The city hosts 176 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of international organizations, trade unions, non-profit organizations, lobbying groups. A locally elected mayor and a 13‑member council have governed the District since 1973, However, the Congress maintains supreme authority over the city and may overturn local laws. D. C. residents elect a non-voting, at-large congressional delegate to the House of Representatives, the District receives three electoral votes in presidential elections as permitted by the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961. Various tribes of the Algonquian-speaking Piscataway people inhabited the lands around the Potomac River when Europeans first visited the area in the early 17th century, One group known as the Nacotchtank maintained settlements around the Anacostia River within the present-day District of Columbia. Conflicts with European colonists and neighboring tribes forced the relocation of the Piscataway people, some of whom established a new settlement in 1699 near Point of Rocks, Maryland. 43, published January 23,1788, James Madison argued that the new government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance. Five years earlier, a band of unpaid soldiers besieged Congress while its members were meeting in Philadelphia, known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, the event emphasized the need for the national government not to rely on any state for its own security. However, the Constitution does not specify a location for the capital, on July 9,1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River. The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, formed from land donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia, the initial shape of the federal district was a square measuring 10 miles on each side, totaling 100 square miles. Two pre-existing settlements were included in the territory, the port of Georgetown, Maryland, founded in 1751, many of the stones are still standing
23.
Humble Oil
–
Humble Oil and Refining Co. was founded in 1911 in Humble, Texas. Humble was acquired by Standard Oil of New Jersey in September 1959 and merged with its parent to become Exxon Company, the Humble Oil Company was founded by brothers Ross S. They were joined by their sister, Florence M. Sterling, who became assistant, the three siblings were often referred to as the Trio. In the early 1920s, Humble Oil invested heavily in permanent improvements, Humbles restructuring allowed both companies to sell and market gasoline nationwide under the Esso, Enco and Humble brands. At that point, the stations in Ohio would be rebranded Humble until the change to Exxon in 1972. During that time, Humble would also expand the Enco brand to new marketing areas it entered for the first time, however, the U. S. Justice Department objected to Humbles plan and Tidewaters west coast operations were sold to Phillips Petroleum in 1966. In 1966, the Justice Department ordered Humble to cease and desist from using the Esso brand at stations in several Southeastern states following protests from Standard Oil of Kentucky, by 1967, stations in each of those states were rebranded as Enco. Despite the success of the Put A Tiger In Your Tank advertising campaign introduced by Humble in 1959 to promote its Enco/Esso Extra gasolines, the similar oval logotypes, the Happy Motoring. Humble officials realized by the late 1960s the time had come to swallow its pride by developing a new name that could be used nationwide throughout the U. S. At first, consideration was given to simply rebranding all stations as Enco, to create a unified brand, the company rebranded all its U. S. S. cities. The name change, one of the most expensive in the history of the U. S. to Exxon USA, larson, Henrietta M. Porter, Kenneth Wiggins. History of Humble Oil and Refining Company, Olien, Diana Davids, Olien, Roger M. Oil in Texas, The Gusher Age, 1895-1945, Sterling, Ross S. Kilman, Ed. Ross Sterling, Texan, A Memoir by the Founder of Humble Oil and Refining Company
24.
Rice University
–
William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University or Rice, is a private research university located on a 295-acre campus in Houston, Texas, United States. The university is situated near the Houston Museum District and is adjacent to the Texas Medical Center, Rice is generally considered the top university and the most selective institute of higher education in the state of Texas. Opened in 1912 after the murder of its namesake William Marsh Rice, Rice is now a university with an undergraduate focus. Its emphasis on education is demonstrated by a student body and 6,1 student-faculty ratio. The university has a high level of research activity for its size. Rice is noted for its science programs in the fields of artificial heart research, structural chemical analysis, signal processing, space science. It was ranked first in the world in materials science research by the Times Higher Education in 2010, Rice is a member of the Association of American Universities. Graduate programs are offered through the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business, School of Architecture, Shepherd School of Music, Rice students are bound by the strict Honor Code, which is enforced by a student-run Honor Council. Rice competes in 14 NCAA Division I varsity sports and is a part of Conference USA, intramural and club sports are offered in a wide variety of activities such as jiu jitsu, water polo, and crew. In 1891, Rice decided to charter a free-tuition educational institute in Houston, bearing his name, to be created upon his death, Rices will specified the institution was to be a competitive institution of the highest grade and that only white students would be permitted to attend. On the morning of September 23,1900, Rice, age 84, was dead by his valet. Shortly thereafter, a large check made out to Rices New York City lawyer. The lawyer, Albert T. Patrick, then announced that Rice had changed his will to leave the bulk of his fortune to Patrick, rather than to the creation of Rices educational institute. Rices friend and personal lawyer in Houston, James A. Baker, Jones was not prosecuted since he cooperated with the district attorney, and testified against Patrick. Patrick was found guilty of conspiring to steal Rices fortune and convicted of murder in 1901, Baker helped Rices estate direct the fortune, worth $4.6 million in 1904, towards the founding of what was to be called the Rice Institute. The board took control of the assets on April 29 of that year and he came recommended by Princetons president, Woodrow Wilson. In 1908, Lovett accepted the challenge, and was inaugurated as the Institutes first president on October 12,1912. Lovett undertook extensive research before formalizing plans for the new Institute, Lovett called for the establishment of a university of the highest grade, an institution of liberal and technical learning devoted quite as much to investigation as to instruction
25.
NASA facilities
–
NASA facilities exist across the United States, but also across the world. NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC provides overall guidance and political leadership to the agency, there are 10 NASA field centers, which provide leadership for and execution of NASAs work. These field centers are, Ames, Armstrong, Glenn, Goddard, JPL, Johnson, Kennedy, Langley, Marshall, all other facilities fall under the leadership of at least one of these field centers. Some facilities serve more than one application for historic or administrative reasons, NASA has used or supported various observatories and telescopes, and an example of this is the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility. In 2013 a NASA Office of the Inspector Generals Report recommended a Base Realignment, the OIG determined at least 33 of NASAs 155 facilities were underutilized. GSFC is a major U. S. laboratory for developing and operating unmanned scientific spacecraft, GSFC conducts scientific investigation, development and operation of space systems, and development of related technologies. Goddard scientists can develop and support a mission, and Goddard engineers and technicians can design, mather shared the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on COBE. John F. Kennedy Space Center, is one of the best known NASA facilities and it has been the launch site for every United States human space flight since 1968. Its iconic Vehicle Assembly Building is the fourth-largest structure in the world by volume and was the largest when completed in 1965, located on Merritt Island, Florida, the center is north-northwest of Cape Canaveral on the Atlantic Ocean, midway between Miami and Jacksonville on Floridas Space Coast. A total of 13,100 people worked at the center as of 2011, approximately 2,100 are employees of the federal government, the rest are contractors. It is located in the San Gabriel Valley area of Los Angeles County, the facility is headquartered in the city of Pasadena on the border of La Cañada Flintridge and Pasadena. JPL is managed by the nearby California Institute of Technology, the Laboratorys primary function is the construction and operation of robotic planetary spacecraft, though it also conducts Earth-orbit and astronomy missions. It is also responsible for operating NASAs Deep Space Network, the Armstrong Flight Research Center, located inside Edwards Air Force Base, is an aeronautical research center operated by NASA. Armstrong is NASAs premier site for research and operates some of the most advanced aircraft in the world. It is also the home of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, a modified Boeing 747 designed to carry a Space Shuttle orbiter back to Kennedy Space Center if one lands at Edwards. In 1999, the name was officially renamed the NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field after John Glenn. Glenn supports all of the missions and major programs. Glenn excels in researching and developing technologies for both aeronautics and space flight
26.
Project Mercury
–
Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit, taken over from the U. S. Air Force by the newly created civilian space agency NASA, it conducted twenty unmanned developmental flights, and six successful flights by astronauts. The program, which took its name from the god of travel in Roman mythology, cost $277 million in 1965 US dollars, the astronauts were collectively known as the Mercury Seven, and each spacecraft was given a name ending with a 7 by its pilot. The Space Race began with the 1957 launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1 and this came as a shock to the American public, and led to the creation of NASA to expedite existing U. S. space exploration efforts, and place most of them under civilian control. After the successful launch of the Explorer 1 satellite in 1958, the Soviet Union put the first human, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, into a single orbit aboard Vostok 1 on April 12,1961. Shortly after this, on May 5, the U. S. launched its first astronaut, Alan Shepard, Soviet Gherman Titov followed with a day-long orbital flight in August 1961. The U. S. reached its goal on February 20,1962. When Mercury ended in May 1963, both nations had sent six people into space, but the Soviets led the U. S. in total spent in space. The Mercury space capsule was produced by McDonnell Aircraft, and carried supplies of water, food, Mercury flights were launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, on launch vehicles modified from the Redstone and Atlas D missiles. The capsule was fitted with an escape rocket to carry it safely away from the launch vehicle in case of a failure. The flight was designed to be controlled from the ground via the Manned Space Flight Network, small retrorockets were used to bring the spacecraft out of its orbit, after which an ablative heat shield protected it from the heat of atmospheric reentry. Finally, a parachute slowed the craft for a water landing, both astronaut and capsule were recovered by helicopters deployed from a U. S. Navy ship. After a slow start riddled with humiliating mistakes, the Mercury project gained popularity, its missions followed by millions on radio, Project Mercury was officially approved on October 7,1958 and publicly announced on December 17. Originally called Project Astronaut, President Dwight Eisenhower felt that too much attention to the pilot. Instead, the name Mercury was chosen from classical mythology, which had already lent names to rockets like the Greek Atlas and Roman Jupiter for the SM-65 and it absorbed military projects with the same aim, such as the Air Force Man In Space Soonest. Following the end of World War II, an arms race evolved between the U. S. and the Soviet Union. The rocket technology in turn enabled both sides to develop Earth-orbiting satellites for communications, and gathering data and intelligence. Americans were shocked when the Soviet Union placed the first satellite into orbit in October 1957, a month later, the Soviets launched Sputnik 2, carrying a dog into orbit
27.
Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow
–
The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow, often known simply as the Avro Arrow, was a delta-winged interceptor aircraft designed and built by Avro Canada. The Arrow is considered to have been a technical and aerodynamic achievement for the Canadian aviation industry. The CF-105 held the promise of near-Mach 2 speeds at altitudes of 50,000 feet and was intended to serve as the Royal Canadian Air Forces primary interceptor in the 1960s and beyond. The Arrow was the culmination of a series of design studies begun in 1953 examining improved versions of the Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck, after considerable study, the RCAF selected a dramatically more powerful design, and serious development began in March 1955. The aircraft was intended to be directly from the production line. I, RL-201, was rolled out to the public on 4 October 1957, flight testing began with RL-201 on 25 March 1958, and the design quickly demonstrated excellent handling and overall performance, reaching Mach 1.9 in level flight. Powered by the Pratt & Whitney J75, another three Mk, 1s were completed, RL-202 through -204. On 20 February 1959, the development of the Arrow was abruptly halted before a project review had taken place. Two months later, the line, tooling, plans. This action effectively put Avro out of business and its highly skilled engineering, in the post-Second World War period, the Soviet Union began developing a capable fleet of long-range bombers with the ability to deliver nuclear weapons across North America and Europe. To counter this threat, Western countries strenuously undertook the development of interceptors that could engage, the next year the company began the design of Canadas first jet fighter for the Royal Canadian Air Force, the Avro CF-100 Canuck all-weather interceptor. The Canuck underwent a lengthy and troubled prototype stage before entering service seven years later in 1953, nevertheless, it went on to become one of the most enduring aircraft of its class, serving in a variety of roles until 1981. In March 1952, the RCAFs Final Report of the All-Weather Interceptor Requirements Team was submitted to Avro Canada, Avro engineering had been considering supersonic issues already at this point. Supersonic flight works in a different fashion and presents a number of new problems. One of the most critical, and surprising, was the onset of a new form of drag. The effects of wave drag were so strong that engines of the era could not provide power to overcome it. German research during the Second World War had shown the onset of wave drag was reduced by using airfoils that varied in curvature as gradually as possible. This suggested the use of thinner airfoils with much longer chord than designers would have used on subsonic aircraft and these designs were impractical because they left little internal room in the wing for armament or fuel
28.
T. Keith Glennan
–
Thomas Keith Glennan was the first Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, serving from August 19,1958 to January 20,1961. During his career he was manager of Paramount Pictures, and Samuel Goldwyn Studios. At the end of the war, Glennan became an executive of the Ansco Corp. in Binghamton, from this position he was called to the presidency of the Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland, Ohio. During his administration, Case rose from a local institution to rank with the top engineering schools in the United States. From October 1950 to November 1952, concurrent with his Case presidency and he brought in part of the Naval Research Laboratory in NASA and created for its use the Goddard Space Flight Center. In December 1958 Glennan also acquired control of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in 1960, Glennan obtained the transfer to NASA of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, located at Huntsville, Alabama, and renamed it the Marshall Space Flight Center. By mid-1960, Glennan had secured for NASA primacy in the U. S, upon leaving NASA in January 1961, Glennan returned to the Case Institute of Technology, where he continued to serve as president until 1966. During this period he helped to negotiate the merger of Case with Western Reserve University, after his retirement in 1966, Glennan spent two years as president of Associated Universities, Inc. a Washington-based advocate for institutions of higher education. A resident of Reston, Virginia for twenty years after his retirement, he moved to Mitchellville and he died at Collington Life Care Community in Mitchellville in April 1995, after a stroke. He was survived by his wife, Ruth Glennan, portions of this article are based on public domain biographical text from NASA. Diary of T. Keith Glennan, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library New York Times Article
29.
James E. Webb
–
James Edwin Webb was an American government official who served as the second administrator of NASA from February 14,1961 to October 7,1968. He also dealt with the Apollo 1 fire, in 2002, a planned space telescope, originally called the Next Generation Space Telescope, was renamed the James Webb Space Telescope as a tribute to Webb. Webb was born in the hamlet of Tally Ho in Granville County and his father was superintendent of the Granville County public schools. He completed his education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was a member of the Acacia Fraternity, Webb became a second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps, and he served as a Marine Corps pilot on active duty in 1930–32. Webb then studied law at The George Washington University Law School where he received a J. D. degree in 1936, in the same year he was admitted to the Bar of the District of Columbia. Webb began his career in public service in Washington, D. C. by serving as secretary to US Rep. Edward W. Pou of North Carolina in 1932–34. Pou was chairman of the Rules Committee and Dean of the House, with Webbs assistance, Pou was influential in pushing through the first legislation of Franklin Roosevelts New Deal during the first hundred days of Roosevelts term. In addition to his duties, Webb provided physical assistance to the aging and ailing Pou. He next served as an assistant in the office of O. Max Gardner, Gardner supported Webb in finishing his law degree. During the Air Mail scandal of 1934, the government halted the carrying of airmail by private airline companies, a group of airline executives led by the Thomas Morgan, the President of the Sperry Gyroscope Company in Brooklyn, New York, hired Gardners firm to represent them. The successful resolution resulted in the resumption of contracts to private airlines, as a result of their interactions, Morgan hired Webb as the personnel director and assistant to the President of Sperry. Between 1936 and 1944, Webb became the secretary-treasurer and later the president of Sperry. During his tenure, Sperry expanded from 800 employees to more than 33,000 and became a supplier of navigation equipment. Although he wished to re-enlist in the Marines at the start of the war and he was put in charge of a radar program for the invasion of the Japanese mainland. He had orders to leave for Japan on August 14,1945, but his orders were delayed, and the Surrender of Japan on September 2,1945 meant that he did not see combat. After World War II, Webb returned to Washington and served as assistant to O. Webb was recommended for the appointment to Truman by Gardner. During the appointment announcement, Truman forgot Webbs name and had to look it up, because of Webbs association with the Treasury Department, his appointment was seen as subordinating the BoB to the Treasury
30.
John F. Kennedy
–
Kennedy was a member of the Democratic Party, and his New Frontier domestic program was largely enacted as a memorial to him after his death. Kennedy also established the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963, Kennedys time in office was marked by high tensions with Communist states. He increased the number of American military advisers in South Vietnam by a factor of 18 over President Dwight D. Eisenhower, in Cuba, a failed attempt was made at the Bay of Pigs to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro in April 1961. He subsequently rejected plans by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to orchestrate false-flag attacks on American soil in order to gain approval for a war against Cuba. After military service in the United States Naval Reserve in World War II and he was elected subsequently to the U. S. Senate and served as the junior Senator from Massachusetts from 1953 until 1960. Kennedy defeated Vice President, and Republican presidential candidate, Richard Nixon in the 1960 U. S, at age 43, he became the youngest elected president and the second-youngest president. Kennedy was also the first person born in the 20th century to serve as president, to date, Kennedy has been the only Roman Catholic president and the only president to have won a Pulitzer Prize. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22,1963, Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested that afternoon and determined to have fired the shots that hit the President from a sixth floor window of the Texas School Book Depository. Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby fatally shot Oswald two days later in a jail corridor, then-Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson succeeded Kennedy after he died in the hospital. The FBI and the Warren Commission officially concluded that Oswald was the lone assassin, the majority of Americans alive at the time of the assassination, and continuing through 2013, believed that there was a conspiracy and that Oswald was not the only shooter. Since the 1960s, information concerning Kennedys private life has come to light, including his health problems, Kennedy continues to rank highly in historians polls of U. S. presidents and with the general public. His average approval rating of 70% is the highest of any president in Gallups history of systematically measuring job approval and his grandfathers P. J. Kennedy and Boston Mayor John F. Fitzgerald were both Massachusetts politicians. All four of his grandparents were the children of Irish immigrants, Kennedy had an elder brother, Joseph Jr. and seven younger siblings, Rosemary, Kathleen, Eunice, Patricia, Robert, Jean, and Ted. Kennedy lived in Brookline for ten years and attended the Edward Devotion School, the Noble and Greenough Lower School, and the Dexter School through 4th grade. In 1927, the Kennedy family moved to a stately twenty-room, Georgian-style mansion at 5040 Independence Avenue in the Hudson Hill neighborhood of Riverdale, Bronx and he attended the lower campus of Riverdale Country School, a private school for boys, from 5th to 7th grade. Two years later, the moved to 294 Pondfield Road in the New York City suburb of Bronxville, New York. The Kennedy family spent summers at their home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, in September 1930, Kennedy—then 13 years old—attended the Canterbury School in New Milford, Connecticut. In late April 1931, he required an appendectomy, after which he withdrew from Canterbury, in September 1931, Kennedy attended Choate, a boarding school in Wallingford, Connecticut, for 9th through 12th grade
31.
Moon
–
The Moon is an astronomical body that orbits planet Earth, being Earths only permanent natural satellite. It is the fifth-largest natural satellite in the Solar System, following Jupiters satellite Io, the Moon is second-densest satellite among those whose densities are known. The average distance of the Moon from the Earth is 384,400 km, the Moon is thought to have formed about 4.51 billion years ago, not long after Earth. It is the second-brightest regularly visible celestial object in Earths sky, after the Sun and its surface is actually dark, although compared to the night sky it appears very bright, with a reflectance just slightly higher than that of worn asphalt. Its prominence in the sky and its cycle of phases have made the Moon an important cultural influence since ancient times on language, calendars, art. The Moons gravitational influence produces the ocean tides, body tides, and this matching of apparent visual size will not continue in the far future. The Moons linear distance from Earth is currently increasing at a rate of 3.82 ±0.07 centimetres per year, since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, the Moon has been visited only by uncrewed spacecraft. The usual English proper name for Earths natural satellite is the Moon, the noun moon is derived from moone, which developed from mone, which is derived from Old English mōna, which ultimately stems from Proto-Germanic *mǣnōn, like all Germanic language cognates. Occasionally, the name Luna is used, in literature, especially science fiction, Luna is used to distinguish it from other moons, while in poetry, the name has been used to denote personification of our moon. The principal modern English adjective pertaining to the Moon is lunar, a less common adjective is selenic, derived from the Ancient Greek Selene, from which is derived the prefix seleno-. Both the Greek Selene and the Roman goddess Diana were alternatively called Cynthia, the names Luna, Cynthia, and Selene are reflected in terminology for lunar orbits in words such as apolune, pericynthion, and selenocentric. The name Diana is connected to dies meaning day, several mechanisms have been proposed for the Moons formation 4.51 billion years ago, and some 60 million years after the origin of the Solar System. These hypotheses also cannot account for the angular momentum of the Earth–Moon system. This hypothesis, although not perfect, perhaps best explains the evidence, eighteen months prior to an October 1984 conference on lunar origins, Bill Hartmann, Roger Phillips, and Jeff Taylor challenged fellow lunar scientists, You have eighteen months. Go back to your Apollo data, go back to computer, do whatever you have to. Dont come to our conference unless you have something to say about the Moons birth, at the 1984 conference at Kona, Hawaii, the giant impact hypothesis emerged as the most popular. Afterward there were only two groups, the giant impact camp and the agnostics. Giant impacts are thought to have been common in the early Solar System, computer simulations of a giant impact have produced results that are consistent with the mass of the lunar core and the present angular momentum of the Earth–Moon system
32.
Exploration of the Moon
–
The physical exploration of the Moon began when Luna 2, a space probe launched by the Soviet Union, made an impact on the surface of the Moon on September 14,1959. Prior to that the available means of exploration had been observation from Earth. The invention of the telescope brought about the first leap in the quality of lunar observations. NASAs Apollo program was the first, and to date only, the first landing took place in 1969, when astronauts placed scientific instruments and returned lunar samples to Earth. The ancient Greek philosopher Anaxagoras reasoned that the Sun and Moon were both giant spherical rocks, and that the reflected the light of the former. His non-religious view of the heavens was one cause for his imprisonment and he also entertained the possibility that the Moon was inhabited. Aristarchus went a further and computed the distance from Earth, together with its size. Although the Chinese of the Han Dynasty believed the Moon to be equated to qi. This was supported by mainstream thinkers such as Jing Fang, who noted the sphericity of the Moon, by 499 AD, the Indian astronomer Aryabhata mentioned in his Aryabhatiya that reflected sunlight is the cause behind the shining of the Moon. Habash al-Hasib al-Marwazi, a Persian astronomer, conducted various observations at the Al-Shammisiyyah observatory in Baghdad between 825 and 835 AD. Using these observations, he estimated the Moons diameter as 3,037 km and its distance from the Earth as 215,209 miles, which come close to the currently accepted values. By the Middle Ages, before the invention of the telescope, in 1609, Galileo Galilei drew one of the first telescopic drawings of the Moon in his book Sidereus Nuncius and noted that it was not smooth but had mountains and craters. Later in the 17th century, Giovanni Battista Riccioli and Francesco Maria Grimaldi drew a map of the Moon, on maps, the dark parts of the Moons surface were called maria or seas, and the light parts were called terrae or continents. Thomas Harriot, as well as Galilei, drew the first telescopic representation of the Moon, the first map of the Moon was made by the Belgian cosmographer and astronomer Michael Florent van Langren in 1645. Two years later a more influential effort was published by Johannes Hevelius. In 1647 Hevelius published Selenographia, the first treatise entirely devoted to the Moon, in 1753 the Croatian Jesuit and astronomer Roger Joseph Boscovich discovered the absence of atmosphere on the Moon. In 1824 Franz von Gruithuisen explained the formation of craters as a result of meteorite strikes, the possibility that the Moon contains vegetation and is inhabited by selenites was seriously considered by major astronomers even into the first decades of the 19th century. The Cold War-inspired space race and Moon race between the Soviet Union and the United States of America accelerated with a focus on the Moon
33.
Maritime transport
–
Ship transport is watercraft carrying people or goods. Freight transport has been achieved widely by sea throughout recorded history, although the importance of sea travel for passengers has decreased due to aviation, it is effective for short trips and pleasure cruises. Transport by water is cheaper than transport by air, despite fluctuating exchange rates, ship transport can be realized over any distance by boat, ship, sailboat or barge, over oceans and lakes, through canals or along rivers. Virtually any material can be moved by water, however, water transport becomes impractical when material delivery is highly time-critical such as types of perishable produce. Containerization revolutionized ship transport starting in the 1970s, general cargo includes goods packaged in boxes, cases, pallets, and barrels. When a cargo is carried in more than one mode, it is intermodal or co-modal, a nations shipping fleet consists of the ships operated by civilian crews to transport passengers or cargo from one place to another. Ores, Coal, and grains can travel along the rivers of the American midwest to Pittsburgh, professional mariners are merchant seaman, merchant sailor, and merchant mariner, or simply seaman, sailor, or mariners. The terms seaman or sailor may refer to a member of a countrys navy, according to the 2005 CIA World Factbook, the total number of merchant ships of at least 1,000 gross register tons in the world was 30,936. In 2010, it was 38,988, an increase of 26%, statistics for individual countries are available at the list of merchant navy capacity by country. A ships complement can be divided into four categories, the department, the engineering department, the stewards department. Officer positions in the department include but not limited to, Master and his Chief, Second. The official classifications for unlicensed members of the department are Able Seaman. Their time on board is spent learning the operations and tasks of life on a merchant vessel. A ships engineering department consists of the members of a crew that operate and maintain the propulsion. Marine Engineering staff also deal with the Hotel facilities on board, notably the sewage, lighting, air conditioning, on LPG and LNG tankers however, a cargo engineer works with the deck department during cargo operations, as well as being a watchkeeping engineer. Other possible positions include Motorman, Machinist, Electrician, Refrigeration Engineer, engine Cadets are trainee engineers who are completing sea time necessary before they can obtain a watchkeeping license. A typical Stewards department for a ship would be composed of a Chief Steward, a Chief Cook. All three positions are filled by unlicensed personnel
34.
Ames Research Center
–
Ames Research Center, also known as NASA Ames, is a major NASA research center at Moffett Federal Airfield in Californias Silicon Valley. It was founded as the second National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics laboratory and that agency was dissolved and its assets and personnel transferred to the newly created National Aeronautics and Space Administration on October 1,1958. NASA Ames is named in honor of Joseph Sweetman Ames, a physicist, at last estimate NASA Ames has over US$3.0 billion in capital equipment,2,300 research personnel and a US$860 million annual budget. Ames was founded to conduct research on the aerodynamics of propeller-driven aircraft, however, its role has expanded to encompass spaceflight. Ames plays a role in many NASA missions, Ames also develops tools for a safer, more efficient national airspace. The centers current director is Eugene Tu, the site is mission center for several key current missions and a major contributor to the new exploration focus as a participant in the Orion crew exploration vehicle. Although Ames is a NASA Research Center, and not a center, it has nevertheless been closely involved in a number of astronomy. The Pioneer programs eight successful missions from 1965 to 1978 were managed by Charles Hall at Ames. By 1972, it supported the bold flyby missions to Jupiter and Saturn with Pioneer 10 and those two missions were trail blazers for the planners of the more complex Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 missions, launched five years later. In 1978, the end of the program brought about a return to the solar system, with the Pioneer Venus Orbiter and Multiprobe. Lunar Prospector was the mission selected by NASA for full development. Based on Lunar Prospector Neutron Spectrometer data, mission scientists have determined that there is indeed water ice in the craters of the Moon. The 11-pound GeneSat-1, carrying bacteria inside a laboratory, was launched on December 16,2006. The very small NASA satellite has proven that scientists can quickly design, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite mission to look for water on the moon was a secondary payload spacecraft. LCROSS began its trip to the moon on the rocket as the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. It launched in April 2009 on an Atlas V rocket from Kennedy Space Center, the Kepler mission is NASAs first mission capable of finding Earth-size and smaller planets. The Kepler mission will monitor the brightness of stars to find planets that pass in front of them during the planets orbits, during such passes or transits, the planets will slightly decrease the stars brightness. Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy is a joint venture of the U. S, the aircraft is supplied by the U. S. and the infrared telescope by Germany
35.
Green Cove Springs, Florida
–
Green Cove Springs is a hydrological spring and a city in Clay County, Florida, United States. The population was 5,378 at the 2000 census, as of 2010, the population recorded by the U. S. Census Bureau was 6,908. It is the county seat of Clay County, the city is named after the portion of the St. Johns River upon which the city is built. The river bends here, and the area is sheltered by trees that are perennially green, the area was first inhabited over 7,000 years ago by natives drawn by the warm mineral spring. The spring, locally known as the Original Fountain of Youth, attracted guests in the 19th century, today the sulfur-scented spring water feeds an adjacent public swimming pool before flowing the short distance to the St. Johns River. The Green Cove Springs area was first developed by George E. Clarke in 1816 when he was provided land, under a Spanish land grant, Green Cove Springs was established in 1854 as White Sulfur Springs. Renamed in 1866, it became the Clay County seat in 1871, agriculture and tourism were two of the primary economic ventures until the end of the century, when Henry Flaglers railroad began taking tourists further south into Florida. In 1895, the Great Freeze destroyed the citrus crops. The 1920s saw renewed development, with automobile traffic bringing in tourists again, the Great Depression of the 1930s saw the end of growth again for the city. The period immediately before and during World War II again brought new growth to Green Cove Springs. On September 11,1940, the U. S. Navy opened Naval Air Station Lee Field in honor of Ensign Bejamin Lee who had lost his life in a crash at Killinghome, England, during World War I. In August 1943, the facility was renamed Naval Air Station Green Cove Springs and consisted of four 5, after the war, NAS Green Cove Springs was downgraded in status to a Naval Auxiliary Air Station as part of the greater NAS Jacksonville complex. In 1960, the Navy decommissioned NAAS Green Cove Springs and the pier facility, some of the mothballed vessels were transferred to foreign navies, while others were relocated to other Reserve Fleet locations. In 1984, the city annexed the former base into the city to utilize it for further growth and development as the Clay County Port. The air station is now a private airfield known as Reynolds Airpark with a single 5, 000-foot asphalt runway currently operational, although the original air traffic control tower is still standing, attached to one of the former Navy aircraft hangars, the airfield remains an uncontrolled facility. Green Cove Springs is the birthplace of Charles E. Merrill, one of the founders of Merrill, the towns spring is described by his son James Merrill in the poem Two From Florida, published in The Inner Room. Green Cove Springs is also the birthplace of Augusta Savage, Savage was an African American sculptor associated with the Harlem Renaissance. Locally, the community is known as the home of Gustafsons Farm, the main Gustafson Dairy Farm is located in Green Cove Springs and is one of the largest privately owned dairy farms in the southeastern United States
36.
MacDill Air Force Base
–
MacDill Air Force Base is an active United States Air Force base located approximately 4 miles south-southwest of downtown Tampa, Florida. The host wing for MacDill AFB is the 6th Air Mobility Wing of the Air Mobility Command, the 6th Air Mobility Wing is commanded by Colonel April Vogel, and the wings Command Chief Master Sergeant is CMSgt Melanie Noel. The host unit at MacDill AFB is the 6th Air Mobility Wing, MacDill also hosts the Aircraft Operations Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, whose NOAA Corps flies Hurricane Hunter missions in WP-3D Orion and Gulfstream IV aircraft. The 6 AMW is a 3, 000-person force organized into four groups, the 6 AMW also has a collocated Associate wing at MacDill, the 927th Air Refueling Wing of the Air Force Reserve Command. The 6 AMW and the 927 ARW operate and share the same assigned KC-135R Stratotanker aircraft. MacDill Air Force Base, located in south Tampa, was constructed as MacDill Field, with the establishment of the U. S. Air Force as an independent service in 1947, it became MacDill Air Force Base. During the 1950s and 1960s, it was a Strategic Air Command base for B-47, in the early 1960s, it transitioned to a Tactical Air Command installation briefly operating the F-84 Thunderstreak jet fighter before transitioning to the F-4 Phantom II. During the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, it operated F-4 Phantom II fighters, followed by F-16 Fighting Falcons in the mid and late 1980s, both commands are independent from one another and each is commanded by a respective 4-star general or admiral. The noise produced by the aircraft was also considered inappropriate in a densely populated urban area. However, despite recommendations, the base remained open to house. With the disestablishment of Tactical Air Command a few months later, in 1993, the MacDill flightline was permanently reopened for NOAA WP-3D hurricane hunter operations, which had relocated from Miami International Airport. The wing was renamed the 6th Air Mobility Wing following the establishment. MacDill AFB is a significant contributor to Tampas economy and the city is very supportive of the military community, in 2001 and 2003, the Tampa Bay area was awarded the Abilene Trophy, which annually honors the most supportive Air Force city in Air Mobility Command. MacDill historically hosts an air show enjoyed by thousands of spectators each year. However, there were no shows in 2002 and 2003 due to security concerns following the attacks on the United States of Sep,11,2001 and the initiation of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. The 2006 show was canceled due to security concerns on base. It was cancelled again in 2013 due to budget constraints. AirFest 2016 was the first-ever airshow to feature a live webcast of the performers, the 6 AMW consists of, 6th Operations Group 91st Air Refueling Squadron Operates the Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker
37.
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
–
Baton Rouge is the capital of the U. S. state of Louisiana and its second-largest city. It forms the seat of East Baton Rouge Parish and is located on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River. As the Capital City, Baton Rouge is the hub for Louisiana. The metropolitan area surrounding the city, known as Greater Baton Rouge, is also the second-largest in Louisiana, the urban area has around 594,309 inhabitants. Baton Rouge is an industrial, petrochemical, medical, research, motion picture. The Port of Greater Baton Rouge is the tenth largest in the United States in terms of tonnage shipped, the Baton Rouge area owes its historical importance to its strategic site upon the Istrouma Bluff, the first natural bluff upriver from the Mississippi River Delta. This allowed development of a business quarter safe from seasonal flooding, in addition, the city built a levee system stretching from the bluff southward to protect the riverfront and low-lying agricultural areas. The city is a rich center, with settlement by immigrants from numerous European nations. It was ruled by seven different governments, French, British, and Spanish in the era, West Floridian, United States territory and state, Confederate. Human habitation in the Baton Rouge area has been dated to 12000 –6500 BC based on evidence found along the Mississippi, Comite, earthwork mounds were built by hunter-gatherer societies in the Middle Archaic period, from roughly the 4th millennium BC. Eastern Muskogean began to diversify internally in the first half of the 1st millennium AD, at the time, the region appeared to be occupied by a collection of moderately-sized native chiefdoms interspersed with autonomous villages and tribal groups. French explorer Sieur dIberville led a party up the Mississippi River in 1699. The explorers saw a red pole marking the boundary between the Houma and Bayogoula tribal hunting grounds, see also Red Sticks for the ceremonial use of red sticks among the Muscogee. The location of the red pole was presumably at Scotts Bluff and it was reportedly a 30-foot-high painted pole adorned with fish bones. The settlement of Baton Rouge by Europeans began in 1721 when a military post was established by French colonists. Since European settlement, Baton Rouge has been governed by France, Britain, Spain, Louisiana, the Republic of West Florida, the Confederate States, and the United States. In 1755, when French-speaking settlers of Acadia in Canadas Maritime provinces were driven into exile by British forces, popularly known as Cajuns, the descendants of the Acadians maintained a separate culture. During the first half of the 19th century, the city grew steadily as the result of steamboat trade, Baton Rouge was incorporated in 1817
38.
Barksdale Air Force Base
–
Barksdale Air Force Base occupies over 22,000 acres of land east of Bossier City and along the southern edge of Interstate Highway 20. The host unit at Barksdale is the 2d Bomb Wing, the oldest Bomb Wing in the Air Force and it is assigned to the Air Force Global Strike Commands Eighth Air Force. The 2 BW is equipped with the B-52H Stratofortress bomber, more than 15,000 active-duty, Air Force Reserve members and civilians make up Barksdales workforce. About 44 B-52 Stratofortress aircraft are assigned to the wing. Barksdale AFB was established in 1932 as Barksdale Field and is named for World War I aviator, units at Barksdale include the oldest bomb wing in the Air Force, the 2d Bomb Wing. The 2d participated in Brig Gen Billy Mitchells 1921 off-shore bombing test. F Components of the 2d Bomb Wing are and he also functions as the installation commander of Barksdale Air Force Base. The vice commander is Colonel Brandon Parker, there is an annual open house when non-DoD visitors are allowed. Visitors may also tour the museum from 9,30 am to 4 pm every day except official holidays, Barksdale Field was named in honor of 2nd Lieutenant Eugene Hoy Barksdale on 2 February 1933. He did not recover from a spin while parachuting out of the plane. He was buried with military honors in Arlington National Cemetery. The name of the airfield was changed to Barksdale Air Force Base on 13 February 1948, airships were still in use when field construction began, so Hangars One and Two were built large enough to accommodate them. Half of the B-52Fs were deployed from Barksdale, but never returned as they were replaced by B-52Gs after the Vietnam War, as early as 1924, the citizens of Shreveport became interested in hosting a military flying field. Captain Harris selected what he felt was a location for a military airfield. A delegation of citizens traveled to Washington, D. C. to personally present the advantages of the site to the War Department. Following the return of this delegation, a special Army board visited Shreveport, the site was selected 5 December 1928, as the location of the airfield. Construction of Barksdale Field began in 1931, when hangars, runways, early flying operations began on 7 November 1932, with the arrival of the 20th Pursuit Group and its three pursuit squadrons equipped with the Boeing P-12 and Boeing P-26 Peashooter. The airfield was opened and dedicated on 2 February 1933. By the mid-1930s, Barksdale Field was the headquarters and main base of the 3rd Attack Wing, equipped with the Curtiss A-12, the airfield was used by both fighter and attack pilots to hone their gunnery and bombing skills
39.
Victoria Regional Airport
–
Victoria Regional Airport is a county owned, public use airport located five nautical miles northeast of the central business district of Victoria, a city in Victoria County, Texas, United States. It is mostly used for military and general aviation, but is served by one commercial airline with this scheduled passenger service being subsidized by the federal Essential Air Service program. As per Federal Aviation Administration records, the airport had 10,138 passenger boardings in calendar year 2007,8,415 enplanements in 2008,5,625 in 2009, and 5,038 in 2010. It is included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015, Foster Field began as a United States Army Air Forces facility that was established in 1941 as an advanced single-engine flying school for fighter pilots. Originally known as Victoria Field, it was renamed in 1942 in memory of 1st Lt Arthur L. Foster, fosters son received his training and commission at the base in the spring of 1942. After World War II, Foster Field was deactivated and the site was returned to its private owners, the base closed in December 1958 and formally inactivated in January 1959. The local economy suffered greatly from the closure of Foster AFB, in the summer of 1960, the General Services Administration approved the exchange of Aloe Field for Foster Field, and Victoria County Airport was moved to the latter site. The growth of the county airport slowly replaced the loss of Foster AFB as numerous businesses located there, in 1976 Foster became the site of the Victoria Regional Airport, which currently provides scheduled passenger service with connections to major air carriers at Austin and Dallas/Fort Worth. Trans-Texas Airways and its successor Texas International Airlines served Victoria for over 20 years, trans-Texas then changed its name to Texas International which in 1970 was flying 15-seat Beechcraft 99 commuter turboprops nonstop to Houston Intercontinental Airport. By 2007, Colgan Air flying as Continental Connection was operating two flights a day to IAH with 34-seat Saab 340B turboprops, Continental was eventually merged into United Airlines and code sharing flights to Houston Intercontinental airport were discontinued. Service to Houston would be restarted via Texas Sky Airlines with one round trip flight operated daily except on Saturdays with this service being operated at the present time, Texas Sky also operates a round trip flight between the airport and Austin daily except on Saturdays. Texas Sky previously operated a flight to Dallas/Fort Worth via a stop in Austin, however. This commuter air carrier operates British Aerospace Jetstream propjets, Victoria Regional Airport covers an area of 1,766 acres at an elevation of 115 feet above mean sea level. It also has one helipad designated H1 which measures 60 by 60 feet. For the 12-month period ending May 30,2009, the airport had 45,627 aircraft operations, an average of 125 per day, 64% military, 30% general aviation, 3% scheduled commercial, and 3% air taxi. At that time there were 39 aircraft based at airport, 80% single-engine, 15% multi-engine, 3% jet
40.
Naval air station
–
A naval air station is a military air base, and consists of a permanent land-based operations locations for the military aviation division of the relevant branch of a navy. These bases are typically populated by squadrons, groups or wings, their various support commands, the term Naval Air Station is used by many countries navies, such as the United States Navy, the Royal Australian Navy, the British Royal Navy, and the Indian Navy. In the case of the U. S. Navy, similar facilities in the U. S. Marine Corps are known as Marine Corps Air Stations, runways also serve domestic airlines at almost all Argentine military airbases. The Navy operates Estacion Aeronaval which have smaller crews and are not normally assigned aircraft and these include Ezeiza, Rio Gallegos and Ushuaia. The Argentine Naval Prefecture, serving as a Coast Guard, also operates air stations at Posadas, Buenos Aires, Mar del Plata, Aircraft operating out of these bases are heavily involved in sea rescues. In Australia, there is one Naval Air Station, NAS Nowra, HMAS Albatross, in 2016, the French Navy has four naval air stations, all located in metropolitan territory. The United Kingdom has two Royal Naval Air Stations, RNAS Yeovilton and RNAS Culdrose, until 2006, the former served as the main operating base for the Royal Navys Sea Harriers, which were based upon the three Invincible class aircraft carriers. However, upon the withdrawal of the BAe Sea Harrier in that year and it is believed that all of their successors will be based at RAF Lossiemouth. The site also contains the Royal Naval Air Museum, that showcases a variety of aircraft from the Royal Naval Air Service until the present day, RNAS Yeovilton also has RNAS Merryfield as its training and satellite station. RNAS Culdrose serves a variety of helicopter and fixed-wing squadrons, such as the Sea King, among the features at RNAS Culdrose is the Dummy deck which is used to train pilots to land on ships, the Merlin training facility, and the Fleet Requirements Air Direction Unit. Its satellite airfield is RNAS Predannack, in the United States, a Naval Air Station is an air base of the United States Navy. When located in countries, they are often identified as US Naval Air Stations. A slightly lower level of air base in the U. S. Navy is the Naval Air Facility and these facilities normally support smaller numbers of naval aircraft. Permanently based naval aircraft are usually minimal, with the focus being on supporting naval aircraft deployed from other installations. There are also a number of former Naval Air Stations that have been realiged as part of larger Naval Stations or redesignated to other functions in the Navy. This includes the former NAS Norfolk, Virginia, the former NAF Mayport, Florida, the former NAS Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the former NAS Lakehurst, New Jersey. In the case of NAS Memphis, Tennessee, the airfield and flight line was turned over to civilian authorities. The first naval air station in the United States was located at Greenbury Point, at the mouth of the Severn River near Annapolis, Maryland
41.
Camp Kearny
–
Camp Kearny was a U. S. military base in San Diego County, California, on the site of the current Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. It operated from 1917 to 1946, the base was named in honor of Brigadier General Stephen W. Kearny. The camp was established by the Army in 1917 on 12,721 acres of land on a north of San Diego. The area included the 2, 130-acre Miramar Ranch, which had originally established by newspaperman E. W. Scripps. It was Scripps who named the area Miramar, meaning view of the sea, the new base was named in honor of Brigadier General Stephen W. Kearny, a leader in the Mexican-American War who also served as a military governor of California. Camp Kearny was one of 32 new camps created by the Army in 1917 as a mobilization, the first commander was Major James Stuart McKnight. Army aircraft occasionally landed on the ground, but an actual airfield was not established during World War I. After the war, the camp was used as a center and was closed in 1920. It was largely abandoned after 1920 but was retained by the government for use as a military, public Health Service used it for a time. In 1927 the Ryan Aircraft Company used the field to weight-test the plane The Spirit of St. Louis which they were building for Charles A. Lindbergh. During 1929-1930 the facility was known as Airtech Field, operated by the San Diego Air Service Corp, in 1932 the Navy installed a mooring mast for helium dirigibles on the base. The mast was used for visits by the Navys two enormous airships, the USS Akron and USS Macon, each 785 feet long, the Akron first visited Camp Kearny on May 11,1932. That mooring ended in disaster when a gust of wind carried the airship upward, however, the Navy continued to use the facility, and the Macon moored at Camp Kearny four times during 1934. In 1940 the Navy began a series of projects to improve, by 1941 the base contained more than 26,000 acres. On February 20,1943, the area was commissioned as Naval Auxiliary Air Station Camp Kearny and it had three runways, a 3,000 feet asphalt runway mainly used for aircraft parking, and two 6,000 feet concrete runways. The primary mission of the base was training pilots in the use of PB4Y Liberators, in 1934 part of the base was leased to the Marine Corps to use for maneuvers and gunnery ranges. At the beginning of World War II the Marines took over the portion of Camp Kearny. In 1943 the Marines changed their name to Marine Corps Air Depot Miramar to avoid confusion with the Navy base
42.
Benicia Arsenal
–
The Benicia Arsenal and Benicia Barracks were part of a large military reservation located next to Suisun Bay in Benicia, California. For over 100 years, the arsenal was the primary US Army Ordnance facility for the West Coast of the United States, in 1847 a 252-acre parcel of land adjoining the Benicia city limits on the east was acquired for a military reserve. First occupation of the post was on April 9,1849, in 1851, after the urging of General Persifor F. Smith, the first Ordnance Supply Depot in the West was established in Benicia. In 1852 it was designated Benicia Arsenal, notable military personnel who were stationed there during this time include Ulysses Grant, Edward Ord, and Joseph Hooker, among others. The grounds of the Benicia Arsenal are also famous for stabling the Armys one, the short-lived Camel Corps was disbanded in 1863, but the Camel Barns, built in 1855, remain and are now the Benicia Historical Museum. During World War I, the Benicia Arsenal gave ordnance support to all large Army installations in the Western States as well as supplying Ordnance material to American expeditionary forces in Siberia. Throughout the war, the arsenal supplied ports with weapons, artillery, parts, supplies, in addition, the arsenal overhauled 14,343 pairs of binoculars, manufactured 180,000 small items for tanks and weapons, and repaired approximately 70,000 watches. However, the arsenal is most famous for supplying munitions to Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle for the first bombing raid on Tokyo on April 18,1942, prior to 1940, the arsenal employed 85 civilian employees, by October 1942, the payroll had reached 4,545. The labor shortage in 1944 forced the commander to put 250 Italian and 400 German prisoners of war to work. Women comprised nearly half the civilian employee force, during the Korean War, the number of civilians reached an all-time high of 6,700 workers. The Benicia Arsenal was deactivated in 1963, and the facility was closed in 1964, the arsenal has been redeveloped as work and sales space for artists and artisans. Medal of Honor recipient John H. Foley is buried in the arsenals cemetery, National Register of Historic Places listings in Solano County, California Gods and Generals by Michael Shaara. World War II in the San Francisco Bay Area, Historic California Posts, The Posts at Benicia. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Park Service, official Benicia Arsenal website Benicia Historical Museum Stone Quarries and Beyond. org, Photographic Tour of the Benicia Arsenal Grounds and Sandstone Quarries
43.
University of Houston
–
The University of Houston is a state research university and the flagship institution of the University of Houston System. Founded in 1927, UH is the third-largest university in Texas with nearly 43,000 students and its campus spans 667 acres in southeast Houston, and was known as University of Houston–University Park from 1983 to 1991. The Carnegie Foundation classifies UH as a doctoral degree-granting institution with highest research activity, the U. S. News & World Report ranks the university No.194 in its National University Rankings, and No.103 among top public universities. The university offers more than 280 degree programs through its 14 academic colleges on campus—including programs leading to degrees in architecture, law, optometry. The institution conducts $150 million annually in research, and operates more than 40 research centers, interdisciplinary research includes superconductivity, space commercialization and exploration, biomedical sciences and engineering, energy and natural resources, and artificial intelligence. Awarding more than 9,000 degrees annually, UHs alumni base exceeds 260,000, the economic impact of the university contributes over $3 billion annually to the Texas economy, while generating about 24,000 jobs. The University of Houston hosts a variety of performances, concerts, lectures. It has more than 400 student organizations and 17 intercollegiate sports teams, annual UH events and traditions include The Cats Back, Homecoming, and Frontier Fiesta. The universitys varsity teams, known as the Houston Cougars, are members of the American Athletic Conference. The football team regularly makes bowl game appearances, and the basketball team has made 19 appearances in the NCAA Division I Tournament—including five Final Four appearances. The mens golf team has won 16 national championships—the most in NCAA history, the University of Houston began as Houston Junior College. On March 7,1927, trustees of the Houston Independent School District Board of Education unanimously passed a resolution that authorized the founding and operating of a junior college, the junior college was operated and administered by HISD. Originally HJC was located in San Jacinto High School and offered night courses. Its first session began March 7,1927, with an enrollment of 232 students and 12 faculty and this session was primarily held to educate the future teachers of the junior college, freshmen were not permitted to enroll. A more accurate date for the opening of HJC is September 19,1927. The first president of HJC was Edison Ellsworth Oberholtzer, who was the dominant force in establishing the junior college, the junior college became eligible to become a university in October 1933 when Governor of Texas, Miriam A. Ferguson, signed House Bill 194 into law. On April 30,1934, HISDs Board of Education adopted a resolution to make the school a four-year institution, UHs first session as a four-year institution began June 4,1934, at San Jacinto High School with an enrollment of 682. In 1934, the first campus of the University of Houston was established at the Second Baptist Church at Milam, the next fall, the campus was moved to the South Main Baptist Church on Main Street—between Richmond Avenue and Eagle Street—where it stayed for the next five years
44.
John A. Volpe
–
Volpe was born on December 8,1908 in Wakefield, Massachusetts. He was the son of Italian immigrants Vito and Filomena, who had come from Abruzzo to Bostons North End on the SS Canopic in 1905, his father was in the construction business. Volpe attended the Wentworth Institute in Boston where he majored in construction and entered the construction business. On June 18,1934, Volpe married the former Giovaninna Benedetto, known as Jennie, during World War II, he volunteered to serve stateside as a United States Navy Seabees training officer. In 1960, Volpe was elected Governor of Massachusetts, defeating Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth Joseph D. Ward and he served as governor from 1961 to 1963. In 1962, Volpe was narrowly defeated for reelection, losing to former Governors Councillor Endicott Peabody, Peabody had been a close friend of then President John F. Kennedy. Despite the Democratic landslide nationwide that year, Volpe defeated Bellotti in a close race, in 1966, Volpe was elected to the first four-year term in Massachusetts history, defeating former Massachusetts Attorney General Edward J. McCormack, Jr. Governor Volpe also raised revenues by his long, and ultimately successful and he served as president of the National Governors Association from 1967 to 1968. In 1968, Governor Volpe ran unsuccessfully as a Favorite son candidate for the Republican presidential nomination and he was defeated in the state presidential primary by a spontaneous write-in campaign for New York Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller. It was widely believed that he was hoping to be chosen as his partys candidate for Vice President, following the election of President Richard M. Nixon, Volpe was named Secretary of Transportation. He resigned as governor to assume the cabinet post, and served in that position from 1969 to 1973, during his tenure as Secretary of Transportation, Amtrak was created. Volpe was the second to serve in this role following the position becoming a Cabinet-level appointment and he received the Award of Excellence in 1970 from Engineering News-Record for his service as Secretary of Transportation. In 1973, Volpe was nominated by President Nixon and confirmed by the United States Senate as United States Ambassador to Italy, Volpe died in Nahant, Massachusetts on November 11,1994, at the age of 85. He was buried at Forest Glade Cemetery in Wakefield, Massachusetts, the John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in Cambridge was named in his memory, as well as the Governor John A. Volpe Library at Wakefield High School in Wakefield. The papers of John A. Volpe are in the Archives and Special Collections of the Northeastern University Libraries, in Boston
45.
Margaret Chase Smith
–
Margaret Madeline Chase Smith was a United States politician. A member of the Republican Party, she served as a U. S Representative and she was the first woman to serve in both houses of the United States Congress, and the first woman to represent Maine in either. A moderate Republican, she was among the first to criticize the tactics of McCarthyism in her 1950 speech, Declaration of Conscience. Upon leaving office, she was the longest-serving female Senator in history, a distinction that was not surpassed until January 5,2011, to date, Smith is ranked as the longest-serving Republican woman in the Senate. Margaret Chase was born in Skowhegan in western Maine, to George Emery and she was the oldest of six children, two of whom did not survive to adulthood. Her father was the barber, and her mother worked as a waitress, store clerk. She received her education at Lincoln and Garfield Elementary Schools. At age 12, she went to work at a local five-and-dime store and she also shaved her fathers customers when he was busy or away from the shop. She attended Skowhegan High School, graduating in 1916, during high school, she played on the girls basketball team, of which she was captain in her senior year. She also worked as an operator with a telephone company during this time. In that position she met Clyde Smith, a prominent local politician, following her high school graduation, Chase briefly taught at the Pitts School, a one-room school near Skowhegan. She also coached the basketball team at Skowhegan High. She became involved with womens organizations. She co-founded the Skowhegan chapter of the Business and Professional Womens Club in 1922, from 1926 to 1928, she was president of the statewide organization, the Maine Federation of Business and Professional Womens Clubs. She became treasurer of the New England Waste Process Company in 1928, and was employed as an office worker with the Daniel E. Cummings Woolen Company. On May 14,1930, Chase married Clyde Smith, who was 21 years her senior and she soon became active in politics, and was elected to the Maine Republican State Committee, on which she served from 1930 to 1936. After Clyde was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives from Maines 2nd congressional district in 1936, Smith accompanied her husband to Washington, in this position, she managed his office, handled his correspondence, conducted research, and helped write his speeches. She also served as treasurer of the Congressional Club, a composed of the wives of congressmen
46.
Hugh Latimer Dryden
–
Hugh Latimer Dryden was an American aeronautical scientist and civil servant. He served as NASA Deputy Administrator from August 19,1958 until his death, Dryden was born in Pocomoke City, Maryland, the son of Samuel Isaac and Nova Hill Culver Dryden, and was named after a popular local Methodist clergyman. During the financial panic of 1907, his father lost his job, as a student, Dryden excelled in mathematics. He graduated from Baltimore City College, a school, at the age of 14. He was awarded the Peabody Prize for excellence in mathematics, with a scholarship, he was admitted to Johns Hopkins University and graduated with honors after only three years. He earned a M. S. in physics in 1916 and his thesis was titled, Airplanes, An Introduction to the Physical Principles Embodied in their Use. In 1918, Dryden joined the National Bureau of Standards, becoming an inspector of gauges. With the help and influence of Dr. Joseph S. Ames, he obtained a transfer to the bureaus Wind Tunnel division, and began taking graduate courses in fluid dynamics to complete his Ph. D. In 1919 at the age of 20, he was awarded his degree in physics and mathematics from Johns Hopkins University and his thesis was on the Air Forces on Circular Cylinders. In 1920 Dryden was appointed the director of the Aerodynamics Division of the National Bureau of Standards, collaborating with Dr. Lyman J. Briggs, he performed studies of airfoils near the speed of sound. He also performed pioneering research on the problems of airflow, turbulence. His work contributed to the design of the wings for the P-51 Mustang, by 1934, Dryden was appointed the bureaus Chief of the Mechanics and Sound Division, and in 1939 he became a member of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. With the start of World War II, Dryden served in a capacity to the Air Force. He led the development of the Bat, a guided bomb program that was successfully employed in combat in April,1945 to sink a Japanese destroyer. After the war, Dryden became the Director of Aeronautical Research for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in 1946, while at the NACA he supervised the development of the North American X-15, a rocket plane used for research and testing. He also established programs for V/STOL aircraft, and studied the problem of atmospheric reentry and he held the position of Director of NACA, NASAs predecessor, from 1947 until October 1958. In addition he served on government advisory committees, including the Scientific Advisory Committee to the President. From 1941 until 1956 he was editor of the Journal of the Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences, after NACA became NASA, he became the Deputy Director of that organization, serving until his death
47.
Texas A&M University
–
Texas A&M University is a coeducational public research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It is a university and is a member of the Texas A&M University System. The systems endowment ranks in the top 10 in the nation, Texas A&Ms student body is the largest in Texas and one of the largest in the United States. In 2001, Texas A&M was inducted as a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities, the schools students, alumni–over 450,000 strong–and sports teams are known as Aggies. The Texas A&M Aggies athletes currently compete in 18 varsity sports as a member of the Southeastern Conference, originally, the college taught no classes in agriculture, instead concentrating on classical studies, languages, literature, and applied mathematics. After four years, students could attain degrees in agriculture, civil and mechanical engineering. Under the leadership of President James Earl Rudder in the 1960s, A&M desegregated, became coeducational, to reflect the institutions expanded roles and academic offerings, the Texas Legislature renamed the school to Texas A&M University in 1963. The letters A&M, originally short for Agricultural and Mechanical, are retained only as a link to the universitys past, the main campus is one of the largest in the United States, spanning 5,200 acres, and is home to the George Bush Presidential Library. About one-fifth of the student body lives on campus, Texas A&M has over 1,000 officially recognized student organizations. Many students also observe the traditions, which daily life, as well as special occasions. Working with agencies such as the Texas AgriLife Research and Texas AgriLife Extension Service, the university offers degrees in over 150 courses of study through ten colleges and houses 18 research institutes. As a Senior Military College, Texas A&M is one of six American public universities with a full-time, the U. S. Congress laid the groundwork for the establishment of Texas A&M in 1862 with the adoption of the Morrill Act. To promote the liberal and practical education of the classes in the several pursuits. In 1871, the Texas Legislature used these funds to establish the states first public institution of higher education, Brazos County donated 2,416 acres near Bryan, Texas, for the schools campus. Enrollment began on October 2,1876, six students enrolled on the first day, and classes officially began on October 4,1876, with six faculty members. During the first semester, enrollment increased to 48 students, admission was limited to white males, and all students were required to participate in the Corps of Cadets and receive military training. Although traditional Texas A&M University Corps of Cadets campusologies indicate 40 students began classes on October 4,1876, enrollment climbed to 258 students before declining to 108 students in 1883, the year the University of Texas opened in Austin, Texas. In the late 1880s, many Texas residents saw no need for two colleges in Texas and clamored for an end of Texas A. M. C
.png){kind=link}