1.
Manitoba
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Manitoba is a province at the longitudinal centre of Canada. It is one of the three provinces and Canadas fifth-most populous province with its estimated 1.3 million people. Manitoba covers 649,950 square kilometres with a varied landscape. Aboriginal peoples have inhabited what is now Manitoba for thousands of years, in the late 17th century, fur traders arrived in the area when it was part of Ruperts Land and owned by the Hudsons Bay Company. In 1869, negotiations for the creation of the province of Manitoba led to an uprising of the Métis people against the Government of Canada. The rebellions resolution led to the Parliament of Canada passing the Manitoba Act in 1870 that created the province, Manitobas capital and largest city, Winnipeg, is Canadas eighth-largest census metropolitan area. Winnipeg is the seat of government, home to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba, four of the provinces five universities and all four of its professional sports teams are in Winnipeg. The name Manitoba is believed to be derived from the Cree, the name derives from Cree manitou-wapow or Ojibwa manidoobaa, both meaning straits of Manitou, the Great Spirit, a place referring to what are now called The Narrows in the centre of Lake Manitoba. It may also be from the Assiniboine for Lake of the Prairie, the lake was known to French explorers as Lac des Prairies. Thomas Spence chose the name to refer to a new republic he proposed for the south of the lake. Métis leader Louis Riel also chose the name, and it was accepted in Ottawa under the Manitoba Act of 1870 and it adjoins Hudson Bay to the northeast, and is the only prairie province to have a saltwater coastline. The Port of Churchill is Canadas only Arctic deep-water port and the shortest shipping route between North America and Asia, Lake Winnipeg is the tenth-largest freshwater lake in the world. Hudson Bay is the worlds second-largest bay, Manitoba is at the heart of the giant Hudson Bay watershed, once known as Ruperts Land. It was a area of the Hudsons Bay Company, with many rivers. The province has a saltwater coastline bordering Hudson Bay and more than 110,000 lakes, Manitobas major lakes are Lake Manitoba, Lake Winnipegosis, and Lake Winnipeg, the tenth-largest freshwater lake in the world. Some traditional Native lands and boreal forest on Lake Winnipegs east side are a proposed UNESCO World Heritage Site. Manitoba is at the centre of the Hudson Bay drainage basin, with a volume of the water draining into Lake Winnipeg. This basins rivers reach far west to the mountains, far south into the United States, major watercourses include the Red, Assiniboine, Nelson, Winnipeg, Hayes, Whiteshell and Churchill rivers
2.
Glacial lake
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A glacial lake is a lake with origins in a melted glacier. They are formed when a glacier erodes the land, and then melts, near the end of the last glacial period, roughly 10,000 years ago, glaciers began to retreat. A retreating glacier left behind large deposits of ice in hollows between drumlins or hills. As the ice age ended, these melted to create lakes and this is apparent in the Lake District in Northwestern England where post-glacial sediments are normally between 4 and 6 metres deep. These lakes are surrounded by drumlins, along with other evidence of the glacier such as moraines, eskers and erosional features such as striations. The scouring action of the glaciers pulverizes minerals in the rock over which the glacier passes and these pulverized minerals become sediment at the bottom of the lake, and some of the rock flour becomes suspended in the water column. These suspended minerals support a population of algae, making the water appear green. These lakes are visible in aerial photos of landforms in regions that were glaciated during the last ice age. The coastlines near these areas are very irregular, reflecting the same geological process. By contrast, other areas have fewer lakes that often appear attached to rivers and these areas were carved more by water erosion. As seen in the English Lake District, the layers of the sediments at the bottom of the lakes contain evidence of the rate of erosion. The elemental make up of the sediments are not associated with the lakes themselves, the distribution of these elements, within the lake bed, are attributed to the condition of the drainage basin and the chemical composition of the water. The amount halogens and boron found in the sediments accompanies a change in erosional activity, the rate of deposition reflects the amount of halogen and boron in the deposited sediments. Great Lakes of North America Glacial history of Minnesota Proglacial lake Moraine-dammed lake Subglacial lake Zungenbecken
3.
Reservoir
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A reservoir is a storage space for fluids. These fluids may be water, hydrocarbons or gas, a reservoir usually means an enlarged natural or artificial lake, storage pond or impoundment created using a dam or lock to store water. Reservoirs can be created by controlling a stream that drains a body of water. They can also be constructed in river valleys using a dam, alternately, a reservoir can be built by excavating flat ground or constructing retaining walls and levees. Tank reservoirs store liquids or gases in storage tanks that may be elevated, at grade level, tank reservoirs for water are also called cisterns. Underground reservoirs are used to store liquids, principally either water or petroleum, a dam constructed in a valley relies on the natural topography to provide most of the basin of the reservoir. Dams are typically located at a part of a valley downstream of a natural basin. The valley sides act as walls, with the dam located at the narrowest practical point to provide strength. In many reservoir construction projects, people have to be moved and re-housed, construction of a reservoir in a valley will usually need the river to be diverted during part of the build, often through a temporary tunnel or by-pass channel. In hilly regions, reservoirs are constructed by enlarging existing lakes. Sometimes in such reservoirs the new top water level exceeds the height on one or more of the feeder streams such as at Llyn Clywedog in Mid Wales. In such cases additional side dams are required to contain the reservoir, where water is pumped or siphoned from a river of variable quality or quantity, bank-side reservoirs may be built to store the water. Such reservoirs are usually formed partly by excavation and partly by building a complete encircling bund or embankment, the water stored in such reservoirs may stay there for several months, during which time normal biological processes may substantially reduce many contaminants and almost eliminate any turbidity. The use of reservoirs also allows water abstraction to be stopped for some time. Service reservoirs store fully treated potable water close to the point of distribution, many service reservoirs are constructed as water towers, often as elevated structures on concrete pillars where the landscape is relatively flat. Other service reservoirs can be almost entirely underground, especially in hilly or mountainous country. In the United Kingdom, Thames Water has many underground reservoirs, sometimes called cisterns, built in the 1800s. A good example is the Honor Oak Reservoir in London, constructed between 1901 and 1909, when it was completed it was said to be the largest brick built underground reservoir in the world and it is still one of the largest in Europe
4.
Red River of the North
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The Red River is a North American river. It empties into Lake Winnipeg, whose waters join the Nelson River, the Red is about 885 kilometres long, of which about 635 kilometres are in the United States and about 255 kilometres are in Canada. The river falls 70 metres on its trip to Lake Winnipeg, in the United States, the Red River is sometimes called the Red River of the North. This distinguishes it from the so-called Red River of the South, long a highway for trade, the Red has been designated as a Canadian Heritage River. The watershed of the Red River was part of Ruperts Land, the Red was a key trade route for the company, and contributed to the settlement of British North America. The river was used by fur traders, including the French and the Métis people. Following that, they took over French territory in Canada, settlers of the Red River Colony established farming along the river, and their primary settlement developed as Winnipeg, Manitoba. What became known as the Red River Trails, nineteenth-century oxcart trails developed originally by the Métis, supported the fur trade and they contributed to further development of the region on both sides of the international border. The Red River begins at the confluence of the Bois de Sioux and Otter Tail rivers, on the border of Wahpeton, North Dakota and Breckenridge, Minnesota. Downstream, it is bordered by the cities of Fargo, North Dakota– Moorhead, Minnesota. It continues north to the province of Manitoba in Canada, manitobas capital, Winnipeg, is at the Reds confluence with the Assiniboine River, at a point called The Forks. Together with the Assiniboine, the Red River fully encloses the basin of Devils Lake. The Red flows further north before draining into Lake Winnipeg through the Nelson River, the mouth of the Red River forms a freshwater river delta called the Netley-Libau Marsh. The Netley Marsh is west of the Red and the Libau Marsh is east, forming a 26, southern Manitoba has a comparatively long frost-free season, between 120 and 140 days in the Red River Valley. The Red River flows across the lake bed of the ancient glacial Lake Agassiz. As this continental glacier decayed, its meltwaters formed the lake, over thousands of years, sediments precipitated to the bottom of the lakebed. These lacustrine soils are the parent soils of todays Red River Valley, the river is very young, it developed only after Lake Agassiz drained, about 9,500 years ago. The word valley is a misnomer, while the Red River drains the region, it did not create a valley wider than a few hundred feet
5.
Nelson River
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The Nelson River is a river of north-central North America, in the Canadian province of Manitoba. The river drains Lake Winnipeg and runs 644 kilometres before it ends in Hudson Bay, the Nelson River flows into Playgreen Lake from Lake Winnipeg then flows from two channels into Cross Lake. The west channel flows out of the ends of Playgreen Lake, Kiskittogisu Lake and Kiskitto Lake into Cross Lake at the Manitoba Hydros Jenpeg Generating Station. From Cross Lake it flows though Sipiwesk Lake, Split Lake, since it drains Lake Winnipeg, it is the last part of the large Saskatchewan River system, as well as that of the Red River and Winnipeg River. Devils Lake is unusual for a lake in being presently closed. Besides Lake Winnipeg, its tributaries include the Grass River, which drains a long area north of Lake Winnipeg, and the Burntwood River. The river flows into Hudson Bay at Port Nelson, just north of the Hayes River, other communities upriver from there include Bird, Sundance, Long Spruce, Gillam, Split Lake, Arnot, Cross Lake, and Norway House. North America has just one port on the Arctic Ocean, linked to the North American railway grid -- at Churchill, Manitoba, originally port facilities were to be built at Port Nelson, a rail link was to be built to Port Nelson. Practical problems lead to the relocation to Churchill. Those difficulties included a greater need for dredging, because the Nelson Rivers water was more full of silt, in absolute terms. The river was named by Sir Thomas Button, a Welsh explorer from St. Lythans, Glamorganshire, who wintered at its mouth in 1612, after Robert Nelson, a ships master who died there. At that time, the Cree people who lived along its banks called it Powinigow or Powinini-gow, the area was fought over for the fur trade, though the Hayes River, whose mouth is near the Nelsons, became the main route inland. Fort Nelson, a historic Hudsons Bay Company trading post, was located at the mouth of the Nelson River at Hudson Bay and was a key trading post in the early 18th century, today, Fort Nelson no longer exists. Port Nelson, the shipping port, remains on the opposite side of the river mouth on Hudson Bay. The Nelson Rivers huge volume and long drop make it useful for generating hydroelectricity, travelling up the Nelson River, it’s easy to see the impacts of hydro development. The once-pristine water is now silty and not to be trusted for drinking, trees fall into the river everywhere along the shore, thanks to erosion caused by constantly fluctuating water levels. Ancient graves are being exposed, and sacred sites are now under water, what was once a highway for hunters is now dangerous to travel in winter, as the location of ice pockets created by flooding and retreating water cannot be predicted. A river that was once the basis for life has become deadly, peter Kulchyski 2012 List of longest rivers of Canada Nelson River Hydroelectric Project List of Manitoba rivers Manitoba Hydro Nelson River Bipole Information and a map of the Nelsons watershed
6.
Water cycle
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The water cycle, also known as the hydrological cycle or the hydrologic cycle, describes the continuous movement of water on, above and below the surface of the Earth. In doing so, the water goes through different forms, liquid, solid, the water cycle involves the exchange of energy, which leads to temperature changes. For instance, when water evaporates, it takes up energy from its surroundings, when it condenses, it releases energy and warms the environment. The evaporative phase of the cycle purifies water which then replenishes the land with freshwater, the flow of liquid water and ice transports minerals across the globe. It is also involved in reshaping the geological features of the Earth, the water cycle is also essential for the maintenance of most life and ecosystems on the planet. The sun, which drives the cycle, heats water in oceans. Water evaporates as water vapor into the air, ice and snow can sublimate directly into water vapour. Evapotranspiration is water transpired from plants and evaporated from the soil, the water vapour molecule H 2O has less density compared to the major components of the atmosphere, nitrogen and oxygen, N2 andO2. Due to the significant difference in mass, water vapor in gas form gains height in open air as a result of buoyancy. However, as increases, air pressure decreases and the temperature drops. The lowered temperature causes water vapour to condense into a liquid water droplet which is heavier than the air. A huge concentration of these droplets over a space up in the atmosphere become visible as cloud. Fog is formed if the water vapour condenses near ground level, as a result of moist air, air currents move water vapour around the globe, cloud particles collide, grow, and fall out of the upper atmospheric layers as precipitation. Some precipitation falls as snow or hail, sleet, and can accumulate as ice caps and glaciers, most water falls back into the oceans or onto land as rain, where the water flows over the ground as surface runoff. A portion of runoff enters rivers in valleys in the landscape, runoff and water emerging from the ground may be stored as freshwater in lakes. Not all runoff flows into rivers, much of it soaks into the ground as infiltration, some water infiltrates deep into the ground and replenishes aquifers, which can store freshwater for long periods of time. Some infiltration stays close to the surface and can seep back into surface-water bodies as groundwater discharge. Some groundwater finds openings in the surface and comes out as freshwater springs
7.
Gimli, Manitoba
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Gimli is a community located in the Rural Municipality of Gimli and situated on the west side of Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba. Originally incorporated as a village on March 6,1908, Gimli held town status between December 31,1946 and January 1,2003, Gimli was settled first by Canadian Icelanders and later by Icelandic immigrants. Part of a region of Manitoba known as New Iceland, Gimli has preserved Icelandic culture and it is home to the Icelandic Festival of Manitoba. The Canadian Pacific Railroad reached Gimli in 1906 and soon the town and surrounding region became a tourist, by the 1930s the south shore area of Gimli began to see cottages replacing farmland. With 42 miles of shoreline on Lake Winnipeg, Gimli is a fishing destination in summer. In 1983, the Gimli Industrial Park Airport became famous when an Air Canada Boeing 767 ran out of fuel over southern Manitoba, the aircraft in that incident became known as the Gimli Glider. Gimli is an Icelandic variant form of Gimlé, place in Nordic mythology and it is mentioned in the Prose Edda and Völuspá and described as the most beautiful place on Earth, more beautiful than the Sun. In Asgard, the realm of the gods, Gimli is the golden roofed building where righteous men go when they die, the etymology of Gimli is maybe the place protected from fire based on two Old Nordic elements, gimr fire and hlé protected place. The Icelandic Festival of Manitoba has been celebrated since 1890 and has held in Gimli since 1932. Several thousand tourists come each year for three days during the August long weekend, artworks from jewellery to paintings are displayed at the art museum as well along the pier wall that extends from downtown Gimli into the lake, and traditional Icelandic dishes are offered. Gimli also holds a summer film festival, during which films are shown on a screen in the lake to audiences on the beach. Gimli Rural Municipality website Icelandic Festival website
8.
Lake
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A lake is an area of variable size filled with water, localized in a basin, that is surrounded by land, apart from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, and therefore are distinct from lagoons, Lakes can be contrasted with rivers or streams, which are usually flowing. Most lakes are fed and drained by rivers and streams, natural lakes are generally found in mountainous areas, rift zones, and areas with ongoing glaciation. Other lakes are found in endorheic basins or along the courses of mature rivers, in some parts of the world there are many lakes because of chaotic drainage patterns left over from the last Ice Age. All lakes are temporary over geologic time scales, as they will fill in with sediments or spill out of the basin containing them. The word lake comes from Middle English lake, from Old English lacu, from Proto-Germanic *lakō, cognates include Dutch laak, Middle Low German lāke as in, de, Moorlake, de, Wolfslake, de, Butterlake, German Lache, and Icelandic lækur. Also related are the English words leak and leach, none of these definitions completely excludes ponds and all are difficult to measure. For this reason, simple size-based definitions are used to separate ponds. One definition of lake is a body of water of 2 hectares or more in area, however, others have defined lakes as waterbodies of 5 hectares and above, or 8 hectares and above. Charles Elton, one of the founders of ecology, regarded lakes as waterbodies of 40 hectares or more. The term lake is used to describe a feature such as Lake Eyre. In common usage, many bear names ending with the word pond. One textbook illustrates this point with the following, In Newfoundland, for example, almost every lake is called a pond, whereas in Wisconsin, the majority of lakes on Earth are fresh water, and most lie in the Northern Hemisphere at higher latitudes. Canada, with a drainage system has an estimated 31,752 lakes larger than 3 square kilometres and an unknown total number of lakes. Finland has 187,888 lakes 500 square metres or larger, most lakes have at least one natural outflow in the form of a river or stream, which maintain a lakes average level by allowing the drainage of excess water. Some lakes do not have an outflow and lose water solely by evaporation or underground seepage or both. Many lakes are artificial and are constructed for power generation, aesthetic purposes, recreational purposes, industrial use. Globally, lakes are greatly outnumbered by ponds, of an estimated 304 million standing water bodies worldwide, 91% are 1 hectare or less in area
9.
North America
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North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers, about 16. 5% of the land area. North America is the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 565 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7. 5% of the worlds population, North America was reached by its first human populations during the last glacial period, via crossing the Bering land bridge. The so-called Paleo-Indian period is taken to have lasted until about 10,000 years ago, the Classic stage spans roughly the 6th to 13th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era ended with the migrations and the arrival of European settlers during the Age of Discovery. Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect different kind of interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples, African slaves and their descendants, European influences are strongest in the northern parts of the continent while indigenous and African influences are relatively stronger in the south. Because of the history of colonialism, most North Americans speak English, Spanish or French, the Americas are usually accepted as having been named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. Vespucci, who explored South America between 1497 and 1502, was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a different landmass previously unknown by Europeans. In 1507, Waldseemüller produced a map, in which he placed the word America on the continent of South America. He explained the rationale for the name in the accompanying book Cosmographiae Introductio, for Waldseemüller, no one should object to the naming of the land after its discoverer. He used the Latinized version of Vespuccis name, but in its feminine form America, following the examples of Europa, Asia and Africa. Later, other mapmakers extended the name America to the continent, In 1538. Some argue that the convention is to use the surname for naming discoveries except in the case of royalty, a minutely explored belief that has been advanced is that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of Amairick. Another is that the name is rooted in a Native American language, the term North America maintains various definitions in accordance with location and context. In Canadian English, North America may be used to refer to the United States, alternatively, usage sometimes includes Greenland and Mexico, as well as offshore islands
10.
Provinces and territories of Canada
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Canadas geography is divided into administrative divisions known as provinces and territories that are responsible for delivery of sub-national governance. Over its history, Canadas international borders have changed several times, the ten provinces are Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Saskatchewan. Several of the provinces were former British colonies, Quebec was originally a French colony, the three territories are Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon, which govern the rest of the area of the former British North America. Together, the provinces and territories make up the worlds second-largest country by area, the powers flowing from the Constitution Act are divided between the federal government and the provincial governments to exercise exclusively. In modern Canadian constitutional theory, the provinces are considered to be co-sovereign divisions, the territories are not sovereign, but simply part of the federal realm, and have a commissioner who represents the federal government. Notes, There are three territories in Canada, unlike the provinces, the territories of Canada have no inherent sovereignty and have only those powers delegated to them by the federal government. They include all of mainland Canada north of latitude 60° north and west of Hudson Bay, the following table lists the territories in order of precedence. Prior to Confederation, Ontario and Quebec were united as the Province of Canada, over the following years, Manitoba, British Columbia, and Prince Edward Island were added as provinces. The Hudsons Bay Company controlled large swathes of western Canada referred to as Ruperts Land and the North-Western Territory until 1870, subsequently, the area was re-organized into the province of Manitoba and the Northwest Territories. The remaining Arctic islands were transferred by Britain to Canada in 1880,1898 saw the Yukon Territory, later renamed simply as Yukon, carved from the parts of the Northwest Territories surrounding the Klondike gold fields. On September 1,1905, a portion of the Northwest Territories south of the 60th parallel north became the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. In 1912, the boundaries of Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba were expanded northward, Manitobas to the 60° parallel, Ontarios to Hudson Bay, in 1907, Newfoundland acquired dominion status. In the middle of the Great Depression in Canada with Newfoundland facing a period of economic crisis. In 2001, it was officially renamed Newfoundland and Labrador, in 1903, the Alaska Panhandle Dispute fixed British Columbias northwestern boundary. This was one of two provinces in Canadian history to have its size reduced. In 1999, Nunavut was created from the portion of the Northwest Territories. Yukon lies in the portion of The North, while Nunavut is in the east. All three territories combined are the most sparsely populated region in Canada, covering 3,921,739 km2 in land area and they are often referred to as a single region, The North, for organisational and economic purposes
11.
Bat
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Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera whose forelimbs form webbed wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. By contrast, other mammals said to fly, such as flying squirrels, gliding possums, Bats do not flap their entire forelimbs, as birds do, but instead flap their spread-out digits, which are very long and covered with a thin membrane or patagium. About 70% of bat species are insectivores, most of the rest are frugivores, or fruit eaters. A few species, such as the bat, feed from animals other than insects, with the vampire bats being hematophagous. Bats are present throughout most of the world, with the exception of cold regions. They perform the vital roles of pollinating flowers and dispersing fruit seeds. Bats are economically important, as they consume insect pests, reducing the need for pesticides, the smallest bat is the Kittis hog-nosed bat, measuring 29–34 mm in length,15 cm across the wings and 2–2.6 g in mass. It is also arguably the smallest extant species of mammal, with the Etruscan shrew being the other contender. The largest species of bat are a few species of Pteropus, the Mexican free-tailed bat is the fastest flying animal in horizontal flight. An older English name for bats is flittermouse, which matches their name in other Germanic languages, middle English had bakke, most likely cognate with Old Swedish natbakka, which may have undergone a shift from -k- to -t- influenced by Latin blatta, moth, nocturnal insect. They were formerly grouped in the superorder Archonta, along with the treeshrews, colugos, genetic studies have now placed bats in the superorder Laurasiatheria, along with carnivorans, pangolins, odd-toed ungulates, even-toed ungulates, and cetaceans. A recent study by Zhang et al. places Chiroptera as a taxon to the clade Perissodactyla. The phylogenetic relationships of the different groups of bats have been the subject of much debate and this hypothesis recognized differences between microbats and megabats and acknowledged that flight has only evolved once in mammals. Most molecular biological evidence supports the view that bats form a single or monophyletic group, in the 1980s, a hypothesis based on morphological evidence was offered that stated the Megachiroptera evolved flight separately from the Microchiroptera. The so-called flying primate hypothesis proposes that, when adaptations to flight are removed, one example is that the brains of megabats show a number of advanced characteristics that link them to primates. Although recent genetic studies support the monophyly of bats, debate continues as to the meaning of available genetic. Genetic evidence indicates that megabats originated during the early Eocene and should be placed within the four lines of microbats. Consequently, two new suborders based on molecular data have been proposed and these two new suborders are strongly supported by statistical tests
12.
NASA
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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
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Media related to Lake Winnipeg at Wikimedia Commons
