1.
Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39
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Launch Complex 39 is a rocket launch site at the John F. Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island in Florida, United States. The site and its collection of facilities were built for the Apollo program. As of 2017, only Launch Complex 39A is active, launching SpaceXs Falcon 9. LC-39 is also being modified to support launches of the SpaceXs Dragon 2 and Falcon Heavy, as well as NASAs Space Launch System, with a new, smaller pad, C, added to support smaller launches. SpaceX leases Launch Pad 39A from NASA and has modified the pad to support Falcon Heavy launches in 2017 and beyond. NASA began modifying Launch Pad 39B in 2007 to accommodate the now defunct Project Constellation, Pad C was originally planned but never built for Apollo, and would have been a copy of pads 39A and 39B. A smaller pad, designated 39C was constructed from January to June 2015 to accommodate small-class vehicles, NASA launches from LC-39A and 39B have been supervised from the NASA Launch Control Center, located 3 miles from the launch pads. LC-39 is one of launch sites that share radar and tracking services of the Eastern Test Range. During the 1920s, Peter E. Studebaker Jr. son of the automobile magnate, in 1948, the Navy transferred the former Banana River Naval Air Station located south of Cape Canaveral, to the Air Force for use in testing captured German V-2 rockets. The sites location on the East Florida coast was ideal for this purpose in that launches would be over the ocean and this site became the Joint Long Range Proving Ground in 1949, and was renamed Patrick Air Force Base in 1950. The Air Force annexed part of Cape Canaveral to the North in 1951, forming the Air Force Missile Test Center, Missile and rocketry testing and development would take place here through the 1950s. After the creation of NASA in 1958, the CCAFS launch pads were used for NASAs civilian unmanned and manned launches, including those of Project Mercury, in 1961, President Kennedy proposed to Congress the goal of landing a man on the Moon by the end of the decade. NASA began acquisition of land in 1962, taking title to 131 square miles by outright purchase, on July 1,1962, the site was named the Launch Operations Center. At the time, the highest numbered launch pad on CCAFS was Launch Complex 37 and it was designed to handle launches of the Saturn V rocket, at the time the largest, most powerful rocket then designed, required to take Apollo to the Moon. Initial plans included four pads evenly spaced 8,700 feet apart to damage in the event of an explosion on the pad. Three were scheduled for construction and two would have built at a later date. The numbering of the pads at the time was from north to south, with the northernmost being 39A, Pad 39A was never built, and 39C became 39A in 1963. With todays numbering, 39C would have been north of 39B, Pad 39E would have been due north of the mid-distance between 39C and 39D, with 39E forming the top of a triangle, and equidistant from 39C and 39D
2.
STS-127
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STS-127 was a NASA Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station. It was the flight of Space Shuttle Endeavour. It also tied the record of thirteen people in space at any one time, the first launch attempt, on 13 June 2009, was scrubbed due to a gaseous hydrogen leak observed during tanking. A decision was made to allow the shuttle to attempt a launch on 17 June 2009. The second launch attempt on 17 June 2009 was also scrubbed due to hydrogen leak issues seen from the Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate. Due to conflicts with the launch of the LRO, and due to a beta angle constraint, a successful tanking test for leak checks was performed on 1 July 2009, with modified GUCP seals allowing launch preparations to proceed as scheduled. Because of lightning strikes near the launch pad during the evening of 10 July 2009, NASA scrubbed the launch for the third time, due to a Return To Launch Site weather violation, NASA scrubbed the launch for the fourth time on the evening of 12 July 2009. STS-127s fifth launch attempt, on 13 July 2009, was scrubbed due to anvil clouds and lightning within 10 nautical miles of the launch site. STS-127 finally launched successfully on its sixth launch attempt, on 15 July 2009 at 18,03 EDT, pieces of foam were observed falling off of the External Tank during the ascent, the same occurrence that had led to the loss of Columbia in 2003. However, Endeavour only received minor scuffs to its heat shield, the shuttle landed at Kennedy Space Center 16 days later at 10,48 EDT on 31 July 2009. The exposed facility is a part of Kibo that will allow astronauts to perform experiments that are exposed to the vacuum of space. The exposed section is similar to the module on the Kibo laboratory. Once its payloads were transferred to the JEM EF, the ELM-ES was returned to the payload bay, also inside the payload bay was an Integrated Cargo Carrier-Vertical Light Deployable, containing a variety of equipment and spare components for the station. Two satellites were carried by the orbiter, for deployment when the mission ended. After release, the two picosatellites remained attached for two orbits to collect GPS data, and separated during the third orbit, one of the satellites, Pollux, is running Arduino libraries, with its payload programmed and built by students. The docking module was mounted with the DragonEye 3D Flash LIDAR ranging system manufactured by Advanced Scientific Concepts. The module was launched to test the system which will be used by the commercial SpaceX Dragon re-usable cargo carrier to send supplies to the ISS during the post-shuttle era. The Dragon spacecraft made its maiden flight in December 2010
3.
HMS Endeavour
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The navy renamed and commissioned her as His Majestys Bark the Endeavour. She departed Plymouth in August 1768, rounded Cape Horn, and she then set sail into the largely uncharted ocean to the south, stopping at the Pacific islands of Huahine, Bora Bora, and Raiatea to allow Cook to claim them for Great Britain. In September 1769, she anchored off New Zealand, the first European vessel to reach the islands since Abel Tasmans Heemskerck 127 years earlier. In April 1770, Endeavour became the first ship to reach the east coast of Australia, Endeavour then sailed north along the Australian coast. She narrowly avoided disaster after running aground on the Great Barrier Reef and he then beached her on the mainland for seven weeks to permit rudimentary repairs to her hull. On 10 October 1770, she limped into port in Batavia in the Dutch East Indies for more substantial repairs, her crew sworn to secrecy about the lands they had visited. She resumed her journey on 26 December, rounded the Cape of Good Hope on 13 March 1771. Largely forgotten after her voyage, Endeavour spent the next three years sailing to and from the Falkland Islands. As of 2016 her wreck had not been located but was thought to be one of a cluster of five in Newport Harbor. Relics, including six of her cannon and an anchor, are displayed at maritime museums worldwide, a replica of Endeavour was launched in 1994 and is berthed alongside the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney Harbour. The US space shuttle Endeavour is named after the ship and she is depicted on the New Zealand fifty-cent coin and she was ship-rigged and sturdily built with a broad, flat bow, a square stern, and a long box-like body with a deep hold. A flat-bottomed design made her well-suited to sailing in waters and allowed her to be beached for loading and unloading of cargo. Her hull, internal floors, and futtocks were built from white oak, her keel and stern post from elm. Plans of the ship also show a double keelson to lock the keel, floors, some doubt exists about the height of her standing masts, as surviving diagrams of Endeavour depict the body of the vessel only, and not the mast plan. If correct, this would produce an oddly truncated mast a full 9 feet shorter than the standards of the day,1794 at the top of this page. The replica standing mizzen is built to this shorter measurement and stepped in the hold on the keelson, on 16 February 1768, the Royal Society petitioned King George III to finance a scientific expedition to the Pacific to study and observe the 1769 transit of Venus across the sun. The Royal Society suggested command be given to Scottish geographer Alexander Dalrymple, whose acceptance was conditional on a brevet commission as a captain in the Royal Navy. However, First Lord of the Admiralty Edward Hawke refused, going so far as to say he would cut off his right hand than give command of a navy vessel to someone not educated as a seaman
4.
California Science Center
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The California Science Center is a state agency and museum located in Exposition Park, Los Angeles, next to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the University of Southern California. Billed as the West Coasts largest hands-on science center, the California Science Center is a partnership between the State of California and the California Science Center Foundation. The California Natural Resources Agency oversees the California Science Center and the California African American Museum, founded in 1951 as the California Museum of Science and Industry, the Museum was remodeled and renamed in 1998 as the California Science Center. The California Science Center hosts the California State Science Fair annually, admission includes access to the permanent exhibits, such as the Space Shuttle Endeavour and other prominent aircraft and spacecraft, and to various demonstrations. A separate ticket is required for the IMAX movies, most special traveling exhibitions, and special activities include a climbing wall, motion simulator. The Center has been accredited by the American Alliance of Museums and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the museum is also an affiliate in the Smithsonian Affiliations program. An area with activities and exhibits that explore innovation and invention, with themes involving construction, energy. The brick and terra cotta building, designed by William D. Coates, Jr. state architect, after World War II, the building also featured exhibits about state science and technology industries. In 1951, the became the California Museum of Science. The State Exhibition building was renamed in honor of major donor, the hands-on interactive exhibits included themes on agriculture, transportation, electricity, energy, industries, and minerals. Interaction stations demonstrated different concepts including celestial mechanics, the Möbius strip, multiplication, symmetry, the original exhibit closed in 1998, and is now on display at the New York Hall of Science. The Hall of Health was added in 1968, in preparation for the 1984 Summer Olympics, the museum added new exhibits on earthquakes and economics, and a IMAX theatre. The opening and closing ceremonies for the games were held in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, in 1994, the museums building was damaged by the Northridge earthquake. The California Museum of Science and Industry closed in 1996 to prepare for a new facility, the California Aerospace Museum was also opened in 1984 adjacent to and operated by the California Museum of Science and Industry to coincide with the Summer Olympics. The museum focused on the States history as a leader in the aviation and aerospace industries and featured a giant, hangar-like space with aircraft and space vehicles, the building, now known as the Air and Space Gallery, was closed in 2011. In 2012 the building was listed on the California Register of Historical Resources, in 1988 the museums leadership began a to develop a three-phase, 25-year master plan to transform the institution from a science museum to a science education facility. This new facility would be known as the California Science Center, the original museum building closed its doors in 1996 to prepare for the new construction. The new construction was designed by Portland, Oregon-based Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership, changes included, Redesign of the original main building
5.
Los Angeles
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Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L. A. is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. With a census-estimated 2015 population of 3,971,883, it is the second-most populous city in the United States, Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the United States. The citys inhabitants are referred to as Angelenos, historically home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542 along with the rest of what would become Alta California. The city was founded on September 4,1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence, in 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4,1850, the discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, delivering water from Eastern California, nicknamed the City of Angels, Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, and sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles also has an economy in culture, media, fashion, science, sports, technology, education, medicine. A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index, the city is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States. The Los Angeles combined statistical area has a gross metropolitan product of $831 billion, making it the third-largest in the world, after the Greater Tokyo and New York metropolitan areas. The city has hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984 and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and thus become the second city after London to have hosted the Games three times. The Los Angeles area also hosted the 1994 FIFA mens World Cup final match as well as the 1999 FIFA womens World Cup final match, the mens event was watched on television by over 700 million people worldwide. The Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva, a Gabrielino settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ, meaning poison oak place. Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2,1769, in 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. The Queen of the Angels is an honorific of the Virgin Mary, two-thirds of the settlers were mestizo or mulatto with a mixture of African, indigenous and European ancestry. The settlement remained a small town for decades, but by 1820. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, during Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta Californias regional capital
6.
STS-49
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STS-49 was the maiden flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour. The primary goal of its mission was to retrieve an Intelsat VI satellite, attach it to a new upper stage. After several attempts, the capture was completed with a three-person extra-vehicular activity and this was the first time that three people from the same spacecraft walked in space at the same time, and as of 2014 it was the only such EVA. It would also stand until STS-102 in 2001 as the longest EVA ever undertaken, the satellite was subsequently released into orbit and the new motor fired to put the spacecraft into a geosynchronous orbit for operational use. An Assembly of Station by EVA Methods structure was erected in the bay by the crew to serve as a platform to aid in the hand capture. A planned EVA also was performed by astronauts Thornton and Akers as part of the ASEM experiment to demonstrate and verify maintenance, the ASEM space walk, originally scheduled for two successive days, was cut to one day because of the lengthy Intelsat retrieval operation. Other payloads of opportunity experiments conducted included, Commercial Protein Crystal Growth, Ultraviolet Plume Imager, the mission was extended by two days in order to complete all the mission objectives. The following records were set during the STS-49 mission, First flight of the shuttle Endeavour First EVA involving three astronauts, second and fourth longest EVAs to date,8 hours and 29 minutes and 7 hours and 45 minutes. First Shuttle mission to feature four EVAs, the second longest EVA time for a single Shuttle mission,25 hours and 27 minutes, or 59,23 person hours. First Shuttle mission requiring three rendezvous with an orbiting spacecraft, First use of a drag chute during a Shuttle landing. NASA mission summary STS-49 Video Highlights
7.
STS-134
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STS-134 was the penultimate mission of NASAs Space Shuttle program and the 25th and last spaceflight of Space Shuttle Endeavour. This flight delivered the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and an ExPRESS Logistics Carrier to the International Space Station, Mark Kelly served as the mission commander. STS-134 was expected to be the space shuttle mission if STS-135 did not receive funding from Congress. However, in February 2011, NASA stated that STS-135 would fly regardless of the funding situation, STS-135, flown by Atlantis, took advantage of the processing for STS-335, the Launch On Need mission that would have been necessary if the STS-134 crew became stranded in orbit. Changes in the design of the payload, AMS-02, as well as delays to STS-133. The first launch attempt on 29 April 2011 was scrubbed at 12,20 pm by launch managers due to problems with two heaters on one of the auxiliary power units. Endeavour launched successfully at 08,56,28 EDT on 16 May 2011, NASA announced the STS-134 crew on 10 August 2009. On 19 June 2008, the United States House of Representatives passed the NASA Authorization Act of 2008, giving NASA funding for one additional mission to deliver science experiments to the station. The same mandate was included in the U. S. Senate version of the NASA Authorization Act that was approved by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science. It was amended and passed by the full Senate on 25 September 2008, passed by the House on 27 September 2008, Bush had previously opposed any additional shuttle missions, as they could delay the transition to Project Constellation. In the spring of 2009, the Obama Administration included funds for the STS-134 mission in its proposed 2010 NASA budget and it was also originally scheduled to coincide with Expedition 26 before delays in the Space Shuttle launch schedule pushed it past that Expedition. If STS-134 had launched during Expedition 26, then Mark Kelly, Shuttle Commander Mark Kellys wife, U. S. On 16 May, Giffords was again at KSC for the launch, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer 2 was carried to the ISS in Endeavours payload bay, and was attached to the ISSs S3 truss segment. The AMS-02 unit is a particle physics detector which contains a permanent magnet. According to the design plan, a cryogenic, superconducting magnet system was developed for the AMS-02. This was reported by NASA to be a technology, granting the instrument the high sensitivity needed to achieve mission objectives. Late in its development, however, poorly understood anomalous heating in the magnet system was discovered. As a result, the AMS-02 experiment leader, Samuel C. C, ting, decided to replace the superconducting magnet inside the spectrometer with the permanent magnet previously used in AMS-01
8.
Mir
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Mir was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, run by the Soviet Union and later by Russia. Mir was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996 and it had a greater mass than any previous spacecraft. At the time it was the largest artificial satellite in orbit and it holds the record for the longest single human spaceflight, with Valeri Polyakov spending 437 days and 18 hours on the station between 1994 and 1995. Mir was occupied for a total of twelve and a half out of its fifteen-year lifespan. Following the success of the Salyut programme, Mir represented the stage in the Soviet Unions space station programme. The first module of the station, known as the module or base block, was launched in 1986. Proton rockets were used to all of its components except for the docking module. When complete, the station consisted of seven pressurised modules and several unpressurised components, power was provided by several photovoltaic arrays attached directly to the modules. The station was maintained at an orbit between 296 km and 421 km altitude and traveled at an speed of 27,700 km/h. Mir was deorbited in March 2001 after funding was cut off, the cost of the Mir programme was estimated by former RKA General Director Yuri Koptev in 2001 as $4.2 billion over its lifetime. Mir was authorized on a 17 February 1976 decree, to design a model of the Salyut DOS-17K space stations. Four Salyut space stations had been launched since 1971, with three more being launched during Mirs development, by August 1978, this had evolved to the final configuration of one aft port and five ports in a spherical compartment at the forward end of the station. It was originally planned that the ports would connect to 7. 5-tonne modules derived from the Soyuz spacecraft and these modules would have used a Soyuz propulsion module, as in Soyuz and Progress, and the descent and orbital modules would have been replaced with a long laboratory module. However, following a February 1979 governmental resolution, the programme was consolidated with Vladimir Chelomeis manned Almaz military space station programme, the docking ports were reinforced to accommodate 20-tonne space station modules based on the TKS spacecraft. NPO Energia was responsible for the space station, with work subcontracted to KB Salyut, due to ongoing work on the Energia rocket and Salyut 7, Soyuz-T. KB Salyut began work in 1979, and drawings were released in 1982 and 1983, by early 1984, work on Mir had halted while all resources were being put into the Buran programme in order to prepare the Buran spacecraft for flight testing. Funding resumed in early 1984 when Valentin Glushko was ordered by the Central Committees Secretary for Space and Defence to orbit Mir by early 1986 and it was clear that the planned processing flow could not be followed and still meet the 1986 launch date. It was decided on Cosmonauts Day 1985 to ship the flight model of the block to the Baikonur cosmodrome and conduct the systems testing
9.
International Space Station
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The International Space Station is a space station, or a habitable artificial satellite, in low Earth orbit. Its first component launched into orbit in 1998, and the ISS is now the largest man-made body in space, the ISS consists of pressurised modules, external trusses, solar arrays, and other components. ISS components have been launched by Russian Proton and Soyuz rockets, the ISS serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which crew members conduct experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology, and other fields. The station is suited for the testing of systems and equipment required for missions to the Moon. The ISS maintains an orbit with an altitude of between 330 and 435 km by means of reboost manoeuvres using the engines of the Zvezda module or visiting spacecraft and it completes 15.54 orbits per day. The ISS is the space station to be inhabited by crews, following the Soviet and later Russian Salyut, Almaz. The station has continuously occupied for 16 years and 156 days since the arrival of Expedition 1 on 2 November 2000. This is the longest continuous presence in low Earth orbit. It has been visited by astronauts, cosmonauts and space tourists from 17 different nations, Soyuz has very limited downmass capability. The ISS programme is a joint project among five participating space agencies, NASA, Roscosmos, JAXA, ESA, the ownership and use of the space station is established by intergovernmental treaties and agreements. The station is divided two sections, the Russian Orbital Segment and the United States Orbital Segment, which is shared by many nations. As of January 2014, the American portion of ISS is being funded until 2024, Roscosmos has endorsed the continued operation of ISS through 2024 but has proposed using elements of the Russian Orbital Segment to construct a new Russian space station called OPSEK. On 28 March 2015, Russian sources announced that Roscosmos and NASA had agreed to collaborate on the development of a replacement for the current ISS. NASA later issued a statement expressing thanks for Russias interest in future co-operation in space exploration. According to the original Memorandum of Understanding between NASA and Rosaviakosmos, the International Space Station was intended to be a laboratory, observatory and factory in low Earth orbit. It was also planned to provide transportation, maintenance, and act as a base for possible future missions to the Moon, Mars. In the 2010 United States National Space Policy, the ISS was given roles of serving commercial, diplomatic. The ISS provides a platform to conduct scientific research, the ISS simplifies individual experiments by eliminating the need for separate rocket launches and research staff
10.
Space Shuttle orbiter
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The Space Shuttle orbiter was the reusable spaceplane component of the Space Shuttle program. Six orbiters were built for flight, Enterprise, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, all were built in Palmdale, California, by the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based Rockwell International company. The first orbiter, Enterprise, made its flight in 1977. An unpowered glider, it was carried by a modified Boeing 747 airliner called the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and released for a series of atmospheric test flights, Enterprise was partially disassembled and retired after completion of critical testing. The remaining orbiters were fully operational spacecraft, and were launched vertically as part of the Space Shuttle stack, Columbia was the first space-worthy orbiter, and made its inaugural flight in 1981. Challenger, Discovery, and Atlantis followed in 1983,1984 and 1985 respectively, in 1986, Challenger was destroyed in an accident shortly after launch. Endeavour was built as Challengers replacement, and was first launched in 1992, in 2003, Columbia was destroyed during re-entry, leaving just three remaining orbiters. Discovery completed its flight on March 9,2011. Atlantis completed the last ever Shuttle flight, STS-135, on July 21,2011, additionally, two reusable solid rocket boosters provided additional thrust for approximately the first two minutes of launch. The orbiters themselves did carry hypergolic propellants for their RCS thrusters, the vertical stabilizer of the orbiter had a leading edge that was swept back at a 45-degree angle. There were four elevons mounted at the edges of the delta wings. These, along with a movable body flap located underneath the main engines, controlled the orbiter during later stages of descent through the atmosphere, overall, the Space Shuttle orbiter was roughly the same size as a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 airliner. This control system carried out the usual attitude control along the pitch, roll, and yaw axes during all of the phases of launching, orbiting. This system also executed any needed orbital maneuvers, including all changes in the altitude, orbital plane. These were all operations that required a lot more power and energy than mere attitude control, the forward rockets of the Reaction Control System, located near the nose of the Space Shuttle orbiter, included 14 primary and two vernier RCS rockets. The aft RCS engines were located in the two Orbital Maneuvering System pods at the rear of the orbiter, and these included 12 primary and two vernier engines in each pod. The RCS also controlled the attitude of the orbiter during most of its re-entry into the Earths atmosphere – until the air became dense enough that the rudder, elevons and body flap became effective. During the early process of the orbiter, the forward RCS thrusters were to be hidden underneath retractable doors
11.
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
12.
Space Shuttle program
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When its mission was complete, the orbiter would re-enter the Earths atmosphere and land like a glider at either the Kennedy Space Center or Edwards Air Force Base. The Shuttle is the only winged manned spacecraft to have achieved orbit and landing, and its missions involved carrying large payloads to various orbits, providing crew rotation for the space station, and performing service missions. The orbiter also recovered satellites and other payloads from orbit and returned them to Earth, the stalled plans for a U. S. space station evolved into the International Space Station and were formally initiated in 1983 by U. S. The first experimental orbiter Enterprise was a glider, launched from the back of a specially modified Boeing 747. The Space Shuttle program finished with its last mission, STS-135 flown by Atlantis, in July 2011, the Space Shuttle program formally ended on August 31,2011. Since the Shuttles retirement, many of its duties are performed by an assortment of government. The European ATV Automated Transfer Vehicle supplied the ISS between 2008 and 2015, classified military missions are being flown by the US Air Forces unmanned space plane, the X-37B. Crew service to the ISS is currently provided by the Russian Soyuz while work on the Commercial Crew Development program proceeds, for missions beyond low Earth orbit, NASA is building the Space Launch System and the Orion spacecraft. Before the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969, NASA began early studies of space shuttle designs, in 1969, President Richard Nixon formed the Space Task Group, chaired by Vice President Spiro T. Agnew. Smaller goals included a variety of vehicles for moving spacecraft around in orbit. Presenting the plans to Nixon, Agnew was told that the administration would not commit to a Mars mission and he was then told to select one of the two remaining proposals. During early shuttle development there was debate about the optimal shuttle design that best balanced capability, development cost. Ultimately the current design was chosen, using a reusable winged orbiter, reusable solid rocket boosters, the shuttle program was formally launched on January 5,1972, when President Nixon announced that NASA would proceed with the development of a reusable space shuttle system. The prime contractor for the program was North American Rockwell, the company responsible for building the Apollo Command/Service Module. The contractor for the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters was Morton Thiokol, for the tank, Martin Marietta. All Space Shuttle missions were launched from the Kennedy Space Center, the weather criteria used for launch included, but were not limited to, precipitation, temperatures, cloud cover, lightning forecast, wind, and humidity. The Shuttle was not launched under conditions where it could have been struck by lightning, the first fully functional orbiter was Columbia, built in Palmdale, California. It was delivered to Kennedy Space Center on March 25,1979, Challenger was delivered to KSC in July 1982, Discovery in November 1983, Atlantis in April 1985 and Endeavour in May 1991
13.
Space Shuttle
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The Space Shuttle was a partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated by the U. S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program name was Space Transportation System, taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft of which it was the only item funded for development, the first of four orbital test flights occurred in 1981, leading to operational flights beginning in 1982. Five complete Shuttle systems were built and used on a total of 135 missions from 1981 to 2011, the Shuttle fleets total mission time was 1322 days,19 hours,21 minutes and 23 seconds. Shuttle components included the Orbiter Vehicle, a pair of solid rocket boosters. The Shuttle was launched vertically, like a rocket, with the two SRBs operating in parallel with the OVs three main engines, which were fueled from the ET. The SRBs were jettisoned before the vehicle reached orbit, and the ET was jettisoned just before orbit insertion, at the conclusion of the mission, the orbiter fired its OMS to de-orbit and re-enter the atmosphere. The orbiter then glided as a spaceplane to a landing, usually at the Shuttle Landing Facility of KSC or Rogers Dry Lake in Edwards Air Force Base. After landing at Edwards, the orbiter was back to the KSC on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. The first orbiter, Enterprise, was built in 1976 for use in Approach, four fully operational orbiters were initially built, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, and Atlantis. Of these, two were lost in accidents, Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003, with a total of fourteen astronauts killed. A fifth operational orbiter, Endeavour, was built in 1991 to replace Challenger, the Space Shuttle was retired from service upon the conclusion of Atlantiss final flight on July 21,2011. Nixons post-Apollo NASA budgeting withdrew support of all components except the Shuttle. The vehicle consisted of a spaceplane for orbit and re-entry, fueled by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks. The first of four orbital test flights occurred in 1981, leading to operational flights beginning in 1982, all launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The system was retired from service in 2011 after 135 missions, the program ended after Atlantis landed at the Kennedy Space Center on July 21,2011. Major missions included launching numerous satellites and interplanetary probes, conducting space science experiments, the first orbiter vehicle, named Enterprise, was built for the initial Approach and Landing Tests phase and lacked engines, heat shielding, and other equipment necessary for orbital flight. A total of five operational orbiters were built, and of these and it was used for orbital space missions by NASA, the US Department of Defense, the European Space Agency, Japan, and Germany. The United States funded Shuttle development and operations except for the Spacelab modules used on D1, sL-J was partially funded by Japan
14.
STS-135
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STS-135 was the 135th and final mission of the American Space Shuttle program. It used the orbiter Atlantis and hardware originally processed for the STS-335 contingency mission, STS-135 launched on 8 July 2011, and landed on 21 July 2011, following a one-day mission extension. The four-person crew was the smallest of any shuttle mission since STS-6 in April 1983, the missions primary cargo was the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Raffaello and a Lightweight Multi-Purpose Carrier, which were delivered to the International Space Station. The flight of Raffaello marked the time that Atlantis carried an MPLM. Although the mission was authorized, it initially had no appropriation in the NASA budget, on 20 January 2011, program managers changed STS-335 to STS-135 on the flight manifest. This allowed for training and other mission specific preparations, on 13 February 2011, program managers told their workforce that STS-135 would fly regardless of the funding situation via a continuing resolution. Until this point, there had no official references to the STS-135 mission in NASA official documentation for the general public. The mission was included in NASAs 2011 authorization, which was signed into law on 11 October 2010, United Space Alliance signed a contract extension for the mission, along with STS-134, the contract contained six one-month options with NASA in order to support continuing operations. The U. S. federal budget approved in April 2011 called for $5.5 billion for NASAs space operations division, including the shuttle, according to NASA, the budget running through 30 September 2011 ended all concerns about funding the STS-135 mission. NASA announced the STS-335/135 crew on 14 September 2010, only four astronauts were assigned to this mission, versus the normal six or seven, because there were no other shuttles available for a rescue following the retirement of Discovery and Endeavour. If the shuttle was seriously damaged in orbit, the crew would have moved into the International Space Station and returned in Russian Soyuz capsules, one at a time, all STS-135 crew members were custom-fitted for a Russian Sokol space suit and molded Soyuz seat liner for this possibility. The reduced crew size allowed the mission to maximize the payload carried to the ISS. It was the time that a Shuttle crew of four flew to the ISS. The last shuttle mission to fly with just four crew members occurred 28 years earlier, the bill still needed the approval of the full Senate. A draft NASA reauthorization bill considered by the House Science & Technology Committee did not provide for a shuttle mission. On 22 July 2010, during a meeting of the House Science Committee, on 5 August 2010, the Senate passed its version of the NASA reauthorization bill, just before lawmakers left for the traditional August recess. On 20 August 2010, NASA managers approved STS-135 mission planning targeting a 28 June 2011 launch, on 29 September 2010, the House of Representatives approved the Senate-passed bill on a 304–118 vote. The bill, approved by the U. S. Congress, on 11 October 2010, Obama signed the legislation into law, allowing NASA to move forward with STS-135, though without specific funding
15.
Space Shuttle Atlantis
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Space Shuttle Atlantis is a Space Shuttle orbiter belonging to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the spaceflight and space exploration agency of the United States. Its maiden flight was STS-51-J from 3 to 7 October 1985, Atlantis embarked on its 33rd and final mission, also the final mission of a space shuttle, STS-135, on 8 July 2011. STS-134 by Endeavour was expected to be the flight before STS-135 was authorized in October 2010. STS-135 took advantage of the processing for the STS-335 Launch On Need mission that would have been necessary if STS-134s crew became stranded in orbit, Atlantis landed for the final time at the Kennedy Space Center on 21 July 2011. By the end of its mission, Atlantis had orbited the Earth a total of 4,848 times. Atlantis is named after RV Atlantis, a sailing ship that operated as the primary research vessel for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution from 1930 to 1966. Weight,151,315 pounds Length,122.17 feet Height,56.58 feet Wingspan,78.06 feet Atlantis was completed in half the time it took to build Space Shuttle Columbia. When it rolled out of the Palmdale assembly plant, weighing 151,315 lb, Atlantis is the lightest shuttle of the remaining fleet, weighing three pounds less than the Space Shuttle Endeavour. Space Shuttle Atlantis lifted off on its voyage on 3 October 1985, on mission STS-51-J. It flew one mission, STS-61-B, the second night launch in the shuttle program. Atlantis was then used for ten flights between 1988 and 1992, two of these, both flown in 1989, deployed the planetary probes Magellan to Venus and Galileo to Jupiter. With STS-30 Atlantis became the first shuttle to launch an interplanetary probe, during another mission, STS-37 flown in 1991, Atlantis deployed the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. Beginning in 1995 with STS-71, Atlantis made seven flights to the former Russian space station Mir as part of the Shuttle-Mir Program. When linked, Atlantis and Mir together formed the largest spacecraft in orbit at the time, Shuttle Atlantis also delivered several vital components for the construction of the International Space Station. During the February 2001 mission STS-98 to the ISS, Atlantis delivered the Destiny Module, the five hour 25 minute third spacewalk performed by astronauts Robert Curbeam and Thomas Jones during STS-98 marked NASAs 100th extra vehicular activity in space. The Quest Joint Airlock, was flown and installed to the ISS by Atlantis during the mission STS-104 in July 2001. The successful installation of the airlock gave on-board space station crews the ability to stage repair, the first mission flown by Atlantis after the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster was STS-115, conducted during September 2006. The mission carried the P3/P4 truss segments and solar arrays to the ISS, on ISS assembly flight STS-122 in February 2008, Atlantis delivered the Columbus laboratory to the ISS
16.
United States Congress
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The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States consisting of two chambers, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the Capitol in Washington, D. C, both senators and representatives are chosen through direct election, though vacancies in the Senate may be filled by a gubernatorial appointment. Members are usually affiliated to the Republican Party or to the Democratic Party, Congress has 535 voting members,435 Representatives and 100 Senators. The House of Representatives has six non-voting members in addition to its 435 voting members and these members can, however, sit on congressional committees and introduce legislation. Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the members of the House of Representatives serve two-year terms representing the people of a single constituency, known as a district. Congressional districts are apportioned to states by using the United States Census results. Each state, regardless of population or size, has two senators, currently, there are 100 senators representing the 50 states. Each senator is elected at-large in their state for a term, with terms staggered. The House and Senate are equal partners in the legislative process—legislation cannot be enacted without the consent of both chambers, however, the Constitution grants each chamber some unique powers. The Senate ratifies treaties and approves presidential appointments while the House initiates revenue-raising bills, the House initiates impeachment cases, while the Senate decides impeachment cases. A two-thirds vote of the Senate is required before a person can be forcibly removed from office. The term Congress can also refer to a meeting of the legislature. A Congress covers two years, the current one, the 115th Congress, began on January 3,2017, the Congress starts and ends on the third day of January of every odd-numbered year. Members of the Senate are referred to as senators, members of the House of Representatives are referred to as representatives, congressmen, or congresswomen. One analyst argues that it is not a solely reactive institution but has played a role in shaping government policy and is extraordinarily sensitive to public pressure. Several academics described Congress, Congress reflects us in all our strengths, Congress is the governments most representative body. Congress is essentially charged with reconciling our many points of view on the public policy issues of the day. —Smith, Roberts, and Wielen Congress is constantly changing and is constantly in flux, most incumbents seek re-election, and their historical likelihood of winning subsequent elections exceeds 90 percent
17.
Space Shuttle Challenger
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Space Shuttle Challenger was the second orbiter of NASAs space shuttle program to be put into service following Columbia. The shuttle was built by Rockwell Internationals Space Transportation Systems Division in Downey and its maiden flight, STS-6, started on April 4,1983. It was the first of two shuttles to be destroyed in flight, the other being Columbia in 2003, the accident led to a two-and-a-half year grounding of the shuttle fleet, flights resumed in 1988 with STS-26 flown by Discovery. Challenger itself was replaced by Endeavour which was built using structural spares ordered by NASA as part of the contracts for Discovery. The Apollo 17 lunar module that landed on the Moon in 1972 was also named Challenger. Because of the low volume of orbiters, the Space Shuttle program decided to build a vehicle as a Structural Test Article, STA-099. The contract for STA-099 was awarded to North American Rockwell on July 26,1972, after STA-099s rollout, it was sent to a Lockheed test site in Palmdale, where it spent over 11 months in vibration tests designed to simulate entire shuttle flights, from launch to landing. In order to prevent damage during structural testing, qualification tests were performed to a factor of safety of 1.2 times the limit loads. The qualification tests were used to validate computational models, and compliance with the required 1.4 factor of safety was shown by analysis. STA-099 was essentially a complete airframe of a Space Shuttle orbiter, with only a crew module installed. Modifying her for flight article status would have far too difficult, expensive. Since STA-099 was not as far along in the construction of its airframe, because STA-099s qualification testing prevented damage, NASA found that rebuilding STA-099 as OV-099 would be less expensive than refitting Enterprise. Work on converting STA-099 into Challenger began in January 1979, starting with just the crew module as the rest of the orbiter was used by Lockheed. STA-099 returned to the Rockwell plant in November 1979, and the original unfinished crew module was replaced with the newly constructed model. Major portions of STA-099, including the bay doors, body flap, wings and vertical stabilizer. By early 1981, most of these components had returned to Palmdale and were reinstalled on the orbiter, work continued on the conversion until July 1982. Challenger had fewer tiles in its Thermal Protection System than Columbia, most of the tiles on the payload bay doors, upper wing surfaces, and rear fuselage surfaces were replaced with DuPont white Nomex felt insulation. These modifications as well as a lighter structure allowed Challenger to carry 2,500 lb more payload than Columbia
18.
Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
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The spacecraft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11,39 EST. Disintegration of the vehicle began after an O-ring seal in its solid rocket booster failed at liftoff. The O-ring was not designed to fly under unusually cold conditions as in this launch and this led to the separation of the right-hand SRBs aft field joint attachment and the structural failure of the external tank. Aerodynamic forces broke up the orbiter, the crew compartment and many other vehicle fragments were eventually recovered from the ocean floor after a lengthy search and recovery operation. The exact timing of the death of the crew is unknown, the shuttle had no escape system, and the impact of the crew compartment with the ocean surface was too violent to be survivable. The Rogers Commission found NASAs organizational culture and decision-making processes had been key contributing factors to the accident, NASA managers had known since 1977 that contractor Morton Thiokols design of the SRBs contained a potentially catastrophic flaw in the O-rings, but they had failed to address this problem properly. Approximately 17 percent of Americans witnessed the launch live because of the presence of Payload Specialist Christa McAuliffe, media coverage of the accident was extensive, one study reported that 85 percent of Americans surveyed had heard the news within an hour of the accident. The Challenger disaster has been used as a study in many discussions of engineering safety. Each of the Space Shuttles two Solid Rocket Boosters was constructed of seven sections, six of which were joined in pairs at the factory. For each flight, the four resulting segments were then assembled in the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center, the factory joints were sealed with asbestos-silica insulation applied over the joint, while each field joint was sealed with two rubber O-rings. During the Space Shuttle design process, a McDonnell Douglas report in September 1971 discussed the safety record of solid rockets, while a safe abort was possible after most types of failures, one was especially dangerous, a burnthrough by hot gases of the rockets casing. The report stated that if burnthrough occurs adjacent to tank or orbiter, timely sensing may not be feasible and abort not possible, Morton Thiokol was the contractor responsible for the construction and maintenance of the shuttles SRBs. This phenomenon, known as joint rotation, caused a drop in air pressure. This made it possible for combustion gases to erode the O-rings, in the event of widespread erosion, a flame path could develop, causing the joint to burst—which would have destroyed the booster and the shuttle. Evidence of serious O-ring erosion was present as early as the space shuttle mission, STS-2. Contrary to NASA regulations, the Marshall Center did not report this problem to senior management at NASA, by 1985, Marshall and Thiokol realized that they had a potentially catastrophic problem on their hands. They began the process of redesigning the joint with three inches of steel around the tang. This tang would grip the inner face of the joint and prevent it from rotating and they did not call for a halt to shuttle flights until the joints could be redesigned, but rather treated the problem as an acceptable flight risk
19.
Space Shuttle Discovery
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Space Shuttle Discovery is one of the orbiters from NASAs Space Shuttle program and the third of five fully operational orbiters to be built. Its first mission, STS-41-D, flew from August 30 to September 5,1984, over 27 years of service it launched and landed 39 times, gathering more spaceflights than any other spacecraft to date. Discovery became the third operational orbiter to enter service, preceded by Columbia and Challenger. It embarked on its last mission, STS-133, on February 24,2011 and touched down for the time at Kennedy Space Center on March 9. Discovery performed both research and International Space Station assembly missions and it also carried the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit. Discovery was the first operational shuttle to be retired, followed by Endeavour, Discovery launched the Hubble Space Telescope and conducted the second and third Hubble service missions. It also launched the Ulysses probe and three TDRS satellites, project Mercury astronaut John Glenn, who was 77 at the time, flew with Discovery on STS-95 in 1998, making him the oldest person to go into space. Had plans to launch United States Department of Defense payloads from Vandenberg Air Force Base gone ahead and its first West Coast mission, STS-62-A, was scheduled for 1986, but canceled in the aftermath of Challenger. Discovery was retired after completing its mission, STS133 on March 9,2011. The spacecraft is now on display in Virginia at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Discovery weighed 6,870 pounds less than Columbia when it was brought into service due to optimizations determined during the construction and testing of Enterprise, Columbia and Challenger. Beginning in late 1995, the orbiter underwent a nine-month Orbiter Maintenance Down Period in Palmdale and this included outfitting the vehicle with a 5th set of cryogenic tanks and an external airlock to support missions to the International Space Station. After STS-105, Discovery became the first of the fleet to undergo Orbiter Major Modification period at the Kennedy Space Center. Work began in September 2002 to prepare the vehicle for Return to Flight and this included scheduled upgrades and additional safety modifications. Discovery is 6 pounds heavier than Atlantis and 363 pounds heavier than Endeavour, Discovery was decommissioned on March 9,2011. Discovery replaced Enterprise in the Smithsonians display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia, Discovery was transported to Washington Dulles International Airport on April 17,2012, and was transferred to the Udvar-Hazy on April 19 where a welcome ceremony was held. Afterwards, at around 5,30 pm, Discovery was rolled to its final stop in the Udvar Hazy Center. By its last mission, Discovery had flown 149 million miles in 39 missions, completed 5,830 orbits, Discovery flew more flights than any other Orbiter Shuttle, including four in 1985 alone. Discovery flew all three return to flight missions after the Challenger and Columbia disasters, STS-26 in 1988, STS-114 in 2005, Discovery flew the ante-penultimate mission of the Space Shuttle program, STS-133, having launched on February 24,2011
20.
Space Shuttle Enterprise
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Space Shuttle Enterprise was the first orbiter of the Space Shuttle system. Rolled out on September 17,1976, it was built for NASA as part of the Space Shuttle program to perform atmospheric test flights after being launched from a modified Boeing 747. It was constructed without engines or a heat shield, and was therefore not capable of spaceflight. Originally, Enterprise had been intended to be refitted for orbital flight to become the second space-rated orbiter in service, similarly, Enterprise was considered for refit to replace Challenger after the latter was destroyed, but Endeavour was built from structural spares instead. Enterprise was restored and placed on display in 2003 at the Smithsonians new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia. The design of Enterprise was not the same as that planned for Columbia, the first flight model, the aft fuselage was constructed differently, instead of a thermal protection system, its surface was primarily covered with simulated tiles made from polyurethane foam. Fiberglass was used for the edge panels in place of the reinforced carbon–carbon ones of spaceflight-worthy orbiters. Only a few sample thermal tiles and some Nomex blankets were real, Enterprise used fuel cells to generate its electrical power, but these were not sufficient to power the orbiter for spaceflight. Enterprise was equipped with Lockheed-manufactured zero-zero ejection seats like those its sister Columbia carried on its first four missions, construction began on Enterprise on June 4,1974. Designated OV-101, it was planned to be named Constitution and unveiled on Constitution Day. Fans of Star Trek asked US President Gerald Ford, through a campaign, to name the orbiter after the television shows fictional starship. White House advisors cited hundreds of thousands of letters from Trekkies—one of the most dedicated constituencies in the country—as a reason for giving the shuttle the name. Although Ford did not publicly mention the campaign, the president said that he was partial to the name Enterprise, in mid-1976 the orbiter was used for ground vibration tests, allowing engineers to compare data from an actual flight vehicle with theoretical models. On September 17,1976, Enterprise was rolled out of Rockwells plant at Palmdale, in recognition of its fictional namesake, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and most of the principal cast of the original series of Star Trek were on hand at the dedication ceremony. On January 31,1977, Enterprise was taken by road to Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base to begin operational testing, while at NASA Dryden Enterprise was used by NASA for a variety of ground and flight tests intended to validate aspects of the shuttle program. The initial nine-month testing period was referred to by the acronym ALT, for Approach and these tests included a maiden flight on February 18,1977, atop a Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft to measure structural loads and ground handling and braking characteristics of the mated system. Ground tests of all orbiter subsystems were carried out to verify functionality prior to atmospheric flight, the mated Enterprise/SCA combination was then subjected to five test flights with Enterprise unmanned and unactivated. The purpose of these test flights was to measure the characteristics of the mated combination
21.
STS-118
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STS-118 was a space shuttle mission to the International Space Station flown by the orbiter Endeavour. STS-118 lifted off on 8 August 2007 from launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, STS-118 pilot Charles Hobaugh had been the entry team CAPCOM for STS-107. Columbia would have chosen for this mission, for what would have been its 29th mission. The mission is referred to as ISS-13A.1 by the ISS program. The mission added two more components to the ISS and brought supplies for its crew, on 31 August 2007, NASA reported that the damaged tiles had been removed in the Orbiter Processing Facility, and engineers had found no evidence of heat-related damage to the orbiter itself. Astronaut Clayton Anderson originally was slated to be launched to the ISS on this mission, NASA press releases and media briefing documents stated that STS-118 was the first flight of a Mission Specialist Educator due to the presence of Barbara Morgan. The Educator Astronaut Project is the successor to NASAs Teacher in Space Project, also, the official STS-118 mission patch included a flame of knowledge that represented the importance of education, and honored teachers and students everywhere. The tip of the flames touched Morgans name on the patch, the mission was also the final flight to include the Spacehab Logistics Single Module. It returned cargo, including the MISSE PEC3 &4, launched in July 2006, the MISSE PEC-3 &4 contained over 850 materials specimens that will be studied to determine the effects of long-term exposure to the environment of space. The mission was scheduled to be flown by Columbia, STS-118 would have marked that orbiters 29th flight. However, the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster altered the flight schedules. STS-118 served as Endeavours return to flight after a planned orbiter re-fit, one of the most important modifications that debuted during STS-118 is an upgraded power-distribution module, the Station-Shuttle Power Transfer System. SSPTS allows Endeavour to tap into the ISS power supply, converting up to eight kilowatts of power from 120-volts direct-current ISS main voltage to the 28VDC system used by the orbiter. SSPTS was outfitted to the ISS Pressurized Mating Adapter-2 during STS-116, Endeavour also received several systems that the other orbiters had already been equipped with, such as a glass cockpit, improved wing leading-edge sensors and the OBSS. STS-118 included mission specialist Barbara Morgan, the first Mission Specialist Educator, Morgan trained as the backup to Christa McAuliffe, NASAs Teacher in Space candidate from 1985 to 1986. McAuliffe was killed in the space shuttle Challenger accident on 28 January 1986, Morgan completed two years of training and evaluation and began official duties in 2000. An Educator Astronaut is a fully trained astronaut who all the same duties that a regular astronaut does. Morgan became the first Mission Specialist Educator in space on STS-118, on 10 July 2007, Endeavour moved from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39A
22.
Stratosphere
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The stratosphere is the second major layer of Earths atmosphere, just above the troposphere, and below the mesosphere. About 20% of the mass is contained in the stratosphere. The stratosphere is stratified in temperature, with warmer layers higher and cooler layers closer to the Earth, the increase of temperature with altitude is a result of the absorption of the Suns ultraviolet radiation by the ozone. This is in contrast to the troposphere, near the Earths surface, the border between the troposphere and stratosphere, the tropopause, marks where this temperature inversion begins. Near the equator, the starts at 18 km, at mid latitudes, it starts at 10–13 km and ends at 50 km, at the poles. Temperatures vary within the stratosphere with the seasons, in particular with the polar night, the greatest variation of temperature takes place over the poles in the lower stratosphere, those variations are largely steady at lower latitudes and higher altitudes. The mechanism describing the formation of the layer was described by British mathematician Sydney Chapman in 1930. Molecular oxygen absorbs high energy sunlight in the UV-C region, at shorter than about 240 nm. The oxygen atoms produced combine with oxygen to form ozone. Ozone in turn is photolysed much more rapidly than molecular oxygen as it has an absorption that occurs at longer wavelengths. Ozone photolysis produces O and O2, the oxygen atom product combines with atmospheric molecular oxygen to reform O3, releasing heat. The rapid photolysis and reformation of ozone heats the stratosphere resulting in a temperature inversion and this increase of temperature with altitude is characteristic of the stratosphere, its resistance to vertical mixing means that it is stratified. Within the stratosphere temperatures increase with altitude, the top of the stratosphere has a temperature of about 270 K, overall the attenuation of solar UV at wavelengths that damage DNA by the ozone layer allows life to exist on the surface of the planet outside of the ocean. All air entering the stratosphere must pass through the tropopause, the minimum that divides the troposphere and stratosphere. The rising air is literally freeze dried, the stratosphere is a dry place. The top of the stratosphere is called the stratopause, above which the temperature decreases with height and we now know that there are additional ozone loss mechanisms, and that these mechanisms are catalytic meaning that a small amount of the catalyst can destroy a great number of ozone molecules. The first is due to the reaction of hydroxyl radicals OH· with ozone, OH is formed by the reaction of electronically excited oxygen atoms produced by ozone photolysis, with water vapor. While the stratosphere is dry, additional water vapor is produced in situ by the oxidation of methane
23.
Mesosphere
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The mesosphere is the layer of the Earths atmosphere that is directly above the stratosphere and directly below the mesopause. In the mesosphere, temperature decreases as the altitude increases, the upper boundary of the mesosphere is the mesopause, which can be the coldest naturally occurring place on Earth with temperatures below −143 °C. The stratosphere, mesosphere and lowest part of the thermosphere are collectively referred to as the middle atmosphere, the mesopause, at an altitude of 80–90 km, separates the mesosphere from the thermosphere—the second-outermost layer of the Earths atmosphere. This is also around the altitude as the turbopause, below which different chemical species are well mixed due to turbulent eddies. Above this level the atmosphere becomes non-uniform, the heights of different chemical species differ by their molecular masses. Within the mesosphere, temperature decreases with increasing height, due to decreasing solar heating and increasing cooling by CO2 radiative emission, the top of the mesosphere, called the mesopause, is the coldest part of Earths atmosphere. Temperatures in the mesosphere fall as low as −101 °C, varying according to latitude. The main dynamic features in this region are strong winds, atmospheric tides, internal atmospheric gravity waves. Most of these tides and waves start in the troposphere and lower stratosphere, in the mesosphere, gravity-wave amplitudes can become so large that the waves become unstable and dissipate. This dissipation deposits momentum into the mesosphere and largely drives global circulation, noctilucent clouds are located in the mesosphere. The upper mesosphere is also the region of the known as the D layer. The D layer is present during the day, when some ionization occurs with nitric oxide being ionized by Lyman series-alpha hydrogen radiation. The ionization is so weak that when night falls, and the source of ionization is removed, the mesosphere has been called the ignorosphere because it is poorly studied relative to the stratosphere and the thermosphere. A5 km deep sodium layer is located between 80–105 km, made of unbound, non-ionized atoms of sodium, the sodium layer radiates weakly to contribute to the airglow. The sodium has a concentration of 400,000 atoms per cubic centimeter. This band is regularly replenished by sodium sublimating from incoming meteors, astronomers have begun utilizing this sodium band to create guide stars as part of the adaptive optical correction process used to produce ultra-sharp ground-based observations. Millions of meteors enter the Earths atmosphere, averaging 40 tons per year, the mesosphere lies above altitude records for aircraft and balloons, and below the minimum altitude for orbital spacecraft. It has only been accessed through the use of sounding rockets, as a result, it is the least-understood part of the atmosphere
24.
James Cook
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Captain James Cook FRS RN was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy. Cook joined the British merchant navy as a teenager and joined the Royal Navy in 1755 and he saw action in the Seven Years War, and subsequently surveyed and mapped much of the entrance to the Saint Lawrence River during the siege of Quebec. This helped bring Cook to the attention of the Admiralty and Royal Society, in three voyages Cook sailed thousands of miles across largely uncharted areas of the globe. He mapped lands from New Zealand to Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean in greater detail, as he progressed on his voyages of discovery he surveyed and named features, and recorded islands and coastlines on European maps for the first time. He displayed a combination of seamanship, superior surveying and cartographic skills, physical courage, Cook was attacked and killed while attempting to kidnap the native chief of Hawaii during his third exploratory voyage in the Pacific in 1779. He left a legacy of scientific and geographical knowledge which was to influence his successors well into the 20th century, and numerous memorials worldwide have been dedicated to him. James Cook was born on 7 November 1728 in the village of Marton in Yorkshire and baptised on 14 November in the church of St Cuthbert. He was the second of eight children of James Cook, a Scottish farm labourer from Ednam in Roxburghshire, in 1736, his family moved to Airey Holme farm at Great Ayton, where his fathers employer, Thomas Skottowe, paid for him to attend the local school. In 1741, after five years schooling, he work for his father. For leisure, he would climb a hill, Roseberry Topping, enjoying the opportunity for solitude. Cooks Cottage, his parents last home, which he is likely to have visited, is now in Melbourne, having moved from England and reassembled, brick by brick. In 1745, when he was 16, Cook moved 20 miles to the village of Staithes. Historians have speculated that this is where Cook first felt the lure of the sea while gazing out of the shop window. After 18 months, not proving suitable for work, Cook travelled to the nearby port town of Whitby to be introduced to friends of Sandersons, John. The Walkers, who were Quakers, were prominent local ship-owners in the coal trade and their house is now the Captain Cook Memorial Museum. Cook was taken on as a merchant navy apprentice in their fleet of vessels. His first assignment was aboard the collier Freelove, and he spent several years on this and various other coasters, sailing between the Tyne and London. As part of his apprenticeship, Cook applied himself to the study of algebra, geometry, trigonometry, navigation and his three-year apprenticeship completed, Cook began working on trading ships in the Baltic Sea
25.
First voyage of James Cook
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The first voyage of James Cook was a combined Royal Navy and Royal Society expedition to the south Pacific Ocean aboard HMS Endeavour, from 1768 to 1771. It was the first of three Pacific voyages of which Cook was the commander, the aims of this first expedition were to observe the 1769 transit of Venus across the Sun, and to seek evidence of the postulated Terra Australis Incognita or unknown southern land. The voyage was commissioned by King George III and commanded by Lieutenant James Cook, departing from Plymouth-Dock in August 1768, the expedition crossed the Atlantic, rounded Cape Horn and reached Tahiti in time to observe the transit of Venus. In September 1769 the expedition reached New Zealand, being the second Europeans to visit there, Cook and his crew spent the following six months charting the New Zealand coast, before resuming their voyage westward across open sea. In April 1770 they became the first Europeans to reach the east coast of Australia, making landfall at Point Hicks, the expedition continued northward along the Australian coastline, narrowly avoiding shipwreck on the Great Barrier Reef. In October 1770 the badly damaged Endeavour came into the port of Batavia in the Dutch East Indies and they resumed their journey on 26 December, rounded the Cape of Good Hope on 13 March 1771, and reached the English port of Deal on 12 July. The voyage lasted almost three years, the year following his return Cook set out on a second voyage of the Pacific, which lasted from 1772 to 1775. His third and final voyage lasted from 1776 to 1779, the Royal Society suggested command be given to Scottish geographer Alexander Dalrymple, whose acceptance was conditional on a brevet commission as a captain in the Royal Navy. However, First Lord of the Admiralty Edward Hawke refused, going so far as to say he would cut off his right hand than give command of a Navy vessel to someone not educated as a seaman. The impasse was broken when the Admiralty proposed James Cook, an officer with a background in mathematics. Acceptable to both parties, Cook was promoted to Lieutenant and named as commander of the expedition, the vessel chosen by the Admiralty for the voyage was a merchant collier named Earl of Pembroke, launched in June 1764 from the coal and whaling port of Whitby in North Yorkshire. She was ship-rigged and sturdily built with a broad, flat bow, a square stern, a flat-bottomed design made her well-suited to sailing in shallow waters and allowed her to be beached for loading and unloading of cargo and for basic repairs without requiring a dry dock. Her hull was sheathed and caulked, and a third internal deck installed to provide cabins, a longboat, pinnace and yawl were provided as ships boats, as well as a set of 28 ft sweeps to allow the ship to be rowed if becalmed or demasted. Alcohol supplies consisted of 250 barrels of beer,44 barrels of brandy and 17 barrels of rum, on 30 July 1768 the Admiralty authorised a ships company for the voyage, of 73 sailors and 12 Royal Marines. The voyage was commanded by 40-year-old Lieutenant James Cook and his second lieutenant was Zachary Hicks, a 29-year-old from Stepney with experience as acting commander of the Hornet, a 16-gun cutter. The third lieutenant was John Gore, a 16-year Naval veteran who had served as mate aboard HMS Dolphin during its circumnavigation of the world in 1766. Other notable people on the expedition include the official astronomer, Charles Green, then assistant to the Astronomer Royal, Joseph Banks had been appointed to the voyage as the official botanist. Banks funded seven others to him, a Swedish naturalist Daniel Solander
26.
Apollo Command/Service Module
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The Command/Service Module was one of two spacecraft, along with the Lunar Module, used for the United States Apollo program which landed astronauts on the Moon. It was built for NASA by North American Aviation and it was launched by itself on three suborbital and low Earth orbit Apollo test missions using the Saturn IB launch vehicle. It was also launched twelve times on the larger Saturn V launch vehicle and it made a total of nine manned flights to the Moon aboard the Saturn V. The Service Module was cast off and allowed to burn up in the atmosphere before the Command Module re-entered, the Apollo 1 flight was cancelled after a cabin fire killed the entire crew and destroyed the Command Module during a launch rehearsal test. Corrections of the problems caused the fire were applied to the Block II spacecraft. Therefore, design proceeded without a means of docking the Command Module to a Lunar Excursion Module, but the change to lunar orbit rendezvous, plus several technical obstacles encountered in some subsystems, soon made it clear that substantial redesign would be required. Block II would be the version, including a docking hatch and incorporating weight reduction. Detailed design of the docking capability depended on design of the LEM, by January 1964, North American started presenting Block II design details to NASA. Block I spacecraft were used for all unmanned Saturn 1B and Saturn V test flights, initially two manned flights were planned, but this was reduced to one in late 1966. This mission, designated AS-204 but named Apollo 1 by its crew, was planned for launch on February 21,1967. After a thorough investigation by the Apollo 204 Review Board, it was decided to terminate the manned Block I phase, the two blocks were essentially similar in overall dimensions, but several design improvements resulted in weight reduction in Block II. Also, the Block I Service Module propellant tanks were slightly larger than in Block II, the Apollo 1 spacecraft weighed approximately 45,000 pounds, while the Block II Apollo 7 weighed 36,400 lb. In the specifications given below, unless noted, all weights given are for the Block II spacecraft. The total cost of the CSM for development and the produced was $36. 9B in 2016 dollars. The Command Module was a truncated cone 10 feet 7 inches tall with a diameter of 12 feet 10 inches across the base, the forward compartment contained two reaction control engines, the docking tunnel, and the components of the Earth Landing System. The inner pressure vessel housed the crew accommodations, equipment bays, controls and displays, the last section, the aft compartment, contained 10 reaction control engines and their related propellant tanks, fresh water tanks, and the CSM umbilical cables. The Command Module consisted of two basic structures joined together, the structure and the outer structure. The inner structure was a sandwich construction which consisted of a welded aluminum inner skin, adhesively bonded aluminum honeycomb core
27.
Apollo 15
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Apollo 15 was the ninth manned mission in the United States Apollo program, the fourth to land on the Moon, and the eighth successful manned mission. It was the first of what were termed J missions, long stays on the Moon and it was also the first mission on which the Lunar Roving Vehicle was used. The mission began on July 26,1971, and ended on August 7, at the time, NASA called it the most successful manned flight ever achieved. Commander David Scott and Lunar Module Pilot James Irwin spent three days on the Moon, including 18½ hours outside the spacecraft on lunar extra-vehicular activity, the mission landed near Hadley rille, in an area of the Mare Imbrium called Palus Putredinus. The crew explored the area using the first lunar rover, which allowed them to travel farther from the Lunar Module than had been possible on missions without the rover. They collected 77 kilograms of lunar surface material, Scott had attended the University of Michigan, but left before graduating to accept an appointment to the United States Military Academy. The crewmen did their work at either the United States Military Academy or the United States Naval Academy. C. Gordon Fullerton Joseph P. Allen Robert A. Parker Karl G.5 km Apogee,171.3 km Inclination,29. 679° Period,87. There had been a rivalry between that prime and backup crew on that mission, with the prime being all United States Navy. Originally Apollo 15 would have been an H mission, like Apollos 12,13 and 14, but on September 2,1970, NASA announced it was canceling what were to be the current incarnations of the Apollo 15 and Apollo 19 missions. To maximize the return from the missions, Apollo 15 would now fly as a J mission and have the honor of carrying the first lunar rover. One of the changes in the training for Apollo 15 was the geology training. Although on previous flights the crews had trained in field geology. Scott and Irwin would train with Leon Silver, a Caltech geologist who on Earth was interested in the Precambrian, Silver had been suggested by Harrison Schmitt as an alternative to the classroom lecturers that NASA had previously used. Among other things, Silver had made important refinements to the methods for dating rocks using the decay of uranium into lead in the late 1950s, crews began to wear mock-ups of the backpacks they would carry, and communicate using walkie-talkies to a CAPCOM in a tent. The CAPCOM was accompanied by a group of geologists unfamiliar with the area who would rely on the descriptions to interpret the findings. The decision to land at Hadley came in September 1970, the Site Selection Committees had narrowed the field down to two sites — Hadley Rille or the crater Marius, near which were a group of low, possibly volcanic, domes. Although not ultimately his decision, the commander of a mission always held great sway, to David Scott the choice was clear, with Hadley, being exploration at its finest
28.
Senatobia, Mississippi
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Senatobia is a city in and the county seat of Tate County, Mississippi, and is the 16th largest municipality in the Memphis Metropolitan Area. The population was 8,165 at the 2010 census, Senatobia is the home of Northwest Mississippi Community College, a state community college that provides two-year academic and technical degree programs. Northwests system-wide enrollment exceeds 8,000 on three campuses in Senatobia, Southaven and Oxford, also located in Senatobia is the Baddour Center, a residential care facility for intellectually disabled adults. On April 13,1834 early settler James Peters purchased two sections of land from the Chickasaw Nation for the sum of $1.25 per acre and this land was later developed as the town of Senatobia. The name Senatobia, given by Charles Meriweather, was derived from the Indian word Senatohoba, Senatobia received its charter as a municipality in 1860. Tate County was organized in 1873, during the Reconstruction era, during the Civil War, the towns business section was burned twice by Federal troops. Two Academy Award-nominated films have been filmed in the town, The Client. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 10.8 square miles. The population density was 621.7 people per square mile, there were 2,239 housing units at an average density of 208.3 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 61. 1% non-Hispanic White,35. 0% non-Hispanic African American,2. 4% Hispanic or Latino of any race, and 1. 6% in other racial/ethnic categories. 26. 6% of all households were made up of individuals and 12. 5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.60 and the average family size was 3.15. In the city, the population was out with 24. 8% under the age of 18,20. 1% from 18 to 24,26. 0% from 25 to 44,17. 1% from 45 to 64. The median age was 29 years, for every 100 females there were 89.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.4 males, the median income for a household in the city was $33,698, and the median income for a family was $43,088. Males had an income of $34,022 versus $22,000 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,434, about 13. 0% of families and 17. 7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 21. 3% of those under age 18 and 18. 5% of those age 65 or over. Senatobia is served by the Senatobia Municipal School District and Magnolia Heights School, aron Burton, blues bass guitarist Robert Earl Jones an American actor James Kamala Harris, wrestler O. B. McClinton, country and R&B singer/songwriter Dan A. Sullivan, Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from Jonesboro, Arkansas, city website Senatobia Municipal School District Magnolia Heights School Tate County Democrat Northwest Mississippi Community College
29.
Tallulah Falls School
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Tallulah Falls School is a private boarding and day school located in the town of Tallulah Falls, Georgia, United States, within Habersham and Rabun Counties. The school is located on a campus in Northeast Georgia on the southern slopes of Cherokee Mountain at the foothills of the Appalachian chain. The school was founded in 1909 by Mary Ann Lipscomb of Athens, the school is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In the fall of 2014, TFS opened its expanded and renovated upper school academic building, on the same day as the dedication, school officials broke ground on a new gymnasium project on the middle school campus. The $4.5 million structure is slated for completion in the fall of 2016
30.
Tallulah Falls, Georgia
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This article refers to the town. For the lake, see Lake Tallulah Falls, for the waterfalls and gorge, see Tallulah Gorge and for the river, Tallulah Falls is a town in Habersham and Rabun counties in the U. S. state of Georgia near the Tallulah River. The population was 168 at the 2010 census and it started out in the 1880s as a tourist town for the multitude of visitors to Tallulah Falls. Tallulah Falls was the location for portions of the 1972 film Deliverance. Tallulah Bankhead was named after her grandmother, who in turn was named after Tallulah Falls. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has an area of 8.6 square miles. U. S. Highway 23-441, one of the principal thoroughfares into the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains, as of the census of 2000, there were 164 people,71 households, and 47 families residing in the town. The population density was 20.1 people per square mile, there were 106 housing units at an average density of 13.0 per square mile. The racial makeup of the town was 100. 00% White,28. 2% of all households were made up of individuals and 9. 9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.31 and the family size was 2.83. In the town, the population was out with 22. 6% under the age of 18,7. 3% from 18 to 24,25. 0% from 25 to 44,31. 1% from 45 to 64. The median age was 42 years, for every 100 females there were 100.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.4 males, the median income for a household in the town was $40,833, and the median income for a family was $52,500. Males had an income of $43,750 versus $25,000 for females. The per capita income for the town was $26,663, about 4. 2% of families and 10. 6% of the population were below the poverty line, including none of those under the age of eighteen and 34. 4% of those sixty five or over. Official website for the Town of Tallulah Falls
31.
George H. W. Bush
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George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who was the 41st President of the United States from 1989 to 1993 and the 43rd Vice President of the United States from 1981 to 1989. Republican Party, he was previously a congressman, ambassador, and he is the oldest living former President and Vice President. Prior to his sons presidency, he was referred to as George Bush or President Bush. Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to Prescott Bush and Dorothy Walker Bush. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Bush postponed his university studies, enlisted in the U. S. Navy on his 18th birthday and he served until the end of the war, then attended Yale University. Graduating in 1948, he moved his family to West Texas and entered the oil business, Bush became involved in politics soon after founding his own oil company, serving as a member of the House of Representatives and Director of Central Intelligence, among other positions. He failed to win the Republican nomination for President in 1980, but was chosen as a mate by party nominee Ronald Reagan. During his tenure, Bush headed administration task forces on deregulation, in 1988, Bush ran a successful campaign to succeed Reagan as President, defeating Democratic opponent Michael Dukakis. Foreign policy drove the Bush presidency, military operations were conducted in Panama and the Persian Gulf, the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, and the Soviet Union dissolved two years later. Domestically, Bush reneged on a 1988 campaign promise and, after a struggle with Congress and his presidential library was dedicated in 1997, and he has been active—often alongside Bill Clinton—in various humanitarian activities. Besides being the 43rd president, his son George also served as the 46th Governor of Texas and is one of only two other being John Quincy Adams—to be the son of a former president. His second son, Jeb Bush, served as the 43rd Governor of Florida, George Herbert Walker Bush was born at 173 Adams Street in Milton, Massachusetts, on June 12,1924, to Prescott Sheldon Bush and Dorothy Bush. The Bush family moved from Milton to Greenwich, Connecticut, shortly after his birth, growing up, his nickname was Poppy. Bush began his education at the Greenwich Country Day School in Greenwich. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Bush decided to join the US, Navy, so after graduating from Phillips Academy in 1942, he became a naval aviator at the age of 18. He was assigned to Torpedo Squadron as the officer in September 1943. The following year, his squadron was based on USS San Jacinto as a member of Air Group 51, during this time, the task force was victorious in one of the largest air battles of World War II, the Battle of the Philippine Sea. After Bushs promotion to Lieutenant on August 1,1944, San Jacinto commenced operations against the Japanese in the Bonin Islands, Bush piloted one of four Grumman TBM Avenger aircraft from VT-51 that attacked the Japanese installations on Chichijima
32.
Intelsat
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Intelsat, S. A. is a communications satellite services provider. As of March 2017, Intelsat is to merge with Softbank backed OneWeb, the agreement is to merge in a share-for-share deal. SoftBank will buy voting and non-voting shares in the company for $1.7 billion in cash. Shares that Softbank-OneWeb will buy in the company will be bought for $5 per share. As of March 2011, Intelsat operates a fleet of 52 communications satellites and they claim to serve around 1,500 customers and employ a staff of approximately 1,100 people. The intergovernmental organization began on 20 August 1964, with 11 participating countries, on 6 April 1965, Intelsat’s first satellite, the Intelsat I, was placed in geostationary orbit above the Atlantic Ocean by a Delta D rocket. In 1973, the name was changed and there were 80 signatories, Intelsat provides service to over 600 Earth stations in more than 149 countries, territories and dependencies. By 2001, INTELSAT had over 100 members and it was also this year that INTELSAT privatized and changed its name to Intelsat. Since its inception, Intelsat has used versions of its dedicated Intelsat satellites. Intelsat completes each block of spacecraft independently, leading to a variety of contractors over the years, Intelsat’s largest spacecraft supplier is Space Systems/Loral, having built 31 spacecraft, or nearly half of the fleet. The network in its early years was not as robust as it is now. Fortunately, during the Apollo 11 moonwalk, the moon was over the Pacific Ocean, and so other antennas were used, as well as INTELSAT III, to avert the US governments interference with Intelsat, Intelsats senior management unsuccessfully considered relocating the IGO to another country. On 18 July 2001, Intelsat became a company,37 years after formation. Prior to Intelsats privatization in 2001, ownership and investment in INTELSAT was distributed among INTELSAT members according to their use of services, investment shares determined each member’s percentage of the total contribution needed to finance capital expenditures. Satellite services were available to any organization, and all paid the same rates. Today, the number of Intelsat satellites, as well as ocean-spanning fibre-optic lines, modern satellites are more robust, lasting longer with much larger capacity. Intelsat Americas-7 experienced a power failure on 29 November 2004. The satellite returned to service with reduced capacity, Intelsat was sold for U. S. $3. 1bn in January 2005 to four private equity firms, Madison Dearborn Partners, Apax Partners, Permira and Apollo Global Management
33.
Mae Jemison
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Mae Carol Jemison is an American engineer, physician and NASA astronaut. She became the first African-American woman to travel in space when she went into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on September 12,1992. After medical school and a general practice, Jemison served in the Peace Corps from 1985 until 1987. She resigned from NASA in 1993 to found a company researching the application of technology to daily life and she has appeared on television several times, including as an actress in an episode of Star Trek, The Next Generation. She is a dancer and holds nine honorary doctorates in science, engineering, letters, and she is the current principal of the 100 Year Starship organization. Mae Carol Jemison was born in Decatur, Alabama, on October 17,1956 and her father was a maintenance supervisor for a charity organization, and her mother worked most of her career as an elementary school teacher of English and math at the Beethoven School in Chicago. The family moved to Chicago, Illinois, when Jemison was three years old, to advantage of the better educational and employment opportunities there. Jemison says that as a girl growing up in Chicago she always assumed she would get into space. I thought, by now, wed be going into space like you were going to work and she said it was easier to apply to be a shuttle astronaut, rather than waiting around in a cornfield, waiting for ET to pick me up or something. In her childhood, Jemison learned to make connections to science by studying nature, once when a splinter infected her thumb as a little girl, Jemisons mother turned it into a learning experience. She ended up doing a project about pus. Jemisons parents were supportive of her interest in science, while her teachers were not. In kindergarten, my teacher asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up and she said, Dont you mean a nurse. Now, theres nothing wrong with being a nurse, but thats not what I wanted to be, in an interview with Makers, she further explains how her sheer interest in science was not accepted. Growing up. I was just like every other kid, I loved space, stars and dinosaurs. I always knew I wanted to explore, at the time of the Apollo airing, everybody was thrilled about space, but I remember being irritated that there were no women astronauts. People tried to explain that to me, and I did not buy it, Jemison says she was inspired by Martin Luther King Jr. to her Kings dream was not an elusive fantasy but a call to action. Too often people paint him like Santa -- smiley and inoffensive, but when I think of Martin Luther King, I think of attitude, audacity, and bravery
34.
STS-47
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STS-47 was the 50th Space Shuttle mission of the program, as well as the second mission of Space Shuttle Endeavour. The mission mainly involved conducting experiments in life and material sciences, spacelab-J—a joint NASA and National Space Development Agency of Japan mission using a manned Spacelab module—conducted microgravity investigations in materials and life sciences. Spacelab-J included 24 materials science and 20 life sciences experiments, of which 35 were sponsored by NASDA,7 by NASA and 2 collaborative efforts, davis and Lee, who later divorced, refused to answer queries about them engaging in intimate activities during the mission. Life sciences included experiments on human health, cell separation and biology, developmental biology, animal and human physiology and behavior, space radiation, and biological rhythms. Test subjects included the crew, Japanese koi fish, cultured animal and plant cells, chicken embryos, fruit flies, fungi, plant seeds, frogs and frog eggs, twelve Get Away Special canisters were carried in the payload bay. Among the GAS Cansisters was G-102, sponsored by the Boy Scouts of Americas Exploring Division in cooperation with the TRW Systems Integration Group, Fairfax, the project was named Project POSTAR and was the first space experiment created entirely by members of the Boy Scouts of America. The mission, scheduled to end on September 19, was extended for one day to complete certain experiments. Also on board were two experiments prepared by Ashford School in Kent, United Kingdom, which, at the time, was a girls-only school, the school had won a competition run by Independent Television News. The experiments were contained in G-520, the first one injected a few grams of cobalt nitrate crystals to a sodium silicate to create a chemical garden in weightless condition. The growths, which were photographed 66 times as they developed, spread out in random directions, twisted, a second experiment to investigate how Liesegang rings formed in space failed to operate correctly due to friction in parts of the mechanism. On its return, the experiment was exhibited in the London Science Museum, NASA mission summary STS-47 Video Highlights Project POSTAR
35.
STS-61
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STS-61 was the first Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, and the fifth flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour. The mission launched on 2 December 1993 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the mission restored the spaceborne observatorys vision, marred by spherical aberration, with the installation of a new main camera and a corrective optics package. This correction occurred more than three and a years after the Hubble was launched aboard STS-31 in April 1990. The flight also brought instrument upgrades and new solar arrays to the telescope, with its very heavy workload, the STS-61 mission was one of the most complex in the Shuttles history. It lasted almost 11 days, and crew members made five spacewalks, even the re-positioning of Intelsat VI on STS-49 in May 1992 required only four. The flight plan allowed for two additional EVAs, which could have raised the number to seven. The final two contingency EVAs were not made, in order to complete the mission without too much fatigue, the five extravehicular working sessions were shared between two pairs of different astronauts alternating their shifts. The internal HST payload package was not affected because it was sealed. On November 18 Endeavour experienced a failure of a transducer on the hydraulic actuator. To replace the actuator would have required a rollback to the Orbiter Processing Facility because access to the actuator was only through the Main Landing Gear wheel well. Since there were 4 delta-P transducers and the Launch Commit Criteria required only 3 of 4, the flight crew arrived at the KSC Shuttle Landing Facility on November 27 and the payload bay doors were closed at 3, 20pm on November 28. The first launch attempt on December 1,1993 was scrubbed due to weather constraint violations at the Shuttle Landing Facility, just before the scrub the range was also in a no-go situation due to an 800 ft long ship in restricted sea zone. A 24‑hour scrub turn-a-round was put into effect with a launch window extending between 4, 26am to 5, 38am on December 2,1993, Launch occurred.019 seconds from its scheduled time of 4, 26am December 2,1993. After launch on 2 December 1993, the astronauts carried out a series of checks on the vehicle and went to sleep seven and a half hours after liftoff. Endeavour performed a series of burns that allowed the shuttle to close in on the Hubble Space Telescope at a rate of 60 nautical miles per 95-minute orbit, the crew made a detailed inspection of the payload and checked out both the robot arm and the spacesuits. All of Endeavours systems functioned well as the crew got a full days sleep in preparation for the evenings rendezvous, at the end of Flight Day 2, Endeavour was 190 nautical miles behind HST and closing. HST was sighted by astronaut Jeffrey A. Hoffman using binoculars, the closing speed remained the same until the next reaction control system firing, at 8,34 pm CST. This height-adjusting burn changed the shuttles velocity by 4.6 feet per second, modified the high point of Endeavours orbit, and fine-tuned its course toward a point 40 miles behind HST
36.
Hubble Space Telescope
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The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. Although not the first space telescope, Hubble is one of the largest and most versatile, with a 2. 4-meter mirror, Hubbles four main instruments observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared spectra. Hubbles orbit outside the distortion of Earths atmosphere allows it to take extremely high-resolution images, Hubble has recorded some of the most detailed visible light images ever, allowing a deep view into space and time. Many Hubble observations have led to breakthroughs in astrophysics, such as determining the rate of expansion of the universe. The HST was built by the United States space agency NASA, the Space Telescope Science Institute selects Hubbles targets and processes the resulting data, while the Goddard Space Flight Center controls the spacecraft. Space telescopes were proposed as early as 1923, Hubble was funded in the 1970s, with a proposed launch in 1983, but the project was beset by technical delays, budget problems, and the Challenger disaster. When finally launched in 1990, Hubbles main mirror was found to have been ground incorrectly, the optics were corrected to their intended quality by a servicing mission in 1993. Hubble is the telescope designed to be serviced in space by astronauts. After launch by Space Shuttle Discovery in 1990, five subsequent Space Shuttle missions repaired, upgraded, the fifth mission was canceled on safety grounds following the Columbia disaster. However, after spirited public discussion, NASA administrator Mike Griffin approved the fifth servicing mission, the telescope is operating as of 2017, and could last until 2030–2040. Its scientific successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, is scheduled for launch in 2018, the history of the Hubble Space Telescope can be traced back as far as 1946, to the astronomer Lyman Spitzers paper Astronomical advantages of an extraterrestrial observatory. In it, he discussed the two advantages that a space-based observatory would have over ground-based telescopes. First, the resolution would be limited only by diffraction, rather than by the turbulence in the atmosphere. Second, a telescope could observe infrared and ultraviolet light. Spitzer devoted much of his career to pushing for the development of a space telescope, space-based astronomy had begun on a very small scale following World War II, as scientists made use of developments that had taken place in rocket technology. An orbiting solar telescope was launched in 1962 by the United Kingdom as part of the Ariel space program, oAO-1s battery failed after three days, terminating the mission. It was followed by OAO-2, which carried out observations of stars and galaxies from its launch in 1968 until 1972. The continuing success of the OAO program encouraged increasingly strong consensus within the community that the LST should be a major goal
37.
Unity (ISS module)
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The Unity connecting module was the first U. S. -built component of the International Space Station. It is cylindrical in shape, with six berthing locations facilitating connections to other modules. Unity measures 4.57 metres in diameter, is 5.47 metres long, sometimes referred to as Node 1, Unity was the first of the three connecting modules, the other two are Harmony and Tranquility. Unity was carried into orbit as the cargo of the Space Shuttle Endeavour on STS-88. On December 6,1998, the STS-88 crew mated the aft berthing port of Unity with the hatch of the already orbiting Zarya module. This was the first connection made between two station modules, Unity has 2 axial, and 4 radial Common Berthing Mechanism ports. In addition to connecting to the Zarya module, Unity connects to the U. S, destiny Laboratory Module, the Z1 truss, the PMA-3, and the Quest Joint Airlock. In addition, the Leonardo and Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Modules were each berthed to Unity on multiple missions, during STS-120 the Harmony connecting module was temporarily berthed to the port-side hatch of Unity. Tranquility, with its cupola, was attached to Unitys port side during the STS-130 mission. More than 50,000 mechanical items,216 lines to carry fluids and gases, prior to its launch aboard Endeavour, conical Pressurized Mating Adapters were attached to the aft and forward berthing mechanisms of Unity. Unity and the two mating adapters together weighed about 25,600 pounds, the adapters allow the docking systems used by the Space Shuttle and by Russian modules to attach to the nodes hatches and berthing mechanisms. PMA-1 now permanently attaches Unity to Zarya, while PMA-2 provided a Shuttle docking port, attached to the exterior of PMA-1 are computers, or multiplexer-demultiplexers, which provided early command and control of Unity. PMA-3 was attached to Unitys nadir berthing mechanism by the crew of STS-92, the two remaining station connecting modules, or nodes, were built in Italy by Alenia Aerospazio, as part of an agreement between NASA and the European Space Agency. Harmony and Tranquility are slightly longer than Unity, measuring almost 6.4 meters long in total, in addition to their six berthing ports, each can hold eight International Standard Payload Racks. Unity, in comparison, holds just four ISPRs, ESA built Nodes 2 and 3 as partial payment for the launch aboard the Shuttle of the Columbus laboratory module, and other ESA equipment. NASA Facts, Unity Connecting Module, cornerstone for a Home in Orbit NASA, January 1999 Expedition 15 - Tour of the Unity Node filmed in July 2007 by Clayton Anderson
38.
Glass cockpit
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A glass cockpit is an aircraft cockpit that features electronic flight instrument displays, typically large LCD screens, rather than the traditional style of analog dials and gauges. This simplifies aircraft operation and navigation and allows pilots to focus only on the most pertinent information and they are also popular with airline companies as they usually eliminate the need for a flight engineer, saving costs. In recent years the technology has become available in small aircraft. As aircraft displays have modernized, the sensors that feed them have modernized as well, traditional gyroscopic flight instruments have been replaced by electronic attitude and heading reference systems and air data computers, improving reliability and reducing cost and maintenance. GPS receivers are usually integrated into glass cockpits, glass cockpits originated in military aircraft in the late 1960s and early 1970s, an early example is the Mark II avionics of the F-111D, which featured a multi-function display. Prior to the 1970s, air operations were not considered sufficiently demanding to require advanced equipment like electronic flight displays. Also, computer technology was not at a level where sufficiently light, the increasing complexity of transport aircraft, the advent of digital systems and the growing air traffic congestion around airports began to change that. The success of the NASA-led glass cockpit work is reflected in the acceptance of electronic flight displays beginning with the introduction of the MD-80 in 1979. Airlines and their passengers alike have benefited, the safety and efficiency of flights have been increased with improved pilot understanding of the aircrafts situation relative to its environment. By the end of the 1990s, liquid-crystal display panels were increasingly favored among aircraft manufacturers because of their efficiency, earlier LCD panels suffered from poor legibility at some viewing angles and poor response times, making them unsuitable for aviation. The glass cockpit has become standard equipment in airliners, business jets and it was fitted into NASAs Space Shuttle orbiters Atlantis, Columbia, Discovery, and Endeavour, and the current Russian Soyuz TMA model spacecraft that was launched in 2002. By the end of the century glass cockpits began appearing in general aviation aircraft as well, in 2003, Cirrus Designs SR20 and SR22 became the first light aircraft equipped with glass cockpits, which they made standard on all Cirrus aircraft. The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II features a panoramic cockpit display touchscreen that replaces most of the switches and toggles found in an aircraft cockpit and they look and behave very similarly to other computers, with windows and data that can be manipulated with point-and-click devices. They also add terrain, approach charts, weather, vertical displays, the improved concepts enable aircraft makers to customize cockpits to a greater degree than previously. All of the manufacturers involved have chosen to do so in one way or another—such as using a trackball, many of the modifications offered by the aircraft manufacturers improve situational awareness and customize the human-machine interface to increase safety. Modern glass cockpits might include Synthetic Vision or Enhanced Vision systems, Enhanced Vision systems add real-time information from external sensors, such as an infrared camera. All new airliners such as the Airbus A380, Boeing 787 and private jets such as Bombardier Global Express, many modern general aviation aircraft are available with glass cockpits. Systems such as the Garmin G1000 are now available on many new GA aircraft, many small aircraft can also be modified post-production to replace analogue instruments
39.
Global Positioning System
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The Global Positioning System is a space-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Air Force. The GPS system operates independently of any telephonic or internet reception, the GPS system provides critical positioning capabilities to military, civil, and commercial users around the world. The United States government created the system, maintains it, however, the US government can selectively deny access to the system, as happened to the Indian military in 1999 during the Kargil War. The U. S. Department of Defense developed the system and it became fully operational in 1995. Roger L. Easton of the Naval Research Laboratory, Ivan A, getting of The Aerospace Corporation, and Bradford Parkinson of the Applied Physics Laboratory are credited with inventing it. Announcements from Vice President Al Gore and the White House in 1998 initiated these changes, in 2000, the U. S. Congress authorized the modernization effort, GPS III. In addition to GPS, other systems are in use or under development, mainly because of a denial of access. The Russian Global Navigation Satellite System was developed contemporaneously with GPS, GLONASS can be added to GPS devices, making more satellites available and enabling positions to be fixed more quickly and accurately, to within two meters. There are also the European Union Galileo positioning system and Chinas BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, special and general relativity predict that the clocks on the GPS satellites would be seen by the Earths observers to run 38 microseconds faster per day than the clocks on the Earth. The GPS calculated positions would quickly drift into error, accumulating to 10 kilometers per day, the relativistic time effect of the GPS clocks running faster than the clocks on earth was corrected for in the design of GPS. The Soviet Union launched the first man-made satellite, Sputnik 1, two American physicists, William Guier and George Weiffenbach, at Johns Hopkinss Applied Physics Laboratory, decided to monitor Sputniks radio transmissions. Within hours they realized that, because of the Doppler effect, the Director of the APL gave them access to their UNIVAC to do the heavy calculations required. The next spring, Frank McClure, the deputy director of the APL, asked Guier and Weiffenbach to investigate the inverse problem — pinpointing the users location and this led them and APL to develop the TRANSIT system. In 1959, ARPA also played a role in TRANSIT, the first satellite navigation system, TRANSIT, used by the United States Navy, was first successfully tested in 1960. It used a constellation of five satellites and could provide a navigational fix approximately once per hour, in 1967, the U. S. Navy developed the Timation satellite, which proved the feasibility of placing accurate clocks in space, a technology required by GPS. In the 1970s, the ground-based OMEGA navigation system, based on comparison of signal transmission from pairs of stations. Limitations of these systems drove the need for a more universal navigation solution with greater accuracy, during the Cold War arms race, the nuclear threat to the existence of the United States was the one need that did justify this cost in the view of the United States Congress. This deterrent effect is why GPS was funded and it is also the reason for the ultra secrecy at that time
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Columbia Accident Investigation Board
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The Columbia Accident Investigation Board was convened by NASA to investigate the destruction of the Space Shuttle Columbia during STS-107 upon atmospheric re-entry on February 1,2003. The panel also recommended changes that should be made to increase the safety of future shuttle flights, the CAIB released its final report on August 26,2003. The board found both the physical cause of the accident and also what it called organizational causes. During re-entry into the Earths atmosphere, this damage allowed super-heated gases to enter and it was the seventh known instance of a piece of foam, from this particular area of the external tank, breaking free during launch. The problem of debris shedding from the tank was well known and had caused shuttle damage on every prior shuttle flight. The damage was usually, but not always, minor, over time, management gained confidence that it was an acceptable risk. NASA decided that it did not warrant an extra EVA for visual inspection, feeling that it would be like a car going down a highway, the board made 29 specific recommendations to NASA to improve the safety of future shuttle flights. Only two further Space Shuttle missions were allowed to be flown before the implementation of these recommendations, after the CAIB report came out, NASA implemented all recommended changes and flew its first post-Columbia mission in 2005. As part of the CAIB recommendations, the Shuttle carried a 50-foot inspection boom attached to the robot arm, NASA retired the Space Shuttle fleet on July 21,2011 after completing the ISS and the final flight and subsequent landing of Atlantis. The Shuttles replacement, Orion, was to have consisted of an Apollo-derived spacecraft launched on the Ares I rocket, Orion would not face the dangers of either an O-ring failure or shedding foam. In addition to ferrying crews to the ISS, the Orion spacecraft was to allow NASA to return to the Moon, chairman of the board Admiral Hal Gehman, USN Board members Rear Admiral Stephen Turcotte, Commander, Naval Safety Center Maj. General John Barry, Director, Plans and Programs, Headquarters Air Force Materiel Command Maj. General Kenneth W. Hess, Commander, Air Force Safety Center Dr. James N. Hallock, Chief, Aviation Safety Division, U. S. Department of Transportation, wallace, Director of Accident Investigation, Federal Aviation Administration Brig
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Space Shuttle Columbia disaster
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On February 1,2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon reentering Earths atmosphere, killing all seven crew members. The disaster was the tragedy in the Space Shuttle program after Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986. During the launch of STS-107, Columbias 28th mission, a piece of foam broke off from the Space Shuttle external tank. A few previous shuttle launches had seen damage ranging from minor to major from foam shedding, NASA managers limited the investigation, reasoning that the crew could not have fixed the problem if it had been confirmed. After the disaster, Space Shuttle flight operations were suspended for more than two years, as they had been after the Challenger disaster. Commander, Rick D. Husband, a U. S. Air Force colonel and mechanical engineer, payload Commander, Michael P. Anderson, a U. S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, physicist, and mission specialist who was in charge of the science mission. Payload Specialist, Ilan Ramon, a colonel in the Israeli Air Force, Mission Specialist, Kalpana Chawla, aerospace engineer who was on her second space mission. Mission Specialist, David M. Brown, a U. S. Navy captain trained as an aviator, Mission Specialist, Laurel Blair Salton Clark, a U. S. Navy captain and flight surgeon. The shuttles main fuel tank is covered in thermal insulation foam intended to prevent ice from forming when the tank is full of liquid hydrogen and oxygen, such ice could damage the shuttle if shed during lift-off. Mission STS-107 was the 113th Space Shuttle launch, planned to begin on January 11,2001, the mission was delayed 18 times and eventually launched on January 16,2003, following STS-113. About 82 seconds after launch from Kennedy Space Centers LC-39-A, a piece of foam broke off from the External Tank. At the time of the strike, the orbiter was at an altitude of about 66,000 feet. The Left Bipod Foam Ramp is an approximately three-foot long aerodynamic component made entirely of foam, the foam, not normally considered to be a structural material, is required to bear some aerodynamic loads. Because of these requirements, the casting-in-place and curing of the ramps may be performed only by a senior technician. Bipod Ramp insulation had been observed falling off, in whole or in part, on four flights, STS-7, STS-32, STS-50. All affected shuttle missions completed successfully, NASA management came to refer to this phenomenon as foam shedding. This phenomenon was termed normalization of deviance by sociologist Diane Vaughan in her book on the Challenger launch decision process. As it happened, STS-112 had been the first flight with the ET Cam, after STS-112, NASA leaders analyzed the situation and decided to press ahead under the justification that he ET is safe to fly with no new concerns of further foam strikes
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Space Shuttle Columbia
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Space Shuttle Columbia was the first space-rated orbiter in NASAs Space Shuttle fleet. It launched for the first time on mission STS-1 on April 12,1981, construction began on Columbia in 1975 at Rockwell Internationals principal assembly facility in Palmdale, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. It is also named after the Command Module of Apollo 11, Columbia was also the female symbol of the United States. After construction, the arrived at Kennedy Space Center on March 25,1979. Columbia was originally scheduled to lift off in late 1979, however the date was delayed by problems with both the SSME components, as well as the thermal protection system. On March 19,1981, during preparations for a ground test, workers were asphyxiated while working in Columbias nitrogen-purged aft engine compartment, resulting in two or three fatalities. Columbia spent 610 days in the Orbiter Processing Facility, another 35 days in the Vehicle Assembly Building, Columbia then undertook three further research missions to test its technical characteristics and performance. Its first operational mission, with a crew, was STS-5. At this point Columbia was joined by Challenger, which flew the next three missions, while Columbia underwent modifications for the first Spacelab mission. At that time the fleet was expanded to include Discovery. Columbia returned to space on January 12,1986, with the launch of STS-61-C, the missions crew included Dr. Franklin Chang-Diaz, as well as the first sitting member of the House of Representatives to venture into space, Bill Nelson. The next shuttle mission, STS-51-L, was undertaken by Challenger and it was launched on January 28,1986, ten days after STS-61-C had landed, and ended in disaster 73 seconds after launch. In the aftermath NASAs shuttle timetable was disrupted, and Columbia was not flown again until 1989, sTS-93, launched on July 23,1999, was the first U. S. space mission with a female commander, Lt. Col. Eileen Collins. This mission deployed the Chandra X-ray Observatory, Columbias final successful mission was STS-109, the fourth servicing mission for the Hubble Space Telescope. Its next mission, STS-107, culminated in the loss when it disintegrated during reentry. Consequently, President Bush decided to retire the Shuttle orbiter fleet by 2010 in favor of the Constellation program, the Constellation program was later cancelled with the NASA Authorization Act of 2010 signed by President Obama on October 11. Due to its weight, Columbia could not have used the planned Centaur-G booster, the retention of the internal airlock allowed NASA to use Columbia for the STS-109 Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, along with the Spacehab double module used on STS-107. The upgrade also involved replacing many of the white LRSI tiles on the surfaces with Advanced Flexible Reusable Surface Insulation blankets that had been used on Discovery
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Barbara Morgan
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Barbara Radding Morgan is an American teacher and a former NASA astronaut. She participated in the Teacher in Space program as backup to Christa McAuliffe for the 1986 ill-fated STS-51-L mission of the Space Shuttle Challenger and she then trained as a Mission Specialist, and flew on STS-118 in August 2007. Leading up to STS-118, Morgan joined Sally Ride, Mae Jemison, Morgan was born to Dr. and Mrs. Jerry Radding in 1951 and raised in Fresno, California, where she attended Herbert Hoover High School. Following graduation in 1969, she was accepted to Stanford University in Palo Alto, California and she obtained her teaching credential from Notre Dame de Namur University in nearby Belmont in 1974. Morgan began her career in 1974 on the Flathead Indian Reservation at Arlee Elementary School in Arlee, Montana. From 1975 to 1978, she taught remedial reading/math and second grade at McCall-Donnelly Elementary School in McCall, from 1978 to 1979, Morgan taught English and science to third graders at Colegio Americano de Quito in Quito, Ecuador, for a year. From 1979 to 1998, Morgan taught second, third, Morgan was selected as the backup candidate for the NASA Teacher in Space Project on July 19,1985. From September 1985 to January 1986, Morgan trained with Christa McAuliffe, following McAuliffes death in the Challenger disaster, Morgan assumed the duties of Teacher in Space Designee. From March 1986 to July 1986, she worked with NASA, in the fall of 1986, Morgan returned to Idaho to resume her teaching career. She taught second and third grades at McCall-Donnelly Elementary and continued to work with NASAs Education Division, Office of Human Resources, following the completion of two years of training and evaluation, she was assigned technical duties in the Astronaut Office Space Station Operations Branch. She served in the Astronaut Office CAPCOM Branch, working in Mission Control as prime communicator with on-orbit crews, like many other astronauts and cosmonauts, Morgan is a licensed amateur radio operator, having passed the technician class license exam in 2003. On March 2,2003, she was issued a radio license by the FCC. This qualifies her to use the facilities of the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station project, Morgans duties as a Mission Specialist were no different than those of other crew members. While NASA press releases and media often refer to her as a Mission Specialist Educator or Educator Astronaut. When you look down and see our Earth, and you realize what we are trying to do as a human race, its pretty profound. Three weeks after Morgans mission ended, she conducted her first space education assignment at Walt Disney World in Florida, Morgans words were etched into a plaque on a wall of Mission, Space. The Wall of Honor contains quotes from people, such as Neil Armstrong, John F. Kennedy, Charles Lindbergh, Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, Galileo. Morgans plaque is placed beside McAuliffes, which says, Space is for everybody, thats our new frontier out there
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Teacher in Space Project
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The Teacher in Space Project was a NASA program announced by Ronald Reagan in 1984 designed to inspire students, honor teachers, and spur interest in mathematics, science, and space exploration. The project would carry teachers into space as Payload Specialists, who would return to their classrooms to share the experience with their students. NASA cancelled the program in 1990, following the death of its first participant, Christa McAuliffe, NASA replaced Teachers in Space in 1998 with the Educator Astronaut Project, which required its participants to become astronaut Mission Specialists. The first Educator Astronauts were selected as part of NASA Astronaut Group 19 in 2004, Barbara Morgan, who was selected as a Mission Specialist as part of NASA Astronaut Group 17 in 1998, has often been incorrectly referred to as an Educator Astronaut. However, she was selected as a Mission Specialist before the Educator Astronaut Project, TISP was announced by President Ronald Reagan on August 27,1984. Not members of NASAs Astronaut Corps, the teachers would fly as Payload Specialists, more than 40,000 applications were mailed to interested teachers while 11,000 teachers sent completed applications to NASA. Each application included a lesson that would be taught from space while on the Space Shuttle. The applications were sorted and then sent to the various State Departments of Education and these applicants were notified of their selections and were gathered together for further selection processes down to ten finalists. These were then trained for a time, and in 1985 NASA selected Christa McAuliffe to be the first teacher in space, McAuliffe was a high school social studies teacher from Concord, New Hampshire. She planned to teach two 15-minute lessons from the Space Shuttle, McAuliffe died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster on January 28,1986. After the accident, Reagan spoke on television and assured the nation that the Teacher in Space program would continue. Well continue our quest in space, he said, there will be more shuttle flights and more shuttle crews and, yes, more volunteers, more civilians, more teachers in space. Nothing ends here, our hopes and our journeys continue, however, NASA decided in 1990 that spaceflight was still too dangerous to risk the lives of civilian teachers, and eliminated the Teacher in Space project. Morgan returned to teaching in Idaho and later became a Mission Specialist on STS-118, in January 1998, NASA replaced the Teacher In Space project with the Educator Astronaut Project. The first Educator Astronauts were selected in 2004, the three selected in 2004 were Joseph Acaba, Richard Arnold, and Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger. Astronauts Acaba and Arnold flew on mission STS-119 in 2009, in the early 21st Century, the Teacher in Space project was revived in the private sector. The development of reusable, suborbital launch vehicles by commercial companies makes it possible for groups to contemplate sending large numbers of teachers into space. The new Teachers in Space program began in 2005, armadillo Aerospace, Masten Space Systems, PlanetSpace, Rocketplane Limited, Inc. and XCOR Aerospace pledged flights to the new Teachers in Space project
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Christa McAuliffe
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Sharon Christa McAuliffe was an American teacher from Concord, New Hampshire, and was one of the seven crew members killed in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. She received her bachelors degree in education and history from Framingham State College in 1970 and she took a teaching position as a social studies teacher at Concord High School in New Hampshire in 1983. In 1985, she was selected more than 11,000 applicants to participate in the NASA Teacher in Space Project and was scheduled to become the first teacher in space. As a member of mission STS-51-L, she was planning to conduct experiments, on January 28,1986, the shuttle broke apart 73 seconds after launch. After her death, schools and scholarships were named in her honor, McAuliffe was born as Sharon Christa Corrigan on September 2,1948, in Boston, Massachusetts. She was the eldest of the five children of accountant Edward Christopher Corrigan of Irish descent and Grace Mary Corrigan, McAuliffe was a great niece of Lebanese-American historian Philip Khuri Hitti. She was known by her name from an early age, although in later years she signed her name S. Christa Corrigan. The year she was born, her father was completing his year at Boston College. As a youth, she was inspired by Project Mercury and the Apollo moon landing program, the day after John Glenn orbited the Earth in Friendship 7, she told a friend at Marian High, Do you realize that someday people will be going to the Moon. Maybe even taking a bus, and I want to do that and she wrote years later on her NASA application form, I watched the Space Age being born, and I would like to participate. They had two children, Scott and Caroline, who were nine and six, respectively, when she died and she obtained her first teaching position in 1970, as an American history teacher at Benjamin Foulois Junior High School in Morningside, Maryland. From 1971 to 1978, she taught history and civics at Thomas Johnson Middle School in Lanham, in addition to teaching, she completed a Master of Arts in education supervision and administration from Bowie State University in Maryland. In 1978, she moved to Concord, New Hampshire, when Steven accepted a job as an assistant to the New Hampshire Attorney General. McAuliffe taught 7th and 8th grade American history and English in Concord, New Hampshire and she was a social studies teacher, and taught several courses including American history, law, and economics, in addition to a self-designed course, The American Woman. Taking field trips and bringing in speakers were an important part of her teaching techniques, according to The New York Times, she emphasized the impact of ordinary people on history, saying they were as important to the historical record as kings, politicians or generals. In 1984, President Ronald Reagan announced the Teacher in Space Project, and McAuliffe learned about NASAs efforts to find the first civilian, NASA wanted to find an ordinary person, a gifted teacher who could communicate with students while in orbit. McAuliffe became one of more than 11,000 applicants, President Reagan said it would also remind Americans of the important role that teachers and education serve in their country. The Council of Chief State School Officers, an organization of public officials in education, was chosen by NASA to coordinate the selection process
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STS-51-L
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The mission ended in catastrophic failure with the destruction of Challenger, starting at 73 seconds after lift-off, and the death of all seven crew members. The Rogers Commission determined that the cause of the destruction was due to the failure of an O-ring seal on the starboard Solid Rocket Booster, the flight marked the first American orbital mission to involve in-flight fatalities. Gregory Jarvis was originally scheduled to fly on the shuttle flight. Although the crew died in the Challenger disaster, their seating assignment chart depicts what would have happened if the mission was performed as planned, during the ascent phase,73 seconds after liftoff, the vehicle experienced a catastrophic structural failure resulting in the loss of crew and vehicle. The Rogers Commission later determined the cause of the accident to have been the failure of the primary and secondary O-ring seals on Challengers right Solid Rocket Booster. The forward part of the booster cylinder struck the external tank inter-tank area, a rapid burning of liberated propellants ensued. With the structural backbone of the compromised and breaking up, the SRBs flew off on their own, as did the orbiter. Tracking reported that the vehicle had exploded and impacted the water in an area located at 28.64 degrees north,80.28 degrees west The crew perished in the vehicle breakup. Divers from the USS Preserver located what they believed to be the crew cabin on the floor on March 7. A dive the following day confirmed that it was the cabin and this would only be done during an emergency or loss of cabin pressure. PEAPs do not provide an air flow and would still have resulted in the astronauts losing consciousness within several seconds. This was likely fabricated and no recording exists, as the crew may have been unconscious from loss of cabin pressure and the astronauts did not wear individual voice recorders. Any voice recording facility would have been without power since the breakup of the orbiter immediately separated the crew compartment from the fuel cells in the back of the vehicle. The impact of the shuttle with the sea would have killed any still surviving astronauts on board, dick Scobee asked Kennedy Space Center engineer Ernie Reyes to design the mission patch seen above to represent the mission of 51-L. In it, Challenger is depicted launching from Florida and soaring into space to carry out a variety of goals. Among the prescribed duties of the five astronauts and two payload specialists was observation and photography of Halleys Comet, backdropped against the U. S. flag in the insignia, surnames of the crew members encircle the scene, with the payload specialists being recognized below. The surname of the first teacher in space, Christa McAuliffe, is followed by a symbolic apple, report of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident
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