The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) program began in 1958. There have been many different space programs through NASA, including Mercury, Gemini, Apollo(-Soyuz), and the Space Shuttle. My visit to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida a few years ago really opened my eyes to my interest in the cosmos. To look up at the rockets towering over me in the "Rocket Garden" was mesmerizing. To stand next to an F-1 engine that was created in the 1950's and that still remains the most powerful liquid fueled engine to ever be created is awe-inspiring. The atmosphere at Kennedy Space Center was exhilarating! I very highly recommend visiting this place at least once in your lifetime.
The Mercury program started in 1958 and ended in 1963. The goals of this program was for the United States to safely put a man in orbit and the ability for man to function in space. The first American in space was Alan Shepard Jr. in May of 1961. Followed by John Glenn Jr. who was the first American to successfully orbit the Earth in February of 1961. The last American in space from the Mercury Program was Gordon Cooper Jr. who stayed in orbit for over 30 hours to evaluate the effects on man being in space for more than 1 day. This program allowed only one person in the vehicle per flight.
The Mercury program was closely followed by the Gemini program. Its goals were to further test man and the equipment for a longer duration in space, to dock with other vehicles in space, and to perfect re-entry into Earths atmosphere and landing the craft. Gemini allowed 2 people in the space vehicle during flight. During the Gemini program, Edward White made the first American space walk in June of 1965. The final flight of the Gemini program occurred in November of 1966.
Usually when people think of an astronaut, they think of Neil Armstrong and the moon landing. This was during the Apollo program which started in 1963. After the Apollo program began, scientists at NASA realized they needed a program between the Mercury and Apollo programs to develop better equipment and the affects of being outside of Earths atmosphere on humans and the equipment. That's when the Gemini program was born. President John F. Kennedy gave a famous speech at the time saying, "I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important in the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish."
There was a total of 17 Apollo missions. The first mission resulted in the death of Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee in January of 1967. A fire had broken out in the Apollo command capsule in which all three astronauts were training. The fire was caused by faulty wiring. The astronauts were not able to open the hatch in time to get to safety. Because of this accident, we now have smoke detectors. Six of the Apollo missions made it safely to the moon and back, the first being Apollo 11. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins made up the crew of this flight. Neil Armstrong was, of course, the first man to walk on the moon and famously spoke these words: "That's one small step for man....one giant leap for mankind." This happened on July 20, 1969. Apollo 13 was supposed to land on the moon also, but due to system malfunctions, it did not make it. There has been a movie made on the Apollo 13 story which I find very entertaining. Near the end of the Apollo program, the United States and Russia docked an Apollo and Soyuz capsule together in space, marking the first international space project which included different experiments on-board the conjoined spacecraft.
The space shuttle program, officially named Space Transportation System (STS) was the latest which officially started in 1972. The STS program was designed to build the International Space Station (ISS), launch, capture, and repair man made satellites. The shuttle operated in low Earth orbit so it was unable to fly to the moon. It was able to carry up to 8 crew members. The space shuttle was also designed to be reusable. This allowed the cost of each mission to be less expensive than previous programs at NASA which involved building a new capsule and rocket for the crew. The STS program was put to an end in 2011.
Columbia was the first space shuttle which launched on April 12, 1981. The first flight was to test out the equipment and to see what corrections and modifications needed to be made. Columbia's missions included the first shuttle deployment of a satellite, different modules of Skylab (first American space station), and capturing different satellites to repair them. Disaster struck in February of 2003 when Columbia disintegrated during re-entry, killing all 7 crew members on-board. This accident happened because a few ceramic heat tiles on the underside of the shuttle were knocked loose during the main fuel tank separation. After this disaster, the later shuttles were required to do a "flip" in space in front of the ISS to view the underside of the shuttle for missing tiles. Columbia had a total of 28 missions.
The second space shuttle was named Challenger. It's first launch was in April of 1983. This mission had the first spacewalk from a space shuttle. In June of the same year, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space. Challengers' third mission was the first night launch and landing of a shuttle. Other missions included launching communication satellites and different modules and experiments for Skylab. Challenger was also destroyed during one of its missions. On it's 9th mission, just over a minute after launch, Challenger exploded killing all 7 of its crew members. This disaster was caused by an O-ring that was designed to stop the fuel from leaking. The day of the launch was an extremely cold day in Florida and the O-ring was unable to perform as designed in such cold temperatures. This particular O-ring was manufactured in Utah at ATK. The engineers warned NASA that the O-ring was not designed to work is such cold temperatures and that it would probably fail. NASA went ahead with the launch.
The three remaining space shuttles, Atlantis, Discovery, and Endeavour helped carry the modules into low Earth orbit that would form the International Space Station, the largest man made satellite ever created. When the ISS was completed in 2011, the shuttle program was no longer needed and all three were retired. Each shuttle is now in its final resting area with Atlantis at Kennedy Space Center, Discovery at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Virginia, and Endeavour rests at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.
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| Space Shuttle and fuel tanks |
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| Rocket Garden |
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| F1 Engine |
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| Bottom of Apollo Saturn V rocket |
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| Launch pad for Space Shuttle |
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| Vehicle Assembly Building |
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| Command Module |
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| Goofy |
With the retirement of the STS program the opportunity was opened up to private companies to get supplies to the ISS and to further explore the cosmos. More on this to come.....
