In our history, many great things have happened. We have been inventing and exploring things since day one. Many of these things that we discovered or invented we thought would never be possible in earth’s lifetime. But they exist now, today, they are used by almost every human being and there are many more incredible and unmanageable things to come and aid us in every day life.
One of the most interesting things to me would fall under exploration and inventing. You are about to venture in to the history of space and learn how man and mans objects have gotten there. The exploration in space dates back over 40 years ago,January, 31 of 1958 to be exact. On this date Explorer 1, which was the first U. S. satellite to be fired in space and its unknown, to orbit earth.
It lifted off from Cape Canaveral using a modified Jupiter-C rocket called ABMA-JPL. It carried a scientific experiment of James A. Van Allen and discovered the Earth’s radiation belt. Along with defeat and triumph also come disappointment and failure.
In March 5of 1958 Explorer 2 was launched by another Jupiter-Crocket and failed to reach orbit. October 1, 1958 NASAwas founded, taking over existing NationalAdvisory Committee on Aeronautics and only ten days laterU. S.
– IGY space probe was launched to an incredible height of 70,700 miles. On March 3 of 1959 Pioneer 4, a U. S. -IGY space probe is launched by a Juno II rocket, and achieves an earth-moon trajectory, passing within 37,000miles of the moon. It then fell into a solar orbit, becoming the first U.S. sun orbiter. About a year later Tiros 1 was fired into earth’s orbit and became the first successful weather satellite for the United States. Then on August 18 of the same year, 1960, Discoverer XIV was launched and became the first U. S. camera-equipped Corona spy satellite.
On July 14, 1965, They U. S. Mariner 4 returned the first close-range images of Mars. The above paragraph explains some of the earliest satellites, spy satellites, and probes that were sent into space to explore the unknown and the;Impossible;. May 5 of 1961 Mercury Freedom 7 carried Alan B.
Shepard, Jr. , who was the first U. S. astronaut in space, in a suborbital flight. This United States’ first manned space flight project was successfully accomplished in a 4 2/3 year period of dynamic activity.
During this time they saw more than2,000,000 people from many major government agencies and much of the aerospace industry and combined their skills, initiative, and experience into a national effort. Also during this 4 and 2/3 period six other manned space flights were accomplished as part of a 25-flight program. These manned space flights were accomplished with complete pilot safety and without change to the basic Mercury concepts. Itwas shown that man can function ably as apilot-engineer-experimenter without undesirable reactions ordeteriorations of normal body functions for periods up to 34hours of weightless flight. And so we continue or fight through this . February 20 of 1962 Mercury Friendship 7 lifts off withJohn H.
Glenn, Jr. , who was the first American in orbit, and orbits the Earth three times. In July 31, 1964 U. S. Ranger7 relayed the first close-range photographs of the moon. Probably more spectacular than man orbiting earth would bea spacewalk.
The united state accomplished this in 1965on Jun 3rd. Edward White II made the first U. S. spacewalk from space vehicle Gemini 4. The duration of the spacewalk was 22 minutes, which was the longest up to this date. December 4 of 1965 was a great day.
Gemini 7 was launched carrying Frank Borman and James A. Lovell, Jr. ,which made 206 orbits around Earth and proving a trip to the moon possible. A year later the US does the next best thing from sending a person to the moon and sent Surveyor1 which was the first U.S. spacecraft to soft-land on the moon.
December 21, 1968 Apollo 8 and its four crew members were the first Apollo team to make orbit around the moon, they actually made ten orbits around the moon. July 20, 1969 only 30 years ago Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, Jr. makes the first manned soft landing on the moon.
Not only this they were the first moonwalk and this trip was made possible because of Apollo 11 mission. Skipping ahead a few years we find that on September 3,1976 Viking 2 landed on Mars at the Plain of Utopia,where it .
