Tag Archives: Space
Important manned NASA missions
Sometimes, organizations and entities become so universally known by a nickname or abbreviation that people can easily forget what exactly a particular acronym stands for. For over fifty years, one particular American institution has been known to its constituents and citizens of other nations by a certain four-letter abbreviation, based on that group’s track record with stimulating curiosity about outer space, exploring the limits of human ability, physiology and will, and literally taking people to places they have never been before. This much-heralded organization is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, also known as NASA. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration was established and officially made known to the public in 1958. Since its inception, NASA mission after NASA mission has been responsible for furthering the world’s knowledge of space. Of the highest interest and amount of publicity have been the various manned missions that NASA has authorized to keep the United States on the cutting edge of scientific innovation. The following are among the programs affiliated with NASA that have brought significant firsts to the public consciousness: 1. Project Mercury/Project Gemini – Before contemplating orbiting any other celestial objects, NASA researchers had to verify that man could survive in … Continue reading
The definition of a space shuttle
For those who are just coming into adulthood and anyone else coming into awareness of the first moon landing, they will obviously be doing so after the fact and getting most of their information from secondhand sources. They also might tend to judge historical events by modern terms, or at the very least, think in anachronistic terms when it comes to prior aeronautic endeavors. In particular, the supposition might be made by those individuals that the space shuttle program was always in effect since the first rocket NASA sent into space. Nevertheless, this line of thinking would be erroneous. Manned space shuttle missions did not start until the 1980′s, and so distinctions must be made between the spacecraft of the past and the forms of space travel of newer generations, especially with NASA’s announcement that 2010 would mark the last year that any space shuttle missions would take place. Thus, in looking both forward and back, we must consult our dictionaries and other reference books as to what differentiates the soon-to-be outmoded shuttle technology of today from more general rocket technology as interpreted by scientists and romanticizing writers alike. One element of a rocket that may cause it to be … Continue reading
The legacy of the space shuttle program
While many instances of NASA launch may be immediately memorable to the American citizen who has lived through the Space Race and into the modern age, one of the most prominent would have to be the Apollo missions designed for lunar landing and analysis. However, in terms of being a space shuttle launch, to insist that, say, the Apollo 13 mission was just that would be to commit an error. While we might think the terms interchangeable after almost 30 years of manned space shuttle launch events – after all, time may cause one to forget – not every rocket launched by NASA has been a space shuttle. In fact, the first manned space shuttle did not take off until the 1980′s, well after Neil Armstrong’s world-famous romp on the surface of the moon. The space shuttle program is merely a subcategory of the general NASA launch heading. Including non-operational flights, the space shuttle program has been in gear for even longer than 30 years. Using the Enterprise model of orbiter, tests were conducted in the late 70′s to get a feel for how the space shuttle performed when attached to a space shuttle carrier and later in missions of … Continue reading
The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster and what we learned from it
There are certain critical moments in American history that leave a permanent mark on the minds and memories of the people who witnessed it. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, people could close their eyes and still vividly picture sights of men and women jumping out of the World Trade Center towers to their death. Those who saw live coverage of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy or heard soon after the fact still probably remember exactly where they were and what they were doing. This kind of flashbulb memory also applies to the failed launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger in January of 1986. Of course, the Challenger disaster is notable for the very public and very sudden loss of multiple human lives. In the popular use of the word, the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger mission was an American tragedy, and seven good people were lost in its disintegration. Unfortunately, the real tragedy surrounding the events of the Challenger is that the cause of the problem was probably preventable, and at the very least, the decision to launch was definitely preventable. In physical terms, the failure of the spacecraft as a whole was prompted by an initial … Continue reading
The International Space Station: Benefits and costs
The mold for the space station was broken with the creation and use of the original Mir in the 80′s and 90′s. Previously, space stations had not seen continuous use to a great extent, but the idea that Space Station Mir saw at least one person living in it on end for almost a decade was an inspiration for other space complexes to follow. This enterprise, while an achievement of science, unfortunately did not wholly reflect the sense of global community the sciences in their purest form aim to promote, as Mir was distinctly a Soviet-/Russian-run construct. The International Space Station, meanwhile, is a credit to its name because its continued construction has only been possible through the cooperation of several nations. While economic realities may have greased the proverbial wheels of this agreement, the fact remains that the Space Station is a byproduct of funding from the American space program (NASA), as well as contributions from the governments of Russia, Japan, Canada and the European Space Agency. The International Space Station is quite possibly the most expensive item ever made, costing its international patrons billions of dollars. Certainly, it is the largest object, space station or otherwise, to be … Continue reading
The difficulties of space travel
Space exploration is a popular subject for science fiction writers. Often, the setting of the story will involve a distant date in the future that is hard for most to contradict as plausible, and capture the wildest fantasies of those who follow the story. Of most interest here, the workings in the plot will often be shaped by the space travel of man to likewise distant worlds which are also inventions of the writer’s yet equally impossible to disprove. While some predictions of future worlds have already failed to come to fruition with the passing of the deadline years predicted in their works, others have yet to be verified or refuted. At present, though, space exploration is a risky business, and most of the information we have collected from our own solar system is not the result of manned space travel but rather the data collection of unmanned probes. There are a number of challenges facing humankind’s transit through outer space today. Below are some of these difficulties: 1. Difficulties of repairs – Previous manned space exploration missions have had their share of problems with needed repairs and failed launches. At worst, spacecraft have failed to get off the ground … Continue reading