Mrs. W. Smith 2009

Throughout time man has dreamed of space travel. Science fiction movies and books are full of tales about travel to other planets and star systems. The question is – how will we get there?.

In 1926 Robert Goddard successfully launched the first liquid fuel rocket. It rose only 41 feet into the air, but proved that rocket travel was possible. During the 1930’s Germans and Russians began to experiment with rockets as well.

During World War II Nazi Germany was building V-2 rockets to use as weapons. The rockets were fitted with explosive warheads and could travel distances of up to 185 miles. Following WW II in the 1940s, German engineers were hired by both United States and the Soviet Union to help these countries develop their own rocket technology.

The Space Race began on October 4, 1957 when the Soviet Union launched their rocket, Sputnik I, that orbited the Earth for 57 days. Three months later the United States sent Explorer I to orbit the Earth. The race for exploration was on!

Sputnik I Rocket on the launch pad. Launch capsule The Sputnik I satellite was the first satellite to orbit the Earth.

The Soviet Sputnik II launched in 1957 had a dog named Laika aboard. Unfortunately for Laika, she died from stress and overheating several hours after being launched into space. For the next several years dogs and monkeys were the first and only “astronauts” in space.

Whereas the first cosmonaut was a dog, the first astronauts were monkeys. Scientists were not sure what dangers space travel would have on humans.

In 1959 the US entered the Space Race with the Jupiter mission which sent two American monkeys, Abel and Baker into space. They were both recovered safely.

In October 1959 the Soviet Moon Probe, Luna 3, sent back the first pictures of the far side of the Moon. In 1961 the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space.

On board Vostok I cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbited planet Earth for the first time.

The Goals of the Mercury Missions These were single manned missions To orbit a manned spacecraft around the Earth To learn about man’s ability to function in space. To be able to recover both the men and the spacecrafts safely after being in space. NASA’s first space missions were called the Mercury Missions

Mercury-Freedom 7 The first American in space was astronaut Alan Shepard, who was born in Derry, NH. He stayed in orbit 15 minutes before splashing down into the ocean. This was a big step of NASA!

Mercury- Friendship was the first US manned orbital flight. John Glenn made 3 trips around the Earth and was the first man to eat in space.

The Goals of the Gemini Missions To successfully have two men in space for up to two weeks at a time To rendezvous and dock two orbiting vehicles in space. To have men leave the spacecraft while in orbit and “space walk”. NASA’s next series of space missions were called the Gemini Missions

Gemini 4 was the first time an American had “walked” in space. Ed White was the astronaut.

An unmanned landing on the Moon was accomplished in 1966 with the Soviet craft Luna 9. Then in 1968 the US astronauts onboard Apollo 8 successfully orbited the moon.

The Goals of the Apollo Missions To travel to the moon. To land men on the moon. To carry out a mission to scientifically explore the moon. To develop the ability to be able to work in a lunar environment.

At last after many successful test missions Apollo 11 landed on the moon in1969 with astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and (Michael Collins).

In Neil Armstrong’s famous words it was, “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”

In all there were six successful lunar landings on the moon and twelve US astronauts have walked on its surface.

After conquering the moon, NASA turned it’s attention to building space stations. Skylab was the first space station and was designed for astronauts to live and work in space for long periods of time. It was visited by three different crews of astronauts.

Today the International Space Station is a joint effort between the US and Russia along with 16 other nations. The ISS is about the size of two football fields and allows scientists to live and work in space for up to six months at a time.

The Space Shuttle program was developed to help build the ISS. It is a reusable spacecraft that acts like a cargo ship carrying equipment, materials, and people into space. It takes off like a rocket, docks with the ISS and lands like an airplane.

So what’s next? Where will our explorations lead us? Will we land on another planet? Will we travel outside of our solar system? Will YOU be part of the crew?

The End