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Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 5
Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 5 (LC-5) was a launch site at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida used for various Redstone and Jupiter launches. It is most well known as the launch site for NASA's 1961 suborbital Mercury-Redstone 3 flight, which made Alan Shepard the first American in space. It was also the launch site of Gus Grissom's July, 1961, Mercury-Redstone 4 flight. The Mercury-Redstone 1 pad abort, Mercury-Redstone 1A, and the January, 1961, Mercury-Redstone 2 with a chimpanzee, Ham, aboard, also used LC-5. A total of 23 launches were conducted from LC-5: one Jupiter-A, six Jupiter IRBMs, one Jupiter-C, four Juno Is, four Juno IIs and seven Redstones. The first launch from the complex was a Jupiter-A on July 19, 1956 and the final launch was Gus Grissom's ''Liberty Bell 7'' capsule on July 21, 1961. LC-5 is located next to the Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum which is located at LC-26. The original launch consoles and computers are on display in the LC- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mercury-Redstone 1
Mercury-Redstone 1 (MR-1) was the first Mercury-Redstone uncrewed flight test in Project Mercury and the first attempt to launch a Mercury spacecraft with the Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle. Intended to be an uncrewed sub-orbital spaceflight, it was launched on November 21, 1960 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The launch failed in an abnormal fashion: immediately after the Mercury-Redstone rocket started to move, it shut itself down and settled back on the pad, after which the capsule jettisoned its escape rocket and deployed its recovery parachutes. The failure has been referred to as the "four-inch flight", for the approximate distance traveled by the launch vehicle. Test background and launch failure The purpose of the MR-1 flight was to qualify the Mercury spacecraft and the Mercury-Redstone launch vehicle for the sub-orbital Mercury mission. It would also qualify the spacecraft's automated flight control and recovery systems, as well as the launch, tracking ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Shepard
Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. (November 18, 1923 – July 21, 1998) was an American astronaut. In 1961, he became the second person and the first American to travel into space and, in 1971, he became the List of Apollo astronauts#Apollo astronauts who walked on the Moon, fifth and oldest person to walk on the Moon, at age 47. A graduate of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Shepard saw action with the surface navy during World War II. He became a naval aviator in 1947, and a test pilot in 1950. He was selected as one of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts in 1959, and in May 1961 he made the first crewed Project Mercury flight, Mercury-Redstone 3, in a spacecraft he named ''Freedom 7''. His craft entered space, but was not capable of achieving orbit. He became the second person, and the first American, to travel into space. In the final stages of Project Mercury, Shepard was scheduled to pilot the Mercury-Atlas 10 (MA-10), which was planned as a three-day mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Explorer 5
Explorer 5 was a United States satellite with a mass of . It was the last of the original series of Explorer satellites built, designed, and operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Background Explorer 5 was similar in all respects to Explorer 4 and was designed with the same basic science objectives, to make the first detailed measurements of charged particles (protons and electrons) trapped in the terrestrial radiation belts and to observe the effects of the Project Argus A-bomb detonations. Spacecraft and subsystems Explorer 5 was a long, diameter cylinder and nosecone that comprised the fourth stage of the Jupiter-C launch vehicle. The on-orbit mass (after fuel burnout) was . The spacecraft body was made of stainless AISI-410 steel, thick. The surface was sandblasted, no aluminum oxide striping was used as on earlier Explorer satellites. The base of the cylinder held the Sergeant solid-fuel rocket motor. The Mallory mercury batteries for the low power tran ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Explorer 4
Explorer 4 was an American satellite launched on 26 July 1958. It was instrumented by Dr. James van Allen's group. The Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) had initially planned two satellites for the purposes of studying the Van Allen radiation belts and the effects of nuclear explosions upon these belts (and the Earth's magnetosphere in general), however Explorer 4 was the only such satellite launched as the other, Explorer 5, suffered launch failure. Explorer 4 was a cylindrically shaped satellite instrumented to make the first detailed measurements of charged particles (protons and electrons) trapped in the terrestrial radiation belts. Juno I launch vehicle The launch vehicle was a Juno I, a variant of the three-stage Jupiter-C with an added fourth propulsive stage, which in this case was the Explorer 4. The first stage was an upgraded Redstone liquid-fueled rocket. The second stage comprised a cluster of eleven Sergeant solid-fuel rocket m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Explorer 3
Explorer 3 (Harvard designation 1958 Gamma) was an American artificial satellite launched into medium Earth orbit in 1958. It was the second successful launch in the Explorer program, and was nearly identical to the first U.S. satellite Explorer 1 in its design and mission. Background Explorer 3 was the third satellite in the Explorer small satellite series, which started with Explorer 1, America's first artificial satellite. The Explorer program was a direct successor to the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA)'s Project Orbiter, initiated in November 1954 to use a slightly modified Redstone missile combined with solid-propellant rocket cluster upper stage to put a satellite into orbit. In 1955, the "Stewart Committee", under the chairmanship of Homer J. Stewart of Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), chose a Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) satellite plan using a rocket based on its Viking rocket (Project Vanguard) for the International Geophysical Year, which would start 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex
The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is the visitor center at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida. It features exhibits and displays, historic spacecraft and memorabilia, shows, two IMAX theaters, and a range of bus tours of the spaceport. The "Space Shuttle ''Atlantis''" exhibit contains the Space Shuttle Atlantis, ''Atlantis'' orbiter and the Shuttle Launch Experience, a simulated ride into space. The center also provides astronaut training experiences, including a multi-axial chair and Mars Base simulator. The visitor complex also has daily presentations from a veteran NASA astronaut. A bus tour, included with admission, encompasses the separate Apollo/Saturn V Center. There were 1.7 million visitors to the visitor complex in 2016. History The complex had its beginning in 1963 when NASA Administrator James E. Webb, James Webb established self-guided tours where the public could drive along a predetermined route through the Cape Canaveral Air Force S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 26
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) is an installation of the United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 45, located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida. Headquartered at the nearby Patrick Space Force Base, the station is the primary launch site for the Space Force's Eastern RangeCAST 1999, p. 1-12. with four launch pads currently active (Space Launch Complexes 36, 40, 41 and 46). The facility is south-southeast of NASA's Kennedy Space Center on adjacent Merritt Island, with the two linked by bridges and causeways. The Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Skid Strip provides a runway close to the launch complexes for military airlift aircraft delivering heavy and outsized payloads to the Cape. A number of American space exploration pioneers were launched from CCSFS, including the first U.S. Earth satellite (1958), first U.S. astronaut (1961), first U.S. astronaut in orbit (1962), first two-man U.S. spacecraft (1965), first U.S. uncrewed lunar lan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum
The Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum (formerly the Air Force Space and Missile Museum) is located at Launch Complex 26 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. It includes artifacts from the early American space program and includes an outdoor area displaying rockets, missiles, and space-related equipment chronicling the space and missile history of the US Air Force, the US Space Force and other military branches. The museum is accessible to U.S. citizens and residents only as a part of five tours offered by Canaveral Tours. Free tours are also offered by Space Launch Delta 45 as part of the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Historical Tour. Space Launch Delta 45 was formed out of the 45th Space Wing in May 2021 following establishment of the Space Force. The Sands Space History Center, a companion to the museum, is open to the general public six days a week. The History Center is located just outside the south gate of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. A part of the f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liberty Bell 7
Mercury-Redstone 4 was the second United States human spaceflight, on July 21, 1961. The suborbital Project Mercury flight was launched with a Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle, MRLV-8. The spacecraft, Mercury capsule #11, was nicknamed ''Liberty Bell 7''. It was piloted by astronaut Virgil "Gus" Grissom. The spaceflight lasted 15 minutes 30 seconds, reached an altitude of more than , and flew downrange, landing in the Atlantic Ocean. The flight went as expected until just after splashdown, when the hatch cover, designed to release explosively in the event of an emergency, accidentally blew. Grissom was at risk of drowning, but was recovered safely via a U.S. Navy helicopter. The spacecraft sank into the Atlantic and was not recovered until 1999. Mission parameters * Mass: 1 286 kg * Maximum altitude: 190.39 km * Range: 486.15 km * Launch vehicle: Redstone rocket Spacecraft The MR-4 spacecraft, Mercury capsule #11, was designated to fly the second crew ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Redstone (rocket Family)
The Redstone family of rockets consisted of a number of American ballistic missiles, sounding rockets and expendable launch system, expendable launch vehicles operational during the 1950s and 1960s. The first member of the Redstone family was the PGM-11 Redstone missile, from which all subsequent variations of the Redstone were derived. The Juno 1 version of the Redstone launched Explorer 1, the first U.S. orbital satellite in 1958 and the Mercury-Redstone variation carried the first two U.S. astronauts into space in 1961. The rocket was named for the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama where it was developed. PGM-11 Redstone First launched in 1953, the PGM-11 Redstone was a short-range surface-to-surface ballistic missile in active service with the U.S. Army from June 1958 to June 1964; and was used for the first U.S. live nuclear missile tests. It was built by Chrysler for the United States Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) and was deployed in West Germany. George Huebn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ham (chimpanzee)
Ham (July 1957 – January 19, 1983), a chimpanzee also known as Ham the Chimp and Ham the Astrochimp, was the first great ape launched into space. On January 31, 1961, Ham flew a suborbital flight on the Mercury-Redstone 2 mission, part of the U.S. space program's Project Mercury. Ham was known as "No. 65" before he safely returned to Earth, when he was named after an acronym for the laboratory that prepared him for his historic mission—the Holloman Aerospace Medical Center, located at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, southwest of Alamogordo. His name was also in honor of the commander of Holloman Aeromedical Laboratory, Lieutenant Colonel Hamilton "Ham" Blackshear. Early life Ham was born in July 1957 in French Cameroon, captured by animal trappers and sent to the Rare Bird Farm in Miami, Florida. He was purchased by the United States Air Force and brought to Holloman Air Force Base in July 1959. Ham was sold to the United States Air Force for $457. There were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mercury-Redstone 2
Mercury-Redstone 2 (MR-2) was the test flight of the Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle just prior to the first crewed American space mission in Project Mercury. Carrying a Ham (chimpanzee), chimpanzee named Ham on a suborbital flight, Mercury spacecraft Number 5 was launched at 16:55 UTC on January 31, 1961, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 5, LC-5 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Cape Canaveral, Florida. The capsule and Ham, the first great ape in space, landed safely in the Atlantic Ocean 16 minutes and 39 seconds after launch. Background The previous Mercury-Redstone mission, Mercury-Redstone 1A, MR-1A, flew a trajectory that was too steep with accelerations too high for a human passenger. MR-1A had climbed to its programmed apogee of about and landed downrange. Mercury-Redstone 2 would follow a more flattened trajectory. Its planned flight path was an apogee of and a range of . Mission Mercury spacecraft Number 5 contained six new systems that ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
