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Charles E. Whitsett
Charles Edward "Ed" Whitsett Jr. (1936-1993) was a USAF officer and NASA engineer specializing in solutions for effective human movement in zero gravity. The pinnacle of his work was the astronaut maneuvering unit (MMU) which enabled satellite rescue and repair. For this capability, Whitsett along with NASA, Martin Marietta, Bruce McCandless, and Walter W. Bollendonk received the 1984 Robert J. Collier Trophy for "the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America." Life Charles Edward "Ed" Whitsett Jr. was born on October 18, 1936, in Mobile, Alabama. In 1957 he graduated from Auburn University. Weightless maneuvering In 1961, three years before a US astronaut walked in space, USAF Officer Whitsett imagined how astronauts could "fly" in space without tethers while working at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. In 1962, he studied the human body's response to weightlessness. He developed the mathematical mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. After a successful vote to annex areas west of the city limits in July 2023, Mobile's population increased to 204,689 residents, making it the List of municipalities in Alabama, second-most populous city in Alabama. Mobile is the principal municipality of the Mobile metropolitan area. Alabama's only saltwater port, Mobile is located on the Mobile River at the head of Mobile Bay on the north-central Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast. The Port of Mobile has always played a key role in the economic health of the city, beginning with the settlement as an important trading center between the French colonization of the Americas, French colonists and Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans, down to its current role as the 12th-largest port in the United States.Drechsel, Emanuel. ''Mobilian Jargon: Lin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johnson Space Center
The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight in Houston, Texas (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight controller, flight control are conducted. It was renamed in honor of the late U.S. president and Texas native, Lyndon B. Johnson, by an act of the United States Senate on February 19, 1973. JSC consists of a complex of 100 buildings constructed on in Clear Lake (region), Clear Lake. The center is home to NASA Astronaut Corps, NASA's astronaut corps, and is responsible for training astronauts from both the U.S. and its international partners. It also houses the Christopher C. Kraft Jr. Mission Control Center, which has provided the flight controller, flight control function for every NASA human spaceflight since Gemini 4 (including Apollo program, Apollo, Skylab, Apollo–Soyuz, and Space Shuttle program, Space Shuttle). It is popularly known by its radio call signs "Mission Contr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1984 In Aviation
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1984. Events * Cirrus Aircraft founded January * Frontier Horizon, a low-cost subsidiary of Frontier Airlines operating Boeing 727-100s, begins flight operations. * January 10 – A Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Tupolev Tu-134 strikes a power line and crashes on approach to Sofia Airport in Sofia, Bulgaria, in heavy snow, killing all 50 people on board. * January 24 – A United States Air Force F-15A Eagle performs the first of five test launches of the ASM-135 anti-satellite missile. In this first launch, the missile does not carry its third stage, the Miniature Homing Vehicle (MHV) interceptor.Dr. Raymond L. Puffer, ''The Death of a Satellite'' Retrieved on November 3, 2007. February * February 1 ** In the Iran–Iraq War, Iraq threatens air and missile attacks against Iranian cities, including Abadan, Ahwaz, Dezful, Ilam, and Kermanshah, and warns their residents to evacuate. ** Iraqi Air Force aircraft attack a convoy of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1993 Deaths
This is a list of lists of deaths of notable people, organized by year. New deaths articles are added to their respective month (e.g., Deaths in ) and then linked below. 2025 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 1987 1986 Earlier years ''Deaths in years earlier than this can usually be found in the main articles of the years.'' See also * Lists of deaths by day * Deaths by year (category) {{DEFAULTSORT:deaths by year ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1936 Births
Events January–February * January 20 – The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King Edward VIII, following the death of his father, George V, at Sandringham House. * January 28 – Death and state funeral of George V, State funeral of George V of the United Kingdom. After a procession through London, he is buried at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. * February 4 – Radium E (bismuth-210) becomes the first radioactive element to be made synthetically. * February 6 – The 1936 Winter Olympics, IV Olympic Winter Games open in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. * February 10–February 19, 19 – Second Italo-Ethiopian War: Battle of Amba Aradam – Italian forces gain a decisive tactical victory, effectively neutralizing the army of the Ethiopian Empire. * February 16 – 1936 Spanish general election: The left-wing Popular Front (Spain), Popular Front coalition takes a majority. * February 26 – February 26 Incident (二・二六事件, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Station
A space station (or orbital station) is a spacecraft which remains orbital spaceflight, in orbit and human spaceflight, hosts humans for extended periods of time. It therefore is an artificial satellite featuring space habitat (facility), habitation facilities. The purpose of maintaining a space station varies depending on the program. Most often space stations have been research stations, but they have also served militarization of space, military or commercialization of space, commercial uses, such as hosting space tourism, space tourists. Space stations have been hosting the only continuous human presence in space, presence of humans in space. The first space station was Salyut 1 (1971), hosting the first crew, of the ill-fated Soyuz 11. Consecutively space stations have been operated since Skylab (1973) and occupied since 1987 with the Salyut program, Salyut successor Mir. Uninterrupted human presence in orbital space through space stations have been sustained since the operat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Shuttle Atlantis
Space Shuttle ''Atlantis'' (Orbiter Vehicle designation: OV‑104) is a retired Space Shuttle orbiter vehicle which belongs to NASA, the spaceflight and space exploration agency of the United States. ''Atlantis'' was manufactured by the Rockwell International company in Southern California and was delivered to the Kennedy Space Center in Eastern Florida in April 1985. ''Atlantis'' is the fourth operational and the second-to-last Space Shuttle built. Its maiden flight was STS-51-J made from October 3 to 7, 1985. ''Atlantis'' embarked on its 33rd and final mission, also the final mission of a space shuttle, STS-135, on July 8, 2011. STS-134 by Space Shuttle Endeavour, ''Endeavour'' was expected to be the final flight before STS-135 was authorized in October 2010. STS-135 took advantage of the processing for the STS-335 Launch on Need mission that would have been necessary if STS-134's crew became stranded in orbit. ''Atlantis'' landed for the final time at the Kennedy Space Cent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
STS-37
STS-37, the thirty-ninth NASA Space Shuttle mission and the eighth flight of the Space Shuttle ''Atlantis'', was a six-day mission with the primary objective of launching the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO), the second of the Great Observatories program which included the visible-spectrum Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO) and the infrared Spitzer Space Telescope. The mission also featured two spacewalks, the first since 1985. Crew Spacewalks ;EVA 1 * Personnel: Apt and Ross * Date: April 7, 1991 (≈18:00–22:00 UTC) * Duration: 4 hours, 32 minutes ;EVA 2 * Personnel: Apt and Ross * Date: April 8, 1991 (14:51–20:38 UTC) * Duration: 5 hours, 57 minutes Crew seat assignments Preparations and launch The STS-37 mission was successfully launched from launch pad 39B at 9:22:44 a.m. EST on April 5, 1991, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Resumption of the countdown after the T−9-minute hold was del ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
STS-51-A
STS-51-A (formerly STS-19) was the 14th flight of NASA's Space Shuttle program, and the second flight of Space Shuttle ''Discovery''. The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center on November 8, 1984, and landed just under eight days later on November 16, 1984. STS-51-A marked the first time a shuttle deployed two communications satellites, and retrieved from orbit two other communications satellites. The Canadian Anik D2 and Syncom IV-1 satellites were both successfully deployed by the crew of ''Discovery''. Palapa B2 and Westar 6, meanwhile, had been deployed during the STS-41-B mission earlier in the year, but had been placed into improper orbits due to the malfunctioning of their kick motors; they were both safely recovered and returned to Earth during STS-51-A. Crew Spacewalks ;EVA 1 * Personnel: Allen and Gardner * Date: November 12, 1984 (13:25–19:25 UTC) * Duration: 6hours ;EVA 2 * Personnel: Allen and Gardner * Date: November 14, 1984 (11:09–16:51 UTC) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solar Maximum Mission
The Solar Maximum Mission satellite (or SolarMax) was designed to investigate Solar phenomena, particularly solar flares. It was launched on February 14, 1980. The SMM was the first satellite based on the Multimission Modular Spacecraft bus manufactured by Fairchild Industries, a platform which was later used for Landsat 4 and Landsat 5 as well as the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite. After an attitude control failure in November 1980 it was put in standby mode until April 1984 when it was repaired by a Shuttle mission. The Solar Maximum Mission ended on December 2, 1989, when the spacecraft re-entered the atmosphere and burned up over the Indian Ocean. Instruments Failure and repair The white-light coronagraph/polarimeter (C/P) took coronal images for about six months from March 1980 before suffering an electronics failure in September that prevented operation. In November 1980, the second of four fuses in SMM's attitude control system failed, causing it to r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Extravehicular Activity
Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut in outer space outside a spacecraft. In the absence of a breathable atmosphere of Earth, Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environmental support. EVA includes spacewalks and Moon, lunar or planetary surface exploration (commonly known from 1969 to 1972 as moonwalks). In a stand-up EVA (SEVA), an astronaut stands through an open hatch but does not fully leave the spacecraft. EVAs have been conducted by the Soviet Union/Russia, the United States, Canada, the European Space Agency and China. On March 18, 1965, Alexei Leonov became the first human to perform a spacewalk, exiting the Voskhod 2 capsule for 12 minutes and 9 seconds. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human to perform a moonwalk, outside his lunar lander on Apollo 11 for 2 hours and 31 minutes. In 1984, Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to perform a spacewalk, conducting EVA outside the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
