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STS-8
STS-8 was the eighth NASA Space Shuttle mission and the third flight of the Space Shuttle ''Challenger''. It launched on August 30, 1983, and landed on September 5, 1983, conducting the first night launch and night landing of the Space Shuttle program. It also carried the first African-American astronaut, Guion Bluford. The mission successfully achieved all of its planned research objectives, but was marred by the subsequent discovery that a solid-fuel rocket booster had almost malfunctioned catastrophically during the launch. The mission's primary payload was INSAT-1B, an Indian communications and weather observation satellite, which was released by the orbiter and boosted into a geostationary orbit. The secondary payload, replacing a delayed NASA communications satellite, was a four-metric-ton dummy payload, intended to test the use of the shuttle's Canadarm (remote manipulator system). Scientific experiments carried on board ''Challenger'' included the environmental te ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A
Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) is the first of Launch Complex 39's three launch pads, located at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida. The pad, along with Launch Complex 39B, was built in the 1960s to accommodate the Saturn V launch vehicle, and has been used to support NASA crewed space flight missions, including the historic Apollo 11 moon landing and the Space Shuttle. Since 2014 the site has been leased by SpaceX and supports launches of the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. History Apollo program In 1961, U.S. President Kennedy proposed to the U.S. Congress the goal of landing a man on the Moon by the end of the decade. Congressional approval led to the launch of the Apollo program, which required a massive expansion of NASA operations, including an expansion of launch operations from the Cape to adjacent Merritt Island to the north and west. First named Launch Complex 39C, Launch Complex 39A was designed to handle launches of the Saturn V rocket, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guion Bluford
Guion Stewart Bluford Jr. (born November 22, 1942) is an American aerospace engineer, retired United States Air Force (USAF) officer and fighter pilot, and former NASA astronaut, in which capacity he became the first African American to go to space. While assigned to NASA, he remained a USAF officer rising to the rank of colonel. He participated in four Space Shuttle flights between 1983 and 1992. In 1983, as a member of the crew of the Orbiter '' Challenger'' on the mission STS-8, he became the first African American in space as well as the second black person in space, after Cuban cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez. Personal life Born in Philadelphia, Bluford graduated from Overbrook High School in 1960. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in aerospace engineering from Pennsylvania State University in 1964, a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) in 1974, a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Aerospace Engineering ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daniel Brandenstein
Daniel Charles Brandenstein (born January 17, 1943) is the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of United Space Alliance. He is a former Naval Aviator, test pilot and NASA astronaut, who flew four Space Shuttle missions. He also served as Chief of the Astronaut Office from 1987 to 1992. Career Military After graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and physics from the University of Wisconsin–River Falls, and having been a member of Phi Sigma Kappa, Brandenstein entered active duty with the U.S. Navy in September 1965 and was attached to the Naval Air Training Command for flight training. He was designated a Naval Aviator at Naval Air Station Beeville, Texas, in May 1967 and then proceeded to attack squadron VA-128 for A-6 Intruder fleet replacement training. From 1968 to 1970, while attached to VA-196 flying A-6s, he participated in two combat deployments on board the aircraft carriers and to Southeast Asia where he flew 192 combat mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dale Gardner
Dale Allan Gardner (November 8, 1948 – February 19, 2014) was a NASA astronaut, and naval flight officer who flew two Space Shuttle missions during the mid 1980s. Personal information Born on November 8, 1948, in Fairmont, Minnesota, Gardner grew up in Sherburn, Minnesota, and Savanna, Illinois. He considered his hometown to be Clinton, Iowa, where his mother, Alice Gardner, resides. He lived with his second wife Sherry in Golden, Colorado and later in Divide, Colorado until his death. An avid sports enthusiast, he enjoyed snow skiing, golfing, tennis, woodworking and photography. Education Gardner graduated as valedictorian of his class from Savanna Community High School, in Savanna, Illinois, in 1966. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1970. Military experience Upon graduation from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Illinois in 1970, Gardner entered into acti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Truly
Richard Harrison Truly (November 12, 1937 – February 27, 2024) was an American fighter pilot, engineer and astronaut who served as a vice admiral in the United States Navy and as the eighth administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) from 1989 to 1992. He was the first former astronaut to head the space agency. After his departure from NASA, he led the Georgia Tech Research Institute from 1992 to 1997, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory from 1997 to 2005. Early life and education Born November 12, 1937, in Fayette, Mississippi, Truly attended segregated schools in Fayette and Meridian, Mississippi. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1959. He was a member of the Kappa Alpha Order. He was active in the Boy Scouts of America, achieving its highest rank of Eagle Scout. Being a member of the Navy ROTC at Georgia Tech, Truly entered the U.S. Navy, where he was ordered t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Shuttle Challenger
Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' (OV-099) was a Space Shuttle orbiter manufactured by Rockwell International and operated by NASA. Named after HMS Challenger (1858), the commanding ship of a Challenger expedition, nineteenth-century scientific expedition that traveled the world, ''Challenger'' was the second Space Shuttle orbiter to fly into space after ''Space Shuttle Columbia, Columbia'', and launched on STS-6, its maiden flight in April 1983. It was destroyed in January 1986 soon after launch Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, in a disaster that killed all seven crewmembers aboard. Initially manufactured as a Test article (aerospace), test article not intended for spaceflight, it was used for ground testing of the Space Shuttle orbiter's structural design. However, after NASA found that their original plan to upgrade ''Space Shuttle Enterprise, Enterprise'' for spaceflight would be more expensive than upgrading ''Challenger'', the orbiter was pressed into operational service in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Shuttle Program
The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine transportation for Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011. Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS), taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft where it was the only item funded for development, as a proposed nuclear shuttle in the plan was cancelled in 1972. It flew 135 missions and carried 355 astronauts from 16 countries, many on multiple trips. The Space Shuttle, composed of an Space Shuttle orbiter, orbiter launched with two reusable Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster, solid rocket boosters and a disposable external fuel tank, carried up to eight astronauts and up to of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO). When its mission was complete, the orbiter would atmospheric reentry, reenter the Earth's atmosphere and land like a glider (aircraft), glider at either ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program name was the Space Transportation System (STS), taken from the 1969 plan led by U.S. vice president Spiro Agnew for a system of reusable spacecraft where it was the only item funded for development. The first (STS-1) of four orbital test flights occurred in 1981, leading to operational flights (STS-5) beginning in 1982. Five complete Space Shuttle orbiter vehicles were built and flown on a total of 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. They launched from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Operational missions launched numerous satellites, interplanetary probes, and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), conducted science experiments in orbit, participated in the Shuttle–Mir program, Shuttle-''Mir'' program with Russia, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Micro-g Environment
Weightlessness is the complete or near-complete absence of the sensation of weight, i.e., zero apparent weight. It is also termed zero g-force, or zero-g (named after the g-force) or, incorrectly, zero gravity. Weight is a measurement of the force on an object at rest in a relatively strong gravitational field (such as on the surface of the Earth). These weight-sensations originate from contact with supporting floors, seats, beds, scales, and the like. A sensation of weight is also produced, even when the gravitational field is zero, when contact forces act upon and overcome a body's inertia by mechanical, non- gravitational forces- such as in a centrifuge, a rotating space station, or within an accelerating vehicle. When the gravitational field is non-uniform, a body in free fall experiences tidal forces and is not stress-free. Near a black hole, such tidal effects can be very strong, leading to ''spaghettification''. In the case of the Earth, the effects are minor, especially ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
STS-9
STS-9 (also referred to Spacelab 1) was the ninth NASA Space Shuttle mission and the sixth mission of the Space Shuttle ''Columbia''. Launched on November 28, 1983, the ten-day mission carried the first Spacelab laboratory module into orbit. STS-9 was also the last time the original STS numbering system was used until STS-26, which was designated in the aftermath of the 1986 ''Challenger'' disaster of STS-51-L. Under the new system, STS-9 would have been designated as STS-41-A. STS-9's originally planned successor, STS-10, was canceled due to payload issues; it was instead followed by STS-41-B. After this mission, ''Columbia'' was taken out of service for renovations and did not fly again until STS-61-C in early January 1986. STS-9 sent the first non-U.S. citizen into space on the Shuttle, Ulf Merbold, becoming the first ESA and first West German citizen to go into space. Crew Support crew * John E. Blaha (entry CAPCOM) * Franklin R. Chang-Diaz * Mary L. Cleave ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
STS-7
STS-7 was NASA's seventh Space Shuttle mission, and the second mission for the Space Shuttle Challenger, Space Shuttle ''Challenger''. During the mission, ''Challenger'' deployed several satellites into orbit. The shuttle launched from Kennedy Space Center on June 18, 1983, and landed at Edwards Air Force Base on June 24, 1983. STS-7 carried Sally Ride, America's first List of female astronauts, female astronaut. Crew Support crew * John E. Blaha * Roy D. Bridges Jr. (ascent CAPCOM) * Guy Gardner (astronaut), Guy Gardner * Terry Hart * Jon McBride * Bryan D. O'Connor (entry CAPCOM) Crew seat assignments Mission summary STS-7 began on June 18, 1983, with an on-time liftoff at 7:33:00 a.m.Eastern Time Zone, EDT. It was the first spaceflight of an American woman (Ride), the largest crew to fly in a single spacecraft up to that time (five people), and the first flight that included members of NASA's NASA Astronaut Group 8, Group 8 astronaut class, which had been s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
African-American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. African Americans constitute the second largest ethno-racial group in the U.S. after White Americans. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of Africans enslaved in the United States. In 2023, an estimated 48.3 million people self-identified as Black, making up 14.4% of the country’s population. This marks a 33% increase since 2000, when there were 36.2 million Black people living in the U.S. African-American history began in the 16th century, with Africans being sold to European slave traders and transported across the Atlantic to the Western Hemisphere. They were sold as slaves to European colonists and put to work on plantations, particularly in the southern colonies. A few were able to achieve freedom through ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
