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Period: to
history of rockets
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National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics-the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory established in 1918
The first space operation that helped transition to NASA which started the space pioneering program -
Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek
Gene Roddenberry (1921-1991), a distinguished World War II bomber pilot
and commercial pilot, began his writing career penning stories about flying.
He began writing for television and developed a concept for a “western”
series set among the stars.The series became so popular that the first space shuttle
orbiter test vehicle was named Enterprise after the star ship Enterprise. -
Dr. Wernher von Braun
One of the leading figures in the development of pre-war Germany’s
rocket program and the development of the V2 missile, von Braun
(1912-1977) became a leading proponent of America’s space program.
He entered the United States after the war and became a naturalized
citizen. He worked on the development of intercontinental ballistic
missiles and led the development team that launched Explorer 1. -
Ames Aeronautical Laboratory activated near San Francisco in 1940
the second supprt company that helped the trnsition into NASA was founded in 1940 -
Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory built at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1941
the third major lab that funded NASA was made in 1940 as well as two small test facilities, one for high-speed flight research at Muroc Dry Lake in the high desert of California and one for sounding rockets at Wallops Island, Virginia. -
Bumper 2 Launch
A new chapter in space flight began in July 1950 with the launch of the first rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla: the Bumper 2, an ambitious two-stage rocket program that topped a V-2 missile base with a Corporal rocket. The upper stage was able to reach then-record altitudes of almost 250 miles. Launched under the direction of the General Electric Company, Bumper 2 was used primarily for testing rocket systems and for research on the upper atmosphere. -
Sputnik 1 (1957)
Sputnik 1 was the first artificial Earth satellite. The Soviet Union launched it into an elliptical low Earth orbit on October 4th in 1957. -
NASA was Created (1958)
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States Federal Government responsible for the civilian space program as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. -
National Aeronautics and Space Administration began operation
what we know today as NASA was founded in 1958 from the support of its three mother companies -
First NASA launch: Pioneer 1
the Pioneer I was launched October 11, 1958. although NASA was founded only 10 days earlier, the work done by the 3 mother companies made this launch possible. On October 11, 1958, Pioneer 1 became the first spacecraft launched by NASA, the newly formed space agency of the United States. The flight was the second and most successful of the three Thor-Able space probes. -
Pioneer 3
The United States launched Pioneer 3, the first U.S. satellite to ascend to an altitude of 63,580 miles. -
Vanguard 2
The United States launched Vanguard 2, the first successful launch of this principal IGY scientific satellite. -
Pioneer 4 to the Moon
The United States sent Pioneer 4 to the Moon, successfully making the first U.S. lunar flyby. -
Mercury Program
First U.S. crewed program -
Apollo Program (1961-1972)
Brought first human to the moon -
Gemini Program (1963-1966)
Program used to practice rendezvous and EVAs -
Skylab (1973)
The crewed missions only took place in 1973 and 1974; first American space station. -
Skylab (1974)
The crewed missions only took place in 1973 and 1974; first American space station. -
Apollo-Soyuz(1975)
Joint with Soviet Union. -
Project Constellation (2003-2010)
Cancelled program to bring humans to the Moon again, to Mars and beyond. -
Space Shuttle (1981-2011)
First missions in which a spacecraft was reused. -
Shuttle-Mir Program (1995-1998)
Russian partnership -
International Space Station (1998-Ongoing)
Joint with Russia, Canada, ESA, and JAXA along with co-operators ASI and AEB -
Deep Space 2
Sent to Mars on the same spacecraft as the Mars Polar Lander, the Deep Space 2 was a penetrator, designed to burrow into the Martian soil and collect data on water and chemical composition. -
The Mars Polar Lander (MPL)
The Mars Polar Lander was part of an extensive 1998 push to study the red planet. The program consisted of a soil probe, a lander, and a satellite. As the lander, the MPL was supposed to study the climate and surface of Mars. No one really knows what happened to the MPL. The spacecraft successfully reached Mars, but NASA never made contact with the MPL. Anything from a faulty transmitter to a complete crash to interference from Marvin could have caused the failure. -
The Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO)
The brains of the 1998 Mars Missions, NASA intended the MCO to serve the dual function of studying the Martian atmosphere and relaying radio signals from the two surface probes.
In one of the all time great engineering gaffs, NASA subcontractor Lockheed Martin created thruster software that used Imperial units, not the metric units used by NASA. NASA did not know this, never converted from pounds to newtons, and the probe eventually hit the atmosphere at the wrong angle and burned up. -
NOAA-19
NOAA-19 was the last in a series of weather satellites that monitor atmospheric conditions. There have been satellites lost in space, those that have exploded on the runway, and then there's this. During final servicing at a Lockheed-Martin facility in California, engineers failed to check if the satellite was bolted down before moving it, and accidentally knocked the multi-million dollar piece of equipment onto the ground, breaking a number of components. -
Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS)
A series of classified surveillance satellites, SBIRS was supposed to answer the Air Force's need for tracking ballistic missile launches. Consisting of high and low orbit satellites, SBIRS is scheduled to go on line next year. -
The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) Satellite (2014)
NASA intended the OCO to provide an orbiting platform from which scientists would be able to look at how carbon dioxide moved through the atmosphere. Hyped as a space-down look at global warming, the OCO was supposed to help researchers figure out climate change. Sadly, the OCO never made it into orbit, as the case containing the satellite failed to separate from the rocket during launch, leading the whole assembly to crash into the ocean 17 minutes after lift off.