50 Years of Human Space Flight: 1961-2011

An Educational Program Created for Roanoke Public Libraries,

Roanoke, VA

By Richard C. CookAuthor, Challenger Revealed

February 25 & 26, 2011

Developed as a publicservice and not copyrighted.

Fair Use Doctrine claimedfor illustrations.

Man the Dreamer

Early Chinese RocketLeonardo da Vinci

Space Station Drawing?Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon - 1865

The “Call of Space”

Flash Gordon - 1934

Buck Rogers - 1928

The Day the Earth Stood Still - 1951

Superman - 1932

Dr. Robert Goddard (1882-1945)

German V-2 Rocket – WW II

Sputnik 1 Launched by the Soviet Union

on October 4, 1957

First Earth-Orbiting Satellites

Explorer 1Launched by the U.S.on January 31, 1958

National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958

DECLARATION OF POLICY AND PURPOSESec. 102.  (a) The Congress hereby declares that it is the policy of the United States that activities in space should be devoted to peaceful purposes for the benefit of all mankind.

(b) The Congress declares that the general welfare and security of the United States require that adequate provision be made for aeronautical and space activities. The Congress further declares that such activities shall be the responsibility of, and shall be directed by, a civilian agency exercising control over aeronautical and space activities sponsored by the United States, except that activities peculiar to or primarily associated with the development of weapons systems, military operations, or the defense of the United States (including the research and development necessary to make effective provision for the defense of the United States) shall be the responsibility of, and shall be directed by, the Department of Defense; and that determination as to which such agency has responsibility for and direction of any such activity shall be made by the President in conformity with section 2471(e).

(c) The Congress declares that the general welfare of the United States requires that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (as established by title II of this Act) seek and encourage, to the maximum extent possible, the fullest commercial use of space.

National Aeronauticsand Space Administration

Kennedy Space Center, Florida

Johnson Space Center, Houston

Marshall Space Flight Center, Alabama

Goddard Space Flight Center, Maryland

Project Mercury 1959-1963

1st American Astronauts:Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Virgil “Gus” Grissom,

Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard, Donald “Deke” Slayton

20 unmanned launches, followed by two suborbital

and four orbital manned flights

Trained at NASA’sLangley Research Center,

Hampton, Virginia

Mercury Spacecraft

Mercury Capsule withEscape Tower

Mercury Control at Cape Canaveral,

Florida

The Soviet Union and the U.S. Send Men to Space.

First Suborbital Flights

Yuri GagarinApril 12, 1961

Alan ShepardMay 5, 1961

Oops. Almost Forgot!

Ham the Chimp beat bothmen to space with a

January 31,1961 suborbital flight

(After his flight, Ham lived inthe National Zoo in Washington, D.C.,

until the ripe old age of 26)

John GlennFirst American to Orbit the Earth

February 20, 1962

Astronaut U.S. Senator

Oldest shuttleastronaut – 1998

Age 77

First Woman in Space

June 16, 1963 - Vostok 6 carries Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, and orbits the earth 48 times.

Project Gemini

• 10 two-man flights in 1965-66• Preparation for lunar mission• Rendezvous and docking of capsules• First American spacewalks• Demonstrate endurance in zero-gravity

Jan. 27, 1967: Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee are killed on the launch pad when a flash fire engulfs their command module during testing for the first Apollo/Saturn mission. They are the first U.S. astronauts to die in the line of duty.

Tragedy

April 24, 1967: Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies when his Soyuz capsule crash lands after a 13-orbitmission.

Humanity Reaches for the Moon

The Apollo Program1961-1975

• Met President John F. Kennedy’s goal of “landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth” by the end of the decade.•12 men walked on the moon in six landings.• Only spaceflight program to send men beyond low earth orbit.• Utilized giant Saturn rocket developed by Dr. Werner von Braun and his team• Included three Skylab missions and one docking mission with Soviet Soyuz.

How They Got There

Saturn 5 Rocket Command Module

Lunar Module (LEM) Lunar Rover

Man on the Moon: Apollo 11Launched July 16, 1969Landed July 20, 1969

Neil ArmstrongEugene “Buzz” AldrinMichael Collins

In Flight Recovery

On the Moon

Lunar Adventure

Earthrise Mission Control A Big Rock

Golf Course Apollo 13 Rescue Apollo-Soyuz Docking Mission

Early Unmanned Spacecraft1960 - Corona Spy Satellite 1961 – Telstar 1

1965 – Soviet Venus 3

1964 – Mariner-Mars

1975 – Viking 1&2 to Mars1977 – Viking 1&2to Jupiter & Saturn

Soviet Space Stations1971 – Salyut 1

June 29, 1971 – 3 Sovietcosmonauts die on rentry

after visiting Salyut 1

1982 – Salyut 7Soviet cosmonauts

set duration record of 211 days

1986-2001 Mir

Space Shuttle

• Approved by President Nixon on January 5, 1972.• World’s first reusable spacecraft, as well as largest, most complex, and most expensive.• Nine years to develop, with first launch of Columbia taking place on April 12, 1981.• Designed as “space truck” to carry all U.S. scientific, military, and commercial payloads, a highly radical policy that changed after Challenger disaster.• Confined to low earth orbit – 120-600 miles with longer-distance rockets in payload bay.• Seven-person crew.• 133 missions have been flown to date with two catastrophic failures.• Scheduled to be terminated with last flight in June 2011.

Shuttle Components

Orbiter• Upper and lower passenger decks• Powered by liquid hydrogen/oxygen• World’s only spacecraft to land on a runway• Large payload bay with robotic arm for cargo

External Tank• 153.8 feet long• Contains hydrogen & oxygen for main engines• Manufactured in New Orleans and shipped by barge to Florida• Discarded in flight and breaks up over Indian Ocean• Covered with lightweight insulating foam

Solid Rocket Boosters• Segments shipped from Utah by rail and joined at Kennedy Space Center (field joints) • Solid ammonium perchlorate/aluminum fuel with explosive igniter• Burn for first two minutes of flight• Parachute to ocean after flight and are reused

Cutting Edge

Space ShuttleMain Engines (SSMEs)

Thermal Protection System (TPS)

Flight Computer System

First Use of Solid-FuelRockets in Manned

Spaceflight

Runway Landings

Space Shuttle Liftoff

July 4, 1982, President Reagandeclares shuttle “operational” at

landing of Columbia, Edwards AB, Calif.

Sally Ride, First U.S. womanIn space, STS-7, Challenger,

June 18, 1983

January 24, 1985 – DiscoveryFirst classified Department of Defense

space shuttle mission

November 28, 1983 – Columbia1st launch of German-built Spacelab

Anomalies

Solid Rocket Booster O-ring charring first

appears on STS-2

July 29, 1985 – ChallengerPremature Main Engine

shutdown 5 min. into flight

December 1984 – Challengerflight cancelled when 3,800

thermal tiles had to be replaced

January 24-27, 1985 Discovery: Five SRB O-rings damaged in

during “freeze of the century”

Challenger DisasterJanuary 28, 1986

• Challenger broke up 73 seconds into flight.• All seven astronauts died.• Due to Teacher-in-Space Christa McAuliffe, most-watched launch since moon landing.• Cold weather weakened Solid Rocket Booster o-ring joint which failed at ignition.• Morton-Thiokol engineers opposed launch but were overruled by company management acting under pressure from NASA.• Crew had no escape system or early warning capability.• Investigations concluded that NASA should have grounded shuttle due to seriousness of o-ring joint problems.• Investigations cited launch schedule pressures.

Presidential Commission on theSpace Shuttle Challenger Accident

Chairman William RogersFormer Sec. of State

Commission MemberSally Ride

Vice-ChairmanNeil Armstrong

Commission MemberRichard Feynman

Richard Cookdescribed O-ring “budget threats”

Roger Boisjolyof Morton Thiokolexplained how he

andother engineersopposed launch

Astronaut John Youngtestified on launch schedule pressures

Allan Mcdonald ofMorton Thiokol refused to sign

document approving

launch

The Shuttle Returns to FlightSeptember 29, 1988 – Discovery

First post-Challenger launchApril 24, 1990 – DiscoveryHubble Space Telescope

October 6, 1990Ulysses Solar Mission

May 7, 1992 - First flight of Endeavor orbiter

June 27, 1995 - AtlantisFirst shuttle docking with

Russian Mir

May 27, 1999 – DiscoveryFirst servicing mission for International Space Station

Hubble Views the Universe

Omega Nebula N90 Star-Forming Region Crab Nebula

Galaxies in Deep Space Sombrero Galaxy Spiral Galaxy

International Space Station

• ISS project began in 1994 with 1st module launched by Russia in 1998.• Operated jointly by NASA, Russian Federal Space Agency, European Space Agency, Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, and Canadian Space Agency.• Continuously occupied since October 31, 2000.• Used only for peaceful purposes.• Visited by astronauts and cosmonauts from 15 nations.• Most expensive project in human history. • Serviced by manned Soyuz and Shuttle spacecraft and unmapped Russian, European, and Japanese vehicles.• Contains 14 separate pressurized modules.• Solar-powered with photovoltaic arrays.• Visible to the naked eye.• Purposes are scientific research, enhancing human performance and health in space, earth weather observation, education, and furthering international cooperation.

Columbia DisasterFebruary 1, 2003

• Columbia disintegrated over Texas and Louisiana during reentry at the end of a 17-day flight.• All seven crew members died.• Cause was determined to be a briefcase-sized piece of foam that fell from the External Tank onto the Orbiter at 66,000 feet after liftoff and damaged the leading edge of the left wing.• Engineers suspected damage during the flight but NASA’s managers took no action and crew was not told.• Tiles had been damaged in previous flights but not fatally. “Foam shedding” had become an acceptable occurrence.• Investigating board was highly critical of NASA’s decision-making and risk assessment processes.• After the Columbia disaster the shuttle was idle for two years while safety improvements were made.

Fallen Shuttle AstronautsChallenger Crew

Columbia Crew

Front Row: Michael Smith, Frances “Dick” Scobee, Ronald McNairBack Row: Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnik

Front Row:Rick Husband, Kalpana Chawla, William McCoolBack Row:David Brown, Laurel Clark, Michael Anderson, Ll Ramon

Unmanned U.S. Flights Continue to Explore the Solar System

1990 – Magellan Venusradar mapping mission

1995 - Galileo Jupiter probe

June 1997 NEAR (Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous) lands on Eros in Feb. 2001

1996-2006 - Mars Global Surveyor

October 1997 - Launch of Cassini/Huygens to Saturn;

lands on Titan 2005

What Lies Beyond?

Voyager 1 & 2 to leave solar systemand transmit data until 2020

New Horizons expected to reach Pluto in 2015 Then leave solar system

Wikipedia: “Each Voyager space probe carries a gold-plated audio-visual disc in the event that either spacecraft is ever found by intelligent life-forms from other planetary systems. The discs carry photos of the Earth and its life forms, a range of scientific information, spoken greetings from the people (e.g. the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the President of the United States, and the children of the Planet Earth) and a medley, ‘Sounds of Earth,’ that includes the sounds of whales, a baby crying, waves breaking on a shore, and a variety of music.”

Studying Earth Changes from Space

Hurricane Gordon - 1994Tracking Sunspots

Shrinking Ice & Snow CoverChanges in

Earth’s Magnetosphere

China Becomes the Third Nation to Launch Men into Space

January 2001 Chinese launch of Shenzhou spacecraft carrying a monkey, dog, and rabbit.

Shenzhou means “divine vessel.” On October 15, 2003, Shenzhou 5 placed first

man from China into orbit. Six have flown to date.

Shanzhou Re-entry Capsule

Yang Liwei, first Chinese

astronaut

Race Back to the Moon ?

• Chandrayaan 1, Indian lunar flight confirms water on moon, October 2008• U.S. planned moon landing announced for 2019• Indian manned mission Chandrayaan 3 planned for 2015• 2020 - Planned Indian and Japanese manned moon landings• 2025 - Planned Chinese manned moon landing• 2025 – Planned Russian manned moon landing followed by permanent lunar base

Military Uses of Space

Tactical Military Satellite Dish

Military Satellite Photoof the Eiffel Tower

• Space operations conducted by all modern nations for communications, surveillance, and navigation.• Weapons can be delivered through space by ICBMs. • Outer Space Treaty dating to 1966 bans deployment of nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction in space.• Only the Soviet Union has used manned military space stations.• President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative – “Star Wars” program began to use shuttle as weapons testing platform with lasers and particle beams.• Use of shuttle for military missions discontinued during Clinton administration.• Military “black budgets” have potential for secret military space programs.• Military commanders of major nations have declared intent to wage war from and in space in future.

Proposed Next Step: The Constellation Fleet…but…

Aries crew launch vehiclewith resusable solid rocket

and LOX upper stage

Orion crew exploration vehicleto shuttle four-person crew between

low earth orbit, space station, and moon

Altair lunar lander that docks with Orion in low orbit then flies

toward moon

Lunar Outpost – a base at theMoon’s south pole where the Mars Orion

mission would be configured

Constellation on the Way Out?

• On February 1, 2010, the Obama administration canceled the Constellation program.• At an April 2010 Space Conference in Florida, President Obama proposed continuing development of the Orion capsule, but initially using it as an escape capsule for the ISS.• Development of new deep space vehicles would be postponed.• Private companies such as SpaceX are lobbying to build NASA’s next manned launch vehicle.• Congress has mandated that NASA build a new rocket from existing components.• Thousands of jobs are scheduled to be eliminated when the shuttle is retired in 2011.

Explosive Chemical Rockets? – There Must Be a Better Way !

Magnetoplasma Rocket: An electro-magnetic thruster that uses radio waves to ionize and heat a propellant and magnetic fields to accelerate the resulting plasma and generate thrust. Developed by Costa Rican scientist and former astronaut Frankliln Chang-Diaz for testing on the International Space Station. But it will be useable only after it has already been carried into space.

Space elevator: Involves traveling along a fixed structure instead of using rocket powered launch systems. The concept refers to a cable that reaches from the surface of the earth on or near the equator to a platform in geostationary orbit and a counterweight outside the geostationary orbit. Discussion of a space elevator dates to 1895 when Konstantin Tsiolokovsky proposed a free-standing "Tsiolkovsky" tower reaching from the surface of earth. Its use is limited by the height of the platform.

Magnetic Levitation: A superconductor cooled to an extremely low temperature is repelled by a magnetic field and made to levitate, the Meisner Effect. This is the principle behind the mag-lev train, whereby an extremely heavy train filled with cargo and passengers can travel at speeds over 100 mph on a track it never even touches. The mag-lev train actually floats a centimeter above the track in seeming defiance of the law of gravity. Animals such as frogs have been levitated in the laboratory. But can it get us off earth?

A fusion rocket would be driven by nuclear fusion power. Recent developments indicate this technology may be able to provide terrestrial based power within 30 years. For space flight, the main advantage of fusion would be the very high specific impulse, the main disadvantage being the probable large mass of the reactor. In addition, a fusion rocket may produce less radiation than a fission rocket, reducing the mass needed for shielding.

How About Nuclear Fusion Rockets?

Even More Exotic

Faster than Light?

American researcher Peter Grandics has stated that, “Time is found to be a derivative of gravitation that appears at right angles to magnetism” and proposes methods for time warping that could be used for faster-than-light spacecraft Design.

Wormholes

A wormhole is a theoretical shortcut through spacetime,potentially able to be crossed by space travelers. TheSchwarzschild wormhole consists of a black hole, a whitehole, and two universes connected at their horizons by awormhole. In the film Contact, Dr. Eleanor Arroway travels tothe star system Vega through a series of wormholes.

Antigravity

Even though many scientists resist the idea that antigravitycould exist, it has become the most promising field of theoreticalresearch for out-of-the-box propulsion applications.

Space in the Popular ImaginationStar Trek - 1966

E.T. - 1982

Close Encounters

of the Third Kind1977

Star Wars - 1977

Contact - 1997

X – Files - 1992

Independence Day - 1996

2012 - 2009

Are We Alone?The Search forUFOs and ETs

• SETI, or Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, is a generic term for a variety of scientific attempts to contact intelligent life elsewhere in the universe through electromagnetic transmissions, including NASA-funded studies.• UFO-like objects have been reported throughout history, including ancient Rome and medieval times. • In 1968, Science & Mechanics magazine published detailed accounts of UFO phenomena from the Air Force’s Project Blue Book files; Air Force terminated the project in 1970; U.S. government denies any knowledge of UFOs.• Former astronauts Gordon Cooper and Edgar Mitchell say ETs are real. Mitchell says that he was briefed on UFO/ET contacts while at NASA.• Officials from the U.N., the British Royal Society, the Vatican, and many other institutions back the search for extraterrestrial life.• Military officers, pilots, and government officials from many countries have reliably and extensively documented UFO sightings; they do exist. What they are and who flies them are unknown.

 

 

Results of Space ExplorationThe world in which we live would have been inconceivable a century ago.

The space program has contributed to this in two significant ways:

Global Vision

Technology

Our Future in Space--and on Earth--

Is Up to Us

But whoever you are or wherever you are,

it’s up to youto decide howto serve others

Thank You!

• To Roanoke Public Libraries and Mr. River Laker for inviting me and being so creative in facilitating the program.

• To my hard-working laptop for being so cooperative.

• To my wife Karen for putting up with my long silences while working on the presentation.

• To my mom, who has encouraged me for 64 of her 88 years.

• To the men and women around the world who have taken part in 50 years of manned space flight.

• To all ETs, wherever you are.

• But most important - to all of you who came to participate – you are a great audience!