Race to Space!

Wernher von Braun: Father

of Space Exploration
Along with other
German scientists,
developed the first
rockets during and
after World War II
Came to the U.S. after
WWII, lived and worked
in Huntsville, AL from
1950 1970
Work provided the
basis for all early
NASA missions
First director of NASA

Start of the Space

Race
October 4th, 1957, Russia
launched the first
artificial satellite,
Sputnik, into orbit
Caused a wide-spread
panic in the U.S.
People feared the Soviet
Union would dominate the
world in space
exploration

Formation of NASA

Founded 1958 after Congress passed the National

Aeronautics and Space Act
Formed in direct response to the launch of
Sputnik
Purpose to provide organization and direction
of U.S. space program
First missions focused on getting humans into
space, studying effects of space on humans, and
returning astronauts safely to Earth

Competitors in the Space Race

United
States

Soviet
Union

After the launch of Sputnik, the U.S. and U.S.S.R.

were in direct competition to have most advanced
space program
Viewed as contest between communism and capitalism
National pride and fears for national defense
played large roles in motivating space race

First Human in Space

On April 12, 1961, the Soviets succeeded in
launching the first human into space, Yuri
Gagarin, and returning him safely to Earth

Yuri and
his
spacecraft,
Vostok 1

First American in Space

Alan Shepard becomes the first
American astronaut to enter space,
aboard the Freedom 7 spacecraft, on
May 5, 1961

Alan and his

spacecraft,
Freedom 7

The Mercury Project

NASAs first
mission
Mission goals:
getting an astronaut
into space
completing an orbit
returning astronaut
to Earth safely

Several
preliminary
Mercury launches
were unmanned

The Mercury - Atlas I

spacecraft

Enos the chimpanzee, crew of the

Mercury Atlas V spacecraft

The Gemini
Project

Astronaut Ed White,
II
The
rendezvous
of the
Gemini VI
and Gemini
VII
spacecraft

Involved sending two

astronauts into
orbit for longer
periods of time
Paved the way and
tested equipment for
the Apollo missions
to the moon
Astronaut Ed White,
II performs the
first spacewalk by
an American during
the Gemini IV
mission

President Kennedys
Challenge

May 21, 1961:

President Kennedy
challenged the
United States to
land astronauts
on the moon and
to return them
safely to Earth
Challenge
provided a
finish line for
the space race

President John F. Kennedy

The Apollo Missions

The Apollo 11
launch

Buzz Aldrin, in
Apollo 11 and on the
moon (above and
right)

Neil Armstrong

Apollo 11-17 involved

landing men on the moon;
Apollo 13 was aborted due
to a malfunction
July 20, 1969, Buzz
Aldrin and Neil Armstrong
of Apollo 11 were first
men on the moon
Each mission consisted of
three astronauts: one
stayed on Command Module
in lunar orbit, two
descended in Lunar Module
to moons surface
Total of 12 men have
walked on the moon

When did the space race

end?

Some historians believe the Space Race ended

when Apollo 11 returned safely from the Moon
Others believe that the Race ended when the
United States Apollo 18 spacecraft docked
with a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in 1975

A drawing of
the Apollo
Soyuz
rendezvous
(Apollo 18 is
on the left)

Skylab: The First Space

Station
Launched by the U.S. in 1973
Built from a modified Apollo command module
Occupied by 3 different teams of astronauts for a
total of 171 days
Purposely burned up in the Earths atmosphere in 1979
Over 2,000 hours of scientific and medical
experiments performed onboard

Two photographs of
Skylab, taken by
astronauts on their
approach to the space
station

Space Shuttles
Originally spacecraft were used
only once
In the 1980s, NASA developed
reusable spacecraft, the space
shuttles
Launched like rockets but land like
modern-day airplanes
Considered the most complex
machines ever built
Used to take satellites and
instruments into space
Originally five shuttles, two of
which have been destroyed
(Challenger, Columbia), three
remaining in service (Atlantis,
Endeavor, Discovery)
Fleet of shuttles scheduled to be
retired in 2010

The International Space

Station (ISS)
15 nations
participating
Assembly began in
1998; should be
completed by 2010
Teams of astronauts
have lived aboard
the ISS since 2001
Provides a permanent
laboratory for
conducting
experiments in space

Images
of the
ISS

Unmanned Missions:
Space Probes and
Landers

Besides manned missions like Mercury,

Gemini, and Apollo, NASA launched a
series of unmanned missions
Probes sent to study the outer planets
and to land on planets of the inner
solar system like Mercury, Venus, and
Mars
Probes also sent to gather information
about the moon before astronauts
ventured there

Why send robotic probes

instead of human?
Benefits:
Cheaper: theres no need to send along food, air, and
living space for astronauts or fuel for a round-trip
Safer: theres no danger to human life

Drawbacks:
Robotic probes can only do what theyre programmed to
do; they cannot grow or adapt to face unforeseen
changes
Robotic probes often must be controlled remotely from
Earth
Some feel that robotic missions lack the romance of
discovery and experience of manned missions

Voyager
Launched in 1977,
first spacecraft to
visit the outer
planets of our solar
system and send back
pictures of Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranus, and
Neptune
Continue to function
to this day
Now the farthest
man-made objects in
the solar system

Images of
Saturn (left)
and Jupiter
(below) from
the Voyager
spacecraft

The Hubble Telescope

From left: Images from the Hubble telescope of the Sombrero Galaxy, Orion
Nebula, Messier 101 Galaxy

In 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was

placed in orbit by the shuttle Discovery
Example of scientific instrument in space
Used to measure the age and size of the
universe
Able to take extremely clear images that are
undistorted by Earths atmosphere

The Cassini-Huygens
Mission
An image of
Saturn relayed
to Earth by
the Cassini
Huygens
spacecraft

First spacecraft to explore Saturn and its rings

and moons from orbit
Has been in orbit around Saturn since January 30,
2004
The Huygens probe was released from the Cassini
spacecraft in January 2005 to study Titan,
Saturns largest moon

Mars Rovers
Probes launched to Mars
with robotic rovers to
explore surface
Spirit landed on Mars
January 4, 2004;
Opportunity landed
December 12, 2004
Primary mission
scheduled to last ~ 3
months, but mission has
been active over two
Earth years
Rovers remotely
controlled by scientists
on Earth

Top and bottom:

images of Mars
from the rovers.
Left: an
artists vision
of Spirit on
Mars

President Bushs Vision

for Space Exploration
Presented plan to NASA
January 2004
ISS to be completed by
2010
Space shuttles to be
retired from service by
2010
Develop new manned
spacecraft by 2008 and
complete manned mission
by 2014
Return to the moon by
2020
Eventually send humans
to Mars

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