Space
Flight
Herman Oberth
was the head of the German liquid fuel rocketry program during the
years of 1920-1930. During this time his research helped develop
the V-2 rocket propelled missile. The V-2 was one of Nazi Germany's
final attempts at winning the war. This missile was produced in
1945 and was able to be launched safely within German defenses and
destroy targets up to 200 miles away. The rocket flew to an
altitude of 100 miles up then dropped it's 2,000 pound warhead at
speeds greater than 3,600 miles per hour onto enemy soil. The V-2
caused considerable damage and killed thousands of people.
Following World War II German rocket scientists surrendered to the Americans and Russians and agreed to help their conquering country develop a rocket program of their own. The Russians placed high priority on creating their own rocket where as the Americans did not. On October 4, 1957 the Russians launched a small satellite called Sputnik into space. The Americans were caught by surprise and realized that the same rocket that launched the Russian satellite could also drop a nuclear weapon nearly anywhere in the world. Immediately the Americans raced to catch up to the Russian technology and put their own satellite into space. At the same time the Americans were developing an Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile.
On January 1, 1958 The Americans
launched Explorer 1 into space. In that same year the government
formed NASA, to carry out peaceful exploration of space. Attention
then shifted to racing the Russians in putting a man into space.
Project Mercury was started to put a Volkswagen Beetle sized space
capsule into outer space. Again the Americans were defeated when a
Russian Cosmonaut, Yuri Alekseyevich circled the earth on April 12,
1961. One month later on May 5, 1961, the Americans put Alan
Shepard, Jr. into space. America was determined not to be outdone
again by the Russians. On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy
challenged the American People to put a man on the moon. "I believe that this nation should commit itself to
achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on
the moon and returning him safely to the Earth." (Click for audio
clip)
Project Gemini was then developed to do some further testing to see if the human body could adapt itself to weightlessness. They needed to be certain that humans could last long enough in weightless conditions to go to the moon and back. This capsule was larger than the Mercury capsule and held two people. Project Mercury accomplished the first "space walk," and the longest flight lasted 18 days.
When all tests were completed with the Gemini program the Apollo program was created. This was the largest of the capsules created and was designed for the flight to the moon. The Americans won this race, landing Apollo 11 on the moon on July 20, 1969. Neil Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the moon, as he did so he said: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." (Click for audio clip)
Today flights in space are quite common, with the re-useable Space shuttle. The Space Shuttle is a rocket plane strapped two extremely large rocket boosters and a fuel tank. During launch the two rocket boosters are jettisoned at an altitude of 27 miles. The boosters deploy parachutes and land safely into the ocean where they are recovered for future use. When the shuttle reaches 69 miles high the large fuel tank is jettisoned into the ocean. By this time the orbiter has reached a speed of over 17,000 miles per hour. From then on the space shuttle is under it's own power and is put into orbit. When the shuttle has completed it's mission it falls back into the earth's atmosphere and lands like a normal airplane in either Florida or California.
Click below to view a shuttle
launch:
Windows AVI (2.85MB)
Quicktime MOV (2.80MB)
Click back to return to the
history of rocketry and next to continue on to the beginning of
modern flight.
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