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)
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the history of rocketry and next to continue on to the beginning of modern flight.
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