A Brief History of Space Exploration

• Focus on manned space flight

• Little emphasis on non-US contributions

• VERY limited highlights of unmanned missions

Robert Goddard

• Father of American Rocketry

• First liquid propelled rocket - 1926

Dr. Werner von Braun

• Leader of Nazi rocketry research

• Inventor of the V-2 Rocket

• War criminal? Victim of Nazi “scorched Earth”?

• American hero?

I have learned to use the word "impossible“

with the greatest caution.”

• Slated for execution to prevent capture by the Allies

• A “prize” for which the Russians and Americans competed

• Surrendered to Americans

• Became the “father” of the U.S. space program

Sputnik – October 4, 1957“October Sky”

The “Space Race”

• Sputnik puts America into near panic

• 4/12/61 USSR puts Yuri Gagarin into space

• America Responds with Project Mercury

Project Mercury – “The Right Stuff”

• Mercury Redstone Rocket

• Single astronaut

• First U.S. manned ballistic flight – Alan Shephard 5/5/61

Astronaut and SenatorJohn Glenn

• Mercury Freedom 7• First American to orbit

Earth 2/20/62• Oldest person to travel

in space (Space Shuttle)

Liberty 7 on the seafloor

A near tragedy

Project Gemini

• Titan Rocket• Two astronauts• First “Space Walk”

(EVA)• Rendezvous with

Agena modules and with other Gemini capsules

Gemini capsule

Ed White Gemini 4 EVA

Mercury and Gemini –preludes to Apollo Project

Apollo 8 Liftoff from KSC12/21/68

Earthrise from lunar orbit – Apollo 8

Apollo 11: Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin

July 16, 1969

Apollo 11 LM – “Eagle”

“Houston, the Eagle has landed.”

Neil Armstrong – First Man on the Moon

Buzz Aldrin – second man on the moon

Lunar Rock fromApollo 11 Mission

Buzz Aldrin

Apollo 11 – American Heroes

Earthrise from lunar orbit

Apollo 17 Lunar Rover – 12/72

Apollo 17 Geologist Harrison Schmidt

Apollo 17 – Harrison Schmidt and Lunar Rover

Apollo 17 Astronaut Harrison Schmitt in the field with Oneonta

Alumni and Students - 2003

Skylab – a bridge between Apollo and the Shuttle - 1973

Space Shuttle – 1980’s to present (?)

Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster

• January 28, 1986

• Shuttle blows up 73 seconds after liftoff

• Six professional astronauts – a spectrum of America

• Christa McAuliffe – first teacher in space

HST – precious cargo for the Shuttle

Hubble Space Telescope

Hubble probes the mysteries of the cosmos

Soyuz – the Russian endeavor

Mir – a record of Russian accomplishment

Gene and Carolyn Shoemaker

• Gene Shoemaker – a would-be astronaut

• Geologist and land-based explorer of space

• Pioneer in study of impact structures

Shoemaker-Levy 9 and Jupiter

Scar from Shoemaker-Levy 9

Some Current Efforts

• International Space Station

• Search for extra-terrestrial planets

• Monitoring Earth’s atmosphere

• Sofia – Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy

• Mars Global Surveyor

• Mars Rovers

Unmanned Exploration

• Mars Pathfinder and Sojourner Rover

Mars Pathfinder

Panorama from surface of Mars

Messenger

• Messenger will arrive at Mercury in 2011

• Begin 1 year orbit to image and map surface