Project: History of early space flight

Project: History of early space flight Students: CalanceaAndreea RumleanschiIana National College, Iaşi, Romania

The realistic proposal of spaceflight goes back to Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. His most famous work, Исследование мировыхпространств реактивнымиприборами, was published in 1903,but was not widely influential outside of Russia. National College, Iaşi, Romania

Robert H. Goddard’s publication in 1919 of his paper ‘A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes‘, where his application of the de Laval nozzle to liquid fuel rockets gave sufficient power that interplanetary travel became possible. National College, Iaşi, Romania

In 1929, the Slovene officer Hermann Noordung was the first to imagine a quite complete space station in his book The Problem of Space Travel. The first rocket to reach space was a German V-2 Rocket, on a testflight in June 1944. National College, Iaşi, Romania

Orbital space flight was first developed by the Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War, in a competition dubbed the Space Racewhich began on July 29, 1957, when the US announced at the convention of the 1957-1958 International Geophysical Year,Itsintent to launch an artificial satellite known as Vanguard by the spring of 1958. National College, Iaşi, Romania

The Soviets reacted on July 31, announcing they would launch Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957. After a series of Vanguard failures, the US succeeded in launching its first satellite, Explorer 1 on Feb 1958. This carried scientific instrumentation and detected the theorized Van Allen radiation belt. National College, Iaşi, Romania

In 1959, NASA began Project Mercury to launch single-man capsules into Earth orbit and chose a corps of seven astronauts introduced as the Mercury Seven. National College, Iaşi, Romania

On April 12, 1961, the USSR announced the successful launch and return of its first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin who made a single orbit aboard Vostok 1. On May 5, 1961 the US launched its first Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard in a capsule he named Freedom 7, but on a suborbital flight. National College, Iaşi, Romania

President John F. Kennedy announced on May 25 a plan to land a man on the moon by 1970, launching the three-man Apollo program. In January 1962, NASA announced a two-man spacecraft program named Project Gemini to support Apollo. National College, Iaşi, Romania

Project Mercury launched a total of six astronauts by May 16, 1963. The Soviets launched five more cosmonauts, including the first woman in space, the civilian parashutistValentina Tereshkova in Vostok 6 on June 16, 1963, though this was done for political propaganda rather than a commitment to women's equality. National College, Iaşi, Romania

The US succeeded in achieving President Kennedy's goal on July 20, 1969, with the landing of Apollo 11.Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrinbecame the first men to set foot on the Moon. Six such successful landings were achieved through 1972, with one failure on Apollo 13. National College, Iaşi, Romania

Both the US and URSS went on to fly relatively small, non-permanent manned space laboratories Salyut and Skylab, using their Soyuz and Apollo craft as shuttles. The US launched only one Skylab, but the USSR launched a total of seven "Salyuts", three of which were secretly Almaz military manned reconnaissance stations, which carried "defensive" cannons. National College, Iaşi, Romania

In a season of detente, the two competitors declared an end to the race and shook hands (literally) on July 17, 1975 with the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, where the two craft docked and the crews exchanged visits. National College, Iaşi, Romania

Although its pace slowed, space exploration continued after the end of the Space Race. The United States launched the first reusable spacecraft (Space Shuttle) on the 20th anniversary of Gagarin's flight, 12 April 1981. National College, Iaşi, Romania

Superficially, there are incredible similarities between the two craft, as seen below: • Superficially, there are incredible similarities between the two craft, as seen below: • In reality, there were many significant differences between the two craft: • - Buran utilized manned & robotic flight, the US shuttle was retrofitted for robotic flight. • - Unlike the shuttle, Buran had no main rocket engines freeing tremendous weight & space. • - Buran’s launcher, Energia, was designed to carry up to 80 metric tons into orbit on its own. • - Energa was also being designed to carry payloads to the moon without Buran. • - Buran could lift 30 metric tons of payload into orbit, vs. the shuttle’s 25 metric tons. • - The thermodynamic tiles of Buran were very different than the shuttle, and thought superior. On 15 November 1988, the Soviet Union attempted to duplicate this with the Buran shuttle, its first and only reusable spacecraft. It was never been used again after the first flight; instead the Soviet Union continued to develop space stations using the Soyuz craft as the crew shuttle. National College, Iaşi, Romania

Sally Ride became the first American woman in space in 1983. Eileen Collins was the first female Shuttle pilot, and with Shuttle mission STS-93 in July 1999 she became the first woman to command a U.S. spacecraft. National College, Iaşi, Romania

The longest single human spaceflight is that of ValeriyPolyakov, who left earth on January 8, 1994, and didn't return until March 22, 1995 (a total of 437 days 17 hr. 58 min. 16 sec. aboard). Sergei Krikalyovhas spent the most time of anyone in space, 803 days, 9 hours, and 39 seconds altogether. National College, Iaşi, Romania

Timeline of spaceflight National College, Iaşi, Romania

Project: History of early space flight