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 Senator

John 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 KSC

12/21/68

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 from

Apollo 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 1980s 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 landbased 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 Earths 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