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The acronym NASA that stands for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. When NASA is mentioned, most people tend to leave out the aeronautics part of the acronym, but what those people don’t realize is that NASA is involved in various projects on Earth. These missions include work on military and commercial airplanes, which have led to the developments of safer, more efficient planes. NASA has played an important role in the United States and people should know about it. The beginning of NASA was the most important part of the United States’ entire space program. On July 28, 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act to create the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which, of course, is NASA, which was to be headed by T. Keith Glennan. The bill called for a government agency where everything, whether it was a success or failure, was to be kept in open view of the public, and the goal of the administration was simply, “To explore the phenomenon of the atmosphere and space for peaceful purposes for the benefit of all mankind” (Vogt 10). With this, the United States finally had an agency truly committed to space and could finally compete with the Russians. NASA began full operation on October 1, 1958, after the National Advisor Committee on Aeronautics was abolished. Getting a little head start, NASA inherited the committee’s facilities, laboratories, and personnel and immediately set to work planning its future. According to A Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Album of NASA, the first flight of administration used a chimpanzee to test the effects of space on living mammals, but the flight only lasted sixteen and a half minutes and landed over 120 miles from its target (12). Though this was a slight setback for the United States, it did not stop President John F. Kennedy from proposing a plan to go to the moon. Three plans were eventually developed on how to accomplish this task. The choices were to either send pieces of a shuttle into space one by one, assemble them there and then go to the moon, directly launch from the earth to the moon, or launch from Earth, orbit the moon, and then have part of the shuttle detach and descend to the moon (Vogt 18-19). The third option was decided on due to the fact that it was the cheapest. Obviously, NASA’s birth was essential for a U.S. space agency. John F. Kennedy’s proposal of going to the moon soon led to the Apollo Projects of which Apollo 11 and 13 were the most famous. The shuttle for Apollo 11’s mission was composed of the Colombia and Eagle with a Saturn V rocket and remained in space for eight days, three hours, and eighteen minutes (“The Manned Flights” 2). Having a crew consisting of Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., it was not only the United States’ first but also the world’s first manned mission to land on the moon. The landing occurred on July 20, 1969 and was the site of Neil Armstrong’s famous words, “That’s one small step for man…one giant leap for mankind,” when he first set foot on the moon after over thirty orbits around the moon. While on the moon for two hours and thirty-one minutes, at the landing site Sea of Tranquility, a plaque with the inscription, “Here Men From Planet Earth First Set Foot Upon the Moon July 1969 A.D. We Came in Peace For All Mankind” (“The Manned Flights” 2) was placed to commemorate the first time man had ever set foot on the moon. Along with 11 there was Apollo 13 which was made of the Aquarius and Odyssey with a Saturn V rocket. The mission’s crew was James A. Lovell, Jr., John L. Swigert, Jr., and Fred W. Haise, Jr. It was supposed to be the third lunar landing attempt, but the landing was soon aborted after an oxygen tank ruptured (“The Manned Flights” 2). This ended up causing dangerous situations for the crew such as having two of the three electricity producing fuel cells stop because they had to use oxygen to produce the energy. The men had to put up with temperatures as low as thirty-eight degrees Fahrenheit and had to settle for only six ounces of water per day (Vogt 32). At that time, the mission caused speculations on what could have gone wrong along with a search for answers.
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