Explorer 1 became America’s first satellite on January 31, 1958. Following the Soviet success with Sputnik and the embarrassing failure in December 1957 of the first American attempt to launch a satellite, the U.S. Army launched a scientific satellite using a rocket that had been developed to test guided missile components.
National Air and Space Museum Image Detail
Explorer 1 (backup)
Today in Space History recently conducted a phone interview with shuttle astronaut (and commander) Pam Melroy. She is a veteran of three shuttle missions: STS-92 (2000) as pilot, STS-112 (2002 as pilot, and STS-120 (2007) as commander.As of January 2008 Melroy is the only active female astronaut in the astronaut corp who is also on the list of shuttle commanders (meaning she has test pilot experience). There are roughly 25 woman on the active astronaut NASA list for assignments.
Here are some previous posts we have made related to Pam Melroy:
January 29th, 2008 interview with commander Pam Melroy
Part three – ‘October’ has been a good month for you, why?
Melroy – listen (wav file: 1:37 secs)
All of Pam’s previous shuttle missions (STS-92, STS-112 and STS-120) have been in the month of October. She interacted with us about her career a little in this part of the interview.
ISS016-E-008106 (31 Oct. 2007) — Astronauts Pam Melroy, STS-120 commander, and European Space Agency’s (ESA) Paolo Nespoli, mission specialist, are pictured in the Harmony node of the International Space Station during a congratulatory phone call from the president of Italy. A module of Harmony floats freely in the foreground.
Apollo 14 launched on January 31, 1971. It was the eighth manned mission of the Apollo program. It was the third lunar landing mission.
“Apollo 14 was launched on January 31, 1971. Four days later, Commander Alan Shepard and Lunar Module Pilot Ed Mitchell landed at Fra Mauro. During the final approach, they recognized Cone Crater right at pitchover and, soon thereafter, picked up the familiar pattern of smaller craters near their aim-point another mile or so to the west. There wasn’t, Shepard said later, any really flat ground close at hand; there were either craters or sloping ground wherever he looked; but he had no trouble finding a crater-free, LM-sized patch that was only 30 meters from his target.”
Source: NASA
NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale, left, and other NASA senior management participate in a wreath laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery as part of NASA’s Day of Remembrance, Thursday, Jan. 31, 2008. The wreaths were laid in the memory of those men and women who lost their lives in the quest of space exploration, including the astronaut crews of Columbia, Challenger and Apollo 1.
Photo credit: NASA
Today in Space History recently conducted a phone interview with shuttle astronaut (and commander) Pam Melroy. She is a veteran of three shuttle missions: STS-92 (2000) as pilot, STS-112 (2002 as pilot, and STS-120 (2007) as commander.As of January 2008 Melroy is the only active female astronaut in the astronaut corp who is also on the list of shuttle commanders (meaning she has test pilot experience). There are roughly 25 woman on the active astronaut NASA list for assignments.
Here are some previous posts we have made related to Pam Melroy:
January 29th, 2008 interview with commander Pam Melroy
Part two – What did the ‘historic handshake’ between you and Peggy Whitson mean to you personally?
Melroy – listen (wav file: 1:47 secs)
Pam Melroy (STS-120) and Peggy Whitson (ISS) were the first female commanders to meet in space when they did so on October 25, 2007. Melroy talks about what that meeting meant to her and how it came about.
Today in Space History recently conducted a phone interview with shuttle astronaut (and commander) Pam Melroy. She is a veteran of three shuttle missions: STS-92 (2000) as pilot, STS-112 (2002 as pilot, and STS-120 (2007) as commander. As of January 2008 Melroy is the only active female astronaut in the astronaut corp who is also on the list of shuttle commanders (meaning she has test pilot experience). There are roughly 25 women on the active astronaut NASA list for assignments.
Here are some previous posts we have made related to Pam Melroy:
January 29th, 2008 interview with commander Pam Melroy
Part one – Talk about why the STS-120 shuttle mission (October 2007) was a success.
Melroy – listen (wav file: 57 secs)
Melroy talks about how STS-120 was a mission-success in spite of the challenges Kennedy Space Center faced with the problem of the torn solar array panels.
ISS016-E-008875 (3 Nov. 2007) — View of the repaired solar array photographed during the STS-120 mission’s fourth session of extravehicular activity (EVA) while Space Shuttle Discovery is docked with the International Space Station.
It was called STS-51L. Another space shuttle launch at Cape Canaveral. This one took off for the heavens at 11:38 EST. At 1:13 secs into flight the unthinkable happened and shocked a nation. The shuttle exploded as it headed to orbit killing all of the crew.
The shuttle Challenger flight STS-51L crew members who died January 28, 1986. In the back row, from left, mission specialist Ellison S. Onizuka, Teacher in Space Participant Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Payload Specialist Greg Jarvis and Mission specialist Judy Resnik. In the front row, from left, Pilot Mike Smith, Commander Dick Scobee, and Mission specialist Ron McNair.
With less than one second after lift-off the first sign of problems emerged though few saw it live. A “strong puff of gray smoke was spurting from the vicinity of the aft field joint on the right solid rocket booster.” This part of the rocket booster faced the external tank. The joint was not sealed. The crew never had a chance. In less than three more seconds eight more puffs of smoke. To all but the trained eye it seemed STS-51L was going smoothly.
But the reality is that the Challenger vehicle was on a course for destruction. “The black color and dense composition of the smoke puffs suggest that the grease, joint insulation and rubber O-rings in the joint seal were being burned and eroded by the hot propellant gases.”
Due to very strong wind-shear conditions the main engines had been throttled up to 104%. It was right atthis time – 58.788 seconds into flight that the first flame appeared on the right side of the rocket booster. An ominous sign of fatal proportions.
Not even one second later, telemetry data showed the right booster chamber pressure was lower than the left, a sign the leak was growing. Barely five seconds after the initial flame occurred there was evidence that the flame from the right rocket booster had penetrated the fuel tank. Now it was only a matter of seconds before the worst possible scenario would take place, a total failure and explosion of the rocket booster tanks.
“The explosion 73 seconds after liftoff claimed crew and vehicle. The cause of explosion was determined to be an o-ring failure in the right solid rocket booster. Cold weather was determined to be a contributing factor.”
Quotes: unless otherwise noted, all quotes are attributed to NASA.
According to Wikipedia:
“Virgil Ivan “Gus” Grissom (April 3, 1926 – January 27, 1967) was a United States Air Force pilot and a NASA astronaut. A native of Mitchell, Indiana, he was the second American to fly in space. He was killed during a training exercise and test for the Apollo One mission on January 27, 1967 at Launch Complex 34, Cape Kennedy, along with fellow astronauts Ed White and Roger Chaffee. Grissom was a posthumous recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
Although the ignition source of the fire was never determined their deaths were attributed to a wide range of lethal design hazards in the early Apollo command module such as its highly pressurized 100% oxygen atmosphere during the test, many wiring and plumbing flaws, flammable materials in the cockpit, a hatch which might not open at all in an emergency and even the flightsuits worn by the astronauts. Despite repeated requests from his widow Betty Moore Grissom and other members of his family, no independent inquiry has ever been carried out into the Apollo 1 incident.”
Quote by Grissom just weeks before the fatal fire:
“We’re in a risky business and we hope if anything happens to us, it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life. Our God-given curiosity will force us to go there ourselves because in the final analysis only man can fully evaluate the moon in terms understandable to other men. “
- Time, 3 Feb. 1967: Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Gemini: A Personal Account of Man’s Venture into Space, ed. Jacob Hay (New York: Macmillan, 1968), p. 175.
Apollo 12 astronaut and artist, Alan Bean, was interviewed on The Space Show January 7th. It is worth listening to.
Artist-astronaut Alan Bean, 74, was the fourth man to walk on the moon as Lunar Module pilot on Apollo 12, the second lunar landing. Although it has been more than 35 years, his footprints still lie undisturbed on the Moon’s Ocean of Storms. He later commanded the second Skylab mission in 1973, which lasted a record 59 days. Alan abruptly left NASA in 1981 to pursue his lifelong passion for art. A voracious student, Alan began to immerse himself in polishing his talent with the same intensity he gave to Apollo. Inspired by the impressionists and studying under contemporary masters, he is a first-rate artist who is as comfortable rendering sharp realism as he is with portraying subtle emotions through a faceless spacesuit–but there’s a bonus: As the only artist who has visited another world, Bean paints with an authenticity and insight completely unique in the entire history of art. His is a personal portfolio of the golden era of lunar exploration as viewed by the only artist who has been there. His full NASA bio can be found at www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/bean-al.html.
Image credit: The Wonder of It All film (2008)
“NASA leadership, astronauts, scientists, and engineers along with local business, technology and academic leaders and local, state and federal officials discuss the role of space exploration in advancing science, engineering, technology, education and the economy that benefits your community and the nation. The program features an exciting preview of NASA’s Constellation Program – America’s return to the Moon and beyond.”
NASA web site
Dates and locations of additional future forums:
NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale
Highlights of the Seattle future forum?
“Unlike an earlier era, we’re going back to the moon to stay,” Dale said. “The outpost on the moon will be a toehold to further exploration, a place where we will stay for long periods of time and learn how to live and work and conduct science.”- NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale
“Our mission is not to create commercial products or to stimulate the economy, although our work often has those effects,” she said. “Our focus is not on health care or medical research for the general public, yet we have made significant contributions in those areas.”
“Let’s face it,” Dale said. “It all begins with education, and because it is so exiting and so cool, space exploration inspires kids to go into science and math and engineering.”
Read a story about the Seattle future forum here.
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