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SPACECOAST-CONTENTS

Date: 13 Dec 2019
By: dave hogerty
Comment: Comments are off

•  

[ Earthrise ]

First Look at the World. 

“Ball Of Confusion”
Temptations
1970
((( song )))

 “Earthrise” (video)  b/ Bill Anders

Apollo 8
In The Beginning, God Created the Heavens and the Earth.

Christmas Eve 1968

 


— dave.

Indian River
Running around Merritt Island, the Intracoastal Waterway (home to the World’s finest citrus), leads into the Mosquito Lagoon, and onto Cape Canaveral, the Sacred Ground the natives called Sandy Point.  

 

— dave.

A Day In The Life
A YOUNG FAMILY’S FIRST LAUNCH  (2005)
Cocoa, Florida

n  MOONLIGHT SERENADE
SpaceX first all-private launch (Sept. 15, 2021)

n  FREE FLIGHT:
JULY 4th 2006
n  LAST DISCOVERY
Before The Dawn (2011)
n  NAKED LAUNCH
Florida’s Finest Art (1997)
n  THEY CALLED IT “HEAVY”
The Inaugural Falcon Heavy (2018)
n   RIDE THE DRAGON
First Manned SpaceX Mission (2020)

 

— dave.

April 12, 1981 — The Launch of Columbia was the first of 135 throughout NASA’s Space Shuttle Program, an era that continued for 30 years, until its last launch of Atlantis, July 8, 2011.

 


— dave.

 

— .z.

The Visionary
“Imagine” A Man on The Moon

From the time he was a little boy, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, like most imaginative thinkers, was captivated by the Moon. 
Intrigued and mystified by the way it randomly moved across the sky. Sometimes rising at night, sometimes at dawn. Shining Red, Yellow, Orange, or Blue. Full, Half, and Crescent. Big and small, near and far, JFK’s wonder was the same as everyone. Those who once seeing it, the Moon’s presence is always known, so too imagining what it would feel like to stand on the surface, looking back at the Earth.

1969 — 

 

 

— Sam Newton

The Right Place

Florida’s Space Coast
Cape Canaveral
Cocoa Beach
Banana River
Merritt Island
Mosquito Lagoon
Indian River
Tropical Trail
Dragon Point
Cape Canaveral
Merritt Island
Mosquito Lagoon
Indian River
Tropical Trail
Dragon Point
TITUSVILLE
Canaveral National SeaShore
Playalinda Beach
Apollo Beach (Clothing Optional)
Naked Launch 
Cocoa Beach
SURF
Kelly Slater
Kate Upton
Playalinda
Port Canaveral
Disney Cruise Ships
T-Shirt Shop
Canaveral Pier
SR520
Alan Shepard Park
Ron Jon’s
Condo Residential Strip Malls
Glass Bank
Downtown?
MINUTEMAN CAUSEWAY
ASTRONAUT PARADE ROUTE
A1A SPLIT
OLD & NEW — Small Beach Shack Apartments to “Private,” Gated, Walled, Manicured, Three-Floor Townhomes.
NATURAL ART SURF SHOP
Davo’s
TACO CITY
Patrick Air Force Base
PAFB
Picnic Tables
2nd Light
Officer’s Club
MISSILE LINE UP
South Eastern Test Range Building
U2 Drive-Thru (1980)
Pineda Causeway — East to Merritt Island/ Mainland
SURF (Sebastian Inlet)
MERRITT ISLAND
Mosquito Lagoon/
Indian River/ CITRUS
Banana River Drive/
Tropical Trail/ Royal Poinciana
Mango/ Avocado
Dragon Point/
MATHER’S BRIDGE
East to INDIAN HARBOR BEACH
EAU GALLIE YACHT CLUB
Rural, compared to Fort Lauderdale/ South Florida.
PAFB (Patrick Air Force Base)
2021 (Patrick Space Force Base / Private / Not NASA
Satellite Beach
RC’s
Lumm’s
Indian Harbor Beach
Indialantic/ 5th Ave./ US 192
SPECTRUM SURF SHOP
Father & Son / Family Business
Son: Up Front at the Register.
Father: Still shaping, Out Back, Alone in the Alley
vs. CHINA (Patio Furniture and Surfboards)
SURF WARS
Ron Jon’s vs. Cocoa Beach Surf Company
Family Feud
Spectrum Closed (2020)
Melbourne Beach/
Ponce De Leon Park
Golf Course
Narrow, Vegetated Dune (A1A)
Whitey’s
Old (’70s) Church
New multi-million-dollar Homes On The Dune
Low enough to be invisible (not seen) when sitting on the riverside deck dining at Captain Hiram’s, on the Mainland, but one-by-Private Property-one changing the natural dune into Luxury Real Estate Hell.
Sebastian Inlet
SURF
Vero Beach/ Spring Baseball
Fort Pierce/ The Highwaymen
— dave.
  X  — Elon Musk marks his spot. Sprees of satellites launched into orbit, most to shoot misinformation at the phones of the addicted-to-social-media, selfie generation.
1960 — The Muroc

Hit The Road Jack
b/ Ray Charles
(((LISTEN)))

— NASA

“We Choose To Go To The Moon”

Sept. 12, 1962 — President John F. Kennedy’s challenge to NASA, and all of America to put a man on the moon and bring him home safely by the end of the 1960s. Of course America (NASA) met the challenge, but Kennedy, assassinated the next year, wouldn’t live to see it. The president’s imagination and inspiration survived the day (Nov. 22, 1963), and his dream was realized (July 20, 1969) when Neil Armstrong took his “one small step for man,” six months before JFK’s end-of-the-decade deadline.

The United States had won the U.S. vs. U.S.S.R. race to The Moon, and remains the only country to have lived the dream. Over the course of the Apollo Program’s remaining five years, 12 American Astronauts walked on The Moon.

Demon In The Sky

1947 — The Muroc Army Air Field in California has test pilots fly high-speed aircraft such as the rocket-powered Bell X-1, but some are killed as a result. After another pilot, Slick Goodlin, demands $150,000 (equivalent to $1,683,000 in 2018) to attempt to break the Sound Barrier, war hero Captain Chuck Yeager receives the chance to fly the X-1. While on a horseback ride with his wife Glennis, Yeager collides with a tree branch and breaks his ribs, which inhibits him from leaning over and locking the door to the X-1. Worried that he might not fly the mission, Yeager confides in friend and fellow pilot Jack Ridley. Ridley cuts off part of a broomstick and tells Yeager to use it as a lever to help seal the hatch to the X-1, and Yeager becomes the first person to fly at supersonic speed, defeating the “demon in the sky.”

Six years later, Muroc, now Edwards Air Force Base, still attracts the best test pilots. Yeager (now an Air Force major) and friendly rival Scott Crossfield repeatedly break each other’s speed records. They frequent the “local” pilots bar,  Happy Bottom Riding Club run by an old timer named Pancho Barnes, who classifies Edwards pilots either “prime” (such as Yeager and Crossfield) that fly the best equipment or newer “pudknockers” who only dream about it.

Gordon “Gordo” Cooper, Virgil “Gus” Grissom and Donald “Deke” Slayton, captains of the United States Air Force, are among the “pudknockers” who hope to also prove that they have “the Right Stuff.”

“No bucks, no Buck Rogers.”

Officials understand, that rather than keep their test program secrect, it would be better for funding if they promoted the most exciting new program.

Cooper’s wife, Trudy, and other wives are afraid of becoming widows, but cannot change their husbands’ desire for success, winning, and fame.

USA vs. USSR

1957 — The Russian satellite Sputnik alarms the United States. Senator Lyndon B. Johnson and military leaders demand that NASA help America defeat the Russians in what was called the Space Race.

The search for the first Americans in space excludes Yeager because he lacks a college degree.

MERCURY (1959-1963)

Oct. 4, 1957 — The Soviet Union stunned the world with the launch of the first satellite, Sputnik 1. Like a starting pistol, the race to space was on. The Russians had fired the first shot, and NASA (The United States first human spacewas inspired to found Project Mercurythe following year with the intent of gaining the global edge in space, and Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States. Its goal: Put a man in orbit around Earth.

Oct. 1, 1958 — The National Aeronautics and Space Administration begins operation.

Oct. 11, 1958 — Pioneer 1 is the first NASA launch from Cape Canaveral. The spacecraft is intended to reach the moon but doesn’t make it.

Dec. 18, 1958 — An Air Force Atlas booster places into orbit a communications relay satellite, Project SCORE. On Dec. 19, President Eisenhower’s Christmas message is broadcast from this satellite, the first time a voice is beamed from space.

March 3, 1959 — Pioneer 4 is sent to the moon, successfully making the first U.S. lunar flyby.

April 9, 1959 — NASA introduces the Mercury astronauts: Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Walter Schirra, Alan Shepard and Donald Slayton. Today, Glenn and Carpenter are the last surviving members of the Mercury 7.

May 28, 1959 — The United States launches two monkeys, Able and Baker, aboard a Jupiter missile and recovers them after a suborbital flight.

April 1, 1960 — The United States launches TIROS 1, the first successful meteorological satellite, for monitoring Earth’s weather.

April 12, 1961 — Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in space and the first to orbit Earth. He tells ground control, ‘The Earth is blue. How wonderful. It is amazing.’ This development prods NASA to accelerate its program.

May 5, 1961 — Alan Shepard becomes the first American to fly in space, on the Freedom 7 suborbital shot from Cape Canaveral.

May 25, 1961 — President Kennedy commits the United States and NASA to landing on the moon by the end of the decade.

Feb. 20, 1962 — John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit Earth, making 3 orbits in his Friendship 7 Mercury spacecraft.

 

GEMINI (1961-1966)

With the success of Mercury, the United States turned its attention toward gearing up for a mission to the moon. Gemini’s objective was to develop the techniques needed for deep-space exploration.

Feb. 1, 1964 — NASA completes its land acquisition on Merritt Island, totaling about 88,000 acres.

March 23, 1965 — Astronauts Gus Grissom and Orlando’s John Young make the first Gemini flight with astronauts on board.

April 14, 1965 — A topping-out ceremony is held on the roof of the 36-story Vehicle Assembly Building.

May 26, 1965 — Kennedy Space Center headquarters opens.

June 3-7, 1965 — The 2nd piloted Gemini mission, Gemini 4, stays aloft for 4 days. Astronaut Ed White performs the first American spacewalk.

 

 

 

July 14-15, 1965 — Mariner 4 arrives at Mars and passes within 6,118 miles of the planet’s surface after an 8-month journey. This mission provides the first close-up images of the red planet.

Dec. 15, 1965 — Gemini 6A and Gemini 7 achieve the first space rendezvous, coming within 0.3 meters of each other but never touching. The spacecraft stay in close proximity for 5 hours.

March 16, 1966 — Gemini 8. First space docking, a most complicated and necessary capability if NASA were ever to land a man on the moon. In Gemini 8’s attempt to rendezvous with an unmanned Aegean that was launched within an hour of that carrying pilot David Scott and command pilot Neil Armstrong.   In the attempt to dock, the Gemini capsule went into a accelerated, uncontrollable spin, and just before he and Scott would pass out and be listed as casualties, Armstrong took manual control of the capsule’s thrusters, and feathered it to calm and stability. His saving the mission was a most vivid display of the ice-in-the-veins quality NASA always felt necessary in a man who could fly, land, and walk on The Moon.

June 1966 — The Surveyor spacecraft lands on the moon.

Nov. 11-15, 1966 — The 12th and final flight of the Gemini program. Underwater training is introduced for spacewalk preparation. Astronauts mark Gemini’s finale by wearing signs on their backs: Alan Lovell’s reads ‘THE,’ Buzz Aldrin’s reads ‘END.’

 

  • On Gemini 4, Ed White became the first American to make an extravehicular activity (EVA, or “spacewalk”) on June 3, 1965.
  • Gemini 5 (August 21–29, 1965) demonstrated the 8-day endurance necessary for an Apollo lunar mission with the first use of fuel cells to generate its electrical power.
  • Gemini 6A accomplished the first space rendezvous with its sister craft Gemini 7 in December 1965, with Gemini 7 setting a 14-day endurance record for its flight.
  • Gemini 8 achieved the first space docking with an unmanned Agena target vehicle.
  • Gemini 10 established that radiation at high altitude was not a problem, further demonstrated the ability to rendezvous with a passive object, and was the first Gemini mission to fire the Agena’s own rocket. Michael Collins would be the first person to meet another spacecraft in orbit, during his second successful EVA.
  • Gemini 11 first direct-ascent (first orbit) rendezvous with an Agena Target Vehicle, docking with it 1 hour 34 minutes after launch. Set a crewed Earth orbital altitude record of 739.2 nautical miles (1,369.0 km) in September 1966, using the Agena target vehicle’s propulsion system. This record still stands as of 2022.[23]
  • On Gemini 12, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin became the first space traveler to prove that useful work (EVA) could be done outside a spacecraft without life-threatening exhaustion, due to newly implemented footholds, handholds, and scheduled rest periods.

 

APOLLO – (1961-1975)

The accomplishments of Apollo are among humankind’s greatest. Six missions land men on the moon between 1969 and 1972, the only time humans have ventured onto another celestial body. The program also is marred by NASA’s first tragedy on the ground (Apollo 1) and a near tragedy in space (Apollo 13). Apollo-Soyuz — Apollo’s End.

Jan. 27, 1967 — Three astronauts (Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee) die during a simulation aboard Apollo 1. A flash fire broke out in the capsule and flames engulfed it on the launchpad at Kennedy Space Center.

Nov. 9, 1967 — The Saturn V — a 363-foot rocket capable of 6 million pounds of thrust — makes its maiden flight.

Dec. 21-27, 1968 — Apollo 8, carrying a 3-man crew, circumnavigates the moon. It is the first manned spacecraft to leave the gravitational influence of Earth.

July 16-24, 1969 — Apollo 11 launches. On July 20, it lands on the lunar surface. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the moon.

April 11-17, 1970 — About 56 hours into the flight of Apollo 13, the oxygen tank in the service module ruptures and damages several of the power, electrical and life-support systems. The crew returns safely to Earth.

1971 NASA and the U.S. Air Force begin collaboration on the space shuttle project.

Feb. 5, 1971 — Apollo 14 lands on the moon, commanded by Alan Shepard. He is the only astronaut from Project Mercury to reach the moon.

July 30, 1971 — Apollo 15 lands on the moon. Astronauts stay for 3 days, exploring the surface with the first lunar rover.

July 23, 1972 — Landsat 1 is launched from Kennedy Space Center to perform an Earth resource mapping mission.

Dec. 7-19, 1972 — Apollo 17 is the last of the 6 Apollo missions to the moon.

May 14, 1973 — Skylab, a small orbital space platform, is launched. Skylab became home to 3 crews during 1973-74 for periods of 28, 59 and 84 days, respectively.

July 15-24, 1975 — The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, taking place at the height of the Cold War, is the first joint international human spaceflight effort.

August and November 1975 — Viking 1 and Viking 2 are launched from Kennedy Space Center on a trip to Mars. Both land there the following year.

COSMIC MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE

Aug. 20, 1977 — Voyager 2 is launched from Cape Canaveral. Voyager 1 goes up Sept. 5. Eventually the two Voyagers explore all the giant outer planets and 48 of their moons.

 

SPACE SHUTTLE (1973-2011)

NASA enters a new era when it rolls out the first winged reusable spacecraft. Called the space shuttle, it can make multiple flights into orbit and be piloted by astronauts. It plays a crucial role in building the international space station. The shuttle era also sees numerous spectacular unmanned science missions to other planets and advances in technology such as the Hubble Space Telescope.

August-October 1977 — Shuttle orbiter Enterprise undergoes unpowered flight tests.

April 12, 1981 — Astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen fly space shuttle Columbia on its maiden voyage. A success in its launch from Cape Cannaveral, making 36 Earth orbits, and landing safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

June 18-24, 1983 — On the 7th shuttle mission, Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space.

Aug. 30, 1983 — Aboard Challenger, Guion S. Bluford becomes the first black astronaut.

Jan. 28, 1986 — Challenger is destroyed and its 7 crew members are lost. An explosion 73 seconds into the flight is caused by a leak in one of 2 solid rocket boosters that ignited the main fuel tank.

Sept. 29, 1988 — Discovery marks the successful return to flight for the shuttle program.

Oct. 18, 1989 — The Galileo spacecraft is launched to Jupiter. In 1996, data from Galileo reveals that Jupiter’s moon Europa may harbor ‘warm ice’ or even liquid water.

April 24, 1990 — The Hubble Space Telescope is launched.

June 27-July 7, 1995 — Shuttle Atlantis docks to the Mir space station, the first of 9 shuttle-Mir linkups between 1995 and 1998.

1998 — Work begins on the international space station, a joint project between the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada and 11 European countries.

Oct. 29, 1998 — At 77, John Glenn, aboard shuttle Discovery, becomes the oldest person to go into space.

July 22-27, 1999 — Eileen Collins becomes the first woman to command a shuttle mission.

Feb. 1, 2003 — Columbia disintegrates 15 minutes before its scheduled landing, killing the 7 crew members.

Jan. 14, 2004 — President Bush announces a goal to return humans to the moon by 2020, in preparation for human exploration of Mars.

July 26, 2005 — Discovery marks NASA’s return to human spaceflight after the Columbia tragedy.

May 25, 2008 — Mars Phoenix probe joins 2 rovers that have been exploring the planet since January 2004. In July 2008, Phoenix confirms the presence of water ice on Mars.

• Mercury
• Gemini
• Apollo 
1960  — NASA’s ORIGINAL 7 ASTRONAUTSThe Original Seven
• Mercury Seven Astronauts
• John Glenn
• Alan Shepard
• Wally Schirra
• Scott Carpenter
• Gordon “Gordo” Cooper
• Virgil “Gus” Grissom
• Donald “Deke” Slayton

— YouTube

Tom Wolfe’s book (movie) “The Right Stuff”  is  one of the best told stories about America’s Space Program. Specifically, the Mercury Program, and NASA’s (Original 7) the first Astronauts to reach Outer Space.

Although test pilots at Edwards mock the Mercury Astronauts as “spam in a can,”  they do recognize that they are no longer the fastest men on Earth. “it takes a special kind of man to volunteer for a suicide mission” Yeager said, “especially when it’s on national TV.”
Lockheed NF-104A, Yeager attempts to set a new altitude record in a brand new Lockheed NF-104A that would take him to the edge of space. As he climbed to where he could see out of the Earth’s atmosphere, the 104A’s engine stalled, and Yeager had to eject. Yeager survived the fall, and although never making it to outer space, he made it clear to all who knew him, that he, more than any, no doubt what Tom Wolfe called … The Right Stuff.


May 15, 1963 — Gordon Cooper’s successful launch (Mercury/Atlas 9) ended the Mercury program. As the last American to fly into space, solo, Cooper “flew higher, farther, and faster than any American before, and for a brief moment, he was the greatest pilot anyone had ever seen.”

Frank Sinatra

“Live at The Sands”

The Rat Pack

Jerry Lewis (“The Bellboy)

Miami Beach (“When The Beach Was Hot”)

Fontainebleau (Victoria’s Secret)

Magic City

Eden Roc

Eva Gardner“Tony Rome”Arthur Godfrey

Arthur Godfrey / Miami Herald

Jackie Gleason

“The Honeymooners” (Steve Madden)

Wayne Cochran (“Going Back To Miami”)

The Fort Lauderdale Strip

Where The Boys Are.

C.C. Riders

Jaco Pastorius

In The (Fort Lauderdale) Ghetto

“Sputnik” flew by, and the race was on.

USA vs. USSR

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration

(NASA) invites test pilots, from around the United States Armed Services to join the newest generation of explorers. Although Alan Shepard was on the list, his invitation was misplaced and he didn’t officially receive an offer to join. Regardless, he was selected to be one of the first seven American Astronauts.

Known as the Mercury 7, Alan Shepard, John Glenn, Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Donald “Deke” Slayton, Malcolm “Scott” Carpenter, Walter “Wally” Schirra, and Gordon Cooper. From this group (all experienced fighter jet pilots), Alan Shepard was chosen to command the first flight into space. John Glenn was prepared as Shepard’s backup. 

While America waited, the stakes were raised
(April 15, 1961) when the Soviet Union launched Yuri Gagarin, the first human (Russian Cosmonaut) to orbit the Earth.

Flight To Be Free

The Soviet Union was first to escape the Earth, but America was quick to respond. Three weeks later, after bad weather cancelled two scheduled launches, Shepard was ready to fly.

May 5, 1961 — Freedom 7 lifted off, carrying Shepard to an altitude of 116 miles (187 kilometers) for a 15-minute suborbital flight. Because of the placement of the porthole windows, the first American in space was unable to catch a glimpse of the stars, and he was strapped in too tight to experience weightlessness. Also, a filter left on the periscope window made the Earth appear black and white.

Although The Soviets had reached the historic milestone first, and Gagarin had achieved a longer orbital flight, Shepard’s suborbital flight still made a significant worldwide impact. Unlike with Gagarin,Shepard’s launch, flight, and splashdown were watched on live television by millions of people, around the World. 

Shepard, the first American to reach outer space, was an overnight hero, and president John F. Kennedy awarded him the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, in a ceremony on the White House lawn.

1960
The Original Seven
• Mercury Seven Astronauts
• John Glenn
• Alan Shepard
• Wally Schirra
• Scott Carpenter
• Gordon “Gordo” Cooper
• Virgil “Gus” Grissom
• Donald “Deke” Slayton
• Mercury
• Gemini
• Apollo

April 12, 1961 — Russian Yuri Gagarin, having been the First Man In Space, inspires an almost humiliated United States of America. The Original Seven couldn’t have been more motivated to get in the fight … The Race to The Moon.


— credit

Alan Shepard was America’s Great “White” Hope, in its desperate effort to beat The Soviet Union in the dangerous race to space.

 

Alan Shepard — First American In Space

May 5, 1961 

15-minute, sub-orbital flight, rocket: Redstone 3

John Glenn

— First Boy Scout To Orbit The Earth

February 20, 1962 — John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth (Mercury/Atlas 6). After surviving a fiery re-entry with a dangerously loose heat shield on his capsule, Glenn splashed down a celebrity. After a ticker-tape parade (5th Ave. NYC), he, his fellow astronauts, and their families became the center of pop culture attention, including a Texas-size celebration in the Sam Houston Coliseum to announce the opening of the Manned Space Center in Houston.

 

MERCURY/ORIGINAL 7 SITE
“THE BRIDGE”

Frank Sinatra w/ Count Basie (St. Louis, MO / 1965)

The Great Race

“Stairway To The Stars”
b/ Ella Fitzgerald / Blue Oyster Cult

((play))

— NASA

 Timeline: [Mercury /Gemini /Apollo]

The Original Starriders
• THE MERCURY 7:
AMERICA’S ORIGINAL ASTRONAUTS (1959)

Light This Candle
• ALAN SHEPARD:
FIRST AMERICAN IN SPACE (May 5, 1961)

That View Is Tremendous
• JOHN GLENN:
FREEDOM 7, FIRST TO ORBIT (Feb. 20, 1962)

 

 

Tom Wolfe’s book (movie) “The Right Stuff”  is  one of the best told stories about America’s Space Program. Specifically, the Mercury Program, and the original seven astronauts who were first to reach outer space, looking down, free from the Earth’s atmosphere.

 

GEMINI

It Takes Two To Rendezvous

•GEMINI 1:
IT TAKES TWO TO RENDEZVOUS (April 8, 1964)

— Life Magazine

•GEMINI 4:
ED WHITE’S WEIGHTLESS STROLL (June 3, 1965)

•GEMINI 8:
NEIL ARMSTRONG’S WILD RIDE (March 16, 1966)

Destination Moon

•APOLLO 1:
TRAGIC BEGINNINGS (Feb. 21, 1967)

 

 

Apollo 8
EARTHRISE (Dec. 24, 1968)

God Created The Heavens and The Earth.

• APOLLO 11:
“ONE SMALL STEP FOR MAN”
(JULY 20, 1969)

1969

b/ The Temptations (Motown)

((song))

*1969-PANEL-1

 

 

—

1969 w/ “Ball Of Confusion”
Rage, Violence, and a question of Hope. The World had never been less certain.

• BACK TO “THE BRIDGE”
• MAY 5, 1961 (Alan Shepard/First American In Space)

 

Apollo 11

“One Small Step for Man, One Giant Leap for Mankind”
— Neil Armstrong as he stepped onto the Moon.

A short documentary, including the launch, the landing, and the celebration of Apollo 11, and Neil Armstrong becoming the first man to leave a footprint on the moon.

Robert Rauschenberg — ’60sPop Artist who often used news clippings and photographs in his collage-style prints.

July 21, 1969 — The Day Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon, and answered one of Earth’s oldest mysteries. Since the first man looked up and saw stars twinkling in the sky, all mankind has imagined how it would feel … The Day Neil Armstrong touched another heavenly body, the body with our complete and timeless attention. THE MOON. 

What A Day — The Day Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon, legendary (CBS) newsman, Charles Kuralt sent members of his team of journalists around the United States, to document everyday American life, on that most extraordinary day. After the report was written, edited, and produced, it was stored on a shelf for the next 25 years. Its airing in 1994, was the opening of a time capsule, Kuralt’s intention was to let the photography and reporting mature (without manipulation) and stand as a most accurate document of time.

“Woodstock”
Three Days of Peace and Music
Crosby Stills Nash and Young
1969
((( song )))

— NASA

Woodstock Music Festival
Within a month of Neil Armstrong stepping on the moon, the legendary Woodstock Music Festival (“Three Days Of Peace And Music”) was lived on a farm in Upstate New York (August 15-17).

1969

As the war in Vietnam raged hotter than ever, Easy Rider was the Hollywood movie that came to define the time America escaped the most violent and angry decade, but long before the careless sex, drugs, and rock n roll of the 1970s.

Jimi Hendrix laid down a rock n roll foundation that electric guitarist are still building upon today, 50 years later … and he did it mostly between 1967 and 1970, the year he died.

• Robert Rauschenberg

• APOLLO 13:
THE LONGEST 7 DAYS
(April 11-17, 1970)

• Andy Warhol
The Meaning of Pop
(American Pop)
Interview Magazine
Basquiat
The Doors
Men In Black 3 …

• John F. Kennedy (JFK)
• PT-109 — 1963 (McHale’s Navy)
• Some Like It Hot — 1959
• Marilyn Monroe
• James Dean
• Camelot
• Jackie O
• Bay Of Pigs — April 17-21, 1961
• Cuban Missiles — October 1962 (Matinee)
• Where’s The Boys Are (Yankee Clipper)
• Goldfinger

“Going Back To Miami”  b/ Wayne Cochran (1966)

Miami Go Go
Playboy After Dark

•  Muhamad Ali
•  The Beatles
•  One Night In Miami
•  Clambake (1967)
•  PAN AM (TV Series)
•  Eastern Airlines
•  Liberty City Riot (1968)
•  Richard Nixon
•  Republican National Convention (1968)
•  Jim Morrison (Melbourne High School / Miami)
•  Republican National Convention (1972)
•  Murph The Surf (Jack Roland Murphy) 
•  Ross  Allen
•  Jack Horkheimer: Star Hustler —  “Naked-Eye” astronomy television show  (1976-1985) and was broadcast nationally in 1985. Created, produced and written by Horkheimer, the show changed its name to Jack Horkheimer: Star Gazer in 1997 because Internet searches were producing results for the adult magazine Hustler. Horkheimer was known nationally for his commentaries about “astronomical events.” He was a science commentator for local Miami news station, starting in 1973.  A 1982 viewing event for the Jupiter Effect inadvertently resulted in a nighttime riot due to media coverage beyond Horkheimer’s control. In 1986, he helped promote an event for viewing Halley’s Comet, traveling towards the equator aboard the supersonic airliner Concorde. He appeared on CNN several times, narrating Solar Eclipses and even hosted shows on Cartoon Network.

Miami Vice
Madonna
Versace
Prince

— NASA

November 27, 2009 — Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-129) landing on runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center

 

1840  — Florida

Look
to see
((LISTEN)) to hear
— dave.

n

floridaSPACE&TIME
— dave.

Renaissance Man

Vitruvian Man

Leonardo da Vinci [500 YEARS] A CULTURAL ICON.

NASA Moves to The Cape

U.S. SPACE PROGRAM
MERCURY —
GEMINI —
APOLLO —
VOYAGER —
Pioneer —
Trident —
SHUTTLE —
Columbia —
International Space Station —
Hubble Telescope —
Mars Rover —

THE MERCURY 7

AMERICA’S ORIGINAL ASTRONAUTS
The Right Stuff

No Bucks, No Buck Rogers
• Discovery / Back To The Future (1988)
• Naked Launch / Pretty As A Picture (1997)
• Day In The Life / First Family
• Free Flight / July 4th 2006
• “Final Dawn” (2011)
• SpaceX Cometh / The Privateers
• Inaugural Falcon / Dreams of Mars
• The Dragon Rises / Men In Space [X]

• DISCOVERY: BACK THE FUTURE (Sept. 29, 1988)

 

Timeline: 50 Years of Spaceflight

By , 

Human Spaceflight Madness Ed White

Astronaut Ed White floats in zero gravity of space off the coast of California during the Gemini IV mission. (Image credit: NASA)

On Oct. 4, 2007, the Space Age celebrated the 50th anniversary of the historic launch of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, by the former Soviet Union.

The space shot also launched the Space Race to the moon between the United States and the Soviet Union. But despite that turbulent beginning, the initial launch has led to five decades of triumphs and tragedies in space science and exploration.

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Sometime in the 11th century: China combines sulfur, charcoal and saltpeter (potassium nitrate) to make gunpowder, the first fuel used to propel early rockets in Chinese warfare.

July 4, 1054: Chinese astronomers observe the supernova in Taurus that formed the Crab Nebula.

Mid-1700s: Hyder Ali, the Sultan of Mysome in India, begins manufacturing rockets sheathed in iron, not cardboard or paper, to improve their range and stability.

March 16, 1926: Robert Goddard, sometimes referred to as the “Father of Modern Rocketry,” launches the first successful liquid-fueled rocket.

July 17, 1929: Robert Goddard launches a rocket that carries with it the first set of scientific tools — a barometer and a camera — in Auburn, Mass. The launch was Goddard’s fourth.

Feb. 18, 1930: The dwarf planet Pluto is discovered by American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz.

Oct. 3, 1942: Germany successfully test launches the first ballistic missile, the A4, more commonly known as the V-2, and later uses it near the end of European combat in World War II.

Sep. 29, 1945: Wernher von Braun arrives at Ft. Bliss, Texas, with six other German rocket specialists.

Oct. 14, 1947: American test pilot Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier for the first time in the X-1, also known as Glamorous Glennis.

Oct. 4, 1957: A modified R-7 two-stage ICBM launches the satellite Sputnik 1 from Tyuratam. The Space Race between the Soviet Union and the United States begins.

Nov. 3, 1957: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2 with the first living passenger, the dog Laika, aboard.

Dec. 6, 1957: A Vanguard TV-3 carrying a grapefruit-sized satellite explodes at launch; a failed response to the Sputnik launch by the United States.

Jan. 31, 1958: Explorer 1, the first satellite with an onboard telemetry system, is launched by the United States into orbit aboard a Juno rocket and returns data from space.

Oct. 7, 1958: NASA Administrator T. Keith Glennan publicly announces NASA’s manned spaceflight program along with the formation of the Space Task Group, a panel of scientist and engineers from space-policy organizations absorbed by NASA. The announcement came just six days after NASA was founded.

Jan. 2, 1959: The U.S.S.R. launches Luna 1, which misses the moon but becomes the first artificial object to leave Earth orbit.

Jan. 12, 1959: NASA awards McDonnell Corp. the contract to manufacture the Mercury capsules.

Feb. 28, 1959: NASA launches Discover 1, the U.S. first spy satellite, but it is not until the Aug. 11, 1960, launch of Discover 13 that film is recovered successfully.

May 28, 1959: The United States launches the first primates in space, Able and Baker, on a suborbital flight.

Aug. 7, 1959: NASA’s Explorer 6 launches and provides the first photographs of the Earth from space.

Sept. 12, 1959: The Soviet Union’s Luna 2 is launched and two days later is intentionally crashed into the Moon.

Sept. 17, 1959: NASA’s X-15 hypersonic research plane, capable of speeds to Mach 6.7, makes its first powered flight.

Oct. 24, 1960: To rush the launch of a Mars probe before the Nov. 7 anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, Field Marshall Mitrofan Nedelin ignored several safety protocols and 126 people are killed when the R-16 ICBM explodes at the Baikonur Cosmodrome during launch preparations.

Feb. 12, 1961: The Soviet Union launches Venera to Venus, but the probe stops responding after a week.

April 12, 1961: Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in space with a 108-minute flight on Vostok 1 in which he completed one orbit.

May 5, 1961: Mercury Freedom 7 launches on a Redstone rocket for a 15-minute suborbital flight, making Alan Shepard the first American in space.

May 25, 1961: In a speech before Congress, President John Kennedy announces that an American will land on the moon and be returned safely to Earth before the end of the decade.

Oct. 27, 1961: Saturn 1, the rocket for the initial Apollo missions, is tested for the first time.

Feb. 20, 1962: John Glenn makes the first U.S. manned orbital flight aboard Mercury 6.

June 7, 1962: Wernher von Braun backs the idea of a Lunar Orbit Rendezvous mission.

July 10, 1962: The United States launches Telstar 1, which enables the trans-Atlantic transmission of television signals.

June 14, 1962: Agreements are signed establishing the European Space Research Organisation and the European Launcher Development Organisation. Both eventually were dissolved.

July 28, 1962: The U.S.S.R launches its first successful spy satellite, designated Cosmos 7.

Aug. 27, 1962: Mariner 2 launches and eventually performs the first successful interplanetary flyby when it passes by Venus.

Sept. 29, 1962: Canada’s Alouette 1 launches aboard a NASA Thor-Agena B rocket, becoming the first satellite from a country other than the United States or Soviet Union.

June 16, 1963: Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman to fly into space.

July 28, 1964: Ranger 7 launches and is the Ranger series’ first success, taking photographs of the moon until it crashes into its surface four days later.

April 8, 1964: Gemini 1, a two-seat spacecraft system, launches in an unmanned flight.

Aug. 19, 1964: NASA’s Syncom 3 launches aboard a Thor-Delta rocket, becoming the first geostationary telecommunications satellite.

Oct. 12, 1964: The Soviet Union launches Voskhod 1, a modified Vostok orbiter with a three-person crew.

March 18, 1965: Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov makes the first spacewalk from the Voskhod 2 orbiter.

March 23, 1965: Gemini 3, the first of the manned Gemini missions, launches with a two-person crew on a Titan 2 rocket, making astronaut Gus Grissom the first man to travel in space twice.

June 3, 1965: Ed White, during the Gemini 4 mission, becomes the first American to walk in space.

July 14, 1965: Mariner 4 executes the first successful Mars flyby.

Aug. 21, 1965: Gemini 5 launches on an eight-day mission.

Dec. 15, 1965: Gemini 6 launches and performs a rendezvous with Gemini 7.

Jan. 14, 1966: The Soviet Union’s chief designer, Sergei Korolev, dies from complications stemming from routine surgery, leaving the Soviet space program without its most influential leader of the preceding 20 years.

Feb. 3, 1966: The unmanned Soviet spacecraft Luna 9 makes the first soft landing on the Moon.

March 1, 1966: The Soviet Union’s Venera 3 probe becomes the first spacecraft to land on the planetVenus, but its communications system failed before data could be returned.

March 16, 1966: Gemini 8 launches on a Titan 2 rocket and later docks with a previously launched Agena rocket — the first docking between two orbiting spacecraft.

April 3, 1966: The Soviet Luna 10 space probe enters lunar orbit, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit the Moon.

June 2, 1966: Surveyor 1, a lunar lander, performs the first successful U.S. soft landing on the Moon.

Jan. 27, 1967: All three astronauts for NASA’s Apollo 1 mission suffocate from smoke inhalationin a cabin fire during a launch pad test.

April 5, 1967: A review board delivers a damning report to NASA Administrator James Webb about problem areas in the Apollo spacecraft. The recommended modifications are completed by Oct. 9, 1968.

April 23, 1967: Soyuz 1 launches but myriad problems surface. The solar panels do not unfold, there are stability problems and the parachute fails to open on descent causing the death of Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov.

Oct. 11, 1968: Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, launches on a Saturn 1 for an 11-day mission in Earth orbit. The mission also featured the first live TV broadcast of humans in space.

Dec. 21, 1968: Apollo 8 launches on a Saturn V and becomes the first manned mission to orbit the moon.

Jan. 16, 1969: Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 rendezvous and dock and perform the first in-orbit crew transfer.

March 3, 1969: Apollo 9 launches. During the mission, tests of the lunar module are conducted in Earth orbit.

May 22, 1969: Apollo 10‘s Lunar Module Snoopy comes within 8.6 miles (14 kilometers) of the moon’s surface.

July 20, 1969: Six years after U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the Apollo 11 crew lands on the Moon, fulfilling his promise to put an American there by the end of the decade and return him safely to Earth.

Nov. 26, 1965: France launches its first satellite, Astérix, on a Diamant A rocket, becoming the third nation to do so.

Feb. 11, 1970: Japan’s Lambda 4 rocket launches a Japanese test satellite, Ohsumi into orbit.

April 13, 1970: An explosion ruptures thecommand module of Apollo 13, days after launch and within reach of the moon. Abandoning the mission to save their lives, the astronauts climb into the Lunar Module and slingshot around the Moon to speed their return back to Earth.

April 24, 1970: The People’s Republic of China launches its first satellite, Dong Fang Hong-1, on a Long March 1 rocket, becoming the fifth nation capable of launching its own satellites into space.

Sept. 12: 1970: The Soviet Union launches Luna 16, the first successful automated lunar sample retrieval mission.

April 19, 1971: A Proton rocket launches thefirst space station, Salyut 1, from Baikonur.

June 6, 1971: Soyuz 11 launches successfully, docking with Salyut 1. The three cosmonauts are killed during re-entry from a pressure leak in the cabin.

July 26, 1971: Apollo 15 launches with a Boeing-built Lunar Roving Vehicle and better life-support equipment to explore the Moon.

Oct. 28, 1971: The United Kingdom successfully launches its Prospero satellite into orbit on a Black Arrow rocket, becoming the sixth nation capable of launching its own satellites into space.

Nov. 13, 1971: Mariner 9 becomes the first spacecraft to orbit Mars and provides the first complete map of the planet’s surface.

Jan. 5, 1972: U.S. President Richard Nixon announces that NASA is developing a reusable launch vehicle, the space shuttle.

March 3, 1972: Pioneer 10, the first spacecraft to leave the solar system, launches from Cape Kennedy, Fla.

Dec. 19, 1972: Apollo 17, the last mission to the moon, returns to Earth.

May 14, 1973: A Saturn V rocket launches Skylab, the United States’ first space station.

March 29, 1974: Mariner 10 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Mercury.

April 19, 1975: The Soviet Union launches India’s first satellite, Aryabhata.

May 31, 1975: The European Space Agency is formed.

July 17 1975: Soyuz-19 and Apollo 18 dock.

Aug. 9, 1975: ESA launches its first satellite, Cos-B, aboard a Thor-Delta rocket.

Sept. 9, 1975: Viking 2, composed of a lander and an orbiter, launches for Mars.

July 20, 1976: The U.S. Viking 1 lands on Mars, becoming the first successful Mars lander.

Aug. 20, 1977: Voyager 2 is launched on a course toward Uranus and Neptune.

Sept. 5, 1977: Voyager 1 is launched to perform flybys of Jupiter and Saturn.

Sept. 29, 1977: Salyut 6 reaches orbit. It is the first space station equipped with docking stations on either end, which allow for two vehicles to dock at once, including the Progress supply ship.

Feb. 22, 1978: The first GPS satellite, Navstar 1, launches aboard an Atlas F rocket.

July 11, 1979: Skylab, the first American space station, crashes back to Earth in the sparsely populated grasslands of western Australia.

Sept. 1, 1979: Pioneer 11 becomes the first spacecraft to fly past Saturn.

Dec. 24, 1979: The French-built Ariane rocket, Europe’s first launch vehicle, launches successfully.

July 18 1980: India launches its Rohini 1 satellite. By using its domestically developed SLV-3 rocket, India becomes the seventh nation capable of sending objects into space by itself.

April 12, 1981: Space Shuttle Columbia lifts off from Cape Canaveral, beginning the first space mission for NASA’s new astronaut transportation system.

June 24, 1982: French air force test pilot Jean-Loup Chrétien launches to the Soviet Union’s Salyut 7 aboard Soyuz T-6.

Nov. 11, 1982: Shuttle Columbia launches. During its mission, it deploys two commercial communications satellites.

June 18, 1983: Sally Ride aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger becomes the first American woman in space.

Feb. 7, 1984: Astronauts Bruce McCandless and Robert Stewart maneuver as many as 328 feet (100 meters) from the Space Shuttle Challenger using the Manned Maneuvering Unit, which contains small thrusters, in the first ever untethered spacewalks.

April 8, 1984: Challenger crew repairs the Solar Max satellite during a spacewalk.

Sept. 11: 1985: The International Cometary Explorer, launched by NASA in 1978, performs the first comet flyby.

Jan. 24, 1986: Voyager 2 completes the first and only spacecraft flyby of Uranus.

Jan. 28, 1986: Challenger broke apart 73 seconds after launch after its external tank exploded, grounding the shuttle fleet for more than two years.

Feb. 20, 1986: The Soviet Union launches theMir space station.

March 13, 1986: A two-cosmonaut crew launches aboard Soyuz T-15 to power up the Mir space station. During their 18-month mission, they also revive the abandoned Salyut 7, and take parts that are later placed aboard Mir.

June 15, 1988: PanAmSat launches its first satellite, PanAmSat 1, on an Ariane 4 rocket, giving Intelsat its first taste of competition.

Sept. 19, 1988: Israel launches its first satellite, the Ofeq 1 reconnaissance probe, aboard an Israeli Shavit rocket.

Nov. 15, 1988: The Soviet Union launches its Buran space shuttle on its only flight, an unpiloted test.

May 4, 1989: The Space Shuttle Atlantis launches the Magellan space probe to use radar to map the surface of Venus.

Oct. 18, 1989: Shuttle Atlantis launches with Jupiter-bound Galileo space probe on board.

April 7, 1990: China launches the Asiasat-1 communications satellite, completing its first commercial contract.

April 25, 1990: The Space Shuttle Discovery releases the Hubble Space Telescopeinto Earth orbit.

Oct. 29, 1991: The U.S. Galileo spacecraft, on its way to Jupiter, successfully encounters the asteroid Gaspra, obtaining images and other data during its flyby.

April 23, 1992: The U.S. Cosmic Background Explorer spacecraft detects the first evidence of structure in the residual radiation left over from the Big Bang that created the Universe.

Dec. 28, 1992: Lockheed and Khrunichev Enterprise announce plans to form Lockheed-Khrunichev-Energia International, a new company to market Proton rockets.

June 21, 1993: Shuttle Endeavour launches carrying Spacehab, a privately owned laboratory that sits in the shuttle cargo bay.

Dec. 2, 1993: Endeavour launches on a mission to repair theHubble Space Telescope.

Dec. 17, 1993: DirecTV launches its first satellite, DirecTV 1, aboard an Ariane 4 rocket.

Feb. 7, 1994: The first Milstar secure communications satellite launches. The geosynchronous satellites are used by battlefield commanders and for strategic communications.

Jan. 26, 1995: A Chinese Long March rocket carrying the Hughes-built Apstar-1 rocket fails. The accident investigation, along withthe probe of a subsequent Long March failure that destroyed an Intelsat satellite, leads to technology-transfer allegations that ultimately result in the U.S. government barring launches of American-built satellites on Chinese rockets.

Feb. 3, 1995: The Space Shuttle Discovery launches anddocks with the Mir space station.

March 15, 1995: Aerospace giants Lockheed Corp. and Martin Marietta Corp. merge.

July 13, 1995: Galileo releases its space probe, which is bound for Jupiter and its moons.

Aug. 7, 1996: NASA and Stanford University researchers announce a paper contending that a 4-billion-year-old Martian meteorite, called ALH 84001, found in Antarctica in 1984, contains fossilized traces of carbonate materials that suggest primitive life might once have existed on Mars. That contention remains controversial.

May 5, 1997: Satellite mobile phone company Iridium launches its first five satellites on a Delta 2 rocket.

June 25 1997: An unmanned Russian Progress supply spacecraft collides with the Mir space station.

July 4, 1997: The Mars Pathfinder lander and its accompanying Sojourner rover touch down on the surface of Mars.

Aug. 1, 1997: The Boeing Co. and the McDonnell Douglas Corp. merge, keeping Boeing’s name.

Feb. 14, 1998: Globalstar, a satellite mobile telephone company, launches its first four satellites on a Delta 2 rocket.

Sept. 9, 1998: A Russian Zenit 2 rocket launches and subsequently crashes, destroying all 12 Loral-built Globalstar satellites aboard. The payload had an estimated value of about $180 million.

Nov. 20, 1998: Russia’s Zarya control module, the first segment of the International Space Station, launches into space and unfurls its solar arrays.

March 27, 1999: Sea Launch Co. launches a demonstration satellite, successfully completing its first launch.

July 23, 1999: The Chandra X-ray observatory, NASA’s flagship mission for X-ray astronomy, launches aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia.

Aug. 13, 1999: Iridium files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, after being unable to pay its creditors. Iridium Satellite LLC later acquired the original Iridium’s assets from bankruptcy.

Nov. 19, 1999: China successfully test launches the unmanned Shenzhou 1.

July 10, 2000: Europe’s largest aerospace company, European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., EADS, forms with the consolidation of DaimlerChrysler Aerospace AG of Munich, Aerospatiale Matra S.A. of Paris, and Construcciones Aeronáuticas S.A. of Madrid.

March 18, 2001: After launch delays with XM-1, XM Satellite Radio’s XM-2 satellite becomes the company’s first satellite in orbit when it is launched by Sea Launch Co.

March 23, 2001: After being mothballed in 1999, Mir descends into the Earth’s atmosphere and breaks up over the Pacific Ocean.

May 6, 2001: U.S. entrepreneur Dennis Tito returns to Earth aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to become the world’s first paying tourist to visit the International Space Station.

Aug. 29, 2001: Japan’s workhorse launch system, the two-stage H-2A rocket, launches for the first time.

Feb. 15, 2002: After having trouble selling its satellite mobile phone service, Globalstar voluntarily files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from escalating creditor debt. The company emerged from bankruptcy April 14, 2004.

Feb. 1, 2003: The Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates as it re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere, killing the crew. Damage from insulating foam hitting the orbiter’s leading wing on liftoff is later cited as the cause of the accident.

Aug 22, 2003: The VLS-V03, a Brazilian prototype rocket, explodes on the launch pad at Alcántara killing 21 people.

Aug. 25, 2003: NASA launches the Spitzer Space Telescope aboard a Delta rocket.

Oct. 1, 2003: Japan’s two space agencies, the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science and the National Space Development Agency of Japan, merge into the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

Oct. 15, 2003: Yang Liwei becomes China’s first taikonaut, having launched aboard Shenzhou 5.

Jan. 4, 2004: The first Mars Exploration Rover, Spirit, lands on Mars. Its twin, Opportunity lands Jan. 25.

Jan. 14, 2004: President George W. Bush advocates space exploration missions to the moon and Mars for NASA in his Vision for Space Exploration speech.

Sept. 20, 2004: India launches its three-stage Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle for the first time.

Oct. 4, 2004: Scaled Composites’ SpaceShipOne piloted craft wins the X Prize by flying over 100 kilometers above Earth twice within two weeks.

July 26, 2005: Discovery becomes the first shuttle to launch since the Columbia disaster more than two years before. While the crew returned safely, the loss of several pieces of foam debris prompted further investigation, which delayed future shuttle missions.

Oct. 12, 2005: A two-taikonaut crew launches aboard the Chinese Shenzhou 6.

Oct 19, 2005: The last of the Martin Marietta-built Titan 4 heavy-lift rockets launches.

Jan. 19, 2006: New Horizons, NASA’s first-ever mission to the dwarf planet Pluto and its moons, launches atop an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Flies past Jupiter one year later in what is billed as NASA’s fastest mission to date.

July 3, 2006: Intelsat acquires fellow fixed satellite service provider PanAmSat for $6.4 billion.

July 4, 2006: NASA’s second post-Columbia accident test flight, STS-121 aboard Discovery, begins a successful space station-bound mission, returning the U.S. orbiter fleet to flight status.

Sept. 9., 2006: NASA resumes construction of the International Space Station with the launch of the shuttle Atlantis on STS-115 after two successful return to flight test missions. Atlantis’ launch occurs after nearly four years without a station construction flight.

Oct. 11, 2006: Lockheed Martin completes the sale of its majority share in International Launch Services to Space Transport Inc. for $60 million.

Jan. 11, 2007: China downs one of its weather satellites, Fengyun-1C, with a ground launched missile. In doing so, China joins Russia and the United States as the only nations to have successfully tested anti-satellite weapons.

April 6, 2007: The European Commission approves the acquisition of French-Italian Alcatel Alenia by Paris-based Thales, thus creating satellite manufacturer Thales Alenia Space.?

Aug. 8, 2007: NASA’s Space Shuttle Endeavour launches toward the International Space Station on the STS-118 construction mission. The shuttle crew includes teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan, NASA’s first educator spaceflyer, who originally served backup for the first Teacher-in-Space Christa McAuliffe who was lost with six crewmates during the 1986 Challenger accident.

Sept. 27, 2007: Dawn, the first ion-powered probe to visit two celestial bodies in one go, launches on an eight-year mission to the asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres, the two largest space rocks in the solar system.

Oct. 1, 2007: NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, the first female commander of the International Space Station, prepares for an Oct. 10 launch with her Expedition 16 crewmate Yuri Malenchenko and Malaysia’s first astronaut Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor. Whitson, and NASA’s second female shuttle commander Pamela Melroy, will command a joint space station construction mission in late October.

Oct. 4, 2007: The Space Age turns 50, five decades after the historic launch of Sputnik 1.