code Related

Original Mercury Astronauts - Col. John A. (Shorty) Powers

description

Summary

S61-00246 (25 July 1961) --- Photo of the original Mercury astronauts with Col. John A. (Shorty) Powers seated around a table talking to the news media. From left to right are: L. Gordon Cooper, Donald K. Slayton, John H. Glenn Jr., Col. Powers, Alan B. Shepard Jr., M. Scott Carpenter and Walter M. Schirra Jr. Virgil I. Grissom is out of the frame. Photo credit: NASA

The Space Race began with a shock to the American public when the Soviet satellite Sputnik was launched in 1957. United states created NASA accelerate U.S. space exploration efforts and launched the Explorer 1 satellite in 1958. The Soviet Union was first again when it puts the first human, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, into a single orbit on April 12, 1961. Shortly after this, on May 5, the U.S. launched Alan Shepard, on a suborbital flight and reached its orbital goal on February 20, 1962, when John Glenn made three orbits around the Earth in the Mercury capsule. The Mercury space capsule was a pressurized cabin produced by McDonnell Aircraft and carried supplies of water, food, and oxygen for about one day. Mercury was launched on a top of modified Atlas D ballistic missiles. The capsule was fitted with a launch escape rocket to carry it safely away from the launch vehicle in case of a failure. Small retrorockets were used to bring the spacecraft out of its orbit, after which an ablative heat shield protected it from the heat of atmospheric reentry. Finally, a parachute slowed the craft for a water landing. Both astronaut and capsule were recovered by helicopters deployed from a U.S. Navy ship. The Mercury project missions were followed by millions on radio and TV around the world. Its success laid the groundwork for Project Gemini, which carried two astronauts in each capsule and perfected space docking maneuvers essential for manned lunar landings in the Apollo program announced just a few weeks after the first manned Mercury launch.

label_outline

Tags

johnson space center gemini program gemini original mercury astronauts original mercury astronauts col john shorty powers mercury project gordon cooper high resolution mercury astronauts photo credit photo news media scott carpenter schirra jr politics and government nasa
date_range

Date

01/01/1961
collections

in collections

Project Mercury

The first human spaceflight program of the United States.
place

Location

Launch Complex 16 ,  28.50333, -80.55172
create

Source

NASA
link

Link

https://images.nasa.gov/#/details-S61-00246.html
copyright

Copyright info

Public Domain Dedication (CC0)

label_outline Explore Original, Mercury Astronauts, Schirra Jr

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Rising from fire and smoke, NASA's Juno planetary probe, enclosed in its payload fairing, launches atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. Leaving from Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the spacecraft will embark on a five-year journey to Jupiter. Liftoff was at 12:25 p.m. EDT Aug. 5. The solar-powered spacecraft will orbit Jupiter's poles 33 times to find out more about the gas giant's origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere and investigate the existence of a solid planetary core. For more information, visit www.nasa.gov/juno. Photo credit: NASA/Tony Gray and Tim Powers KSC-2011-6309

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - The Return To Flight Task Group (RTFTG) holds the first public meeting at the Debus Center, KSC Visitor Complex. Members and staff at the table, from left, are retired Navy Rear Adm. Walter H. Cantrell, David Raspet, retired Air Force Col. Gary S. Geyer, Dr. Kathryn Clark, Dr. Decatur B. Rogers, Dr. Dan L. Crippen, Dr. Walter Broadnax and astronaut Carlos Noriega. The RTFTG was at KSC to conduct organizational activities, tour Space Shuttle facilities and receive briefings on Shuttle-related topics. The task group was chartered by NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe to perform an independent assessment of NASA’s implementation of the final recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. The group is co-chaired by former Shuttle commander Richard O. Covey and retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas P. Stafford, who was an Apollo commander.

Original photo and caption dated August 14, 1995: <i>"KSC plant physiologist Dr. Gary Stutte harvests a potato grown in the Biomass Production Chamber of the Controlled environment Life Support system (CELSS) in Hangar L at Cape Canaveral Air Station. During a 418-day "human rated" experiment, potato crops grown in the chamber provided the equivalent of a continuous supply of the oxygen for one astronaut, along with 55 percent of that long-duration space flight crew member's caloric food requirements and enough purified water for four astronauts while absorbing their expelled carbon dioxide. The experiment provided data that will help demonstarte the feasibility of the CELSS operating as a bioregenerative life support system for lunar and deep-space missions that can operate independently without the need to carry consumables such as air, water and food, while not requiring the expendable air and water system filters necessary on today's human-piloted spacecraft."</i KSC-95pc1197

Senate FY 2011 NASA Budget Overview

NASA Helps Build Colorado Economy

Senate FY 2011 NASA Budget Overview

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Mercury astronaut John Glenn poses for a photo in front of the Project Mercury monument at Launch Complex-14 LC-14 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. During events at the Cape and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Glenn is marking the 50th anniversary of being the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth inside the Friendship 7 capsule on Feb. 20, 1962. Glenn's launch aboard an Atlas rocket took with it the hopes of an entire nation and ushered in a new era of space travel that eventually led to Americans walking on the moon by the end of the 1960s. Glenn soon was followed into orbit by Scott Carpenter, Walter Schirra and Gordon Cooper. Their fellow Mercury astronauts Alan Shepard and Virgil "Gus" Grissom flew earlier suborbital flights. Deke Slayton, a member of NASA's original Mercury 7 astronauts, was grounded by a medical condition until the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975. Photo credit: Kim Shiflett KSC-2012-1469

At the commissioning of a new high-pressure helium pipeline at Kennedy Space Center, participants watch as helium-filled balloons take to the sky after their lines were cut. From left, they are Center Director Roy Bridges; Michael Butchko, president, SGS; Pierre Dufour, president and CEO, Air Liquide America Corporation; David Herst, director, Delta IV Launch Sites; Pamela Gillespie, executive administrator, office of Congressman Dave Weldon; and Col. Samuel Dick, representative of the 45th Space Wing. The nine-mile-long buried pipeline will service launch needs at the new Delta IV Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. It will also serve as a backup helium resource for Shuttle launches. Nearly one launch’s worth of helium will be available in the pipeline to support a Shuttle pad in an emergency. The line originates at the Helium Facility on KSC and terminates in a meter station at the perimeter of the Delta IV launch pad. Others at the ceremony were Jerry Jorgensen, pipeline project manager, Space Gateway Support (SGS), and Ramon Lugo, acting executive director, JPMO KSC00padig075

House Hearing NASA Human Spaceflight Plan

Expedition 14 Preflight. NASA public domain image colelction.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – In high bay 4 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians place sensors on the top part of the Ares I-X for modal survey testing. The top consists of the launch abort tower, crew module, service module and spacecraft adaptor. Shakers will impose random loads/vibrations to determine the flight test vehicle’s first several bending modes and the strategically located sensors throughout the stacks will measure the amount, acceleration and direction of movement. The purpose of the testing is to confirm that Ares I-X will behave as predicted as it lifts off the pad and powers through the initial stage of flight in a demonstration flight later this year. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller KSC-2009-3346

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Engine ignition begins liftoff of the United Launch Alliance Delta II Heavy rocket carrying NASA’s twin Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission off Space Launch Complex 17B on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The spacecraft launched at 9:08:52 a.m. EDT Sept. 10. GRAIL-A will separate from the second stage of the rocket at about one hour, 21 minutes after liftoff, followed by GRAIL-B at 90 minutes after launch. The spacecraft are embarking on a three-month journey to reach the moon. GRAIL will fly twin spacecraft in tandem around the moon to precisely measure and map variations in the moon's gravitational field. The mission will provide the most accurate global gravity field to date for any planet, including Earth. This detailed information will reveal differences in the density of the moon's crust and mantle and will help answer fundamental questions about the moon's internal structure, thermal evolution, and history of collisions with asteroids. The aim is to map the moon's gravity field so completely that future moon vehicles can safely navigate anywhere on the moon’s surface. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/grail. Photo credit: NASA/ Tony Gray and Tim Powers KSC-2011-6915

Topics

johnson space center gemini program gemini original mercury astronauts original mercury astronauts col john shorty powers mercury project gordon cooper high resolution mercury astronauts photo credit photo news media scott carpenter schirra jr politics and government nasa