Section 2 EO M340.02 – DISCUSS THE HISTORY OF MANNED SPACE EXPLORATION

Show the cadets the early manned space exploration timeline located at Annex I.

On May 5, 1961, America’s first astronaut, Alan Shepard, blasted into space on a Redstone rocket. His history-making suborbital flight was in a one-man capsule named Freedom 7, which was only two metres long and less than two metres in diameter.

Show the cadets Figure 15I-1.

Specific studies and tests conducted by the US government and industry, culminating in 1958, indicated the feasibility of manned space flight. The objectives of the Mercury program, as stated at the time of project commencement in November 1958, were:

The 1983 movie The Right Stuff is based on the story of the Mercury program.

The US’ first manned space flight project was successfully accomplished in less than five years, which saw more than 2 000 000 people from major government agencies and the aerospace industry combine their skills, initiative and experience into a national effort.

In this period, six manned space flights were accomplished as part of a 25-flight program. These manned space flights were accomplished with complete pilot safety and without change to the basic Mercury objectives.

It was shown that man could function ably as a pilot-engineer-experimenter without undesirable reactions or deteriorations of normal body functions for periods up to 34 hours of weightless flight. Directing this large and fast moving project required the development of a management structure and operating mode that satisfied the requirement to mould the many different entities into a workable structure.

Timeline of the Mercury Program

The Gemini program was a necessary intermediate step between the Mercury program and the Apollo program. It had four objectives:

On May 25, 1961, three weeks after Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American in space, President John F. Kennedy announced the goal to send astronauts to the moon before the end of the decade. To facilitate this goal, NASA expanded the existing manned space flight program in December 1961 to include the development of a two-man spacecraft. The program was officially designated Gemini on January 3, 1962.

Gemini, to a large degree, was the work of a Canadian – James Arthur Chamberlin of Kamloops, British Columbia, a mechanical engineer educated at the University of Toronto. Having served as the chief engineer for the Mercury program, Chamberlin was selected to be Gemini’s Project Manager.

Show the cadets Figure 15J-1.

Gemini was named after the third constellation of the Zodiac and its twin stars, Castor and Pollux, because of its two-man crew.

Show the cadets Figure 15J-2.

Gemini consisted of 12 flights, including two unmanned flight tests of the equipment:

Show the cadets Figure 15J-3.

Show the cadets the early manned space exploration timeline located at Annex I.

July 20, 1969: “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” were the famous first words spoken from the moon.

The Apollo’s program objectives went beyond landing Americans on the moon and returning them safely to earth. The objectives also included:

The Apollo program was the work of Owen E. Maynard of Sarnia, Ontario, chief of the systems engineering division in the Apollo Spacecraft Program Office. He was previously chief of the Lunar Module engineering office in the Apollo Program Office at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston. Maynard held an aeronautical engineering degree from the University of Toronto. His years at NASA were rewarded on July 20, 1969, when Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong stepped out of the lunar module (LM) and took one small step in the Sea of Tranquility, calling it a giant leap for mankind. Maynard remained in charge of Apollo systems engineering until he left NASA in 1970 following the successful achievement of Kennedy’s lunar landing goal. Thereafter he returned to private industry.

Show the cadets Figure 15K-1.

The Apollo program used the Saturn family of launch vehicles. The command, service and lunar module made a small package, dwarfed at the top of the giant launch vehicle.

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The command module (CM) was small for three men to spend 8 days, 3 hours and 18 minutes in it. On the Apollo 11 journey of July, 1969, the three men were Neil Armstrong (commander), Michael Collins (CM pilot) and Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin Jr. (LM pilot).

Show the cadets Figure 15K-3.

Six of the Apollo missions, Apollos 11, 12, and 14–17, landed on the moon, studying soil mechanics, meteoroids, seismic activity, heat flow, lunar ranging, magnetic fields and solar wind.

Apollos 7 and 9 tested spacecraft in earth orbit; Apollo 10 orbited the moon as the dress rehearsal for the first landing. An oxygen tank explosion forced Apollo 13 to scrub its landing, but the can-do problem-solving of the crew and mission control – and Maynard’s systems engineering group – turned the mission into what was called a successful failure.

The 1995 movie Apollo 13 is based on the story of the 1970 mission to the moon.

Apollo Flight Summary

The Mir space station, which was shared by Russian cosmonauts and American astronauts, was a continuation of the Soviet space program. Construction of Mir began in 1986, before the Soviet Union was disbanded. Mir was preceded by many years of Soviet space development which included, among many other programs, the Vostok missions, the Soyuz missions and the Salyut space station.

The Vostok program (Восто́к, translated as “East”) was a Soviet human spaceflight project that succeeded in putting a person into earth’s orbit for the first time.

Show the cadets Figure 15L-1.

Vostok manned record-breaking flights included:

The Soyuz program (meaning “Union”) is a human spaceflight program that was initiated by the Soviet Union in the early 1960s. It was originally part of a moon landing program intended to put a Soviet cosmonaut on the moon. Both the Soyuz spacecraft and the Soyuz launch vehicle were part of this program, which later became the responsibility of the Russian Federal Space Agency.

The Soyuz program produced many experimental variants, but its development is commonly divided into three historical parts:

Unlike the one-man Vostok spacecraft, the first three-seat Soyuz was able to conduct active manoeuvring, orbital rendezvous and docking. These features would all have been necessary for a flight around the moon or for a lunar expedition. In the early plans for circumlunar flight, the Soyuz was to be a three-part spacecraft assembled in the low-earth orbit from parts delivered by separate launch vehicles. This plan was later abandoned in favour of a two-launch and, later, a single-launch method.

In 1971, a three-seat Soyuz delivered two crews to the first Salyut space station. Disaster struck when the first Salyut crew returned from orbit. The sudden depressurization of the re-entry capsule killed all three cosmonauts. As a result of this tragedy, the designers introduced protective pressure suits, but at the expense of room for one crewmember. Two-seat Soyuz spacecraft then continued ferrying the crews to the Salyut and Almaz space stations.

First-Generation Salyut Stations (1964–1977)

First-generation Salyut space stations had one docking port and could not be resupplied or refuelled. The stations were launched unmanned and later occupied by crews. There were two types: Almaz military stations and Salyut civilian stations. To Western observers, both types were Salyut stations, including:

Show the cadets Figures 15L-2 and 15L-3.

Second-Generation Stations (1977–1985)

Second-generation Russian space stations included:

With the second-generation stations, the Soviet space station program evolved from short-duration to long-duration stays. Visiting crews relieved the monotony of a long stay in space.

Salyut-6 Key Facts

Highlights of the Salyut-6 era include:

Show the cadets Figure 15L-3 and 15L-4.

Salyut-7 Key Facts

Highlights of the Salyut-7 era include:

Mir

Mir was a third-generation Russian space station which, after 1992, was shared with the US.

Mir means peace and community in Russian. The Mir space station contributed to world peace by hosting international scientists and American astronauts. It also supported a community of humans in orbit and symbolized the commonwealth of the Russian people.

Mir was constructed in orbit by connecting different modules, each launched separately from 1986 – 1996. During the Shuttle-Mir Program, Russia’s Mir combined its capabilities with America’s space shuttles. The orbiting Mir provided a large and liveable scientific laboratory in space. The visiting space shuttles provided transportation and supplies, as well as temporary enlargements of living and working areas, creating history’s largest spacecraft.

Show the cadets Figures 15L-5 and 15L-6.

Magnificent to behold through the windows of a space shuttle, Mir was as big as six school buses. Inside, it looked more like a cramped labyrinth, crowded with hoses, cables and scientific instruments – as well as articles of everyday life, such as photos, children’s drawings, books and a guitar. Mir commonly housed three crew members, but it supported as many as six, for up to a month. Except for two short periods, Mir was continuously occupied until August 1999.

The journey of the 15-year-old Russian space station ended March 23, 2001, as Mir re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere near Nadi, Fiji and fell into the South Pacific. Despite its inconveniences, many cosmonauts and astronauts grew to love Mir, comparing it to a living being with qualities, needs and eccentricities.

(ISBN 978-0-75662-227-5) Graham, I. (2006). Space Travel. New York, NY: DK Publishing, Inc.