Monday, November 29, 2010

Domain Ownership Page

"THIS POST CONFORMS MY OWNERSHIP OF THE SITE AND THAT THIS SITE ADHERES TO GOOGLE ADSENSE PROGRAM POLICIES AND TERMS AMD CONDITIONS"

From our small world we have gazed upon the cosmic ocean for untold thousands of years. Ancient astronomers observed points of light that appeared to move among the stars. They called these objects planets, meaning wanderers, and named them after Roman deities --Jupiter, king of the gods; Mars, the god of war; Mercury, messenger of the gods; Venus, the god of love and beauty, and Saturn, father of Jupiter and god of agriculture. The stargazers also observed comets with sparkling tails, and meteors or shooting stars apparently falling from the sky.

Science flourished during the European Renaissance. Fundamental physical laws governing planetary motion were discovered, and the orbits of the planets around the Sun were calculated. In the 17th century, astronomers pointed a new device called the telescope at the heavens and made startling discoveries.
But the years since 1959 have amounted to a golden age of solar system exploration. Advancements in rocketry after World War II enabled our machines to break the grip of Earth's gravity and travel to the Moon and to other planets.
The United States has sent automated spacecraft, then human-crewed expeditions, to explore the Moon. Our automated machines have orbited and landed on Venus and Mars, explored the Sun's environment, observed comets, and asteroids, and made close-range surveys while flying past Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
These travelers brought a quantum leap in our knowledge and understanding of the solar system. Through the electronic sight and other "senses" of our automated spacecraft, color and complexion have been given to worlds that for centuries appeared to Earth-bound eyes as fuzzy disks or indistinct points of light. And dozens of previously unknown objects have been discovered.
Future historians will likely view these pioneering flights through the solar system as some of the most remarkable achievements of the 20th century.

Second Moon

In 1846, Frederic Petit, director of the observatory of Toulouse, stated that a second moon of the Earth had been discovered. It had been seen by two observers, Lebon and Dassier, at Toulouse and by a third, Lariviere, at Artenac, during the early evening of March 21, 1846. Petit found that the orbit was elliptical, with:

a period of 2 hours, 44 minutes, 59 seconds;
an apogee of 3,570 kilometers (2,218 miles); and,
a perigee of just 11.4 kilometers (7 miles).

Le Verrier, who was in the audience when Petit made the announcement, grumbled that one needed to take air resistance into account, something nobody could do at that time. Petit became obsessed with this idea of a second moon, and 15 years later announced that he had made calculations about a small moon of Earth which caused some then-unexplained peculiarities in the motion of our main Moon. Astronomers generally ignored this, and the idea would have been forgotten if a young French writer, Jules Verne, had not read an abstract. In Verne's novel From the Earth to the Moon, Verne lets a small object pass close to the traveller's space capsule, causing it to travel around the Moon instead of smashing into it:

"It is," said Barbicane, "a simple meteorite but an enormous one, retained as a satellite by the attraction of the Earth.""Is that possible," exclaimed Michel Ardan, "the earth has two moons?"
"Yes, my friend, it has two moons, although it is usually believed to have only one. But this second moon is so small and its velocity is so great that the inhabitants of Earth cannot see it. It was by noticing disturbances that a French astronomer, Monsieur Petit, could determine the existence of this second moon and calculated its orbit. According to him a complete revolution around the Earth takes three hours and twenty minutes. . . . "
"Do all astronomers admit the the existence of this satellite?" asked Nicholl.
"No," replied Barbicane, "but if, like us, they had met it they could no longer doubt it. . . . But this gives us a means of determining our position in space . . . its distance is known and we were, therefore, 7,480 kilometers above the surface of the globe where we met it."

Jules Verne was read by millions of people, but not until 1942 did anybody notice the discrepancies in Verne's text:

A satellite 7,480 kilometers (4,648 miles) above the Earth's surface would have a period of 4 hours, 48 minutes, not 3 hours, 20 minutes.
Since it was seen from the window from which the Moon was invisible, while both were approaching, it must be in retrogade motion, which would be worth remarking. Verne doesn't mention this.
In any case, the satellite would be in eclipse and thus be invisible. The projectile doesn't leave the Earth's shadow until much later.

Dr. R.S. Richardson of Mount Wilson Observatory tried in 1952 to make the figures fit by assuming an eccentric orbit of this moon: a perigee of 5,010 kilometers (3,113 miles), an apogee of 7,480 kilometers (4,648 miles), and an eccentricity of 0.1784.

Nevertheless, Jules Verne made Petit's second moon known all over the world. Amateur astronomers jumped to the conclusion that here was an opportunity for fame -- anybody discovering this second moon would have his name inscribed in the annals of science. No major observatory ever checked the problem of the Earth's second moon, or if they did they kept quiet. German amateurs were chasing what they called Kleinchen ("little bit"). Of course they never found Kleinchen.

the Moon of Venus, 1672-1892

In 1672, Giovanni Domenico Cassini, one of the prominent astronomers of the time, noticed a small companion close to Venus. Did Venus have a satellite? Cassini decided not to announce his observation, but when he saw it again 14 years later, he entered the observation in his journal. The object was estimated to have about one-quarter the diameter of Venus, and it showed the same phase as Venus.
The object was later seen by other astronomers: James Short in 1740, Andreas Mayer in 1759, and Joseph Louis Lagrange in 1761. (Lagrange announced that the orbital plane of the satellite was perpendicular to the ecliptic.) During 1761, the object was seen a total of 18 times by five observers. The observations of Scheuten on June 6, 1761 was especially interesting. He saw Venus in transit across the Sun's disk, accompanied by a smaller dark spot on one side that followed Venus in its transit. However, Samuel Dunn at Chelsea, England, who also watched that transit, did not see the additional spot. In 1764, there were 8 observations by two observers. Other observers failed to find the satellite.
Now the astronomical world was faced with a controversy. Several observers had reported seeing the satellite while several others had failed to find it in spite of determined efforts. In 1766, the director of the Vienna observatory, Father Hell, published a treatise in which he declared that all observations of the satellite were optical illusions. He believed the image of Venus is so bright that it is reflected in the eye, back into the telescope, creating a secondary image at a smaller scale.

Others published treatises declaring that the observations were real. J. H. Lambert of Germany published orbital elements of the satellite in Berliner Astronomischer Jarhbuch 1777:

mean distance, 66.5 Venus radii;
orbital period, 11 days, 3 hours; and,
inclination to ecliptic, 64°.

It was hoped that the satellite could be seen during the transit of Venus in front of the Sun on June 1, 1777. In retrospect, it is clear that Lambert made a mistake in calculating these orbital elements. At 66.5 Venus radii, the distance from Venus is about the same as ourMoon's distance from the Earth. This does not fit with the orbital period of 11 days, which is about one-third of the orbital period of our Moon. (The mass of Venus is slightly smaller than the mass of the Earth.)In 1768 , Christian Horrebow made one more observation of the satellite from Copenhagen. There were also three searches, including one made by one of the greatest astronomers of all time, William Herschel. All three of them failed to find any satellite. Quite late in the game, F. Schorr from Germany tried to make a case for the satellite in a book published in 1875.
In 1884, M. Hozeau, former director of the Royal Observatory of Brussels, suggested a different hypothesis. By analysing available observations, Hozeau concluded that the moon appeared close to Venus approximately every 2.96 years. Hozeau suggested that this was a separate planet, with a 283-day orbit around the Sun that placed it in conjunction with Venus every 1,080 days. Hozeau also named the new planet Neith, after the mysterious goddess of Sais, whose veil no mortal raised.

In 1887, three years after Hozeau had revived interest in the subject, the Belgian Academy of Sciences published a long paper in which each and every reported observation was investigated in detail. Several observations of the satellite were really stars seen in the vicinity of Venus. Roedkier's observations "checked out" especially well -- he had been fooled, in succession, by Chi Orionis, M Tauri, 71 Orionis, and Nu Geminorum. James Short had really seen a star somewhat fainter than 8th magnitude. All observations by Le Verrier and Montaigne could be similarly explained. Lambert's orbital calculations were demolished. The very last observation, by Horrebow in 1768, could be ascribed to Theta Librae.
After this paper was published, only one more observation was reported, by a man who had earlier made a search for the satellite of Venus but failed to find it. On August 13, 1892, Edward Emerson Barnard recorded a 7th magnitude object near Venus. There is no star in the position recorded by Barnard, and Barnard's eyesight was notoriously excellent. We still don't know what he saw. Was it an asteroid that had not been charted? Or was it a short-lived nova that nobody else happened to see?

Mercury's Moon, 1974

Two days before the March 29, 1974, Mariner 10 flyby of Mercury, one instument began registering bright, extreme ultraviolent (UV) emissions that had "no right to be there." The next day, the emissions were gone. Three days later, they reappeared, apparently emanating from an "object" that seemingly detached itself from Mercury. The astronomers first thought they had seen a star. But, they had seen the emissions in two quite different directions, and every astronomer knew that these extreme UV wavelengths couldn't penetrate very far through the interstellar medium. This suggested that the object must be relatively close. Did Mercury have a moon?

After a hectic Friday, during which the "object" had been computed to move at 4 kilometers (2.4 miles) per second, a speed consistent with that of a moon, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) managers were called in. They turned the then-dying spacecraft over full time to the UV team, and everyone started worrying about a press conference scheduled for later that Saturday. Should the suspected moon be announced? But the press already knew. Some newspapers -- the bigger, more respectable ones -- played it straight; many others ran excited stories about Mercury's new moon.
And the "moon" itself? It headed straight on out from Mercury, and was eventually identified as a hot star, 31 Crateris. The origins of the original emissions remain a mystery. So ended the story of Mercury's moon. At the same time, a new chapter in astronomy began: extreme UV turned out not to be so completely absorbed by the interstellar medium as formerly believed. The Gum nebula has turned out to be a emitter in the extreme UV, and spreads across 140° of the night sky at 540 angstroms. Astronomers had discovered a new window through which to observe the heavens.

Hypothetical Planets

Vulcan, the intra-Mercurial planet, 1860-1916, 1971

During the 19th century, astronomers were puzzled over unexplained deviations in the motion of Mercury. The French mathematician Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier, who (along with John Couch Adams) had predicted the position of Neptune based on deviations in the motion ofUranus, believed similar forces were at work. During a lecture on January 2, 1860, he announced that the solution to Mercury's deviations could be explained by assuming the existence of an intra-Mercurial planet, or possibly a second asteroid belt, inside Mercury's orbit.The only possible way to observe intra-Mercurial bodies was when they transited the Sun, or during total solar eclipses. Professor Wolf at the Zurich sunspot data center found a number of suspicious "dots" on the Sun, and a second astronomer found additional ones. A total of two dozen spots seemed to fit the pattern of two intra-Mercurial orbits with periods of 26 and 38 days.

In 1859, Le Verrier received a letter from the amateur astronomer Lescarbault, who reported having seen a round black spot on the Sun on March 26, 1859. Lescrabault thought the object was a planet transiting the Sun. He had seen the spot for about 75 minutes, during which time it moved a quarter of the solar diameter. Lescarbault estimated the object had an orbital inclination of between 5.3° and 7.3°, a longitudal node of about 183°, an "enormous" eccentricity, and a transit time across the solar disk of 4 hours, 30 minutes. Le Verrier investigated this observation, and computed the following orbit:

a period of 19 days, 7 hours;
a mean distance from Sun of 0.1427 AU;
an inclination of 12° 10'; and,
an ascending node at 12° 59'.

The diameter was considerably smaller than Mercury's and its mass was estimated at one-seventeenth of Mercury's mass. This was too small to account for the deviations of Mercury's orbit. However, Le Verrier theorized that this might be the largest member of an intra-Mercurial asteroid belt. He named it Vulcan.In 1860, there was a total eclipse of the Sun. Le Verrier mobilized astronomers throughout the world to find Vulcan. No one did. Wolf's suspicious 'sunspots' now revived Le Verrier's interest, and additional 'evidence' found its way into print just before Le Verrier's death in 1877. On April 4, 1875, German astronomer H. Weber saw a round spot on the Sun. Le Verrier's orbit indicated a possible transit on April 3 that year. Wolf noticed that his 38-day orbit also could have performed a transit at about that time. That 'round dot' also was photographed by astronomers in Greenwich and Madrid.

There was one more flurry of sightings after the total solar eclipse on July 29, 1878. Two observers claimed to have seen small, illuminated disks in the vicinity of the Sun, objects which could only be small planets inside Mercury's orbit. J.C Watson, professor of astronomy at the University of Michigan, believed he had found two intra-Mercurial planets. Lewis Swift (co-discoverer of Comet Swift-Tuttle, which returned in 1992), also saw a 'star' he believed to be Vulcan. However, it was in a different position than either of Watson's two 'intra-Mercurials.' Neither Watson's nor Swift's sightings could be reconciled with Le Verrier's or Lescarbault's 'Vulcan.'
Nobody ever saw Vulcan again, in spite of several searches at different total solar eclipses. In 1916, Albert Einstein published his General Theory of Relativity, which explained the deviations in Mercury's motions without the need to invoke an unknown intra-Mercurial planet. In May 1929, Erwin Freundlich photographed the total solar eclipse in Sumatra; the plates showed a profusion of star images. Comparison plates were taken six months later. No new objects brighter than 9th magnitude were found near the Sun.
But what did these people really see? Lescarbault had no reason to lie, and even Le Verrier believed him. It is possible that Lescarbault happened to see a small asteroid passing very close to the Earth, just inside Earth's orbit. Such asteroids were unknown at that time, so Lescarbault believed that he saw an intra-Mercurial planet. Swift and Watson could, during the hurry to obtain observations during totality, have misidentified some stars as Vulcan.
"Vulcan" was briefly revived around 1970-1971, when a few researchers thought they had detected several faint objects close to the Sun during a total solar eclipse. These objects might have been faint comets. Comets have been observed to pass close enough to the Sun and eventually collide with it.

WOMAN IN SPACE

Women in Space

Pioneering Women of Space:

1959: Geraldine (Jerrie) Cobb was the first woman in the U.S. to undergo astronaut testing, however, NASA cancelled the women's program in July 1961.
June 1963: Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova was the First Woman in Space. She flew on the Vostok 5 mission which was launched on June 16, 1963. It orbited the Earth 48 times and the flight lasted 2.95 days.
August 1982: Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya was the second woman in space. She flew aboard Soyuz T-7 which was launched August 19, 1982.
June 1983: Sally Ride was the First American Woman in Space and third woman in space. She flew on the shuttle Challenger STS-7 mission from June 18-June 24, 1983.
July 1984: Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya was the First Woman to Walk in Space on July 17, 1984 aboard the Soyuz T-12. Her spacewalk lasted 3.58 hours. She was also the first woman to go to space twice (in 1982 and 1984).
August 1984: Judith Resnick was the Second American Woman in Space. She flew on the shuttle Discovery STS-41D mission in August 30-September 5, 1984.
October 1984: Kathryn Sullivan was First American Female Spacewalker. She flew on Challenger STS-41G on October 5, 1984.
January 1986: Christa McAuliffe was chosen to be first teacher in space. She died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986.
October 1984: Helen Sharman was the first British astronaut in space when she flew aboard the Russian space craft Soyuz TM-12 on May 18, 1991.
January 1992: Roberta Bondar was the First Canadian Woman in Space. She flew on the shuttle Discovery STS-42 Mission, January 22-30, 1992.
September 1992: Mae Jemison was the First Black Woman in Space during shuttle Endeavor STS-47 Mission, September 12-20, 1992. She was a Mission Specialist.
April 1993: Ellen Ochoa was the First Hispanic American Woman in Space. She flew as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery STS-56 mission.
July 1994: Chiaki Mukai was the First Japanese Woman in Space. She flew on Shuttle Columbia STS-56 mission, 8-23 July, 1994.
February 1995: Eileen Collins was the First Woman Pilot of a Space Shuttle.
September 1996: Shannon Lucid returns from six months aboard the Mir Space Station, setting space endurance record for women and U.S. space endurance record.
May 1999: Susan Helms was the First Woman Crew Member of the International Space Station.
July 1999: Eileen Collins was the First Woman to fly as a Space Shuttle Commander.

October 2001: Claudie Haigneré was the First European Woman to visit the International Space Station.
February 2003: Dr. Kalpana Chawla and Dr. Laurel Clark died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster on February 1, 2003.

HUBBLE SPACE

In 1962, the USA's National Academy of Sciences recommends building a large space telescope. In 1977, Congress votes to fund the project and construction of Hubble Space Telescope begins.

Construction of Hubble Space Telescope was completed in 1985. The launch of Hubble was delayed due to the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. Hubble was launched on the space shuttle on April 25, 1990. It was named after Edwin Hubble.

Within days Hubble was sending back pictures that were out of focus. NASA discovered a major flaw in the giant mirror. The giant mirror was too flat on one edge by 1 / 50^th of the width of a single human hair.

In December, 1993, the Space Shuttle Endeavor captured and modified the Hubble Space Telescope by adding a camera to correct problems with the telescope's primary mirror.

The second servicing mission was in february 1997. Astronauts exchanged some of Hubble's instruments and added new blankets to keep Hubble warm.

On October 1997, NASA decided to extend Hubble's operations from 2005 to 2010.

On November 13, 1999, a fourth gyroscope on Hubble fails. The Hubble shuts down to await a repair mission since it can no longer aim. Space Shuttle mission repairs the Hubble and upgrades it.

Great Achievements of Hubble

June 1994: NASA releases Orion Nebula images that confirm the births of planets around newborn stars.
November 1995: NASA releases Eagle Nebula images showing where stars are born.
January 1996: NASA releases the "Deep Field" images in which Hubble peers back in time more than 10 billion years. Reveals at least 1,500 galaxies at various stages of development.

February 2001: New images "ant nebula".

Hubble Space Telescope History Links:

Hubble Space Telescope Home Site:
Hubble Space Telescope Greatest Hits (1990-1995):
Hubble -Data Image Archive:
Hubble Space Telescope: Educational Materials
Hubble Telescope Photo Gallery: Lots of Hubble Space Telecope Pictures

References:

NEIL ARMSTRONG

Neil Armstrong is famously known as the first man to walk on the Moon. He is a former American test pilot and U.S. astronaut and is currently retired. He was a test pilot on the X-15 rocket plane and commander of Gemini 8 and Apollo 11 missions.

Neil Armstrong Biography

Neil Armstrong was born on 5th August, 1930 in Wapakoneta, Ohio, USA. His full name is Neil Alden Armstrong.

Neil Armstrong was interested in aviation from a young age. At 15 he worked in various jobs in order to pay for his flying lessons. At 16 he got his student pilot's licence before he was legally old enough to drive a carand before he graduated from Blume High School in Wapakoneta in 1947.

Immediately after high school, Neil Armstrong received a scholarship from the U.S. Navy. He enrolled at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana and began his studies of aeronautical engineering, but in 1949 the Navy called him to active duty.

In 1950 he was sent to Korea and served as a naval pilot during the Korean War. He flew 78 combat missions from USS Essex in a Grumman F9F-2 Panther. He received three medals: the Air Medal and two Gold Stars for his military service during the Korean War.

After the war, he left the Navy and returned to Purdue in 1952 and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering.

In 1955 Neil Armstrong joined NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics - now known as NASA) as a research pilot at the NACA Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Later that year hetransferred to the NACA High Speed Flight Station (now NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center) at Edwards Air Force Base in California where he worked as a test pilot for many experimental high speed aircraft including the X-15. From 1960 to 1962 he was a pilot involved in the X-20 Dyna-Soar orbital glider program.

In 1962 while serving as a test pilot, Neil Armstrong was selected by NASA to join the second group of NASA's astronaut trainees (one of nine NASA astronauts). He moved to El Lago, Texas, near Houston's Manned Spacecraft Center to begin his astronaut training and underwent 4 years of intensive training for the Apollo program. His first assignment was as backup command pilot for the Gemini 5 mission in 1965.

In 1968, Neil Armstrong was chosen to be a member of the Apollo 11 mission, the first manned lunar landing. The Apollo 11 crew were: Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin.

Apollo 11 was launched on July 16, 1969 from Cape Kennedy, Florida by a Saturn V rocket. Four days later it went into orbit around the Moon. The lunar module Eagle separated from the Command Module with Armstrong and Aldrin aboard and descended to the surface of the Moon. Michael Collins remained in the Command Module in orbit.

During the moon landing, Armstrong took manual control of the Lunar Module Eagle and piloted it away from a rocky area and made a safe landing on the moon. His first words from the Moon were:"Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed".

Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk on the moon on July 20, 1969. His first words after stepping on the moon were, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind". This event was televised to Earth and seen by millions! The Apollo 11 crew returned safely to Earth on July 24, 1969.

Neil Armstrong resigned from NASA in 1971 and became a professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati, where he was involved in both teaching and research until 1979.

During the years 1982-1992, Armstrong was chairman of Computing Technologies for Aviation Inc., Charlottesville, Virginia.

In 1986, he was appointed as vice chairman of the presidential commission that investigated the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster.

From 1989 until he retired in 2002, he served as chairman of AIL Technologies (Deer Park, New York), an electronics and avionics manufacturer.

Did you know?

* Neil Armstrong is one of only 12 people that have walked on the Moon's surface in the 20th century. A lunar crater close to Apollo 11 landing site is named after him in his honour.

* Neil Armstrong narrowly escaped death during training in the crash of a Lunar Landing Research Vehicle on May 6, 1969.

* The Neil Armstrong Air and Space Museum is located at 500 South Apollo Drive, Wapakoneta, Ohio, USA. The museum is open year round. It opened in 1972. Highlights include: Gemini 8 Spacecraft flown by Armstrong and David Scott in 1966, Armstrong's Gemini and Apollo space suits, Moon rock brought by Apollo 11 crew and many other exhibits.

DOG IN SPACE

The First Animal in Space was Laika - Soviet/Russian space dog aboard Sputnik 2 in November 2nd, 1957.

Albert II, a Rhesus Monkey, became the first monkey in space on June 14, 1949.

Sputnik 5 (also known as Korabl-Sputnik 2) carried the dogs Belka and Strelka on August 19, 1960. It was the first spacecraft to carry animals into orbit and return them alive.

Ham was the first chimpanzee (monkey) in space. He flew on a suborbital flight on January 31, 1961 in a Mercury spacecraft launched on a U.S. Redstone rocket. The launch site was Cape Canaveral, Florida.

France flew the first rat (Hector) into space on February 22, 1961. Two more rats were flown in October 1962.

The first tortoise in space was launched September 14, 1968 by the Soviet Union.

MISSION 8

APOLLO 8 MISSION: (December 21-27, 1968)

Crew: Frank Borman, James A. Lovell Jr. and William A. Anders
Launch Vehicle: Saturn V

Summary:
- The Apollo 8 astronauts were the first astronauts launched by Saturn V rocket.
- First humans to orbit the Moon.

MISSION 9-10

APOLLO 9 MISSION: (March 3-13, 1969)

Crew: James A. McDivitt, David R. Scott and Russell L. Schweickart

Command Module: Gumdrop.
Lunar Module: Spider.

Summary:
- First Flight test of Lunar Module (LM) in Earth Orbit.
- First space walk testing new lunar space suit.

APOLLO 10 MISSION: (May 18-26, 1969)

Crew: Stafford, Young and Cernan
Command Module: Charlie Brown
Lunar Module: Snoopy

Summary:
- Tested the Lunar Module in Lunar Orbit.

MISSION 11

APOLLO 11 MISSION: (July 16-24, 1969)

Crew: Neil Armstrong, Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin, Michael Collins
Command Module: Columbia
Lunar Module: Eagle
Moon Landing Date: 20 July 1969
Landing Site: Sea of Tranquillity - Mare Tranquillitatis
Time on Moon: 22 hours

Summary:
- Apollo 11 was the first moon landing mission.
- Neil Armstrong was the first astronaut to walk on the moon.
- The USS Hornet aircraft carrier recovered the Apollo 11 crew after their return from the first lunar landing.

MISSION 12

APOLLO 12 MISSION: (November 14-24, 1969)

Crew: Charles Conrad, Richard F. Gordon Jr, Alan L. Bean
Command Module: Yankee Clipper
Lunar Module: Intrepid
Landing Date: 19 November 1969
Landing Site: Ocean of Storms (Oceanus Procellarum)

Summary:
- The second moon landing mission.
- They performed first major experiments.
- Retrieved pieces of Surveyor spacecraft.
- Richard Nixon was the first US President to attend the launch of a manned spacecraft. He viewed Apollo 12 on November 14, 1969.

MISSION 1-7

Apollo missions were developed in response to President Kennedy's challenge to land an astronaut on the Moon by the end of the 1960's. The missions consisted of twelve piloted launches and three unpiloted launches between 1967 and 1972.

Six missions landed on the moon. All manned moon landings were launched by Saturn V Rocket and consisted of 3 crew. Apollo 4, 5 and 6 were unpiloted test flights flown in 1967 and 1968.

APOLLO 7 MISSION: (October 11-22, 1968)

Crew: Walter M. Schirra, Donn F. Eisele and Walter Cunningham
Launch Vehicle: Saturn IB

Summary:
- Apollo 7 was the first manned Apollo launch.
- First live TV broadcast from a manned spacecraft.

HISTORY OF SPACE