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John Watts Young

John Watts Young

John Watts Young (born September 24, 1930) is a former NASA astronaut who walked on the Moon on Apollo 16, April 21, 1972. Young enjoyed one of the longest and busiest careers of any astronaut in the American space program. He was the first person to fly into space six times, twice journeyed to the Moon, and as of 2005, is the only astronaut to have piloted four different classes of spacecraft: # Gemini spacecraft (Gemini 3) # Apollo Command & Service Module # Apollo Lunar Module # Space shuttle Born in San Francisco, California and raised in Orlando, Florida, Young earned a bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering with highest honors from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1952. After graduation Young entered the United States Navy. He Served as Fire Control Officer on the destroyer, USS LAWS (DD-558) until June 1953 and completed a tour in the Korean Seas. He then became a fighter pilot, and in 1959, a test pilot. Joining NASA in 1962, Young was the first of Astronaut Group 2 to fly in space. (He replaced Thomas Stafford as pilot of Gemini 3 when Alan Shepard, the original commander, was grounded.) Making the first manned flight of the Gemini spacecraft with Virgil Grissom, Young scored another space "first" by smuggling a corned beef sandwich onto the spacecraft - a feat for which he was reprimanded. Young then trained as back-up pilot for Gemini 6, but after the sandwich episode, for a time it seemed that NASA did not know what to do with Young. Other Group 2 astronauts with flight experience were quickly moved to Apollo, while other astronauts such as Scott Carpenter and Gordon Cooper had been sidelined for lesser infractions. The deaths of Charles Bassett and Elliott See the prime crew of Gemini 9 created a hole in the astronaut corps so that Young was confirmed as Commander of Gemini 10. The mission performed the first dual docking to two Agena Target Vehicles, and his pilot, Michael Collins, performed two spacewalks. Young made the second manned flight to the Moon on Apollo 10 with Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan. While Stafford and Cernan flew the lunar module in lunar orbit for the first time, Young flew the command module solo - the first person to do so in lunar orbit. Young was back-up commander of Apollo 13, the troubled mission in which the moon landing was aborted because of an explosion on the service module. Young had a central role in rescuing the Apollo 13 crew by leading the team that devised the makeshift carbon dioxide filters that kept the astronauts' air supply breathable. By rotation, Young became commander of Apollo 16. Young became an enthusiastic student of geology while preparing for the moon mission. Apollo 16's lunar landing was almost aborted at the last moment when a malfunction was detected on the command module. On the surface, Young trod the Descartes Highlands with Charles Duke (making Young the ninth man to walk upon the surface of the moon), while Ken Mattingly flew the command module in lunar orbit. Young set a speed record with the lunar rover but was troubled by the effects of potassium in the orange juice they drank during the moonwalks. After the Apollo program ended, Young stayed on as an astronaut and flew two missions of the space shuttle, including commanding the shuttle's maiden flight, STS-1, and the flight STS-9 which used Spacelab for the first time. Young had been in-line to make a record seventh flight to deploy the Hubble Space Telescope, but the Challenger Disaster thwarted NASA's schedule. Young was openly critical of the administration following the disaster, and in April 1987, he was taken out of the Astronaut Office and made special assistant of engineering, operations and safety to the center director Aaron Cohen. It was denied that his criticism of NASA triggered the move. Young worked for NASA for 42 years and announced his retirement on December 7, 2004. He retired on December 31, 2004 at the age of 74. John Young is a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. John Young Parkway, a road in the Orlando, Florida area, was named after him.

External links


- [http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/young.html NASA biography of John Young]
- [http://space.balettie.com/Young.html The Big Picture: Ways to Mitigate or Prevent Very Bad Planet Earth Events] Essay by John Young
- [http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2951406 Conversation With John Young] Houston Chronicle (December 17, 2004)
- [http://www.johnwyoung.com Website dedicated to John Young] Young, John W. Young, John W. Young, John W. Young, John W.

1930

1930 (MCMXXX) is a common year starting on Wednesday.

Events

January-February


- January 6 - The first diesel-engine automobile trip is completed (Indianapolis, Indiana, to New York City).
- February 18 - While studying photographs taken in January, Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto
- February 18 - Elm Farm Ollie becomes the first cow to fly in an airplane and also the first cow to be milked in an airplane.

March


- March 2 - Mohandas Gandhi informs British viceroy of India that civil disobedience would begin nine days later
- March 5 - Danish painter Einar Wegener goes through a sexual reassignment surgery and takes the name Lili Elbe
- March 6 - first frozen foods of Clarence Birdseye go on sale in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA
- March 12 - Mohandas Gandhi sets off to a 200-mile protest march towards the sea with 78 followers to protest the British monopoly on salt - more will join them during the Salt March that ends in April 5
- March 28 - Constantinople and Angora change their names to Istanbul and Ankara
- March 29 - Heinrich Brüning is appointed German Reichskanzler
- March 31 - The Motion Pictures Production Code is instituted, imposing strict guidelines on the treatment of sex, crime, religion and violence in motion pictures for the next forty years

April-May


- April 5 - In an act of civil disobedience, Mahatma Gandhi breaks British law after marching to the sea and making salt.
- April 6 - Hostess Twinkies are invented.
- April 21 - Fire in Ohio State Penitentiary near Columbus kills 320
- April 22 - The United Kingdom, Japan and the United States sign the London Naval Treaty regulating submarine warfare and limiting shipbuilding.
- April 28 - The first night game in organized baseball history takes place in Independence, Kansas.
- May 4/May 5 - Mohandas Gandhi is arrested again
- May 15 - Aboard a Boeing tri-motor, Ellen Church becomes the first airline stewardess (the flight was from Oakland, California to Chicago, Illinois).
- May 17 - French Prime Minister André Tardieu decides to withdraw the remaining French troops from the Rheinland. They depart by June 30
- May 20 - Sergei Eisenstein arrives in New York City
- May 24 - Amy Johnson lands in Darwin, Australia becoming the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia (she left on May 5 for the 11,000 mile flight).
- May 30 - Sergei Eisenstein arrives in Hollywood to work for Paramount Pictures - they part ways by October

June-August


- June 9 - Chicago Tribune journalist Alfred Lingle is shot in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Newspapers promise $55,000 reward for information. Liddle is later found to have had contacts to organized crime
- June 17 - U.S. President Herbert Hoover signs the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act into law.
- June 17 - Bonus Army: Around a thousand World War I veterans mass at the United States Capitol as the U.S. Senate considers a bill that would give them certain benefits.
- June 21 - One-year conscription comes into force in France
- July 7 - Lapua Movement marches in Helsinki, Finland
- July 7 - Building of the Boulder Dam (now known as Hoover Dam) is started.
- July 13 - The first soccer World Cup starts: Lucien Laurent scores the first goal, for France against Mexico
- July 26 - Charles Creighton and James Hargis of Missouri begin their return journey to Los Angeles - driving 11 555 km using only a reverse gear. The trip lasts the next 42 days
- July 30 - Uruguay beat Argentina 4-2 in the first soccer World Cup Final
- July 31 - The radio mystery program The Shadow airs for the first time.
- August 7 - Richard Bedford Bennett becomes Canada's eleventh prime minister.
- August 9 - Betty Boop premiers in the animated film Dizzy Dishes.
- August 12 - Turkish troops move into Persia to fight Kurdish insurgents
- August 27 - Military junta takes over in Peru

September-December


- September 6 - Josef Felix Urileu makes a successful military coup in Argentina
- September 8 - 3M begins marketing Scotch transparent tape.
- September 12 - Wilfred Rhodes end his 1110-game first-class career by taking 5 for 95 for H.D.G. Leveson Gower's XI against the Australians.
- September 14 - National socialists win 107 seats in German parliament - 18.3% of all the votes makes them second largest party
- September 16 - overthrow of Hipólito Yrigoyen, President of Argentina.
- October 5 - British Airship R101 crashed in France en-route to India on its maiden voyage.
- October 24 - Brazil - Revolution of 1930 by Getúlio Dornelles Vargas
- November 1 - William Joseph Dess is born in New Castle, PA to Joseph and Mary Dess.
- November 2 - Haile Selassie is crowned emperor of Ethiopia.
- November 25 - An earthquake in the Izu Peninsula of Japan kills 223 people and destroys 650 buildings
- December 2 - Great Depression: US President Herbert Hoover goes before Congress and asks for a US$150 million public works program to help generate jobs and stimulate the economy.
- December 19 - Merap volcano erupts - 1300 dead
- December 24 - In London, Harry Grindell Matthews demonstrates his devide to project pictures to the clouds
- December 28 - Mohandas Gandhi leaves for Britain for negotiations

Unknown dates


- British White Paper demands restrictions on Jewish immigration into Palestine
- Rafael Leónidas Trujillo takes over in the Dominican Republic
- The Federal Bureau of Narcotics replaces the Narcotics Division of the Prohibition Unit.
- Walther Bothe and H. Becker discover the neutron.
- Abkhazia and Georgia, autonomous republics of the Soviet Union, are merged.
- The University of Queensland starts the pitch drop experiment.
- Jake paralysis outbreak occurs in United States.

Births

January-February


- January 2 - Julius LaRosa, American singer
- January 20 - Buzz Aldrin, American pilot and astronaut
- January 23 - Derek Walcott, West Indian writer, Nobel Prize laureate
- January 26 - John Straffen, British serial killer
- January 29 - Bobby Bland, American singer
- January 30 - Gene Hackman, American actor
- February 27 - Peter Stone, American writer (d. 2003)
- February 28 - Leon Neil Cooper, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

March


- March 3 - Heiner Geißler, German politician
- March 6 - Allison Hayes, American actress (d. 1977)
- March 6 - Lorin Maazel, French-born conductor
- March 7 - Antony Armstrong-Jones, Lord Snowdon
- March 10 - Claude Bolling, French jazz pianist and composer
- March 15 - Zhores Ivanovich Alferov, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- March 17 - James Irwin, astronaut (d. 1991)
- March 19 - Ornette Coleman, American musician
- March 22 - Pat Robertson, American televangelist
- March 22 - Stephen Sondheim, American composer and lyricist
- March 24 - David Dacko, first President of the Central African Republic (d. 2003)
- March 24 - Steve McQueen, American actor, film director, and producer (d. 1980)
- March 25 - John Keel, American author
- March 26 - Sandra Day O'Connor, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
- March 27 - David Janssen, American actor (d. 1980)
- March 28 - Jerome Isaac Friedman, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- March 30 - John Astin, American actor
- March 30 - Rolf Harris, Australian-born entertainer
- March 30 - Peter Marshall, American game show host

April


- April 3 - Helmut Kohl, Chancellor of Germany
- April 8 - Carlos Hugo of Bourbon-Parma, Duke of Parma, French-born fascist
- April 10 - Pertti "Spede" Olavi Pasanen, Finnish television personality (d. 2001)
- April 11 - Anton LaVey, American religious leader (d. 1997)
- April 15 - Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, President of Iceland
- April 16 - Herbie Mann, American jazz flutist (d. 2003)
- April 21 - Silvana Mangano, Italian actress (d. 1989)
- April 25 - Paul Mazursky, American director and writer
- April 29 - Jean Rochefort, French actor

May-August


- May 4 - Roberta Peters, American soprano
- May 8 - Heather Harper, Irish soprano
- May 9 - Joan Sims, English actress (d. 2001)
- May 10 - Pat Summerall, American football player and broadcaster
- May 15 - Jasper Johns, American painter
- May 19 - Lorraine Hansberry, American playwright (d. 1965)
- May 21 - Malcolm Fraser, twenty-second Prime Minister of Australia
- May 22 - John Barth, American writer
- May 22 - Harvey Milk, American politician and civil rights activist (d. 1978)
- May 31 - Clint Eastwood, American actor, director, and producer
- June 2 - Charles Conrad, astronaut (d. 1999)
- June 8 - Robert Aumann, German-born mathematician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics
- June 9 - Monique Serf, French musician (d. 1997)
- June 12 - Jim Nabors, American actor, musician, and comedian
- June 17 - Brian Statham, English cricketer (d. 2000)
- June 22 - Yuri Artyukhin, cosmonaut (d. 1998)
- June 27 - Ross Perot, American billionaire and politician
- July 2 - Carlos Menem, President of Argentina
- July 3 - Carlos Kleiber, Austrian conductor (d. 2004)
- July 4 - George Steinbrenner, baseball team owner
- July 11 - Harold Bloom, American literary critic
- July 15 - Jacques Derrida, Algerian-born French literary critic (d. 2004)
- July 25 - Maureen Forrester, Canadian contralto
- July 25 - Murray Chapple, New Zealand cricket captains (d. 1985)
- August 1 - Pierre Bourdieu, French sociologist
- August 5 - Neil Armstrong, astronaut
- August 12 - George Soros, Hungarian-born businessman
- August 17 - Ted Hughes, English poet (d. 1998)
- August 21 - Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon (d. 2002)
- August 25 - Sir Sean Connery, Scottish actor
- August 30 - Warren Buffett, American investor

September-December


- September 3 - Cherry Wilder, New Zealand author (d. 2002)
- September 7 - King Baudouin I of Belgium (d. 1993)
- September 25 - Shel Silverstein, American author, poet, and humorist (d. 1999)
- September 26 - Fritz Wunderlich, German tenor (d. 1966)
- September 30 - Ray Charles, American singer and musician (d. 2004)
- October 1 - Sir Richard Harris, Irish actor (d. 2002)
- October 5 - Anne Haddy, Australian actress (d. 1999)
- October 5 - Pavel Popovich, cosmonaut
- October 5 - Reinhard Selten, German economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- October 6 - Hafez al-Assad, President of Syria (d. 2000)
- October 8 - Tōru Takemitsu, Japanese composer (d. 1996)
- October 10 - Yves Chauvin, French chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- October 10 - Harold Pinter, English playwright, Nobel Prize laureate
- October 11 - Sam Johnson, American politician
- October 17 - Robert Atkins, American nutritionist (d. 2003)
- October 28 - Bernie Ecclestone, English auto racing tycoon
- October 30 - Timothy Findley, Canadian author (d. 2002)
- November 14 - Edward White, astronaut (d. 1967)
- November 16 - Chinua Achebe, Nigerian writer
- November 24 - Bob Friend, baseball player
- December 1 - Joachim Hoffmann, German historian (d. 2002)
- December 2 - Gary Becker, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- December 6 - Daniel Lisulo, Prime Minister of Zambia

NASA

] The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which was established in 1958, is the agency responsible for the public space program of the United States of America. It is also responsible for long-term civilian and military aerospace research.

Vision and mission

NASA's vision is "to improve life here, extend life to there, and to find life beyond." Its mission is "to understand and protect our home planet; to explore the Universe and search for life; and to inspire the next generation of explorers."

History

Space Race

:For additional background, please see the Space Race article Space Race launch of Redstone rocket and NASA's Mercury 3 capsule Freedom 7 with Alan Shepard Jr. on the United States' first human flight into sub-orbital space. (Atlas rockets were used to launch Mercury's orbital missions.)]] Following the Soviet space program's launch of the world's first man-made satellite (Sputnik 1) on October 4, 1957, the attention of the United States turned toward its own fledgling space efforts. The U.S. Congress, alarmed by the perceived threat to U.S. security and technological leadership, urged immediate and swift action; President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his advisers counseled more deliberate measures. Several months of debate produced agreement that a new federal agency was needed to conduct all nonmilitary activity in space. On July 29, 1958, President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). When it began operations on October 1, 1958, NASA consisted mainly of the four laboratories and some 8,000 employees of the government's 46-year-old research agency for aeronautics, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), though the probably most important contribution actually had its roots in the German rocket program led by Wernher von Braun, who is today regarded as the father of the United States space program. NASA's early programs were research into human spaceflight, and were conducted under the pressure of the competition between the USA and the USSR (the Space Race) that existed during the Cold War. The Mercury program, initiated in 1958, started NASA down the path of human space exploration with missions designed to discover simply if man could survive in space. Representatives from the U.S. Army (M.L. Raines, LTC, USA), Navy (P.L. Havenstein, CDR, USN) and Air Force (K.G. Lindell, COL, USAF) were selected/requested to provide assistance to the NASA Space Task Group through coordination with the existing U.S. military research and defense contracting infrastructure, and technical assistance resulting from experimental aircraft (and the associated military test pilot pool) development in the 1950s. On May 5, 1961, astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. became the first American in space when he piloted Freedom 7 on a 15-minute suborbital flight. John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth on February 20, 1962 during the 5-hour flight of Friendship 7. Once the Mercury project proved that human spaceflight was possible, project Gemini was launched to conduct experiments and work out issues relating to a moon mission. The first Gemini flight with astronauts on board, Gemini III, was flown by Virgil "Gus" Grissom and John W. Young on March 23, 1965. Nine other missions followed, showing that long-duration human space flight was possible, proving that rendezvous and docking with another vehicle in space was possible, and gathering medical data on the effects of weightlessness on humans.

Apollo program

Following the success of the Mercury and Gemini programs, the Apollo program was launched to try to do interesting work in space and possibly put men around (but not on) the Moon. The direction of the Apollo program was radically altered following President John F. Kennedy's announcement on May 25, 1961 that the United States should commit itself to "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" by 1970. Thus Apollo became a program to land men on the Moon. The Gemini program was started shortly thereafter to provide an interim spacecraft to prove techniques needed for the now much more complicated Apollo missions. Gemini program.]] After eight years of preliminary missions, including NASA's first loss of astronauts with the Apollo 1 launch pad fire, and the first spacecraft to orbit the Moon (Apollo 8) at the end of 1968, the Apollo program achieved its goals with Apollo 11 which landed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon's surface on July 20, 1969 and returned them to Earth safely on July 24. Armstrong's first words upon stepping out of the Eagle lander captured the momentousness of the occasion: "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." Twelve men would set foot on the Moon by the end of the Apollo program in December 1972. NASA had won the moon race, and in some senses this left it without direction, or at the very least without the public attention and interest that was necessary to guarantee large budgets from Congress. After President Lyndon Johnson left office, NASA lost its main political supporter, and rocket scientist Wernher von Braun was moved to a position lobbying in Washington. Plans for ambitious follow-on projects to construct a space station, establish a lunar base and launch a human mission to Mars by 1990 were proposed but with the end to procurement of Saturn and Apollo hardware, there was no capability to support these. The near-disaster of Apollo 13, where an oxygen tank explosion nearly doomed all three astronauts, helped to recapture national attention and concern. Although missions up to Apollo 20 were planned, Apollo 17 was the last mission to fly under the Apollo banner. The program ended because of budget cuts (in part due to the Vietnam War) and the desire to develop a reusable space vehicle.

Other early missions

Although the vast majority of NASA's budget has been spent on human spaceflight, there have been many robotic missions instigated by the space agency. In 1962 the Mariner 2 mission was launched and became the first spacecraft to make a flyby of another planet – in this case Venus. The Ranger, Surveyor, and Lunar Orbiter missions were essential to assessing lunar conditions before attempting Apollo landings with humans on board. Later, the two Viking probes landed on the surface of Mars and sent color images back to Earth, but perhaps more impressive were the Pioneer and particularly Voyager missions that visited Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune sending back scientific information and color images. Having lost the moon race, the Soviet Union had, along with the USA, changed its approach. On July 17, 1975 an Apollo craft (finding a new use after the cancelling of planned lunar flights) was docked to the Soviet Soyuz 19 spacecraft, in the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. Although the Cold War would last many more years, this was a critical point in NASA's history and much of the international co-operation in space exploration that exists today has its genesis with this mission. America's first space station, Skylab, occupied NASA from the end of Apollo until the late 1970s.

Shuttle era

Skylab 1981 ]] The space shuttle became the major focus of NASA in the late 1970s and the 1980s. Planned to be a frequently launchable and mostly reusable vehicle, four space shuttles were built by 1985. The first to launch, Columbia did so on April 12, 1981. The shuttle was not all good news for NASA – flights were much more expensive than initially projected, and even after the 1986 Challenger disaster highlighted the risks of space flight, the public again lost interest as missions appeared to become mundane. Work began on Space Station Freedom as a focus for the manned space programme but within NASA there was argument that these projects came at the expense of more inspiring unmanned missions such as the Voyager probes. The Challenger disaster aside the late 1980s marked a low point for NASA. Nonetheless, the shuttle has been used to launch milestone projects like the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The HST was created with a relatively small budget of $2 billion but has continued operation since 1990 and has delighted both scientists and the public. Some of the images it has returned have become near-legendary, such as the groundbreaking Hubble Deep Field images. The HST is a joint project between ESA and NASA, and its success has paved the way for greater collaboration between the agencies. In 1995 Russian-American interaction would again be achieved as the Shuttle-Mir missions began, and once more a Russian craft (this time a full-fledged space station) docked with an American vehicle. This cooperation continues to the present day, with Russia and America the two biggest partners in the largest space station ever built – the International Space Station (ISS). The strength of their cooperation on this project was even more evident when NASA began relying on Russian launch vehicles to service the ISS following the 2003 Columbia disaster, which grounded the shuttle fleet for well over two years. Costing over one hundred billion dollars, it has been difficult at times for NASA to justify the ISS. The population at large have historically been hard to impress with details of scientific experiments in space, preferring news of grand projects to exotic locations. Even now, the ISS cannot accommodate as many scientists as planned. During much of the 1990s, NASA was faced with shrinking annual budgets due to Congressional belt-tightening in Washington, DC. In response, NASA's ninth administrator, Daniel S. Goldin, pioneered the "faster, better, cheaper" approach that enabled NASA to cut costs while still delivering a wide variety of aerospace programs (Discovery Program). That method was criticized and re-evaluated following the twin losses of Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander in 1999.

NASA's future

Mars Polar Lander and the planned crew and heavy lift launch vehicles]] NASA's most publicly-inspiring mission of recent years has probably been the Mars Pathfinder mission of 1997. Newspapers around the world carried images of the lander dispatching its own rover, Sojourner, to explore the surface of Mars in a way never done before at any extra-terrestrial location. Less publicly acclaimed but performing science from 1997 to date (2005) has been the Mars Global Surveyor orbiter. Since 2001, the orbiting Mars Odyssey has been searching for evidence of past or present water and volcanic activity on the red planet. NASA expects to continue exploring the Red Planet with more spacecraft such as the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which will reach Mars in 2006. The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, which killed the crew of six American and one Israeli astronaut, and caused a 29-month hiatus in space shuttle flights, triggered a serious re-examination of NASA's priorities. The U.S. government, various scientists, and the public all considered the future of the space program. On January 14, 2004, ten days after the landing of Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, President George W. Bush announced a new plan for NASA's future, dubbed the Vision for Space Exploration. According to this plan, humankind will return to the moon by 2020, and set up outposts as a testbed and potential resource for future missions. The space shuttle will be retired in 2010 and the Crew Exploration Vehicle will replace it by 2014, capable of both docking with the ISS and leaving the Earth's orbit. The future of the ISS is somewhat uncertain – construction will be completed, but beyond that is less clear. Although the plan initially met with skepticism from Congress, in late 2004 Congress agreed to provide start-up funds for the first year's worth of the new space vision. Hoping to spur innovation from the private sector, NASA established a series of Centennial Challenges, technology prizes for non-government teams, in 2004. The Challenges include tasks that will be useful for implementing the Vision for Space Exploration, such as building more efficient astronaut gloves.

Criticisms

Some commentators, such as Mark Wade, note that NASA has suffered from a 'stop-start' approach to its human spaceflight programs. The Apollo spacecraft and Saturn family of launch vehicles were abandoned in 1970 after billions of dollars had been spent on their development. In 2004 the U.S. Government proposed eventually replacing the Shuttle with a Crew Exploration Vehicle that would allow the agency to again send astronauts to the Moon. Despite the reduction of its budget following project Apollo, NASA has maintained a top-heavy bureaucracy resulting in inflated costs and compromised hardware. Crew Exploration Vehicle on October 31, 1998.]] Currently, the ISS relies on the Shuttle fleet for all major construction shipments. The Shuttle fleet has lost two spacecraft and fourteen astronauts in two disasters in 1986 and 2003. While the 1986 loss was made up with a Shuttle built from replacement parts, NASA does not plan to build another shuttle to replace the second loss. (But see also CEV.) The ISS, which was intended to have a crew of seven as of 2005, now has a skeleton crew of two, causing many intended research projects to be delayed. Other nations that have invested heavily in the space station's construction, such as the members of the European Space Agency, are fearful that the ISS's fate will soon match the fate of Skylab. As of 2005, however, all of the European and Japanese contributions to the ISS are years behind development schedule themselves.

NASA spaceflight missions

Human spaceflight


- Mercury program
- Gemini program
- Apollo program
- Skylab
- Space Shuttle
- International Space Station (working together with ESA, Rosviakosmos and JAXA)
- Project Constellation

Robotic space missions


- Earth Observing
  - Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite
  - TIMED (Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics)
- Lunar missions
  - Ranger
  - Surveyor
  - Lunar Orbiter
  - Clementine
  - Lunar Prospector
- Mercury missions
  - Mariner 10
  - MESSENGER
- Venus missions
  - Mariner 2, 5 and 10
  - Pioneer Venus
  - Magellan
- Mars missions
  - Mariner 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9
  - Viking 1 and 2
  - Mars Observer
  - Mars Pathfinder
  - Mars Climate Orbiter
  - Mars Polar Lander
  - Mars Global Surveyor
  - 2001 Mars Odyssey
  - Mars Exploration Rovers
  - Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
  - Phoenix Lander (Planned for 2007)
  - Mars Science Laboratory (Planned for 2009)
- Jupiter missions
  - Pioneer 10
  - Galileo
  - Juno
- Saturn missions
  - Cassini-Huygens together with ESA
- Multi-planet missions
  - Pioneer 11 – Jupiter and Saturn
  - Mariner 10 – Venus and Mercury
  - Voyager 1 – Jupiter and Saturn
  - Voyager 2 – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune
  - New Horizons (Planned for 2006) – Jupiter, Pluto and Kuiper Belt
- Asteroidal/cometary missions
  - NEAR Shoemaker
  - Deep Space 1
  - Stardust
  - Deep Impact
  - Dawn (Planned for 2006)
- Proposed or canceled planetary-asteroid missions
  - JIMO (cancelled)
  - CRAF (cancelled)
  - NetLanders (cancelled)
  - Pluto Kuiper Express (cancelled; New Horizons is replacement)
  - Titan Explorer (proposed)
  - Neptune Orbiter (proposed)
- Sun observing missions
  - SOHO – ESA partnership
  - Ulysses – ESA partnership
- Great Observatories for Space Astrophysics
  - Hubble Space Telescope – ESA partnership
  - Compton Gamma Ray Observatory
  - Chandra X-ray Observatory
  - Spitzer Space Telescope (formerly known as the Space Infrared Telescope Facility, SIRTF)
- Other observatories
  - COBE
  - FUSE
  - Infrared Astronomical Satellite
  - James Webb Space Telescope – ESA partnership
  - WMAP

List of NASA administrators

# T. Keith Glennan (1958–1961) # James E. Webb (1961–1968) # Thomas O. Paine (1969–1970) # James C. Fletcher (1971–1977) # Robert A. Frosch (1977–1981) # James M. Beggs (1981–1985) # James C. Fletcher (1986–1989) # Richard H. Truly (1989–1992) # Daniel S. Goldin (1992–2001) # Sean O'Keefe (2001–2005) # Michael Griffin (2005–)

Field installations

In addition to headquarters in Washington, D.C., NASA has field installations at:
- Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California
- Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California
- John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field, Cleveland, Ohio
- Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
  - Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, New York
  - Independent Verification and Validation Facility, Fairmont, West Virginia
  - Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Virginia
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, near Pasadena, California
  - Deep Space Network stations:
    - Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex, Barstow, California
    - Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex, Madrid, Spain
    - Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
- Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas
  - White Sands Test Facility, Las Cruces, New Mexico
- John F. Kennedy Space Center, Florida
- Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia
- George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
  - Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans, Louisiana
- John C. Stennis Space Center, Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

Awards and decorations

NASA presently bestows a number of medals and decorations to astronauts and other NASA personnel. Some awards are authorized for wear on active duty military uniforms. Current NASA awards are as follows:
- Congressional Space Medal of Honor
- NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal
- NASA Distinguished Service Medal
- NASA Equal Employment Opportunity Medal
- NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal
- NASA Exceptional Administrative Achievement Medal
- NASA Exceptional Bravery Medal
- NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal
- NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal
- NASA Exceptional Service Medal
- NASA Exceptional Technological Achievement Medal
- NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal
- NASA Public Service Medal
- NASA Space Flight Medal

Related legislation


- 1958 – National Aeronautics and Space Administration PL 85-568 (passed on July 29)
- 1961 – Apollo mission funding PL 87-98 A
- 1970 – National Aeronautics and Space Administration Research and Development Act PL 91-119
- 1984 – National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act PL 98-361
- 1988 – National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act PL 100-685
- NASA Budget 1958–2005 in 1996 Constant Year Dollars

See also


- List of aerospace engineering topics
- Astronaut
- Small Aircraft Transportation System
- Space Shuttle
- Space exploration
- Space race
- Robert Gilruth, Chris Kraft, Gene Kranz (flight directors)
- KC-135 Reduced Gravity Aircraft
- Shirley Thomas
- Stewart Brand
- Astronomy Picture of the Day
- Vision for Space Exploration
- Asteroid 11365 NASA is named after the organization.

Other space agencies


- Canadian Space Agency
- CNES (Centre National d'Études Spatiales)
- China National Space Administration
- European Space Agency
- Italian Space Agency
- Indian Space Research Organisation
- Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
- National Space Agency of Ukraine
- Russian Federal Space Agency
- Soviet space program (historical)

External links

General


- [http://www.nasa.gov NASA Home Page]
- [http://www.nasawatch.com NASA Watch]
-

Further research


- [http://history.nasa.gov/series95.html NASA History Series Publications]
- [http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4012/cover.html NASA Historical Data Books (SP-4012)]
- [http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/hhrhist.pdf Research in NASA History: A Guide to the NASA History Program (large PDF – over 1,012 kb)]
- [http://ntrs.nasa.gov/ NTRS: NASA Technical Reports Server]
- [http://www.eventscope.org Eventscope] Category:Independent Agencies of the United States Government ko:미국항공우주국 ja:アメリカ航空宇宙局 simple:NASA th:องค์การนาซา

Astronaut

An astronaut, cosmonaut, spationaut or taikonaut (taikongren, 太空人) is a person who travels into space, or who makes a career of doing so. The criteria for determining who has achieved human spaceflight vary (see edge of space). In the United States, people who travel above an altitude of 50 miles (approximately 80 kilometers) are designated as astronauts. The FAI defines spaceflight as over 100 km (approximately 62 miles). As of October 12, 2005, a total of 448 humans have reached space according to the U.S. definition, 442 people qualify under the FAI definition, while 438 people have reached Earth orbit or beyond. These individuals have spent over 28,000 crew-days (or a cumulative total of 76.7 years) in space including over 100 crew-days of spacewalks. A person who has traveled in space is said to hold astronaut wings. Astronauts from at least 34 countries have gone into space.

International variations

By convention, a space traveller employed by the Russian Aviation and Space Agency or its Soviet predecessor is called a cosmonaut. "Cosmonaut" is an anglicisation of the Russian word космонавт (kosmonavt), which in turn derives from the Greek words kosmos, meaning "universe" and nautes, "sailor". In the USA, a space traveller is called an astronaut. The term derives from the Greek words ástron ("star") and nautes, ("sailor"). For the most part, "cosmonaut" and "astronaut" are synonyms in all languages, and the usage of choice is often dictated by political reasons. However in the United States, the term "astronaut" is typically applied to the individual as soon as training begins, while in Russia, an individual is not labeled a cosmonaut until successful space flight. The first known use of the term was by Neil R. Jones in his short story The Death's Head Meteor in 1930. On March 14, 1995 astronaut Norman Thagard became the first American to ride to space on-board a Russian launch vehicle, arguably becoming the first American cosmonaut in the process. European (outside of the UK) space travellers are sometimes, especially in French-speaking countries, called spationauts (a hybrid word formed from the Latin spatium, "space", and Greek nautes, "sailor"). Apart from the Soviet Union, Europe has not yet produced manned spacecraft, but has sent men and women into space in cooperation with Russia and to a lesser extent with the United States of America. Taikonaut is sometimes used in English for astronauts from China by Western news media. The term was coined in May 1998 by Chiew Lee Yih (赵里昱) from Malaysia, who used it first in newsgroups. Almost simultaneously, Chen Lan coined it for use in the Western media based on the term tàikōng (太空), Chinese for "space". In Chinese itself, however, a single term yǔháng yuán (宇航員, "universe navigator") has long been used for astronauts. The closest term using taikong is a colloquialism tàikōng rén (太空人, "space human"), which refers to people who have actually been in space. Official English texts issued by the Chinese government use astronaut ().

Space milestones

colloquialism The first attempt ever in human history to use rocket for a spaceflight was done in the 16th century by a Chinese Ming dynasty official, a skilled stargazer named Wan Hu.[http://edition.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/09/30/china.wanhu/index.html] The first cosmonaut was Yuri Gagarin, who was launched into space on April 12 1961 aboard Vostok 1. The first woman cosmonaut was Valentina Tereshkova, launched into space in June 1963 aboard Vostok 6. Alan Shepard became the first American in space in May 1961. Vladimir Remek became the first non-Soviet European in space in 1978 on a Russian Soyuz rocket. On July 23 1980 Pham Tuan of Vietnam became the first Asian in space when he flew aboard Soyuz 37. In June 1985 Shannon Lucid became the first Chinese born person in space. On October 15 2003 Yang Liwei became China's first astronaut on the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft. The first mission to orbit the moon was Apollo 8 which included William Anders - who was born in Hong Kong making him the first Asian-born astronaut in 1968. The youngest person to fly in space is Gherman Titov, who was roughly 26 years old when he flew Vostok 2, and the oldest is John Glenn who was 77 when he flew on STS-95. The longest stay in space was 438 days by Valeri Polyakov. As of 2005, the most spaceflights by an individual astronaut was seven, a record held by both Jerry L. Ross and Franklin Chang-Diaz. The furthest distance from Earth an astronaut has traveled was 401,056 km (during the Apollo 13 emergency). The first non-governmental astronaut was Christa McAuliffe, who was killed during the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986. The first astronaut to fly a privately-funded mission was Mike Melvill, on SpaceShipOne flight 15P. This should be contrasted with the various millionaire space tourists, who have flown as passengers, or minor crew members, on publicly funded flights (generally Russian resupply flights to the ISS). The first space tourist was Dennis Tito on April 28, 2001. In the United States, persons selected as astronaut candidates receive silver Astronaut wings. Once they have flown in space they receive gold Astronaut wings. The United States Air Force also presents Astronaut wings to its pilots who exceed 50 miles in altitude.

International astronauts

United States Air Force Up until the end of the 1970s only Americans and Soviets were active astronauts. In 1976 the Soviets started the Intercosmos program with a first group of 6 cosmonauts from fellow socialist countries, a second group started training in 1978. At about the same time in 1978 the European Space Agency selected 4 astronauts to train for the first Spacelab mission on board of the Space Shuttle. In 1980 France started their own selection of astronauts, followed in 1982 by Germany, in 1983 by the Canadian space program, in 1985 by Japan and Italy in 1988. Several more international payload specialist were selected for the Space Shuttle, and also later for international Soyuz missions of Russia. In 1998 the European Space Agency formed a single astronaut corps of 18 by dissolving the former national corps of France, Germany and Italy.

Astronaut training

The first astronauts, both in the USA and USSR, tended to be jet fighter pilots, often test pilots, from military backgrounds. U.S. military astronauts receive a special qualification badge, known as the Astronaut Badge upon completion of Astronaut training and participation in a space flight.

Astronaut deaths

Astronaut Badge To date, eighteen astronauts have been killed on space missions, and at least ten more have been killed in ground-based training accidents. See also: space disaster.

See also


- List of astronauts by name
- List of astronauts by selection
- Timeline of astronauts by nationality
- List of human spaceflights: 1961-1986, 1987-1999, 2000-present.
- List of spacewalks and moonwalks
- X-15
- Spaceflight records
- Shirley Thomas, author of Men of Space series (1960-1968)

External links


- [http://www.astronautix.com Encyclopedia Astronautica]
- [http://www.astronautix.com/astrogrp/phaonaut.htm Encyclopedia Astronautica: Phantom cosmonauts]
- Category:Transportation and material moving occupations Category:Transportation occupations Category:Science occupations ja:宇宙飛行士 simple:Astronaut th:นักบินอวกาศ

Apollo 16

Apollo 16 was the tenth manned mission in the Apollo program and the fifth mission to land on the Moon.

Crew


- John W. Young (flew on Gemini 3, Gemini 10, Apollo 10, Apollo 16, STS-1, & STS-9), commander
- Thomas K. (Ken) Mattingly Jr. (flew on Apollo 16, STS-4, & STS-51-C), command module pilot
- Charles Duke Jr. (flew on Apollo 16), lunar module pilot

Backup crew


- Fred Haise, commander
- Stuart Roosa, command module pilot
- Edgar Mitchell, lunar module pilot

Support crew


- Philip Chapman
- Anthony England
- Henry Hartsfield
- Robert Overmyer

Mission parameters


- Mass:
  - Launch mass: 2,921,005 kg
  - Total spacecraft: 46,782 kg
    - CSM mass: 30,354 kg, of which CM was 5840 kg, SM 24,514 kg
    - LM mass: transposition and docking 36,252 lb (16,444 kg), separation for landing 36,743 lb (16,666 kg), ascent stage at lunar liftoff 10,949 lb (4966 kg)
- Earth orbits: 3 before leaving for Moon, about one on return
- Lunar orbits: 64
- Perigee: 166.7 km
- Apogee: 176.0 km
- Inclination: 32.542°
- Period: 87.85 min
- Perilune: 107.6 km
- Apolune: 315.4 km
- Inclination: 168°
- Period: 120 min
- Landing Site: [http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/lunar_sites.html 8.97301° S - 15.50019° E] or
8° 58' 22.84" S - 15° 30' 0.68" E

LM - CSM docking


- Undocked: April 20, 1972 - 18:07:31 UTC
- Docked: April 24, 1972 - 03:35:18 UTC

EVAs


- Young and Duke - EVA 1
- EVA 1 Start: April 21, 1972, 16:47:28 UTC
- EVA 1 End: April 21, 23:58:40 UTC
- Duration: 7 hours, 11 minutes, 02 seconds
- Young and Duke - EVA 2
- EVA 2 Start: April 22, 1972, 16:33:35 UTC
- EVA 2 End: April 22, 23:56:44 UTC
- Duration: 7 hours, 23 minutes, 09 seconds
- Young and Duke - EVA 3
- EVA 3 Start: April 23, 1972, 15:25:28 UTC
- EVA 3 End: April 23, 21:05:31 UTC
- Duration: 5 hours, 40 minutes, 03 seconds
- Mattingly - Transearth EVA 4
- EVA 4 Start: April 25, 1972, 20:33:46 UTC
- EVA 4 End: April 25, 21:57:28 UTC
- Duration: 1 hour, 23 minutes, 42 seconds The splashdown point was 0 deg 43 min S, 156 deg 13 min W, 215 miles (350 km) southeast of Christmas Island and 5 km (3 mi) from the recovery ship USS Ticonderoga.

Introduction

USS Ticonderoga The crew members: John W. Young, commander; Ken Mattingly, command module pilot; and Charles Duke, lunar module pilot. It was a J-class mission, featuring a Lunar Rover. It brought back 94.7 kg of lunar samples. It included three lunar EVA: 7.2 hours, 7.4 hours, 5.7 hours and one trans-earth EVA of 1.4. This was only the second trans-earth EVA ever and was used to bring in film from exterior cameras and conduct an experiment on microbial survival. The Apollo 16 subsatellite was launched from the CSM while it was in lunar orbit. The subsatellite carried out experiments on magnetic fields and solar particles. It was launched April 24, 1972 at 21:56:09 UTC and orbited the Moon for 34 days and 425 revolutions. It had a mass of 80 lb (36.3 kg) and consisted of a central cylinder and three 1.5 m booms.

Mission highlights

1972 1972 A malfunction in a yaw gimbal servo loop in the main propulsion system of the CSM "Casper" caused concerns about firing the engine to adjust the CSM's lunar orbit, and nearly caused the Moon landing to be scrubbed. But it was decided that the malfunction presented relatively little risk, and Young and Duke (who were already undocked, and flying LM "Orion" when the problem occurred) were permitted to land on the Moon. However, the mission was shortened by a day (reducing the time in orbit around the Moon after the LM left the Moon and docked with the CSM), as a safety measure. Young and Duke spent three days exploring the Descartes highland region, while Mattingly circled overhead in "Casper." The astronauts discovered that what was thought to have been a region of volcanism was actually a region full of impact-formed rocks (breccias). Their collection of returned specimens included an 25 pound (11 kg) chunk that was the largest single rock returned by the Apollo astronauts (nicknamed Big Muley). The Apollo 16 astronauts also conducted performance tests with the lunar rover, at one time getting up to a top speed of 11 miles per hour (18 kilometers per hour), which still stands as the record speed for any wheeled vehicle on the Moon (listed as such in the Guinness Book of Records).

Relics

The command module is currently at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, in Huntsville, Alabama. The lunar module ascent stage separated 24 April 1972 but a loss of attitude control rendered it out of control. It orbited the Moon for about a year. Its impact site on the Moon is unknown.

Media

See also


- Extra-vehicular activity
- List of spacewalks
- Splashdown
- List of artificial objects on the Moon
- Google Moon

Reference


- [http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/sc-query.html NASA NSSDC Master Catalog]
- [http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4029/Apollo_00a_Cover.htm APOLLO BY THE NUMBERS: A Statistical Reference by Richard W. Orloff (NASA)]
- [http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4009/cover.htm The Apollo Spacecraft: A Chronology]
- [http://history.nasa.gov/apsr/apsr.htm Apollo Program Summary Report]
- [http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4012/vol3/table2.44.htm Apollo 16 Characteristics - SP-4012 NASA HISTORICAL DATA BOOK]

External links


- [http://www.astronautix.com/flights/apollo16.htm Apollo 16 entry in Encyclopedia Astronautica]
- [http://www.spacecamp.com/museum/ U.S. Space & Rocket Center Museum] (location of Apollo 16 command module) Category:Lunar spacecraft Category:Human spaceflights Category:Apollo program

1972

1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year that started on a Saturday.

Events


- International year of the book

January


- January 2 - The Pierre Hotel Heist - Six men rob the safety deposit boxes of the Pierre Hotel in New York City. Loot is at least $4 million.
- January 4 - Rose Heilbron becomes the first woman judge at the Old Bailey in London.
- January 5 - President of the United States Richard Nixon orders the development of a space shuttle program.
- January 4 - Kurt Waldheim becomes the Secretary General of the United Nations.
- January 7 - Iberian Airlines passenger planes crashes into an 800' peak on island of Ibiza - 104 dead.
- January 9 - Howard Hughes speaks by telephone to denounce Clifford Irving's supposed biography about him.
- January 9 - RMS Queen Elizabeth is destroyed by fire (Hong Kong harbor).
- January 11 - East Pakistan becomes independent with the name Bangladesh.
- January 14 - King Frederick IX of Denmark dies - his daughter Queen Margaret II of Denmark ascends to the throne at January 16.
- January 19 - Libertarian enclave Minerva on a platform in the South Pacific, sponsored by the Phoenix Foundation, declares independence. Soon neighboring Tonga annexes the area and dismantles the platform
- January 22 - Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom join the EEC.
- January 23 - New Delhi bootlegger sells wood alcohol to a wedding party - 100 dead
- January 24 - Japanese soldier Shoichi Yokoi is discovered in Guam. He had spent 28 years in the jungle.
- January 25 - Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman elected to US Congress, announces her candidacy for US president.
- January 26 - Yugoslavian air stewardress Vesna Vulovic is the only survivor when her plane crashes in Czechoslovakia. She survives after falling about 30,000' in the tail section of the aircraft.
- January 28 - Richard Chanfray claims he is Count of St Germain on French television.
- January 30 - Bloody Sunday - the British Army kills 13 unarmed Roman Catholic civil rights marchers in Derry, Ireland.
- January 30 - Pakistan withdraws from the British Commonwealth.
- January 31 - King Mahendra of Nepal dies, becoming the second king to die that month, and is succeeded by his son, Birendra.

February


- February 1 - First scientific hand-held calculator (HP-35) introduced (price $395).
- February 2 - A bomb explodes in British Yacht Club in West Berlin. Only casualty is Irwin Beelitz, a German boat builder. Movement 2 June announces it is in support of Irish Republican Army.
- February 2 - Anti-British riots throughout Ireland take place. The British Embassy in Dublin is burned to the ground as are several British owned businesses.
- February 3 - The Winter Olympics begin in Sapporo, Japan.
- February 4 - Mariner 9 sends pictures from Mars.
- February 5 - US airlines begin mandatory inspection of passengers and baggage.
- February 5 - Bob Douglas becomes the first African American elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.
- February 9 - The British government declares a state of emergency over a miners' strike.
- February 15 - President of Ecuador José María Velasco Ibarra is deposed for the fourth time.
- February 15 - Phonorecords granted U.S. Federal copyright protection for the first time.
- February 17 - Sales of the Volkswagen Beetle model exceed those of Ford Model-T (15 million).
- February 18 - The California Supreme Court invalidates the state's death penalty and commutes the sentences of all death row inmates to life in prison.
- February 21-February 27 - President Richard M. Nixon makes an unprecedented eight-day visit to the People's Republic of China and meets with Mao Zedong.
- February 21 - The Soviet unmanned spaceship Luna 20 lands on the Moon.
- February 22 - IRA bomb in Aldershot - 7 dead.
- February 23 - Angela Davis is released from jail.
- February 23 - A Lufthansa plane is hijacked and taken to Aden. Passengers are released after a ransom of 16 million D-marks is agreed.
- February 24 - North Vietnamese negotiators walk out of the peace talks in Paris to protest US air raids.
- February 26 - A coal sludge spill kills 125 in Buffalo Creek.
- February 26 - Luna 20 comes back to Earth with a cargo of moon rocks.

March


- March 1 - Thai province Yasothon created after being split off from the Ubon Ratchathani Province.
- March 1 - British 14-year-old schoolboy Timothy Davey is sentenced in Turkey for "conspiring to sell cannabis."
- March 1 - The Club of Rome publishes report "Boundaries on the Growth."
- March 2 - Launch of the Pioneer 10 spacecraft.
- March 2 - Jean-Bedel Bokassa becomes the president of the Central African Republic.
- March 3 - Sculpted figures of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson are completed at Stone Mountain, Georgia.
- March 4 - Libya and the Soviet Union sign a cooperation treaty.
- March 5 - Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis leaves the Greek Communist Party.
- March 13 - The United Kingdom and the People's Republic of China elevate diplomatic exchanges to the ambassadorial level after 22 years.
- March 13 - Clifford Irving admits to a New York court that he had fabricated Howard Hughes "autobiography."
- March 16 - The first building of the Pruitt-Igoe housing development is destroyed.
- March 19 - India and Bangladesh sign a friendship treaty.
- March 24 - To prevent further unionist misrule, Britain takes over direct rule of Northern Ireland.
- March 26 - 19 climbers on Mount Fuji die in an avalanche.
- March 30 - Vietnam War: The Eastertide Offensive begins after North Vietnamese forces cross into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) of South Vietnam.

April


- April 3 - First call was made with a cell phone (cellular phone) in New York.
- April 7 - US Mafioso Joe Gallo shot in Umberto's Clam House in Little Italy.
- April 10 - The USA and the Soviet Union join some 70 nations in signing an agreement to ban biological warfare.
- April 10 - A 7.0 Richter scale earthquake kills 1/5 of the population of Iranian province of Fars.
- April 13 - The Universal Postal Union decides to recognize the People's Republic of China as the only legitimate Chinese representative, effectively expelling the Republic of China administering Taiwan.
- April 16 - Apollo 16 launched.
- April 16 - Vietnam War: Nguyen Hue Offensive – Prompted by the North Vietnamese offensive, the United States resumes bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong.
- April 18 - The Roland Corporation is founded in Osaka.
- April 22 - Sylvia Cook and John Fairfax have rowed across the Pacific.
- April 27 - Constructive Vote of No Confidence against German Chancellor Willy Brandt fails under obscure circumstances.
- April 29 - The fourth anniversary of the Broadway musical Hair is celebrated with a free concert at a Central Park bandshell, followed by dinner at the Four Seasons. There, thirteen Black Panther protesters and the show's co-author, Jim Rado, are arrested for disturbing the peace and marijuana use.

May


- May 5 - An Alitalia DC-8 crashes west of Palermo, Sicily – 115 dead.
- May 13 - Fire in a nightclub atop the Sennichi department store in Osaka, Japan – 115 dead.
- May 15 - Governor George Wallace of Alabama is shot by Arthur Herman Bremer at a Laurel, Maryland political rally.
- May 17 - The closing notice is posted for the Broadway musical Hair.
- May 18 - Four troopers of both SAS and SBS are parachuted onto the HMS Queen Elizabeth II, 1000 miles off Britain in the Atlantic, after a bomb threat and demand for ransom. It turns out to be bogus.
- May 19 - Three out of six bombs explode in the Springer Press building in Hamburg, Germany - 17 injured. The Red Army Faction claims responsibility