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Richard H. Truly

Richard H. Truly

Richard Harrison Truly (born November 12, 1937) is a retired Vice Admiral in the United States Navy, former astronaut, and was the 8th Administrator of NASA from 1989 to 1992. He was the first former astronaut to head the space agency. Born in Fayette, Mississippi, Truly attended schools in Fayette and Meridian, Mississippi, receiving a bachelor of aeronautical engineering degree from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1959. Truly was ordered to flight school and was designated a Naval Aviator on October 7, 1960. His initial tour of duty was in Fighter Squadron 33 where he flew F-8 Crusaders aboard USS Intrepid and USS Enterprise and made more than 300 carrier landings. From 1963 to 1965, he was first a student and later an instructor at the U.S. Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, California. In 1965, he was among the first military astronauts selected to the USAF Manned Orbiting Laboratory program in Los Angeles, California. He became an astronaut for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in August 1969. He was a member of the astronaut support crew and capsule communicator for all three of the manned Skylab missions (1973) and the Apollo-Soyuz mission (1975). He served as pilot of STS-2 in 1981 and Commander of STS-8 in 1983. His decorations include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, two Legion of Merit, Navy Distinguished Flying Cross, and the Meritorious Service Award. His NASA awards include the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, two NASA Space Flight Medals, and two NASA Exceptional Service Medals.

References


- Portions of this article are based on public domain text from [http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/truly-rh.html NASA]. Truly, Richard H. Truly, Richard H. Truly, Richard H. Truly, Richard H. Truly, Richard H. Truly, Richard H. Truly, Richard H.

1937

1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

January


- January 1 - Anastasio Somoza becomes President of Nicaragua
- January 11 - The first issue of Look magazine goes on sale in the United States.
- January 19 - Howard Hughes sets a new air record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds.
- January 23 - In Moscow, 17 leading Communists go on trial accused of participating in a plot led by Leon Trotsky to overthrow Joseph Stalin's regime and assassinate its leaders.
- January 31 - Ohio river floods
- January 31 - 31 people executed in the Soviet Union for "Trotskyism"

February


- February 5 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposes a plan to enlarge the Supreme Court of the United States.
- February 8 - Falangist troops take Málaga
- February 11 - A sit-down strike ends when General Motors recognises the United Automobile Workers Union
- February 16 - Wallace H. Carothers receives a patent for nylon.
- February 19 - During a public ceremony at the Viceregal Palace (the former Imperial residence) in Addis Ababa Ahmed, Ethiopia, two Eritrean nationalists attempt to kill viceroy Rodolfo Graziani with a number of grenades. The Italian security guard fire into the crowd of Ethiopian onlookers, and over the passing weeks indiscriminately slaughter native Ethiopians in reprisal.
- February 21 - Initial flight of the first successful flying car, Waldo Waterman's Arrowbile; the League of Nations Non-Intervention Committee ban on foreign national "volunteers" in the Spanish Civil War.

March


- March - The first issue of the comic book Detective Comics is published in the United States. Twenty-seven issues later, Detective Comics would introduce Batman. The comic would go on to become the longest continually-published comic magazine in American history; it is still published as of 2005.
- March 10 - The Encyclical Mit Brennender Sorge of pope Pius XI is published in Nazi Germany
- March 18 - The New London School explosion kills three hundred.
- March 26 - In Crystal City, Texas spinach growers erect a statue of the cartoon character Popeye.
- March 26 - William Henry Hastie becomes the first African-American appointed to federal judgeship.

April


- April 1 - Aden becomes a British crown colony.
- April 17 - Release of the animated short Porky's Duck Hunt, directed by Tex Avery for the Merrie Melodies series, featuring the debut of Daffy Duck.
- April 26 - Spanish Civil War: Guernica, Spain is bombed by German Luftwaffe.
- April 26 - In his report of the Falangist attack on Guernica, British journalist George Steer reports that he had found German bomb casing; that means that Luftwaffe planes were connected with the attack

May

Luftwaffe, with their daughters Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret.]]
- May 1 - General strike in Paris, France
- May 6 - In United States, the German airship Hindenburg bursts into flame when mooring to a mast in Lakehurst.
- May 7 - Spanish Civil War: The German Condor Legion Fighter Group, equipped with Heinkel He 51 biplanes arrive in Spain to assist Francisco Franco's forces.
- May 12 - Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth takes place at Westminster Abbey, London.
- May 21 - As one of the reprisals for the attempted assassination of Italian viceroy Rodolfo Graziani, a detachment of Italian troops massacre the entire community of Debre Libanos. 297 monks and 23 laymen are killed.
- May 27 - In California, the Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrian traffic creating a vital link between San Francisco and Marin County. The next day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt pushes a button in Washington, DC signaling the start of vehicle traffic over the Golden Gate Bridge.
- May - Dáil Éireann passes the Executive Authority (Consequential Provisions) Act, 1937 which retrospectively abolishes the office of Governor-General of the Irish Free State. The abolition is retrospectively dated to December 1936.

June


- June 8 - First total solar eclipse to exceed 7 minutes of totality in over 800 years; visible in the Pacific and Peru.
- June 14 - Pennsylvania becomes the first (and only) of the United States to celebrate Flag Day officially as a state holiday.
- June 21 - Coalition government of Leon Blum resigns in France.
- June/July - Dáil Éireann debates and passes the draft new constitution of Éire, to be called Bunreacht na hÉireann. The new constitution is then submitted for public approval by plebiscite.

July


- July 1 - Gestapo arrests priest Martin Niemöller.
- July 1 - In a referendum the people of the Irish Free State accept the new Constitution by 685,105 votes to 527,945.
- July 2 - Amelia Earhart disappears
- July 5 - Highest recorded temperature in Canada, at Yellow Grass, Saskatchewan: 45 °C.
- July 7 - Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Lugou Bridge - Japanese forces invade China.
- July 21 - Eamon de Valera elected president of Eire
- July 22 - New Deal: The United States Senate votes down President Franklin D. Roosevelt's proposal to add more justices to the Supreme Court of the United States.
- July 24 - Alabama drops rape charges against the so-called "Scottsboro Boys."
- July 28 - IRA attempts bombing assassination against King George VI in Belfast.

August


- August 6 - Falangist artillery bombards Madrid.

September


- September 5 - Spanish Civil War: The fall of Llanes.
- September 16 - birth of Keith Bosley, broadcaster (retired), poet and translator.
- September 21 - George Allen & Unwin, Ltd. of London published the first edition of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.
- September 25 - Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Pingxingguan.

October


- October 1 - Marijuana Tax Act in USA.
- October 3 - Japanese troops advance toward Nanking.
- October 5 - Roosevelt "Quarantine the Aggressors" speech at Chicago
- October 21 - The whole Spanish northern seaboard in the Falangists' hands.
- October 21 - Roberto Ortiz elected president of Argentina.
- October 27 - Spanish Civil War - Republican forces in Gijon, Spain, set fire to petrol reserves before they retreat before the advancing Falangists.

November


- November 5 Spanish Civil War - Massacre of Republican supporters in Piedrafita de Babia, near León. Possibly 35,000 executed.
- November 5 - World War II: In the Reich Chancellery, Adolf Hitler holds a secret meeting and states his plans for acquiring "living space" for the German people.
- November 9 - Japanese troops take Shanghai.

December


- December 3 - The Dandy, the world's longest running comic, was first published.
- December 12 - Panay incident
- December 13 - Battle of Nanjing ends and the Nanjing Massacre begins. Japanese troops would slaughter over 250,000 civilians and prisoners over three months.
- December 27 - Mae West performance gets her banned from NBC Radio
- December 29 - New Irish Constitution, Bunreacht na hÉireann comes into force. The Irish Free State becomes Éire. Eamon de Valera becomes the first Taoiseach (prime minister) of the new state. A Presidential Commission (made up the Irish Chief Justice, the Speaker of Dáil Éireann and the President of the High Court) assumes the powers of the new presidency of Ireland pending the election of the first president in June 1938.
- December - The Marijuana Tax Act is signed, ending the US hemp industry just as it was about to benefit from a mechanised brake and compete with cotton and wood pulp.

Unknown dates


- Japan invades Manchuria. (Some consider this the start of World War II. Most historians disagree).
- New Irish constitution bans divorce.
- First science fiction convention in Leeds, United Kingdom.
- Italy joins Antikomintern Pact.
- The National House Builders Registration Council (now the NHBC) was formed in the United Kingdom.
- Donald Goines (1937 - 1973)
- Jimmie Angel lands his plane on top of Devil's Mountain however the plane gets damaged and he has to trek through the rainforest for help.

Ongoing events


- Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
- Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)
- Harlem Renaissance (1920-1940) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlem_Renaissance]

Births

January


- January 1 - Anne Aubrey, British actor
- January 4 - Dyan Cannon, Ameircan actress
- January 6 - Underwood Dudley, American mathematician
- January 8 - Shirley Bassey, Welsh singer
- January 14 - Ken Higgs, English cricketer
- January 15 - Margaret O'Brien, American actress
- January 18 - John Hume, Irish politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- January 27 - John Ogdon, English pianist (d. 1989)
- January 30 - Vanessa Redgrave, English actress
- January 30 - Boris Spassky, Russian chess player
- January 31 - Suzanne Pleshette, Amrican actress
- January 31 - Philip Glass, American composer

February


- February 1 - Garrett Morris, American comedian
- February 1 - Don Everly, American musician
- February 2 - Tom Smothers, American musician and comedian
- February 2 - Magic Sam, American musician (d. 1969)
- February 8 - Manfred Krug, German actor and singer
- February 11 - Bill Lawry, Australian cricketer
- February 12 - Charles Dumas, American athlete
- February 20 - Robert Huber, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- February 20 - Roger Penske, American race car driver
- February 20 - Nancy Wilson, American singer and actress
- February 21 - King Harald V of Norway
- February 25 - Tom Courtenay, English actor

March


- March 2 - Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Algerian president
- March 4 - Graham Dowling, New Zealand cricket captains
- March 6 - Valentina Tereshkova, cosmonaut
- March 9 - Mickey Gilly, American musician
- March 17 - Rudy Ray Moore, American comedian
- March 20 - Jerry Reed, American musician
- March 22 - Armin Hary, German athlete
- March 23 - Craig Breedlove, American race car driver
- March 30 - Warren Beatty, American actor and director

April


- April 5 - Colin Powell, U.S. Secretary of State
- April 6 - Merle Haggard, American musician
- April 6 - Billy Dee Williams, American actor
- April 10 - Bella Akhmadulina, Russian poet
- April 16 - Joseph Whipp, American actor
- April 22 - Jack Nicholson, American actor
- April 29 - Jill Paton Walsh, English novelist

May


- May 1 - Una Stubbs, British actor
- May 8 - Thomas Pynchon, American writer
- May 6 - Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter, American boxer
- May 12 - George Carlin, American comedian
- May 13 - Roch Carrier, Canadian writer
- May 13 - Roger Zelazny, American writer (d. 1995)
- May 15 - Madeleine Albright, U.S. Secretary of State
- May 15 - Trini López, American musician
- May 17 - Hazel R. O'Leary, U.S. Secretary of Energy
- May 18 - Brooks Robinson, baseball player
- May 18 - Jacques Santer, Luxembourg politician, President of the European Council

June


- June 1 - Morgan Freeman, American actor
- June 3 - Solomon P. Ortiz, U.S. Congressman from Texas
- June 7 - Neemi Järvi, Estonian conductor
- June 9 - Harald Rosenthal, German biologist
- June 11 - Robin Warren, Australian pathologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- June 18 - Wray Carlton, American football player
- June 18 - Vitali Zholobov, cosmonaut
- June 23 - Martti Ahtisaari, President of Finland
- June 25 - Keizo Obuchi, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 2000)
- June 26 - Robert Coleman Richardson, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- June 28 - Ron Luciano, baseball umpire and writer (d. 1995)

July


- July 6 - Vladimir Ashkenazy, Russian pianist
- July 6 - Ned Beatty, American actor
- July 7 - Tung Chee-Hwa, Hong Kong administrator
- July 9 - David Hockney, English-born artist
- July 12 - Lionel Jospin, Prime Minister of France
- July 12 - Bill Cosby, American actor and comedian
- July 14 - Yoshiro Mori, Japanese politician
- July 18 - Roald Hoffmann, Polish-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- July 29 - Daniel McFadden, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate

August


- August 4 - David Bedford, American musician
- August 5 - Herb Brooks, American hockey coach (d. 2003)
- August 8 - Dustin Hoffman, American actor
- August 18 - Robert Redford, American actor
- August 18 - Willie Rushton, English comedian and cartoonist (d. 1996)
- August 21 - Donald Dewar, First Minister of Scotland (d. 2000)
- August 29 - James Florio, Governor of New Jersey

September


- September 4 - Dawn Fraser, Australian swimmer
- September 15 - Robert Lucas, Jr., American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- September 15 - Fernando de la Rúa, President of Argentina
- September 19 - Abner Haynes, American football player
- September 28 - Rod Roddy, American television announcer (d. 2003)

October


- October 2 - Johnnie Cochran, American attorney (d. 2005)
- October 5 - Barry Switzer, American football coach
- October 10 - Bobby Charlton, English footballer

November


- November 8 - Paul Mackintosh Foot, British journalist
- November 15 - Yaphet Kotto, American actor
- November 17 - Peter Cook, English comedian and writer
- November 26 - Boris Yegorov, cosmonaut

December


- December 3 - Bobby Allison, American race car driver
- December 8 - Arne Næss Jr., Norwegian mountaineer and businessman (d. 2004)
- December 21 - Jane Fonda, American actress and social activist
- December 26 - Gnassingbe Eyadema, President of Togo (d. 2005)
- December 29 - Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, President of the Maldives
- December 30 - John Hartford, American musician and composer (d. 2001)
- December 30 - Jim Marshall, American football player
- December 31 - Avram Hershko, Israeli biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
- December 31 - Sir Anthony Hopkins, Welsh actor

Deaths


- January 6 - Brother Andre, Canadian religious leader (b. 1845)
- January 23 - Marie Prevost, Canadian actress (b. 1898)
- February 5 - Lou Andreas-Salome, Russian-born writer (b. 1861)
- February 7 - Elihu Root, American statesman and diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1845)
- February 11 - Walter Burley Griffin, American architect and town planner (b. 1876)
- March 9 - Paul Elmer More, American critic and essayist (b. 1864)
- March 12 - Charles-Marie Widor, French organist and composer (b. 1840)
- March 15 - H. P. Lovecraft, American writer (b. 1890)
- March 17 - Austen Chamberlain, English statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1863)
- March 29 - Karol Szymanowski, Polish composer (b. 1882)
- April 19 - William Martin Conway, British art critic and mountaineer (b. 1856)
- April 21 - Saima Harmaja, Finnish poet (b. 1913)
- April 25 - Michał Drzymała, Polish rebel (b.1857)
- May 23 - John D. Rockefeller, American industrialist and philanthropist (b. 1839)
- May 28 - Alfred Adler, Austrian psychologist (b. 1870)
- June 19 - J. M. Barrie, Scottish novelist and dramatist (b. 1860)
- July 9 - Oliver Law, American labor organizer and Army officer (killed in battle) (b. 1899)
- July 11 - George Gershwin, American composer (b. 1898)
- July 20 - Guglielmo Marconi, Italian inventor (b. 1874)
- July 21 - Louis Vierne, French composer (b. 1870)
- August 11 - Edith Wharton, American writer (b. 1862)
- September 2 - Pierre de Coubertin, French founder of the modern Olympic Games (b. 1863)
- September 26 - Bessie Smith, American singer (b. 1894)
- September 29 - Ray Ewry, American athlete (b. 1873)
- October 16 - Jean de Brunhoff, French writer (b. 1899)
- October 19 - Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, New Zealand physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (b. 1871)
- October 26 - Józef Dowbór-Muśnicki, Polish general (b. 1867)
- November 17 - Jack Worrall, Australian cricketer and coach (b. 1860)
- November 23 - Jagdish Chandra Bose, Indian Physicist (b. 1858)
- December 9 - Gustaf Dalén, Swedish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1869)
- December 20 - Erich Ludendorff, German general (b. 1865)
- December 21 - Frank B. Kellogg, United States Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1856)
- December 28 - Maurice Ravel, French composer (b. 1875)

Nobel Prizes


- Physics - Clinton Joseph Davisson, George Paget Thomson
- Chemistry - Walter Haworth, Paul Karrer
- Medicine - Albert von Szent-Györgyi Nagyrapolt
- Literature - Roger Martin du Gard
- Peace - Robert Cecil Category:1937 ko:1937년 ms:1937 ja:1937年 simple:1937 th:พ.ศ. 2480

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

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

1989

1989 (MCMLXXXIX) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. The world population growth in absolute numbers is believed to have been the highest ever around this time. [http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/worldpop.html]

Events

January


-
- January 8 - the Kegworth Air Disaster - A British Midland Boeing 737 crashes on approach to East Midlands Airport - 44 dead January 16-18 - Race riots in Overtown, Miami
- January 10 - Cuban troops begin withdrawing from Angola
- January 10 - Assistant Australian Federal Police commissioner Colin Winchester is shot dead in the driveway of his Canberra home
  - January 17 - A gunman kills 5 children, wounds 30 and then shoots himself in Stockton, California January 7 - Akihito becomes Emperor of Japan following the death of Hirohito. The Heisei period begins
- January 20 - George Herbert Walker Bush succeeds Ronald Wilson Reagan as President of the United States of America
- January 24 - Serial killer Ted Bundy is executed in Florida's electric chair
- January 30 - American Olympic medalist Bruce Kimball is sentenced to 17 years in prison for killing two teenagers in a drunk driving accident

February


- February 1 - Joan Kirner becomes Victoria's 1st female Deputy Premier after resignation of Robert Fordham, over VEDC (Victorian Economic Development Co-operation) Crisis
- February 2 - Soviet war in Afghanistan: The last Soviet Union armored column leaves Kabul ending nine years of military occupation
- February 3 - Military coup overthrows Alfredo Stroessner, dictator of Paraguay
- February 3 - After a stroke, P.W. Botha resigns party leadership and the presidency of South Africa
- February 10 - Ron Brown is elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee becoming the first African American to lead a major American political party
- February 11 - Barbara Clementine Harris is consecrated first female bishop in the Episcopal Church (United States of America)
- February 14 - Union Carbide agrees to pay USD $470 million to the Indian government for damages it caused in the 1984 Bhopal Disaster
- February 14 - Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini encourages Muslims to kill the author of The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie
- February 14 - The first of 24 satellites of the Global Positioning System is placed into orbit
- February 15 - Soviet war in Afghanistan: The Soviet Union officially announces that all of its troops had left Afghanistan
- February 16 - Pan Am flight 103: Investigators announce that the cause of the crash was a bomb hidden inside a radio-cassette player
- February 24 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini places a three-million-US dollar bounty for the death of The Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie
- February 24 - A United Airlines Boeing 747 bound to New Zealand from Honolulu, Hawaii rips open during flight, sucking 9 passengers and crew out of the first class section. Luckily most passengers and crew were still belted to their seats at the time
- February 27 - Venezuela is rocked by the Caracazo.

March

Caracazo
- March 1 - The Berne Convention is ratified and enters into force with regard to the United States
- March 1 - A curfew is imposed in Kosovo where protests continue at the alleged intimidation of the Serb minority
- March 1 - Louis Wade Sullivan starts his term of office as U.S. Secretary of Commerce, serving under President George H. W. Bush
- March 1 - James D. Watkins starts his term of office as U.S. Secretary of Energy, serving under President George H. W. Bush
- March 1 - The Politieke Partij Radicalen, Pacifistisch Socialistische Partij, Communistische Partij Nederland and the Evangelische Volks Partij amalgamate to form Netherlands political party the GroenLinks (GL, GreenLeft)
- March 2 - 12 European Community nations agree to ban the production of all chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) by the end century
- March 4 - Time, Inc. and Warner Communications announce plans for a merger, forming Time Warner
- March 4 - The Purley rail crash - 5 dead, 94 injured
- March 4 - First ACT (Australian Capital Territory) elections held
- March 7 - Iran breaks off diplomatic relations with United Kingdom over Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses"
- March 9 - A strike forces financially-troubled Eastern Airlines into bankruptcy
- March 12 - Musician Billy was born
- March 14 - Gun control: President George H. W. Bush bans the importation of assault rifles into the United States
- March 14 - Christian General Michel Aoun declares a 'War of Liberation' to rid Lebanon of Syrian forces and their allies.
- March 15 - Surgeon Bimal Ghosh removes a huge gallbladder weighing 10.4 kg (23 lbs) at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, USA
- March 18 - In Egypt, a 4,400-year-old mummy is found in the Great Pyramid of Giza
- March 20 - Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke weeps on national television as he admits marital infidelity.
- March 23 - Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann announce cold fusion at the University of Utah
- March 23 - A 300m (1,000 ft) diameter Near-Earth asteroid misses the Earth by 500,000 km (400,000 miles)
- March 24 - Exxon Valdez oil spill: In Alaska's Prince William Sound the Exxon Valdez spills 240,000 barrels (11 million gallons) of oil after running aground
- March 27 - The first free elections for the Soviet parliament go against the Communist Party.

April-May


- April 4 - Richard M. Daley elected mayor of Chicago, Illinois
- April 6 - National Safety Council of Australia chief executive John Friedrich is arrested after defrauding investors to the tune of $235 million
- April 7 - Soviet submarine Komsomolets sinks in the Barents Sea - 41 dead
- April 9 - Massacre of Georgian demonstrators by Red Army soldiers in Tbilisi's central square during a peaceful rally; 20 citizens are killed (most of them young women), many injured. The use of toxic gas by the Soviets was alleged. [http://www.phrusa.org/research/health_effects/humsov.html]
- April 15 - Hillsborough disaster, one of the biggest tragedies in European football, takes place
- April 19 - Gun turret explodes on the US battleship Iowa - 47 dead
- April 20 - NATO debates modernising short range missiles; although the US and UK are in favour, West German chancellor Helmut Kohl obtains a concession defering a decision.
- April 21 - Tiananmen Square protests of 1989: Students in Beijing, Shanghai, Xian, Nanjing started to strike.
- April 25 - End of term for Baginda Almutawakkil Alallah Sultan Iskandar Al-Haj ibni Almarhum Sultan Ismail as the 8th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia
- April 26 - Sultan Azlan Muhibbudin Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Yusuff Izzudin Shah Ghafarullahu-lahu, Sultan of Perak, becomes the 9th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia
- May 2 - Hungary dismantles 150 miles of barbed wire fencing, opening its border to Western Europe.
- May 9 - Andrew Peacock deposes John Howard