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Gemini Program

Gemini program

Project Gemini was the second human spaceflight program in which the United States of America sent humans into space, between Projects Mercury and Apollo, during the years 1963-1966. Its objective was to develop techniques for advanced space travel, notably those necessary for Apollo, whose objective was to land men on the Moon. Gemini missions involved extravehicular activity and orbital maneuvers including rendezvous and docking. Gemini was originally seen as a simple extrapolation of the Mercury program, and thus early on was called Mercury Mark II. The final program had little in common with Mercury and was in fact superior to even Apollo in some ways. (See Big Gemini.) This was mainly a result of its late start date, which allowed it to benefit from much that had been learned by that time on the Apollo project (which, despite its later launch dates, was actually begun before Gemini). Its primary difference from Mercury was that the earlier spacecraft had all systems other than the reentry rockets sited within the capsule, nearly all of which had to be accessed through the astronaut's hatchway, while Gemini had many power, propulsion, and life-support systems in a detachable module like a huge bowl; many components in the capsule itself were reachable each through its own small access door. The original intention was for Gemini to use a paraglider instead of a parachute, and the crew to be seated upright controlling the forward motion of the craft before its landing. To facilitate this, the parachute cord does not just attach to the nose of the craft; there is an additional attachment point for balance near the heat shield. This cord is covered by a strip of metal between the doors. Early, short-duration missions had their electrical power supplied by batteries; later endurance missions had the first fuel cells in manned spacecraft. The "Gemini" designation comes from the fact that each spacecraft held two men, as "gemini" in Latin means "twins". Gemini is also the name of the third constellation of the Zodiac and its twin stars, Castor and Pollux. Unlike Mercury, which could only change its orientation in space, the Gemini capsule could alter its own orbit. It could also dock with other spacecraft--one of which, the Agena Target Vehicle, had its own large rocket engine which was used to perform large orbital changes. Gemini was the first American manned spacecraft to include an onboard computer, the Gemini Guidance Computer, to facilitate management and control of mission maneuvers. The main contractor was McDonnell who had lost out on main contracts for the Apollo Project. McDonnell sought to extend the program by proposing a Gemini craft could be used to fly a cislunar mission and even achieve a manned lunar landing earlier and at less cost than Apollo but these were rejected. The Gemini program cost $5.4 billion in 1994 dollars. See NASA Budget.

Announcement

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA announced December 7, 1961, a plan to extend the existing manned space flight program by development of a two-man spacecraft. The program was officially designated Gemini on January 3, 1962.

Team

The Gemini program was managed by the Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston, Texas, under direction of the Office of Manned Space Flight, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C, Dr. George E. Mueller, Associate Administrator of NASA for Manned Space Flight, served as acting director of the Gemini program. William C. Schneider, Deputy Director of Manned Space Flight for Mission Operations, served as Mission Director on all Gemini flights beginning with Gemini V. The Manned Spacecraft Center Gemini effort was headed by Dr. Robert R. Gilruth, director of the Center, and Charles W. Matthews, Gemini Program Manager.

Program objectives

The Gemini Program was conceived after it became evident to NASA officials that an intermediate step was required between the projects Mercury and Apollo. The major objectives assigned to Gemini were:
- To subject two men and supporting equipment to long-duration flights, a requirement for projected later trips to the moon or deeper space.
- To effect rendezvous and docking with other orbiting vehicles, and to maneuver the docked vehicles in space, using the propulsion system of the target vehicle for such maneuvers.
- To perfect methods of reentry and landing the spacecraft at a pre-selected land-landing point.
- To gain additional information concerning the effects of weightlessness on crew members and to record the physiological reactions of crew members during long duration flights.

Gemini Applications

The United States Air Force had an interest in the system, and decided to use their own modification of the spacecraft as the crew vehicle for the Manned Orbiting Laboratory. To this end, one of the unmanned Gemini spacecraft was refurbished and flown again atop a mockup of the MOL, sent into space by a Titan III-M. This was the first time a spacecraft went into space twice. The USAF also had the notion of adapting the Gemini spacecraft for trying out military applications, such as crude observation of the ground (no specialized reconnaissance camera could be carried) and practicing making rendezvous with suspicious satellites. This project was called Blue Gemini. The US Air Force did not like the fact that Gemini would have to be recovered by the US Navy, so they intended for Blue Gemini eventually to use the paraglider and land on three skids, something from the original design of Gemini. At first some within NASA welcomed sharing of the cost with the USAF, but it was later agreed that NASA was better off operating Project Gemini by itself. MOL was cancelled in 1968 and Blue Gemini too was cancelled without any use by military astronauts.

Missions

1968 and Thomas Stafford aboard]] Gemini involved 12 flights, including two unmanned flight tests of the equipment.

Unmanned


- Gemini 1 - First test flight of Gemini; April 8-12, 1964
- Gemini 2 - Suborbital flight to test heat shield; January 19, 1965

Manned


- Gemini III , MOLLY BROWN March 23, 1965 Virgil "Gus" Grissom, John W. Young 04 hours, 52 minutes 31 seconds First manned Gemini flight, three orbits. The only major incident during the mission involved a contraband corned beef sandwich that Young had snuck on board. The crew each took a few bites before the sandwich had to be restowed. The crumbs it released could have wreaked havoc with the craft's electronics, so the crew were reprimanded when they returned to Earth. The capsule's name, 'Molly Brown', was a reference to the musical "The Unsinkable Molly Brown", and was allegedly chosen by Grissom in honour of his Mercury capsule ("Liberty Bell 7"), which did sink. Following this, Nasa banned crews from naming their vehicles until relatively late in the Apollo program, and even then only with supervision.
- Gemini IV June 03-07, 1965 James A. McDivitt, Edward H. White II 4 days 1 hour 56 min 12 seconds Included first extravehicular activity (EVA) by an American; White's "space walk" was a 22 minute EVA exercise.
- Gemini V August 21-29, 1965 L. Gordon Cooper Jr., Charles Conrad Jr. 7 days 22 hours 55 min 14 seconds First week-long flight First use of fuel cells for electrical power; evaluated guidance and navigation system for future rendezvous missions. Completed 120 orbits.
- Gemini VII December 04-18, 1965 Frank Borman, James A. Lovell Jr. 13 days, 18 hours, 35 minutes 1 seconds When the original Gemini VI mission was scrubbed because its Agena target for rendezvous and docking failed, Gemini VII was used for the rendezvous instead. Primary objective was to determine whether humans could live in space for 14 days.
- Gemini VI-A December 15-16, 1965 Walter M. Schirra Jr., Thomas P. Stafford 1 Day 1 hour 51 min 24 seconds First space rendezvous accomplished with Gemini VII, station-keeping for over five hours at distances from 0.3 to 90 m (1 to 295 ft).
- Gemini VIII March 16, 1966 Neil A. Armstrong, David R. Scott 10 hours, 41 minutes 26 seconds Accomplished first docking with another space vehicle, an unmanned Agena stage. A malfunction caused uncontrollable spinning of the craft; the crew undocked and effected the first emergency landing of a manned U.S. space mission.
- Gemini IX June 03-06, 1966 Thomas P. Stafford, Eugene A. Cernan 3 days, 21 hours Rescheduled from May to rendezvous and dock with augmented target docking adapter (ATDA) after original Agena target vehicle failed to orbit. ATDA shroud did not completely separate, making docking impossible. Three different types of rendezvous, two hours of EVA, and 44 orbits were completed.
- Gemini X July 18-21, 1966 John W. Young, Michael Collins 2 days 22 hours 46 min 39 seconds First use of Agena target vehicle's propulsion systems. Spacecraft also rendezvoused with Gemini VIII target vehicle. Collins had 49 minutes of EVA standing in the hatch and 39 minutes of EVA to retrieve experiment from Agena stage. 43 orbits completed.
- Gemini XI September 12-15, 1966 Charles Conrad Jr., Richard F. Gordon Jr. 2 days 23 hours 17 min 8 seconds Gemini record altitude, 1,189.3 km (739.2 mi) reached using Agena propulsion system after first orbit rendezvous and docking. Gordon made 33-minute EVA and two-hour standup EVA. 44 orbits.
- Gemini XII November 11-15, 1966 James A. Lovell Jr., Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin 3 days, 22 hours, 34 minutes 31 seconds Final Gemini flight. Rendezvoused and docked manually with its target Agena and kept station with it during EVA. Aldrin set an EVA record of 5 hours, 30 minutes for one space walk and two stand-up exercises.

Crew Selection

Deke Slayton as head of the Astronaut Office had the main role in choice of crews for the Gemini program. This selection process, with the prospect of more ambitious missions that would follow with Apollo, became even more political that with the Mercury Program. With Gemini it became a procedure that each flight had a prime crew and back up crew and that the back up crew would rotate to prime crew status three flights later. Slayton also sought that first choice of mission Commands would be given to the original Mercury Seven astronauts (excepting John Glenn who retired from NASA in January 1964, Scott Carpenter who was not acceptable to NASA management, and Gordon Cooper was questionable). In late 1963, Slayton choose Alan Shepard and Thomas Stafford for Gemini 3, James McDivitt and Ed White for Gemini 4, and Wally Schirra and John Young for Gemini 5 (the first Agena rendezvous mission). Gemini 3 was backed up by Gus Grissom and Frank Borman who were also slated for Gemini 6 the first long duration mission. Finally Pete Conrad and James Lovell were assigned as the backup for Gemini 4 Delays in the production of the Agena Target Vehicle caused the first rearrangement of the crew rotation. Schirra and Young mission was bumped to Gemini-6 and now were the backup for Shepard and Stafford. Grissom and Borman now had their long duration mission assigned to Gemini 5. The second rearrangment occurred when Alan Shepard developed Meniere's disease, an inner ear problem. Gus Grissom was moved to command Gemini 3. Slayton felt that Young was a better personality match and switched Stafford and Young. Finally Slayton tapped Gordon Cooper to command the long duration Gemini 5. Again for reasons of compatibility he move Pete Conrad from being the backup commander of Gemini 4 to the pilot of Gemini 5 and Frank Borman to the backup command of Gemini 4. Finally he assign Neil Armstrong and Elliot See to be the backup crew for Gemini 5. The third rearrangement of crew assignment occurred when Deke Slayton felt that Elliot See wasn't up to the physical demands of EVA on Gemini 8. He placed Elliot See as the prime commander of Gemini 9 and put Dave Scott as pilot of Gemini 8 and Charles Bassett as the pilot of Gemini 9. The fourth and final rearrangement of the Gemini crew assignment occurred after the death of Elliot See and Charles Bassett in a plane death in St. Louis. The backup crew of Tom Stafford and Eugene Cernan was moved up to become the new prime crew of Gemini 9. James Lovell and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin was moved from being the backup crew of Gemini 10 to the backup crew of Gemini 9. This cleared the way through the crew rotation for Lovel and Aldrin to become the prime crew of Gemini 12. Along with the death of Grissom, White, and Chaffee in the fire of Apollo 1, this rearrangement is what finally determined the makeup of the early Apollo crews. These events were decisive in determining who would be in position to walk on the moon. In his autobiography "Deke!" Slayton relates that he would have probably replaced Aldrin with the backup pilot for Gemini 12 Eugene Cernan if the second flight of the AMU had flow on Gemini 12.

Gemini-Titan launches and serial numbers

Gemini 4 The Gemini-Titan launch vehicles, like the Mercury-Atlas vehicles before them, were ordered by NASA through the U. S. Air Force and were in reality missiles. The Gemini-Titan II rockets were assigned U.S. Air Force serial numbers, which were painted in four places on each Titan II (on opposite sides on each of the first and second stages). U.S. Air Force crews maintained Launch Complex 19 and prepared and launched all of the Gemini-Titan II launch vehicles. Atlas These are the USAF serial numbers assigned to the Gemini-Titan launch vehicles. They were ordered in 1962 so the serial is "62-12XXX", but only "12XXX" is painted on the Titan II:
- 12556 - GLV-1 - Gemini 1
- 12557 - GLV-2 - Gemini 2
- 12558 - GLV-3 - Gemini 3
- 12559 - GLV-4 - Gemini 4
- 12560 - GLV-5 - Gemini 5
- 12561 - GLV-6 - Gemini 6A
- 12562 - GLV-7 - Gemini 7
- 12563 - GLV-8 - Gemini 8
- 12564 - GLV-9 - Gemini 9A
- 12565 - GLV-10 - Gemini 10
- 12566 - GLV-11 - Gemini 11
- 12567 - GLV-12 - Gemini 12
- 12568 - GLV-13 Ordered by NASA 1962, not built, cancelled July 30, 1964
- 12569 - GLV-14 Ordered by NASA 1962, not built, cancelled July 30, 1964
- 12570 - GLV-15 Ordered by NASA 1962, not built, cancelled July 30, 1964

See also:


- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Titan (rocket family)
- Titan II rocket
- Big Gemini
- Manned Orbiting Laboratory
- Splashdown
- Agena Target Vehicle

Further reading:


- Gene Kranz, Failure is Not an Option. Factual, from the standpoint of a chief flight controller during the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space programs. ISBN 0743200799
- David M. Harland, How NASA Learned to Fly in Space: An Exciting Account of the Gemini Missions, Apogee Books, 2004, ISBN 1894959078
- David J. Shayler, Gemini, Springer-Verlag Telos, 2001, ISBN 1852334053
- [http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19780012208_1978012208.pdf On the Shoulders of Titans: A History of Project Gemini - NASA report (PDF format)]
- [http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19690027123_1969027123.pdf Project Gemini technology and operations - A chronology - NASA report (PDF fomat)]

External links:


- [http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4203/toc.htm On the Shoulders of Titans: A History of Project Gemini by Barton C. Hacker and James M. Grimwood]
- [http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/history/gemini/gemini.htm John F. Kennedy Space Center - The Gemini Program]
- [http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/history/gemini/gemini.html NASA Project Gemini site]
- [http://www.thespaceplace.com/history/gemini2.html Space history: Gemini Program space history - Gemini missions spaceflight]
- [http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/diagrams/gemini.html Project Gemini Drawings and Technical Diagrams]
- [http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/diagrams/diagrams.htm Technical Diagrams and Drawings]
- [http://www.ibiblio.org/mscorbit/document.html Gemini familiarization Manuals (PDF).] Apollo Category:Gemini program Category:Human spaceflight programmes Category:Manned spacecraft ja:ジェミニ計画

United States

:For alternative meanings, see the disambiguation page for US, USA, United States, or American. The United States of America is a federal democratic republic situated primarily in central North America. It comprises 50 states and one federal district, and has several territories. It is also referred to, with varying formality, as the United States, the U.S., the U.S.A., the States, or simply and most commonly, America. The official founding date of the United States is July 4, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress—representing thirteen British colonies—adopted the Declaration of Independence. However, the structure of the government was profoundly changed in 1788, when the states replaced the Articles of Confederation with the United States Constitution. The date on which each of the fifty states adopted the Constitution is typically regarded as the date that state "entered the Union" (became part of the United States). Since the mid-20th century, following World War II, the United States has emerged as a dominant global influence in economic, political, military, scientific, technological, and cultural affairs.

Geography and climate

The United States shares land borders with Canada (to the north) and Mexico (to the south), and territorial water boundaries with Canada, Russia, the Bahamas, and numerous smaller nations. It is otherwise bounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea, in the west; the Arctic Ocean, in the northernmost areas; and the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea, in the eastern and southeastern areas. Forty-eight of the states are in the single region between Canada and Mexico; this group is referred to, with varying precision and formality, as the continental or contiguous United States, sometimes abbreviated CONUS, and as the Lower 48. Alaska, which is not included in the term contiguous United States, is at the northwestern end of North America, separated from the Lower 48 by Canada. The archipelago of Hawaii is in the Pacific Ocean. The capital city, Washington, District of Columbia is a federal district located on land donated by the state of Maryland. (Virginia also donated land, but it was returned in 1847.) The United States also has overseas territories with varying levels of independence and organization. When inland water is included in the total area, only Russia and Canada are larger than the United States; if inland water is excluded, China ranks third and the U.S. ranks fourth. The United States' total area is 3,718,711 square miles (9,631,418 km²), of which land makes up 3,537,438 square miles (9,161,923 km²) and water makes up 181,273 square miles (469,495 km²). The United States' landscape is one of the most varied among those of the world's nations: among its many features are temperate forestland and rolling hills, on the east coast; mangrove, in Florida; the Great Plains, in the center of the country; the Mississippi–Missouri river system; the Great Lakes, four of the five of which are shared with Canada; the Rocky Mountains, west of the Great Plains; deserts and temperate coastal zones, west of the Rocky Mountains; and temperate rain forests, in the Pacific northwest. Alaska's tundra, and the volcanic, tropical islands of Hawaii add to the geographic diversity. Hawaii The climate varies along with the landscape, from tropical in Hawaii and southern Florida to tundra in Alaska and atop some of the highest mountains. Most of the North and East experience a temperate continental climate, with warm summers and cold winters. Most of the South experiences a subtropical humid climate with mild winters and long, hot, humid summers. Rainfall decreases markedly from the humid forests of the Eastern Great Plains to the semi-arid shortgrass prairies on the high plains abutting the Rocky Mountains. Arid deserts, including the Mojave, extend through the lowlands and valleys of the southwest, from westernmost Texas to California and northward throughout much of Nevada. Some parts of California have a Mediterranean climate. Rainforests line the windward mountains of the Pacific Northwest from Oregon to Alaska.

History

American history started with the migration of people from Asia across the Bering land bridge approximately 12,000 years ago following large animals that they hunted into the Americas. These Native Americans left evidence of their presence in petroglyphs, burial mounds, and other artifacts. It is estimated that 2-9 million people lived in the territory now occupied by the U.S. before European contact, and the subsequent introduction of foreign diseases such as small pox that greatly diminished the native populations. Some advanced societies were the Anasazi of the southwest, who inhabited Chaco Canyon, and the Woodland Indians, who built Cahokia, located near present-day St Louis, a city with a population of 40,000 at its peak in AD 1200. Vikings first visited North America around 1000, but did not settle permanently. Following the discovery voyages of Christopher Columbus around 1492, other Europeans began to explore and settle there. During the 1500s and 1600s, the Spanish settled parts of the present-day Southwest and Florida, founding St. Augustine, Florida in 1565 and Santa Fe (in what is now New Mexico) in 1607. The first successful English settlement was at Jamestown, Virginia, also in 1607. Within the next two decades, several Dutch settlements, including New Amsterdam (the predecessor to New York City), were established in what are now the states of New York and New Jersey. In 1637, Sweden established a colony at Fort Christina (in what is now Delaware), but lost the settlement to the Dutch in 1655. This was followed by extensive British settlement of the east coast. The British colonists remained relatively undisturbed by their home country until after the French and Indian War, when France ceded Canada and the Great Lakes region to Britain. Britain then imposed taxes on the 13 colonies, widely regarded by the colonists as unfair because they were denied representation in the British Parliament. Tensions between Britain and the colonists increased, and the thirteen colonies eventually rebelled against British rule. British Parliament, George Washington (1789-1797).]] In 1776, the 13 colonies split from Great Britain and formed the United States, the world's first constitutional and democratic federal republic, after their Declaration of Independence of that year, and the Revolutionary War (1775 to 1783). The original political structure was a confederation in 1777, ratified in 1781 as the Articles of Confederation. After long debate, this was supplanted by the Constitution in 1789, forming a more centralized federal government. Prior to all these was the Albany Congress in 1754, in which a union was first seriously proposed. From early colonial times, there was a shortage of labor, which encouraged unfree labor, particularly indentured servitude and slavery. In the mid-19th century, a major division occurred in the United States over the issue of states' rights and the expansion of slavery. The northern states had become opposed to slavery, while the southern states saw it as necessary for the continued success of southern agriculture and wanted it expanded to the territories. Several federal laws were passed in an attempt to settle the dispute, including the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850. The dispute reached a crisis in 1861, when seven southern states seceded1 from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America, leading to the Civil War. Soon after the war began, four more southern states seceded. During the war, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, mandating the freedom of all slaves in states in rebellion, though full emancipation did not take place until after the end of the war in 1865, the dissolution of the Confederacy, and the Thirteenth Amendment took effect. The Civil War effectively ended the question of a state's right to secede, and is widely accepted as a major turning point after which the federal government became more powerful than state governments. Thirteenth Amendment). The title of the painting, from a 1726 poem by Bishop Berkeley, was a phrase often quoted in the era of Manifest Destiny, expressing a widely held belief that civilization had steadily moved westward throughout history. [http://americanart.si.edu/t2go/1lw/1931.6.1.html (more)] ]] During the 19th century, many new states were added to the original 13 as the nation expanded across the continent. Manifest Destiny was a philosophy that encouraged westward expansion in the United States. As the population of the Eastern states grew and as a steady increase of immigrants entered the country, settlers moved steadily westward across North America. In the process, the U.S. displaced most American Indian nations. This displacement of American Indians continues to be a matter of contention in the U.S. with many tribes attempting to assert their original claims to various lands. In some areas American Indian populations were reduced by foreign diseases contracted through contact with European settlers, and US settlers acquired those emptied lands. In other instances American Indians were removed from their traditional lands by force. Though some would say the U.S. was not a colonial power until the Spanish-American War when it acquired Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, the dominion exercised over land in North America the United States claimed is essentially colonial. The Philippines became independent in 1946. During this period, the nation also became an industrial power. This continued into the 20th century, which has been termed "the American Century" because of the nation's overriding influence on the world. The US became a center for innovation and technological development; major technologies that America either developed or was greatly involved in improving include the telephone, television, computer, the Internet, nuclear weapons, nuclear power, aviation, and aeronautics. In addition to the Civil War, another major traumatic experience for the nation was the Great Depression (1929 to 1939). The nation has also taken part in several major foreign wars, including World War I and World War II (in both of which the US later joined the Allies). During the Cold War, the US was a major player in the Korean War and Vietnam War, and, along with the Soviet Union, was considered one of the world's two "superpowers". With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US emerged as the world's leading economic and military power. Beginning in the 1990s, the United States became very involved in police actions and peacekeeping, including actions in Kosovo, Haiti, Somalia and Liberia, and the first Persian Gulf War driving Iraq out of Kuwait. After attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the United States and other allied nations found themselves involved in what has come to be called the "War on Terrorism," which has primarily encompassed military actions in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Government

Iraq of the United States.]]

Republic and suffrage

The United States is an example of a constitutional republic, with a government composed of and operating through a set of limited powers imposed by its design and enumerated in the United States Constitution. Specifically, the nation operates as a presidential democracy. There are three levels of government: federal, state, and local. Officials of each of these levels are either elected by eligible voters via secret ballot or appointed by other elected officials. Americans enjoy almost universal suffrage from the age of 18 regardless of race, sex, or wealth. There are some limits, however: felons are disenfranchised and in some states former felons are likewise. Furthermore, the national representation of territories and the federal district of Washington, DC in Congress is limited: residents of the District of Columbia are subject to federal laws and federal taxes but their only Congressional representative is a non-voting delegate.

Federal government

The federal government is the national government, comprising the Legislative Branch (led by Congress), the Executive Branch (led by the President), and the Judicial Branch (led by the Supreme Court). These three branches were designed to apply checks and balances on each other. The Constitution limits the powers of the federal government to defense, foreign affairs, the issuing and management of currency, the management of trade and relations between the states, and the protection of human rights. In addition to these explicitly stated powers, the federal government—with the assistance of the Supreme Court—has gradually extended these powers into such areas as welfare and education, on the basis of the "necessary and proper" clause of the Constitution.

The Congress

necessary and proper The Congress of the United States is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, comprising the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House of Representatives consists of 435 members, each of whom represents a congressional district and serves for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population; in contrast, each state has two Senators, regardless of population. There are a total of 100 senators, who serve six-year terms. The powers of Congress are limited to those enumerated in the Constitution; all other powers are reserved to the states and the people. The Constitution also includes the necessary-and-proper clause, which grants Congress the power to "make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers."

The President

necessary-and-proper clause At the top level of the executive branch is the President of the United States. The President and Vice-President are elected as 'running mates' for four-year terms by the Electoral College, for which each state, as well as the District of Columbia, is allocated a number of seats based on its representation (or ostensible representation, in the case of D. C.) in both houses of Congress (see U.S. Electoral College). The relationship between the President and the Congress reflects that between the English monarchy and parliament at the time of the framing of the United States Constitution. Congress can legislate to constrain the President's executive power, even with respect to his or her command of the armed forces; however, this power is used only very rarely—a notable example was the constraint placed on President Richard Nixon's strategy of bombing Cambodia during the Vietnam War. The President cannot directly propose legislation, and must rely on supporters in Congress to promote his or her legislative agenda. The President's signature is required to turn congressional bills into law; in this respect, the President has the power—only occasionally used—to veto congressional legislation. Congress can override a presidential veto with a two-thirds majority vote in both houses. The ultimate power of Congress over the President is that of impeachment or removal of the elected President through a House vote, a Senate trial, and a Senate vote. The threat of using this power has had major political ramifications in the cases of Presidents Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton. The President makes around 2,000 executive appointments, including members of the Cabinet and ambassadors, which must be approved by the Senate; the President can also issue executive orders and pardons, and has other Constitutional duties, among them the requirement to give a State of the Union address to Congress once a year. Although the President's constitutional role may appear to be constrained, in practice, the office carries enormous prestige that typically eclipses the power of Congress: the Presidency has justifiably been referred to as 'the most powerful office in the world'. The Vice President is first in the line of succession, and is the President of the Senate ex officio, with the ability to cast a tie-breaking vote. The members of the President's Cabinet are responsible for administering the various departments of state, including the Department of Defense, the Justice Department, and the State Department. These departments and department heads have considerable regulatory and political power, and it is they who are responsible for executing federal laws and regulations. George W. Bush is the 43rd President, currently serving his second term.

The Courts

George W. Bush The highest court is the Supreme Court, which consists of nine justices. The court deals with federal and constitutional matters, and can declare legislation made at any level of the government as unconstitutional, nullifying the law and creating precedent for future law and decisions. Below the Supreme Court are the courts of appeals, and below them in turn are the district courts, which are the general trial courts for federal law. Separate from, but not entirely independent of, this federal court system are the individual court systems of each state, each dealing with its own laws and having its own judicial rules and procedures. A case may be appealed from a state court to a federal court only if there is a federal question; the supreme court of each state is the final authority on the interpretation of that state's laws and constitution.

State and local governments

supreme court of each state. Note that Alaska and Hawaii are shown at different scales, and that the Aleutian Islands and the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are omitted from this map.]] The state governments have the greatest influence over people's daily lives. Each state has its own written constitution and has different laws. There are sometimes great differences in law and procedure between the different states, concerning issues such as property, crime, health, and education. The highest elected official of each state is the Governor. Each state also has an elected legislature (bicameral in every state except Nebraska), whose members represent the different parts of the state. Of note is the New Hampshire legislature, which is the third-largest legislative body in the English-speaking world, and has one representative for every 3,000 people. Each state maintains its own judiciary, with the lowest level typically being county courts, and culminating in each state supreme court, though sometimes named differently. In some states, supreme and lower court justices are elected by the people; in others, they are appointed, as they are in the federal system. The institutions that are responsible for local government are typically town, city, or county boards, making laws that affect their particular area. These laws concern issues such as traffic, the sale of alcohol, and keeping animals. The highest elected official of a town or city is usually the mayor. In New England, towns operate directly democratically, and in some states, such as Rhode Island and Connecticut, counties have little or no power, existing only as geographic distinctions. In other areas, county governments have more power, such as to collect taxes and maintain law enforcement agencies.

Political divisions

With the Declaration of Independence, the thirteen colonies proclaimed themselves to be nation states modeled after the European states of the time. Although considered as sovereigns initially, under the Articles of Confederation of 1781 they entered into a "Perpetual Union" and created a fully sovereign federal state, delegating certain powers to the national Congress, including the right to engage in diplomatic relations and to levy war, while each retaining their individual sovereignty, freedom and independence. But the national government proved too ineffective, so the administrative structure of the government was vastly reorganized with the United States Constitution of 1789. Under this new union, the continued status of the individual states as sovereign nation states fell into dispute in 1861, as several states attempted to secede from the union; in response, then-President Abraham Lincoln claimed that such secession was illegal, and the result was the American Civil War. Since the Union victory in 1865, the independent status of the individual states has not been broached again by any state, and the status of each state within the union has been deemed by mainstream officials and academics to be settled as being subordinate to the union as a whole. In subsequent years, the number of states grew steadily due to western expansion, the purchase of lands by the national government from other nation states, and the subdivision of existing states, resulting in the current total of 50. The states are generally divided into smaller administrative regions, including counties, cities and townships. The United States–Canadian border is the longest undefended political boundary in the world. The U.S. is divided into three distinct sections:
- the "continental United States," also known as "the Lower 48" and more accurately termed the conterminous, coterminous or contiguous United States
- Alaska, which is physically connected only to Canada
- the archipelago of Hawaii, in the central Pacific Ocean. The United States also holds several other territories, districts, and possessions, notably the federal district of the District of Columbia, which is the nation's capital, and several overseas insular areas, the most significant of which are American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. The Palmyra Atoll is the United States' only incorporated territory; it is unorganized and uninhabited. The United States Navy has held a base at a portion of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 1898. The United States government possesses a lease to this land, which only mutual agreement or United States abandonment of the area can terminate. The present Cuban government of Fidel Castro disputes this arrangement, claiming Cuba was not truly sovereign at the time of the signing. The United States argues this point moot because Cuba apparently ratified the lease post-revolution, and with full sovereignty, when it cashed one rent check in accordance with the disputed treaty.

Foreign relations and military

sovereign] The immense military and economic dominance of the United States has made foreign relations an especially important topic in its politics, with considerable concern about the image of the United States throughout the world. Reactions towards the United States by other nationalities are often strong, ranging from uninhibited admiration and mimicking of all things American to anti-Americanism. US foreign policy has swung about several times over the course of its history between the poles of strict isolationism and imperialism and everywhere in between. Three of the nation's four military branches are administered by the Department of Defense: the Army, the Navy (including the Marine Corps), and the Air Force. The Coast Guard falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime, but is placed under the Department of the Navy in time of war. The combined United States armed forces consist of 1.4 million active duty personnel, along with several hundred thousand each in the Reserves and the National Guard. Military conscription ended in 1973. The United States Armed forces are considered to be the most powerful military (of any sort) on Earth and their force projection capabilities are unrivaled by any other nation. The 2005 defense budget amounted to $401.7 billion, which is an increase of 4% over 2004 and of 35% since 2001. Over 50% of that number is spent in research & development. (For comparison, in 2004 the European Union (considered as the second-largest military force) had a combined total of 1.6 million troops, and a defense budget of €160 billion, with less than 10% of that being spent on R&D.)

Largest cities

The United States has dozens of major cities, including 11 of the 55 global cities of all types — with three "alpha" global cities: New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The figures expressed below are for populations within city limits. A different ranking is evident when considering U.S. metro area populations, although the top three would be unchanged. Note that some cities not listed (such as Atlanta, Boston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, New Orleans, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.) are still considered important on the basis of other factors and issues, including culture, economics, heritage, and politics. The twenty largest cities, based on the United States Census Bureau's 2004 estimates, are as follows:

Economy

The United States has the largest single-country economy in the world, with a per-capita gross domestic product of $40,100. In this market-oriented economy, private individuals and business firms make most of the decisions, and the federal and state governments buy needed goods and services predominantly in the private marketplace. gross domestic product The largest industry of the U.S. is now service, which employs roughly three quarters of the U.S. work force. The United States has many natural resources, including oil and gas, metals, and such minerals as gold, soda ash, and zinc. In agriculture, the U.S. is a top producer of, among other crops, corn, soy beans, and wheat; the United States is a net exporter of food. The U.S. manufacturing sector produces goods such as, cars, airplanes, steel, and electronics, among many others. Economic activity varies greatly from one part of the country to another, with many industries being largely dependent on a certain city or region; New York City is the center of the American financial, publishing, broadcasting, and advertising industries; Silicon Valley is the country’s primary location for high-technology companies, while Los Angeles is the most important center for film production. The Midwest is known for its reliance on manufacturing and heavy industry, with Detroit, Michigan, serving as the center of the American automotive industry; the Great Plains are known as the "breadbasket" of America for their tremendous agricultural output; the intermountain region serves as a mining hub and natural gas resource; the Pacific Northwest for fish and timber, while Texas is largely associated with the oil industry; the Southeast is a major hub for both medical research and the textiles industry. Several countries continue to link their currency to the dollar or even use it as a currency (such as Ecuador), although this practice has subsided since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system. Many markets are also quoted in dollars, such as those of oil and gold. The dollar is also the predominant reserve currency in the world, and more than half of global reserves are in dollars. The largest trading partner of the United States is Canada (19%), followed by China (12%), Mexico (11%), and Japan (8%). More than 50% of total trade is with these four countries. In 2003, the United States was ranked as the third most visited tourist destination in the world; its 40,400,000 visitors ranked behind France's 75,000,000 and Spain's 52,500,000. Labor unions have existed since the 19th century, and grew large and powerful from the 1930s to the 1950s. See Labor history of the United States. Since 1970 they have shrunk in the private sector and now cover fewer than 8% of the workers. However union membership has grown rapidly in the public sector, especially among teachers, nurses, police, postal workers, and municipal clerks. There have been few strikes in recent years. The United States' imports exceed exports by 80%, leading to an annual trade deficit of $700,000,000,000, or 6% of gross domestic product. It is the largest debtor nation in the world, with total gross foreign debt of over $13,000,000,000,000 (2005 estimate); and it absorbs more than 50% of global savings annually. Since the 1980s, the U.S. has increased the use of neoliberal economic policies that reduce government intervention and reduce the size of the welfare state, backing away from the more interventionist Keynsian economic policies that had been in favor since the Great Depression. As a result, the United States provides fewer government-delivered social welfare services than most industrialized nations, choosing instead to keep its tax burden lower and relying more heavily on the free market and private charities. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have minimum wages higher than the national level ($5.15 per-hour), including the highest, Washington State at $7.35. Twenty-six states are the same as the federal level; two--Ohio and Kansas--are below; and six do not have state laws. America's wealth is relatively highly concentrated. The average C.E.O. earns 500 times the typical amount a worker grosses, this is up from 25 times in the late 1970s. In terms of wealth the top 1% of Americans own 40% of all assets and 50.1% of the country's income goes to the top twenty percent of households. Average wages for the majority of employees have been largely stagnating since the 1970s. America's poverty line defined as a family of four earning less than $19,157 is at 12.7% of the general population. Approximately one out of every five children in the United States grows up below the official poverty line. Among racial groups; African Americans have the lowest median income while Asians had the highest. Regionally, the southern states had the lowest median incomes while the West Coast and New England had the highest. The current Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan remarked that the U.S.’s growing income inequality since the 1970s is, "not the type of thing which a democratic society - a capitalist democratic society - can really accept without addressing."[http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0614/p01s03-usec.html?s=itm] However, Greenspan also noted, "...you can look at the system and say it's got a lot of problems to it, and sure it does. It always has. But you can't get around the fact that this is the most extraordinarily successful economy in history."

Transportation

Alan Greenspan ]] Because the United States is a relatively young nation, most of the development of U.S. cities has taken place since the invention of the automobile. To link its vast territory, the United States built a network of high-capacity, high-speed highways, of which the most important element is the Interstate Highway system, commissioned in the 1950s by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and modeled after the German Autobahn. The United States also has a transcontinental rail system, which is used for moving freight across the lower forty-eight states. Passenger rail service is provided by Amtrak, which serves forty-six of the lower forty-eight states. Many cities in the United States have extensive mass-transit systems. New York City operates one of the world's largest and most heavily used subway systems. The regional rail and bus networks that extend into Long Island, New Jersey, Upstate New York, and Connecticut are among the most heavily used in the world. Air travel is often preferred for destinations over 300 miles (500 kilometers) away. In terms of passengers, seventeen of the world's thirty busiest airports in 2004 were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport; in terms of cargo, in the same year, twelve of the world's thirty busiest airports were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Memphis International Airport. There are several major seaports in the United States; the three busiest are the Port of Los Angeles, California; the Port of Long Beach, California; and the Port of New York and New Jersey. Others include Houston, Texas; Charleston, South Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Portland, Oregon; San Francisco, California; Boston, Massachusetts; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Seattle, Washington; plus, outside the contiguous forty-eight states, Anchorage, Alaska, and Honolulu, Hawaii.

Society

Demographics

Hawaii The mean center of the U.S. population continues to drift farther west and south. The fastest growing region is the western United States followed by the southern portion. According to Census 2000, the states that saw the greatest increases from 1990 were: Nevada (66.3%), Arizona (40%), Colorado (30.6%), Utah (29.6%), Idaho (28.5%), Georgia (26.4%), Florida (23.5%), Texas (22.8%), North Carolina (21.4%), and Washington (21.1%). [http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/phc-t2/tab03.pdf]

Ethnicity and race

:Main article: Racial demographics of the United States The United States is a very racially diverse country. According to the 2000 census, it has 31 ethnic groups with at least one million members each, and numerous others represented in smaller amounts. The majority of Americans descend from white European immigrants who arrived at the establishment of the first colonies (most after Reconstruction). This majority--69.1% in 2000--decreases each year, and is expected to become a plurality within a few decades. The most frequently stated European ancestries are German (15.2%), Irish (10.8%), English (8.7%), Italian (5.6%) and Scandinavian (3.7%). Many immigrants also hail from Slavic countries such as Poland and Russia. Other significant immigrant populations came from eastern and southern Europe and French Canada. Russia Hispanics from Mexico and South and Central America are the largest minority group in the country, comprising 12.5% of the population (2000 census). People of Mexican descent made up 7.3% of the population in the 2000 census, and this proportion is expected to increase significantly in the coming decades. About 12.3% (2000 census) of the American people are African Americans (Blacks). African Americans are spread throughout the country, but their presence is largest in the South. Asian Americans--including Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders--are a third significant minority (3.7% of the population in 2000). Most Asian Americans are concentrated on the West Coast and Hawaii. The largest groups are immigrants or descendants of emigrants from the Philippines, China, India, Vietnam, South Korea, and Japan. Indigenous peoples in the United States, such as American Indians and Inuit, make up 0.9% of the population (2000 census). About 35% live on Indian reservations.

Religion

Polls estimate that just under 80 percent of Americans are Christians of various denominations. The other 20 percent comprises other religions such as Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism, other various faiths, and those without a specific religion. The United States is noteworthy among developed nations for its relatively high level of religiosity. According to a 2004 Gallup poll, about 44% of Americans attend a religious service at least once a week. However, this rate is not uniform across the country; attendance is more common in the Bible Belt—composed largely of Southern and Midwestern states—than in the Northeast and West Coast. In the Southern states, Baptists are the largest group, followed by Methodists; Roman Catholics are dominant in the Northeast and in large parts of the Midwest due to their being settled by descendants of Catholic immigrants from Europe (such as Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Poland) or other parts of North America (mainly Quebec and Puerto Rico). The rest of the country for the most part has a complex mixture of various Christian groups.

Education

West Coast's home at Monticello and the University of Virginia (library building shown above, and designed by Jefferson), the only collegiate campus on the list. Both sites are located in Charlottesville, Virginia.]] In the United States, education is a state, not federal, responsibility, and the laws and standards vary considerably. However, the federal government, through the Department of Education, is involved with funding of some programs and exerts some influence through its ability to control funding. In most states, all students must attend mandatory schooling starting with kindergarten, which children normally enter at age 5, and following through 12th grade, which is normally completed at age 18

Project Apollo

:For other meanings, see Apollo (disambiguation). Apollo (disambiguation) Project Apollo was a series of human spaceflight missions undertaken by the United States of America using the Apollo spacecraft and Saturn launch vehicle, conducted during the years 1961–1972. It was devoted to the goal of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth within the decade of the 1960s. This goal was achieved with the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969. The program continued into the early 1970s to carry out the initial hands-on scientific exploration of the Moon, with a total of six successful landings. As of 2005, there has not been any further human spaceflight beyond low earth orbit. The later Skylab program and the joint American-Soviet Apollo-Soyuz Test Project used equipment originally produced for Apollo, and are often considered to be part of the overall program. The name Apollo, like earlier manned space-flight programs, was named after a god from classical civilizations, and comes from one of the Greek gods.

Background

The Apollo Program was originally conceived late in the Eisenhower administration as a follow-on to the Mercury program, doing advanced manned earth-orbital missions. In fact, it became the third program, following Gemini. The Apollo Program was dramatically reoriented to an aggressive lunar landing goal by President Kennedy with his announcement at a special joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961: :"...I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important in the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish..." (Excerpt from "Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs" [http://www.jfklibrary.org/j052561.htm])

Choosing a mission mode

Having settled upon the Moon as a target, the Apollo mission planners were faced with the challenge of designing a set of flights that would meet Kennedy's stated goal while minimizing risk to human life, cost and demands on technology and astronaut skill. Three possible plans were considered. 1961
- Direct ascent: This plan was to boost a spaceship directly to the moon. The entire spacecraft would land on and return from the moon. This would have required a Nova rocket far more powerful than any in existence at the time.
- Earth orbit rendezvous: This plan, known as Earth orbit rendezvous (EOR), would have required the launch of two Saturn V rockets, one containing the space ship and one containing fuel. The spaceship would have docked in earth orbit and be fueled with enough fuel to make it to the moon and back. Again, the entire spacecraft would have landed on the moon.
- Lunar orbit rendezvous: This plan, which was adopted, is credited to John Houbolt and used the technique of 'Lunar Orbit Rendezvous' (LOR). The spacecraft was modular, composed of a 'Command/Service Module' (CSM) and a 'Lunar Module' (LM; originally Lunar Excursion Module ). The CSM contained the life support systems for the three man crew's five day round trip to the moon and the heat shield for their reentry to Earth's atmosphere. The LM would separate from the CSM in lunar orbit and carry two astronauts for the descent to the lunar surface, then back up to the CSM. In contrast with the other plans, the LOR plan required only a small part of the spacecraft to land on the moon, thereby minimizing the mass to be launched from the moon's surface for the return trip. The mass to be launched was further minimized by leaving part of the LM (that with the descent engine) behind, on the moon. The Lunar Module itself was composed of a descent stage and an ascent stage, the former serving as a launch platform for the latter when the lunar exploration party blasted off for lunar orbit where they would dock with the CSM prior to returning to Earth. The plan had the advantage that since the LM was to be eventually discarded, it could be made very light, so the moon mission could be launched with a single Saturn V rocket. However, at the time that LOR was decided, some mission planners were uneasy at the large numbers of dockings and undockings called for by the plan. To learn lunar landing techniques, astronauts practiced in the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV), a flying vehicle that simulated (by means of a special, additional jet engine) the reduced gravity that the Lunar Module would actually fly in.

Flights

The Apollo program included eleven manned flights, designated Apollo 7 through Apollo 17, all launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Apollo 4 through Apollo 6 were unmanned test flights (officially there was no Apollo 2 or Apollo 3). The Apollo 1 designation was retroactively applied to the originally planned first manned flight which ended in a disastrous fire during a launch pad test that killed three astronauts, Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Edward White, and Roger B. Chaffee, in January 1967. The first of the manned flights employed the Saturn IB launch vehicle; the remaining flights all used the more powerful Saturn V. Two of the flights (Apollo 7 and Apollo 9) were Earth orbital missions, two of the flights (Apollo 8 and Apollo 10) were lunar orbital missions, and the remaining 7 flights were lunar landing missions (although one, Apollo 13, failed to land). Apollo 7 tested the Apollo command and service modules (CSM) in Earth orbit. Apollo 8 tested the CSM in lunar orbit. Apollo 9 tested the lunar module (LM) in earth orbit. Apollo 10 tested the LM in lunar orbit. Apollo 11 achieved the first human lunar landing. Apollo 12 achieved the first lunar landing at a precise location. Apollo 13 failed to achieve a lunar landing, but succeeded in returning the crew safely to earth following a potentially disastrous in-flight explosion. Apollo 14 resumed the lunar exploration program. Apollo 15 introduced a new level of lunar exploration capability, with a long-stay-time LM and a lunar roving vehicle. Apollo 16 was the first manned landing in the lunar highlands. Apollo 17, the final mission, was the first to include a scientist-astronaut, and the program's first manned night launch.

Apollo Applications Program

In the speech which initiated Apollo, Kennedy declared that no other program would have as great a long-range effect on America's ambitions in outer space. Following the success of Project Apollo, both NASA and its major contractors investigated several post-lunar applications for the Apollo hardware. The "Apollo Extension Series", later called the "Apollo Applications Program", proposed at least ten flights. Many of these would use the space that the lunar module took up in the Saturn rocket to carry scientific equipment. One plan involved using the Saturn IB to take the Command/Service Module (CSM) to a variety of low-earth orbits for missions lasting up to 45 days. Some missions would involve the docking of two CSMs, and transfer of supplies. The Saturn V would be necessary to take it to polar orbit, or sun-synchronous orbit (neither of which has yet been achieved by any manned spacecraft), and even to the geosynchronous orbit of Syncom 3, a communications satellite not quite in geostationary orbit. This was the first functioning communications satellite at that now-common great distance from the Earth, and it was small enough to be carried through the hatch and taken back to Earth for study as to the effects of radiation on its electronic components in that environment over a period of years. A return to the moon was also planned, this time to orbit for a longer time to map the surface with high-precision equipment. This mission would not include a landing. Of all the plans only two were implemented; the Skylab space station (May 1973 – February 1974), and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (July 1975). Skylab's fuselage was constructed from the second stage of a Saturn IB, and the station was equipped with the Apollo Telescope Mount, itself based on a lunar module. The station's three crews were ferried into orbit atop Saturn IBs, riding in CSMs; the station itself had been launched with a modified Saturn V. Skylab's last crew departed the station on February 8, 1974, whilst the station itself returned prematurely to Earth in 1979, by which time it had become the oldest operational Apollo component. The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project involved a docking in Earth orbit between an un-named CSM and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft. The mission lasted from July 15 to July 24, 1975. Although the Soviet Union continued to operate the Soyuz and Salyut space vehicles, NASA's next manned mission would not be until STS-1 on April 12, 1981.

End of the program

1981 Originally three additional lunar landing missions had been planned, as Apollo 18 through Apollo 20. In light of the drastically shrinking NASA budget and the decision not to produce a second batch of Saturn Vs, these missions were cancelled to make funds available for the development of the Space Shuttle, and to make their Apollo spacecraft and Saturn V launch vehicles available to the Skylab program. Only one of the Saturn Vs was actually used; the others became museum exhibits. Another excerpt from Kennedy's Special Message to Congress: :"I believe we should go to the moon. But I think every citizen of this country as well as the Members of the Congress should consider the matter carefully in making their judgment, to which we have given attention over many weeks and months, because it is a heavy burden, and there is no sense in agreeing or desiring that the United States take an affirmative position in outer space, unless we are prepared to do the work and bear the burdens to make it successful. If we are not, we should decide today and this year. Skylab :"This decision demands a major national commitment of scientific and technical manpower, material and facilities, and the possibility of their diversion from other important activities where they are already thinly spread. It means a degree of dedication, organization and discipline which have not always characterized our research and development efforts. It means we cannot afford undue work stoppages, inflated costs of material or talent, wasteful interagency rivalries, or a high turnover of key personnel. :"New objectives and new money cannot solve these problems. They could in fact, aggravate them further--unless every scientist, every engineer, every serviceman, every technician, contractor, and civil servant gives his personal pledge that this nation will move forward, with the full speed of freedom, in the exciting adventure of space." (Excerpt from "Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs")

Reasons for Apollo

The Apollo program was at least partly motivated by psycho-political considerations, in response to persistent perceptions of American inferiority in space technology vis-a-vis the Soviets, in the context of the Cold War and the Space Race. In this respect it succeeded brilliantly. In fact, American superiority in manned spaceflight was achieved in the precursory Gemini program, even before the first Apollo flight. The Apollo program stimulated many areas of technology. The flight computer design used in both the lunar and command modules was, along with the Minuteman Missile System, the driving force behind early research into integrated circuits. The fuel cell developed for this program was the first practical fuel cell. Computer controlled machining (CNC) was pioneered in fabricating Apollo structural components. Many astronauts and cosmonauts have commented on the profound effects that seeing earth from space has had on them. One of the most important legacies of the Apollo program was the now-common, but not universal view of Earth as a fragile, small planet, captured in the photographs taken by the astronauts during the lunar missions. The most famous of these photographs, taken by the Apollo 17 astronauts, is "The Blue Marble." These photographs have also motivated many people toward environmentalism and space colonization.

Miscellaneous information


- The cost of the entire Apollo program: USD $25.4 billion -1969 Dollars ($135-billion in 2005 Dollars). See NASA Budget. (Includes Mercury, Gemini, Ranger, Surveyor, Lunar Orbitar, Apollo programs.) Apollo spacecraft and Saturn rocket cost alone, was about $ 83-billion 2005 Dollars (Apollo spacecraft cost $ 28-billion (CS/M $ 17-billion; LM $ 11-billion), Saturn I, IB, V costs about $ 46-billion 2005 dollars).
- Amount of moon material brought back by the Apollo program: 381.7 kg (841.5 lb). Most of the material is stored at the Lunar Receiving Laboratory in Houston.

Missions

Lunar Receiving Laboratory The Apollo program used four types of launch vehicles:
- Little Joe II - unmanned suborbital launch escape system development.
- Saturn I - unmanned suborbital and orbital hardware development.
- Saturn IB - unmanned and manned earth orbit development and operational missions.
- Saturn V - unmanned and manned earth orbit and lunar missions. Something to note with Apollo flights is that Marshall Space Flight Center, which designed the Saturn rockets, referred to the flights as Saturn-Apollo (SA), while Kennedy Space Center referred to the flights as Apollo-Saturn (AS). This is why the unmanned Saturn 1 flights are referred to as SA and the unmanned Saturn 1B are referred to as AS. Dates given below are dates of launch.

Unmanned Saturn I


- SA-1 - October 27, 1961. Test of the S-1 Rocket
- SA-2 - April 25, 1962. Test of the S-1 Rocket and carried 109 m³ of water into the upper atmosphere to investigate effects on radio transmission and changes in local weather conditions.
- SA-3 - November 16, 1962. Same as SA-2
- SA-4 - March 28, 1963. Test effects of premature engine shutdown
- SA-5 - January 29, 1964. First flight of live second stage
- A-101 - May 28, 1964. Tested the structural integrity of a boilerplate Apollo Command and Service Module
- A-102 - September 18, 1964. Carried the first programmable computer on the Saturn I vehicle; last test flight
- A-103 - February 16, 1965. Carried Pegasus A micrometeorite satellite
- A-104 - May 25, 1965. Carried Pegasus B micrometeorite satellite
- A-105 - July 30, 1965. Carried Pegasus C micrometeorite satellite

Unmanned pad abort tests

1965
- Pad Abort Test-1 - November 7, 1963. Launch Escape System (LES) abort test from launch pad.
- Pad Abort Test-2 - June 29, 1965. LES pad abort test of near Block-I CM.

Unmanned Little Joe II


- QTV - August 28, 1963. Little Joe II qualification test.
- A-001 - May 13, 1964. LES transonic abort test.
- A-002 - December 8, 1964. LES maximum altitude, Max-Q abort test.
- A-003 - May 19, 1965. LES canard maximum altitude abort test.
- A-004 - January 20, 1966. LES test of maximum weight, tumbling Block-I CM.

Unmanned Apollo-Saturn IB and Saturn V


- AS-201 - February 26, 1966. First test flight of Saturn IB rocket
- AS-203 - July 5, 1966. Investigated effects of weightlessness on fuel tanks of S-IVB
- AS-202 - August 25, 1966. Sub-orbital test flight of Command and Service Module
- Apollo 4 - November 9, 1967. First test of the Saturn V booster
- Apollo 5 - January 22, 1968. Test of the Saturn IB booster and Lunar Module
- Apollo 6 - April 4, 1968. Test of the Saturn V booster

Manned


- Apollo 1 - Crew died in spacecraft fire atop launch vehicle during pre-launch tests on January 27, 1967.
- Apollo 7 - October 11, 1968. First manned Apollo flight, first manned flight of the Saturn IB.
- Apollo 8 - December 21, 1968. First manned flight around the Moon, first manned flight of the Saturn V.
- Apollo 9 - March 3, 1969. First manned flight of the Lunar Module.
- Apollo 10 - May 18, 1969. First manned flight of the Lunar Module around the Moon.
- Apollo 11 - July 16, 1969. First manned landing on the Moon, July 20.
- Apollo 12 - November 14, 1969. First precise manned landing on the Moon.
- Apollo 13 - April 11, 1970. Oxygen tank explodes en route, landing is cancelled, first (and, as of 2005, only) manned non-orbital lunar flight.
- Apollo 14 - January 31, 1971. Alan Shepard, the sole astronaut of the Mercury MR-3 mission, walks on the Moon.
- Apollo 15 - July 26, 1971. First mission with the Lunar Rover vehicle.
- Apollo 16 - April 16, 1972. First landing in the lunar highlands.
- Apollo 17 - December 7, 1972. Final Apollo lunar mission, first night launch, only mission with a professional geologist. The original pre-lunar landing program was more conservative but as the 'all-up' test flights for the Saturn V proved successful missions were deleted. The revised schedule published in October 1967 had the first manned Apollo CSM earth orbit mission (Apollo 7) followed by an Earth Orbit Rendezvous of the CSM and LM launched on two Saturn 1Bs (Apollo 8) followed by a Saturn V launched CSM on a Large Earth Orbit Mission (Apollo 9) followed by the Saturn V launched dress rehearsal in Lunar Orbit with Apollo 10. By the summer of 1968 it became clear to program managers that a fully functional LM would not be available for the Apollo 8 mission. Rather than perform a simple earth orbiting mission, they chose to send Apollo 8 around the moon during Christmas. The original idea for this switch was the brainchild of George Low. Although it has often been claimed that this change was made as a direct response to Soviet attempts to fly a piloted Zond spacecraft around the moon, there is no evidence that this was actually the case. NASA officials were aware of the Soviet Zond flights, but the timing of the Zond missions does not correspond well with the extensive written record from NASA about the Apollo 8 decision. It is relatively certain that the Apollo 8 decision was primarily based upon the LM schedule, rather than fear of the Soviets beating the Americans to the moon.

Cancelled missions


- Apollo 18
- Apollo 19
- Apollo 20

Later missions using left over Apollo hardware


- Skylab - May 14, 1973.
  - Skylab 2 - May 25, 1973.
  - Skylab 3 - July 28, 1973.
  - Skylab 4 - November 16, 1973.
- Apollo-Soyuz - July 15, 1975.

Apollo Launch Complex utilization


- Launch Complex 34 - SA-1, SA-2, SA-3, SA-4, AS-201, AS-202, AS-204 (Apollo 1), AS-205 (Apollo 7)
- Launch Complex 37A - no launches
- Launch Complex 37B - SA-5, A-101, A-102, A-103, A-104, A-105, AS-203, AS-204 (Apollo 5)
- Launch Complex 39A - AS-501 (Apollo 4), AS-502 (Apollo 6), AS-503 (Apollo 8), AS-504 (Apollo 9), AS-506 (Apollo 11), AS-507 (Apollo 12), AS-508 (Apollo 13), AS-509 (Apollo 14), AS-510 (Apollo 15), AS-511 (Apollo 16), AS-512 (Apollo 17), AS-513 (Skylab 1)
- Launch Complex 39B - AS-505 (Apollo 10), AS-206 (Skylab 2), AS-207 (Skylab 3), AS-208 (Skylab 4), AS-210 (ASTP).

See also


- List of lunar astronauts
- List of artificial objects on the Moon
- Extra-vehicular activity - List and duration of moonwalks
- Apollo moon landing hoax accusations
- Splashdown
- Ranger program
- Soviet moonshot
- Surveyor program
- Lunar Orbiter program
- Crew Exploration Vehicle
- Space race
- Launch complex 39

References


- Kranz, Gene, Failure is Not an Option. Factual, from the standpoint of a chief flight controller during the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space programs. ISBN 0743200799
- Chaikin, Andrew. A Man on the Moon. ISBN 0140272011. Chaikin has interviewed all the surviving astronauts, plus many others who worked with the program.
- Murray, Charles; Cox, Catherine B. Apollo: The Race to the Moon. ISBN 0671611011. This is an excellent account of what it took to build and fly Apollo.
- Cooper, Henry S. F. Jr. Thirteen: The Flight That Failed. ISBN 0801850975. Although this book focuses on Apollo 13, it is extremely well-researched and provides a wealth of background information on Apollo technology and procedures.
- Wilhelms, Don E. To a Rocky Moon. ISBN 0816510652. Tells the history of Lunar exploration from a geologist's point of view.
- Pellegrino, Charles R.; Stoff, Joshua. Chariots for Apollo: The Untold Story Behind the Race to the Moon. ISBN 0380802619. Tells Grumman's story of building the Lunar Modules.
- Lovell, Jim; Kluger, Jeffrey. Lost Moon: The perilous voyage of Apollo 13 aka Apollo 13: Lost Moon. ISBN 0618056653. Details the flight of Apollo 13.
- Collins, Michael . Carrying the Fire; an Astronaut's journeys. Astronaut Mike Collins autobiography of his experiences as an astronaut, including his flight aboard Apollo 11, the first landing on the Moon
- Slayton, Donald K.; Cassutt, Michael. Deke! An Autobiograpy. ISBN 031285918X. This is an excellent account of Deke Slayton's life as an astronaut and of his work as chief of the astronaut office, including selection of the crews which flew Apollo to the Moon.
- [http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19790020032_1979020032.pdf Chariots for Apollo: A history of Manned Lunar Spacecraft - NASA report (PDF format)]
- [http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19690022643_1969022643.pdf The Apollo spacecraft. Volume 1 - A chronology: From origin to 7 Nov. 1962 - (PDF format)]
- [http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19740004394_1974004394.pdf The Apollo spacecraft: Volume 2 - A chronology: 8 November 1962 - 30 September 1964 - (PDF format)]
- [http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19760014180_1976014180.pdf The Apollo spacecraft: Volume 3 - A chronology: 1 October 1964 - 20 January 1966 - (PDF format)]
- [http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19800011953_1980011953.pdf The Apollo spacecraft: Volume 4 - A chronology: 21 January 1966 - 13 July 1974 - (PDF format)]
- [http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19750013242_1975013242.pdf Apollo program summary report: Synopsis of the Apollo program - NASA report (PDF format)]

External links


- [http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/history/apollo/index.html Official Apollo program website]
- [http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4205/contents.html Chariots for Apollo: A History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft By Courtney G Brooks, James M. Grimwood, Loyd S. Swenson]
- [http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4009/cover.htm NASA SP-4009 The Apollo Spacecraft: A Chronology]
- [http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4029/SP-4029.htm SP-4029 Apollo by the Numbers: A Statistic