11/27/2023 0 Comments Atlas agena rangerOriginally intended as a weapon, the Titan II rocket was technically an intercontinental ballistic missile, designed to deliver nuclear warheads into enemy territory from across oceans. He proved humans could work in a weightless environment, piloting the Friendship 7 for most of the flight after automatic altitude systems failed. The Mercury-Atlas was chosen for the job, launching John Glenn on an historic three-orbit flight on February 20, 1962. NASA and the nation breathed a sigh of relief.Īfter two suborbital flights, the time had come for an American to orbit Earth. ![]() Fifteen minutes later, the Commander splashed down safely in his tiny capsule, Freedom 7. As America held its breath, the Redstone ascended 116 miles into the air. But nothing could guarantee with absolute certainty that Shepard would make it back alive. Originally a surface-to-surface missile, the Mercury Redstone stretched the technology of its day to unimagined limits. “C’mon…let’s light this candle.” Those were the words of Commander Alan Shepard as he climbed into the Mercury Redstone rocket which would soon make him the first American in outer space. This information relay marked the birth of the Deep Space Network – a global network that even today supports satellite communication from the furthest reaches of space. It finally settled into orbit around the sun, sending home a huge cache of valuable information along the way. Launched in 1959, Pioneer 4 flew past the moon, achieving its primary objective of following an Earth-to-moon trajectory. The Juno II rocket launched Pioneer 4, the first U.S. Launched in 1958, Juno I made history, carrying Explorer 1, America’ first satellite, into orbit. Their answer was Juno I, a two-stage Jupiter atop a Redstone rocket with an added fourth stage. The rocket launched many significant missions including NASA’s rovers Spirit and Opportunity, the Phoenix Mars Lander, ICESat-2, all operational GPS missions through the constellation of 21 GPS II-R missions for the Air Force and commercial missions for Iridium, Globalstar and three DigitalGlobe satellites.Īfter the USSR’s successful launch of Sputnik, the world’s first man-made satellite, America knew it had to get something into orbit fast if it was to be a major player in the emerging space race. The Delta II served as a venerable industry workhorse, launching 155 times. ![]() It could literally change the world and life in it for people all across the globe. For the first time, knowledge we gained in space could be applied beyond scientific advancement. Suddenly, space was a resource, a place where money could be made, not just spent, paving the way for advancements like GPS, satellite TV, cell phones and smartphones. Just two years later, another Delta rocket upped the ante, launching Telstar, the world’s first telecommunications satellite. That balloon allowed for the first live television signal to cross the ocean, beginning a global revolution in communication. Five months after that, it launched a Mylar balloon called Echo into orbit. ![]() In March of 1960, it launched the deep space probe Pioneer 5, with the world’s first solar power cell onboard to create electricity for the long mission. With eight total missions, the program sent back more than 11,000 detailed pictures of the lunar surface, including close-ups of the Sea of Tranquility, where Apollo 11 would touch down in 1969.Īn unassuming rocket with a funny-shaped nose, the Delta helped change the world in very big ways. It would take four more missions before the Ranger program met with success. ![]() But Ranger 3 missed the target and headed for the sun. The plan was to capture and send home pictures of the moon until impact with the lunar surface. In January 1962, the Atlas-Agena launched Ranger 3 – a robotic spacecraft – and sent it racing toward the moon. The Atlas rocket gave us the power to reach orbit, but with the second stage Agena perched on top, we now had the ability to explore. Even today, people from around the world are building, designing and thinking, continuing the work that will one day find its way to this garden to inspire generations to come.įree, guided tours of the Rocket Garden are given several times a day. And just like a real garden, the one you see here is always growing. It is here you find the first rocket to break free from gravity, see the Mercury-Redstone, which shot to space with a lone man perched atop its nose and see the vehicles that launched satellites into orbit and man into space. Behind every rocket you see are great men and women – engineers and astronauts, designers and thinkers – who turned dreams into history. Nowhere is that more apparent than in The Rocket Garden. At NASA, it’s often said that we stand on the shoulders of giants.
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