During the 30-year history of the Space Shuttle Program, many important payloads were launched. From the Hubble Space Telescope to the International Space Station, history was made. However, the most crucial cargo was human. The team assigned to ensure crews were safely sealed into their spacecraft before they rocketed into orbit was the Closeout Crew led by Travis Tod Thompson.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 3:52 a.m. EDT on the morning of April 27, 2022, boosting the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station. NASA’s Crew-4 astronauts plan to spend six months conducting research to improve life on Earth. Their work also will aid agency preparations for exploration beyond Earth.
“That’s the most gorgeous sight I believe I have ever seen,” said Apollo 16 lunar module pilot Charlie Duke. He was looking at a 363-foot-tall Saturn V rocket on the launch pad the day before it rocketed him the Moon. Duke, along with veteran astronaut John Young and fellow rookie Ken Mattingly, piloted NASA’s fifth lunar landing mission in April 1972 – 50 years ago.
Throughout history, humankind has shared an innate trait – the desire to explore. Prehistoric men and women may have stood curiously at the opening of caves and wondered what was over the next hill. Centuries later, a teenager in New England envisioned a trip to a distant planet. With the rollout of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) mega-rocket and Orion spacecraft, the agency now is preparing a return to the Moon as a steppingstone to an eventual expedition to Mars.
“Liftoff of six astronaut heroes and one American legend,” said NASA Public Affairs commentator, Lisa Malone, as the Space Shuttle Discovery launched off in late 1998. America’s quintessential hero, John Glenn, was returning to space 36 years after he made history as the first of his compatriots to reach Earth orbit.
“Liftoff, the clock is operating. We’re underway,” NASA astronaut John Glenn announced as he launched to as the first American to orbit the Earth. His spacecraft’s onboard mission elapsed time clock began counting his minutes in flight as he was boosted from Florida’s East Coast on Feb. 20, 1962 – 60 years ago. After his three-orbit mission, the U.S. Marine Corps colonel returned to Earth as the quintessential American hero.
In the ten months since the arrival of the Space Shuttle Discovery at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, the processing team was able to overcome numerous hurdles. The late August day dawned with clear skies on a hot summer day. The launch team and the astronaut crew were ready.
From the time the Space Shuttle Discovery first arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, preparations for the spacecraft’s maiden voyage poised many challenges for the team at the Florida spaceport. In spite of these issues, the new orbiter went on to fly a highly successful initial mission. Altogether, Discovery flew 39 times becoming the workhorse of the five-orbiter fleet.
The most powerful rocket ever built now is fully assembled at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and final preparations are underway to begin the agency’s most ambitious program of exploration. A series of integrated tests are planned prior to the targeted liftoff in March 2022. The Space Launch System (SLS) will send an Orion spacecraft on a mission well beyond the Moon paving the way for landing the first woman and the first person of color on the lunar surface.
SpaceAgeChronice.com welcomes Jeff Carr writing about his father, Jerry Carr, a U.S. Marine Corps aviator, NASA astronaut and commander of the record-shattering Skylab 4 mission in 1973 and 1974. On Christmas 1973, “Dad would have an experience that day that only a very small number of humans have ever had . . . the Earth, to himself, in a moment of reckoning, wonder and profound realization,” Jeff Carr said.