On June 3, 1965, 120 miles above the Earth, Major Edward H. White II opens
the hatch of the Gemini 4 and steps out of the capsule, becoming the first
American astronaut to walk in space.
Edward Higgins "Ed" White II
(November 14, 1930 – January 27, 1967)
Launching of the Mercury-Redstone 3 (MR-3) rocket from Cape
Canaveral on astronaut Alan B. Shepard’s Freedom 7 suborbital
mission.
From Cape Canaveral, Florida, Navy Commander Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr.
is launched into space aboard the Freedom 7 space capsule, becoming the
first American astronaut to travel into space. The suborbital flight, which
lasted 15 minutes and reached a height of 116 miles into the atmosphere,
was a major triumph for NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration.
Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. (November 18, 1923 – July 21, 1998)
SANDY KOZEL
On this day in 1970, an oxygen tank exploded on Apollo 13,
preventing a planned moon landing.
SANDY KOZEL
On January 28, 1986, the NASA Space Shuttle orbiter undertaking mission
STS-51-L and the tenth flight of Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73
seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members aboard: five NASA
astronauts, one payload specialist, and a civilian school teacher.
The spacecraft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of
Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11:39 a.m. EST.
Space Shuttle Challanger crew: Back row from left to right…Ellison
S. Onizuka, Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Greg Jarvis, and Judy Resnik.
In the front row from left to right: Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee,
and Ron McNair.
President Reagan delivers a nationwide speech following the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.
Challenger shuttle memorial in Arlington cemetery, Washington DC.
ED DONAHUE
Space Shuttle Columbia’s last Launch.
The Columbia’s 28th space mission, designated STS-107, was originally
scheduled to launch on January 11, 2001, but was delayed numerous
times for a variety of reasons over nearly two years. Columbia finally
launched on January 16, 2003, with a crew of seven.
Eighty seconds into the launch, a piece of foam insulation broke off
from the shuttle’s propellant tank and hit the edge of the shuttle’s
left wing.
When Columbia re-entered the earth’s atmosphere on the morning of
February 1, 2003, the damage allowed hot atmospheric gases to
penetrate the heat shield and destroy the internal wing structure,
which caused the spacecraft to become unstable and break apart.
The first debris began falling to the ground in West Texas near Lubbock
at 8:58 a.m. One minute later, the last communication from the crew of
five men and two women was heard, and at 9 a.m. the space shuttle
disintegrated over northeast Texas, near Dallas.
Crewmember helmet found in a field after the space shuttle Columbia
disaster.
