Ashley
Space History

Today, May 23, 2001 we went to the Kennedy Space Center. This is my second time to go on this trip. We learned loads of information. Some of the simple facts we learned are that there are still three Saturn V rockets still on earth that have never been sent into space. One is in Huntsville Alabama at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center. The second is in Houston, Texas at NASAs Johnson Space Center. The third one (the one we got to see) is in the Saturn V complex at the Kennedy Space Center near Cocoa Beach, Florida. When the Russians first sent the first satellite "Sputnik" into orbit the people in the United States became scared. They were scared that Sputnik either had spy cameras aboard or some kind of weapons to be used against us. All this was never true. But because of Sputnik the people of the United States decided that they needed to catch up with the Russian technology. Then the Russians sent the first person (Yuri Gargarian) into orbit around the earth. Then we decided that our only hope for success in space was to beat the Russians in getting a man on the moon. At a very famous speech made at Rice University in Texas, John F. Kennedy (our president at the time) promised that we would in the next ten years land a man on the moon and return him safely to earth. He said we would do it not because it was easy but because it was difficult. The program that would land a man to the moon was called the Apollo program. Later three astronauts were in a full dress rehearsal to make this lunar flight and a spark lit a fire in the Apollo capsule and the fire killed Gus Grissom, Roger Chaffee and Ed White. There were some flaws in the capsule design that was corrected after the fire. Finally by Apollo 11 July 20, 1969 in less than ten years President KennedyÕs promise was kept.

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrain walked on the moon while Michael Collins circled above in the command module. During Apollo 8 we did circle the moon. During Apollo 13 we planned to land on the moon but when stirring the oxygen tanks and accident occurred so all we could do was get the three astronauts back home safely. Later we did land 5 more times on the moon. The final three flights of the Apollo program were never made because the American people lost interest in going to the moon. I think that is sad and stupid.

Then in 1980 the shuttle program began with the first of five orbiters called Columbia. We also built Challenger, Discovery and Atlantis. In 1986 the Challenger accident occurred and again we learned how to correct defects in our systems. The orbiter Endeavor was built to replace Challenger. Later Sally Ride became the first United States female astronaut.

Currently we are building the most awesome International Space Station.

The shuttle has flown over 100 missions and we continue to go to space because it is challenging. This is the age of true space exploration not only its dream but also its reality.