4 16 NASA and the space program

cape satellite space race space shuttle space station technology Write to It!. 15 Corbis Since 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA has run the United States spac

Trang 1

Scott Foresman Social Studies

Nonfi ction Summarize • Maps

• Time Line

• Captions

• Sidebar

ISBN 0-328-14881-4

ì<(sk$m)=beiibd< +^-Ä-U-Ä-U

Fascinating Facts

• On the Apollo 11 mission, astronauts had only

two different meals to choose from

• More than six billion people live on Earth Fewer

than five hundred have flown into space

• The pump on the main engine of the space shuttle

is so powerful that it can drain a swimming pool

in twenty-five seconds

Scott Foresman Social Studies

Nonfi ction Summarize • Maps

• Time Line

• Captions

• Sidebar

ISBN 0-328-14881-4

ì<(sk$m)=beiibd< +^-Ä-U-Ä-U

Fascinating Facts

• On the Apollo 11 mission, astronauts had only

two different meals to choose from

• More than six billion people live on Earth Fewer

than five hundred have flown into space

• The pump on the main engine of the space shuttle

is so powerful that it can drain a swimming pool

in twenty-five seconds

Trang 2

cape satellite space race space shuttle space station technology

Write to It!

The exploration of space has changed the world in countless ways How have NASA and the space program affected people’s views of the world and galaxy in which we live? How has space exploration affected you? Write

a letter to a newspaper editor that tells how you feel about NASA and space exploration Provide details about what effects they have on you

ISBN: 0-328-14881-4

United States of America This publication or parts thereof, may be used with appropriate

equipment to reproduce copies for classroom use only

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 V0G1 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05

Maps

MapQuest, Inc.

Photographs

Every effort has been made to secure permission and provide appropriate credit for photographic material

The publishe ny omission and pledges to correct errors called to its attention in subsequent editions

Unless otherwise acknowledged, all photographs are the property of Scott Foresman, a division of Pearson Education

Photo locators denoted as follows: Top (T), Center (C), Bottom (B), Left (L), Right (R), Background (Bkgd).

Opener: (C) NASA, (Inset) Getty Images

4 ©NASA

6 ©NASA

10 ©NASA

12 (CR)AP/Wide World Photos, (CL) ©David E Myers/Getty Images

13 (T) Kennedy Space Center, (B) ©Tony Freeman/PhotoEdit

14 ©Comstock Inc.

15 Corbis

Since 1958, the National Aeronautics and

Space Administration (NASA) has run the

United States space program Over the years,

NASA has seen many triumphs: launching

hundreds of spacecraft to learn about other

planets, building orbiting stations where

humans can temporarily live in space, and

even putting astronauts on the moon You will

read about the United States space program,

from its beginnings to its hopes for the future

Write your letter on a separate sheet of paper.

Editorial Offices: Glenview, Illinois • Parsippany, New Jersey • New York, New York Sales Offices: Needham, Massachusetts • Duluth, Georgia • Glenview, Illinois Coppell, Texas • Ontario, California • Mesa, Arizona

Trang 3

What Is the Space Coast?

Florida has about twelve hundred miles of coastline

Of these, most have special names given to them by

the different people who have lived in Florida over the

years There’s the Treasure Coast, the Gold Coast, and

the Nature Coast, just to name a few Have you ever

heard of the Space Coast? It stretches along the Atlantic

from Palm Bay to Titusville Here you will find one of the

headquarters of the National Aeronautics and Space

Administration (NASA) at the Kennedy Space Center

(KSC) You will also find Cape Canaveral, the starting

point of America’s first voyages into space

Welcome to Florida’s Space Coast! Fasten your seatbelts!

You are about to take a wild ride into the space age

3

The Military Comes to Cape Canaveral

Cape Canaveral’s story as a launch site where spacecraft takes off begins in the 1940s The United States military was testing rockets at a base in New Mexico But then a rocket went off course and crashed in Mexico While no one was hurt, the military decided it needed a rocket range far from where people lived

The military turned to Cape Canaveral A cape is a point

of land extending out into the ocean Cape Canaveral offered many advantages Few people lived in the region and rockets could be launched over open water The Indian River separates Cape Canaveral from mainland Florida, which increases privacy The warm climate would allow the military to launch rockets year-round

The military took over the cape They transformed abandoned homes and businesses into military buildings They began constructing roads, runways, and launch pads In 1950 the United States military launched its first rocket from Cape Canaveral

Trang 4

Then, in 1957, all eyes turned to space The Soviet

Union, a country that was made up of Russia and other

countries, launched a satellite to orbit Earth Americans

were shocked that they had not produced one first The

Soviet accomplishment spurred the Americans to build

their own satellite Only a few months later, the United

States sent up a satellite from the cape The space race had

begun! For the next several decades, the United States and

the Soviet Union competed over space exploration and

launched more than five thousand spacecraft

The United States soon realized it needed one agency

to organize and carry out the space program In

October 1958, NASA was established to develop and

launch spacecraft It made Cape Canaveral its major

launch site

The United States launched a

satellite in 1958 Explorer I was

its first entry in the space race.

5

Almost immediately, NASA began to run out of room

Officials needed to look around for a new launching site They thought about Brownsville, Texas That site was rejected because they did not want to fly rockets over areas where people lived White Sands, New Mexico, did not have any outlet to the sea How about South Point,

a Hawaiian Island? Hawaii was too far away and a site there would be too expensive to build

In the end, NASA turned to a spot in its own backyard Merritt Island was located just north of Cape Canaveral, across the Banana River NASA got to work building a first-class spaceport—a site for testing and launching spacecraft In 1965 the Kennedy Space Center officially opened for business

Cape Canaveral’s Early Years

Spanish explorers first visited Cape Canaveral in

1513 Canaveral means “place of the cane.” The cape

served as an important landmark for European sailors and appeared on some of Florida’s oldest known maps Starting in the mid-1800s, a few American settlers and even businesses began moving on to the cape Over time, small villages sprang up But by the 1940s, the population of the cape stood at only about 100

Trang 5

NASA’s Launch Headquarters

Today NASA launches most space voyages with crews

from the Kennedy Space Center NASA also sends up

unmanned rockets—spacecrafts without astronauts—from

the United States Air Force Station on the cape Though

KSC is actually located on Merritt Island, many people refer

to both the cape and the island as “Cape Canaveral.”

In addition to Cape Canaveral, NASA has nine other

field sites The Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas,

serves as command control Other locations around the

country focus on research

Let’s take a quick tour of NASA’s launch headquarters!

Millions of people from around the world come to

the Kennedy Space Center to learn about the space

program Space shuttles are put together at the Vehicle

Assembly Building Standing 525 feet tall with 8 acres

1

2

3

7

of floor space, it is one of the largest buildings in the world The Crawler Transporter weighs six million pounds and travels at one mile per hour It carries the space shuttle from the Vehicle Assembly Building and the launch pad Space vehicles and missions take off from these launch pads Some are in use today, while others are historic launch pads Teams direct all launches from the Launch Control Center From the viewing area, visitors to KSC can watch space shuttles lifting off from launch pads 39A and 39B The space shuttle lands on the Shuttle Landing Facility as a glider If the shuttle lands

at another NASA site, a 747 jet carries it back to KSC

After landing, space shuttles go to the Orbiter Processing Facilities to be inspected, tested, and repaired before their next mission

People come to the Visitor Complex to learn about space exploration.

The Apollo/Saturn V Center serves as a tribute to the Apollo missions

that put astronauts on the moon.

Parts of the International Space System are assembled at the International Space Station Center.

1 2 3

Trang 6

Space Programs at NASA

NASA has sent up many satellites and spacecraft from

Cape Canaveral In 1961 NASA sent its first astronaut

into orbit around the earth Later that year it started to

work toward a challenging goal: landing astronauts on

the moon before the decade ended On July 17, 1969,

NASA launched Apollo 11 with three astronauts aboard

A few days later, on July 20, the spacecraft landed on

the moon and Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin

set foot on the moon NASA has been the world’s only

space program to put astronauts—twelve of them in

total—on the moon

1957

The Soviet Union launches

the satellite Sputnik 1.

1961

On April 12 the Soviets send Yuri Gagarin into space On May 5 NASA sends Alan Shepard into space.

1965

On March 18 a Soviet astronaut leaves his spacecraft and walks

in space.

1958

The United States launches

the satellite Explorer I.

1958

1959

The Soviet Union lands

Lunar 2 on the moon.

The Space Race

9

In 1973 NASA launched Skylab, which was a

space station For close to half a year, nine astronauts

lived and worked aboard Skylab They gathered information about the space environment and learned more about the needs of humans living in space

In 1981 NASA opened a new era in space travel with the space shuttle program The space shuttle is the only reusable spacecraft Space shuttles have wings so they glide back to Earth at the three-mile long runway at KSC Astronauts aboard the space shuttle conduct experiments and repair satellites

1969

On July 20 NASA’s

Apollo 11 lands

on the moon Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin walk on the surface

of the moon.

1970

The Soviets land a spacecraft

on Venus.

1972

The United States launches

Pioneer 10 More than a year later,

the spacecraft flies past Jupiter In

1983 it passes Neptune.

1975

A United States spacecraft joins together with a Soviet spacecraft This is the first international space flight.

Trang 7

Some satellites, like the powerful Hubble Space

Telescope, are put in place by the space shuttle Hubble

has been orbiting the earth, taking spectacular pictures

of planets and other objects in space In 1994 it caught

images of a comet crashing into Jupiter

Since the 1960s, NASA has also launched space

probes to explore the galaxy by taking measurements

and pictures Sometimes the probes even land In 2004,

rovers, or robot vehicles, sent back pictures of the

landscape of Mars, which is covered with rocks, craters,

and reddish-brown dust

NASA scientists also use satellites to study Earth

Satellite pictures have revealed bizarre natural activity

on the earth, some even in Florida Images have shown

a mysterious pocket of water in Florida Bay that has

changed from bluish-green to black Other pictures

captured “red tides” along Florida’s coast They were

caused by dust from Africa’s Sahara Desert that traveled

all the way across the Atlantic Ocean If you go to the

NASA Web site, you can see these images, and even

what Florida looks like from space, just the way the

astronauts see it

11

The International Space Station

Another exciting NASA program is the International Space Station In the 1990s, NASA partnered with fifteen other countries to build an international space station

Aboard the space station, astronauts conduct many experiments They are working hard to learn more about the health and safety of humans in space

Hundreds of people on the ground contribute to the program If you visit the Kennedy Space Center, you can see this amazing process take place At the International Space Center, some workers put the space station

together Others test and repair equipment Some people partner with the space programs from other countries

Astronauts also come to work here They train at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas—but at KSC, they try out the actual machinery they will be using in space Then they blast off!

Large pieces of the International Space Station are put together on the ground Other parts are put together by the crew on board.

Trang 8

Over the years NASA technology has led to many

useful inventions that we use every day Some of this

technology just makes doing things easier But sometimes

it actually saves lives Scientists from the Kennedy Space

Center even work with Florida’s police department to

make video footage clearer This technology helps the

police identify criminals

Whale “Tailprints”

NASA engineers developed special software, or programs that help

computers run certain functions, to figure out how space shuttles work

Today, marine biologists use this software to create a file for each humpback

whale they photograph The file is based on the features of its tail A whale’s

“tailprint” is unique, just like your fingerprints Using this database, or

collection of files, biologists can track and identify the humpback whales.

Infrared Thermometer

Taking a person’s temperature just got a bit easier NASA first

developed a special technology to measure the temperature

of stars and planets from Earth Now that technology

has been used to create a thermometer that

measures a person’s temperature in less than

two seconds The person does not even have

to be awake!

13

Infrared technology has proved to be a big help to Florida in many ways Today, the Florida Highway Patrol uses laser guns that beam an infrared light to catch speeding drivers These laser guns are remarkably accurate Florida firefighters putting out blazes in large buildings, such as shopping centers, also have started taking an infrared camera along The camera is mounted

on top of a high ladder and pointed at the building The pictures let firefighters see everything that is going on in the area Even citrus growers use this technology Planes carrying infrared cameras take pictures of groves Using special software, computers then count the trees and identify any unhealthy ones

Breathing System

If a fire breaks out on the launch pad, rescue workers need to get on the job fast! So NASA developed special equipment for emergency rescue workers The new air pack was lightweight and small, so rescue workers could get into tight places It even helped cool the body Today, firefighters and other emergency workers can use this type of air pack to save lives.

Smoke Detector

NASA needed to make sure no fires broke out on board Skylab, so scientists invented a smoke detector Today, most states have passed laws that require homes to be equipped with smoke detectors, because they have saved so many lives.

Trang 9

The Future of Space

What does the future hold for the space age?

Obviously, no one knows But NASA has lots of plans

for the future As part of the research into settlements

on other planets some day, astronauts aboard the

International Space Station are experimenting with

growing plants in space Plants are necessary to provide

food and oxygen NASA has announced that it hopes to

send robots and humans to explore the moon Aboard

a new spacecraft, called the Crew Exploration Vehicle,

NASA also wants to explore Mars—and beyond!

The Kennedy Space Center helps other communities

and countries build spaceports as well NASA

believes that in the future, people and goods will

travel by spaceflight NASA sees a future world in

which spaceports around the globe will launch many

spacecraft each day

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are working to answer

a question that has been on people’s minds for decades:

Will humans ever be able to live on Mars?

15

While you cannot look into the future and see what the future of space exploration will hold, you can look into the space program Today, the Kennedy Space Center opens its doors to millions of tourists These visitors welcome the chance to learn more about space developments, examine space gear, and perhaps even experience the thrill of seeing a spacecraft launch

Think about this as well: Over the years, thousands of people have settled in the towns along the Space Coast because they want to make their contribution to NASA and the United States’ knowledge of the galaxy These people combine their special skills to create the world’s leading space program Perhaps one day you will join them, as an engineer, a researcher, a scientist, or even

as an astronaut!

During their training in Houston, Texas,

the crew of the space shuttle Endeavour pose together.

Trang 10

Glossary

cape a point of land extending out into

the ocean

satellite an object launched to orbit Earth or

another heavenly body

space race an unofficial competition between

the United States and the Soviet Union to explore space and land on the moon

space shuttle a reusable space transportation

system that can carry people and cargo

space station a human-made structure

orbiting in space that people can live in for several months

technology the use of scientific knowledge to

solve practical problems

Vocabulary