Apollo 1 June 9, 2009
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Apollo 1 was the first of the US’ Apollo spacecrafts. Apollo 1′s crew of three, Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee all died during a fire that started during a test of the spacecraft. The Apollo 1 led the way for the many Apollo missions soon to come.
Mariner 8 and 9 June 9, 2009
Posted by sputnikandmore in Mariner, Mars, Space Travel Disasters.comments closed
There were 10 Mariner space probes, in part of a US space race program called the Mariner mission during the 1960’s and ’70’s. Their purpose was to explore Mercury, Venus, and Mars. The total cost for all ten of the spacecrafts was approximately $554 million.
Mariner 9, a space probe, took 7329 pictures of Mars before being shut off after 349 days in space. It covered almost 100% of Mars, and spread much light on the Martian atmosphere. It entered the atmopshere on November 13th 1971. Originally, they designed another space probe, the Mariner 8, to do the same thing as Mariner 9 simultaneously. It failed during launch.
Mariner 3 June 3, 2009
Posted by sputnikandmore in Mariner, Mars, Space Travel Disasters.comments closed
There were 10 Mariner space probes, in part of a US space race program called the Mariner mission during the 1960’s and ’70’s. Their purpose was to explore Mercury, Venus, and Mars. The total cost for all ten of the spacecrafts was approximately $554 million.
The Mariner 3 was launched on November 5th 1963, but lost contact when it malfunctioned. It was originally intended to take picture of Mars.
Mariner 1 June 2, 2009
Posted by sputnikandmore in Mariner, Mars, Space Travel Disasters.comments closed
There were 10 Mariner space probes, in part of a US space race program called the Mariner mission during the 1960′s and ’70′s. Their purpose was to explore Mercury, Venus, and Mars. The total cost for all ten of the spacecrafts was approximately $554 million.
The first Mariner -Mariner 1- was launched on July 22nd, 1962. It was supposed to pass by Venus and take pictures, but soon after it was launched it started to go off course. If the US had left it alone, it may have crashed onto Earth in an inhabited area, killing many people. To avoid this, the Range Safety Officer destroyed the ship while it was in space, not more than a few hours after it was launched.
The Salyut 1 June 1, 2009
Posted by sputnikandmore in Firsts, Space Stations, Space Travel Disasters.comments closed
The first space station that was ever launched into orbit was the Salyut 1. It was launched by the Soviet Union on April 19, 1971.
At first Vladimir Chelomei wanted to build a space station as a base for their military. The idea changed, making peoples want to use the space stations for tests, and experiments, that would help find out ways to get more humans into space.
The Soyuz 11 was the first ship sent to the Salyut 1, 6 weeks after it was launched. The Soyuz 11 carried a crew of three Vladimir Shatalov, Alexei Eliseev and Nikolai Rukavishnikov. There was a mechanical error when they tried to dock the Salyut 1, so they didn’t get into the space station.
On October 11th 1971 the cosmonauts on board Soyuz 11 undocked from Salyut 1 to go back to Earth. They were doing fine, but soon realized that a valve was open due to a mechanical error. The whole ship depressurized, killing everyone on board.
The Columbia May 28, 2009
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The Columbia was the first US reusable space shuttle. It first flew in space on April 12th, 1981.
Challenger May 25, 2009
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On January 28, 1986 the 25th flight of the Challenger (a US space shuttle) exploded. All seven of the members on board died, including Christa McAuliffe, a high school teacher picked to go on the shuttle from a nationwide contest. The other 6 were the commander Francis R. Scobee, the pilot Michael J. Smith, the three mission specialists Dr. Ronald E. McNair, Dr. Judith A. Resnik (also the first Jewish woman in space), and Ellison S. Onizuka, and lastly, a simple crewmember Gregory B. Jarvis.
