Space Exploration: Triumphs and Tragedies

Space Exploration: Triumphs and Tragedies — page 1 — Early Exploration Disaster in Space Houston we’ve had a problem here The voice of astronaut Jack Swigert crackled through to NASA’s Mission Control in Texas CapCom Jack Lousma asked Swigert to repeat the message His fellow astronaut Commander Jim Lovell took the radio We’ve had a main B bus undervolt he reported Something had gone terribly wrong on board Apollo 13 Mission Control talks to astronaut Fred Haise on the screen during the Apollo 13 mission 4

Space Exploration: Triumphs and Tragedies — page 2 — EARLY EXPLORATION Bring Them Home Two days into their journey to the Moon the astronauts were more than 200,000 miles 322,000 kilometers from Earth They were running out of air and they no longer had enough electricity to get them home It was Mission Control’s job to bring them back alive NASA’s motto is For the Benefit of All NASA is the USA’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration It was set up in 1958 to develop technology that would help people learn more about and travel in space CapCom the person on Earth in charge of talking to astronauts 5

Space Exploration: Triumphs and Tragedies — page 3 — Staring into Space For hundreds of years humans have looked up at the night sky and asked questions about what they saw What is the Sun How many other planets are there How far away are the stars Ancient astronomers did not have telescopes or spacecraft to find the answers Their knowledge of space was based on what they could see with the naked eye The prehistoric monument Stonehenge in the U K may be linked to astronomy From a certain position the Heel Stone pictured here in the center lines up with the sunrise in midsummer and sunset in midwinter 6

Space Exploration: Triumphs and Tragedies — page 4 — EARLY EXPLORATION Ancient Astronomy In ancient times people set their calendars by the movements of the Sun and Moon They discovered that objects in space had an effect on the weather and the tides Tides are the way the sea rises and falls throughout the day They saw their heroes and gods in the patterns of the stars called constellations The science of astronomy or the study of space may have begun in China around 6,000 years ago The name comes from two Greek words meaning star and law astronomers scientists who study objects in space 7

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