The Astronauts: Space Survival (Moon Flight Atlas)
Introduction In the 1960s the United States and Soviet Union were rivals in space This competition was called the Space Race At first the Soviets led the way but the U S caught up and became the first to land on the Moon The U S space agency NASA directed the Mercury space program followed by the Gemini and Apollo programs The aim was for astronauts to land on the Moon and then return safely to Earth 2
Moon Flight Atlas Contents From air to space High-flying pioneers Beyond Earth into the unknown Humans in space The first astronauts Training for flight School for space Guidance from the ground Inside mission control In the cockpit Flying a spacecraft Food and drink At home in space Space survival Space suits Leaving a spacecraft 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 Working in space 22 Footsteps on the Moon 24 26 28 30 32 Proving the systems Moon flight facts Pressure suit to Moon suit Near side and far side Timeline Glossary Webfinder Index About the author
From air to space High-flying pioneers Even before the dawn of space flight aircraft designers and pilots tried to break records for speed and height Who was the first aviator to make really high flights American aviator Wiley Post became famous in the 1930s for his extreme flights Post broke many long-distance and height records often while flying in a Lockheed Vega a single-engined plane he named the Winnie Mae Lockheed Vega For his high-altitude flights Wiley designed a special suit right It was the ancestor of pressure suits worn by the pilots of jet and rocket planes and the space suits later used by astronauts and cosmonauts This Wiley Post suit had a helmet made of aluminum The circular faceplate could be opened like a ship’s porthole 4
Were there realistic movies made about the Moon Among the best was Destination Moon released in 1950 The poster left depicted the moonscape as a desert with steep mountains Nobody knew what the landscape really looked like In real life the mountains of the Moon turned out to be gently rounded rather than the jagged peaks seen here If the mask is not tight conscious time at 48,000 feet 14,630 m cockpit altitude is approximately 15 seconds Warning about wearing oxygen masks safely given to pilots of the Canadian CF-100D jet right 5 What rocket research planes made high flights Exploring the upper air was a big target for aviation in the 1950s and rocket power was the only way to get there A series of experimental X-planes were built to be lifted to high altitude by a mother plane The X-plane was then dropped and its rocket motor was fired by the pilot to fly higher and faster was used the pilot flew it as a glider down to Earth When the X-plane’s fuel The Douglas Skyrocket rocket plane was launched in midair On one such flight a Skyrocket roared along at a record-breaking 1,291 miles per hour 2,078 kph
