Venture Into Space

Venture Into Space PDF

Author: National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Publisher: CreateSpace

Published: 2014-02-04

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 9781495428685

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The Goddard Space Flight Center is a partnership of many people – scientists, engineers, project managers, and administrators – whose combined efforts are needed to carry on and bring to fruition scientific and technological expeditions into outer space. While the Goddard Space Center came into being with the establishment of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, its antecedents extend much further. Indeed, the Center inherited much scientific and operational competence from groups and individuals who had already achieved professional distinction. Under the guidance of Dr. Harry J. Goett, the Center's first director, 1959-1965, a most competent team came into being. This team successfully developed and launched a wide variety of scientific spacecraft, sent into orbit this Nation's first weather and synchronous communications satellites, and provided the tracking links for America's first man-in-space missions. The purpose of this preliminary historical report is to describe the Center's historical origins and traditions, as well as the projects and activities which the men and women of Goddard were privileged to make their contribution to the U.S. space program. In doing so, they not only opened a new path of exploration but were carrying on a tradition of scientific and technical curiosity envisioned two generations earlier by a then unknown New England professor – Dr. Robert H. Goddard.

Venture Into Space

Venture Into Space PDF

Author: World Spaceflight News

Publisher:

Published: 2017-10-27

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 9781973161677

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This official NASA history document is an interesting account of the early history of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. It includes the story of Dr. Robert H. Goddard, called the father of American rocketry and a pioneer in the theory of space exploration. It covers many milestones in the American space program, including the Mercury tracking program and satellites such as Vanguard, Explorer, Pioneer, Tiros, Telstar, Relay, Syncom, and others.This historical report represents a preliminary record of the efforts of this NASA Center, from its antecedents through 1963. Any cutoff date for such a report must be necessarily arbitrary; 1963 has been selected as terminal date because that year saw the culmination of many of the early efforts: the organization achieved the form its planners had envisioned; many of the physical facilities were completed; and, perhaps most important, scientific findings produced by "first generation" satellites began to be returned to curious scientists. As a consequence of the new scientific knowledge and technological advances, the years beyond 1963 would feature more advanced missions, utilizing "second generation" spacecraft with more sophisticated instrumentation. Weather and communications satellites developed during the early years had by 1963 demonstrated such utility as to make operational systems a reality. The Goddard-operated manned space flight tracking network contributed to the successful completion of Project Mercury, the United States' first man-in-space program.