The History of Rocketry and Spaceflight

ASTRONOMY LAB

“THE HISTORY OF ROCKETRY AND SPACEFLIGHT”

OBJECTIVES:

Upon completion of this lab, the student should be able to identify the following persons, terms, and aircraft/spacecraft:

1] Konstantin Tsiokovski

2] Robert Goddard

3] Hermann Oberth

4] The V.F.R.

5] Werhner von Braun

6] The A-4/V-2 rocket

7] "Operation Paperclip"

8] Sputnik 1 (including date of launch)

9] Laika the "Space-Dog"

10] Sergei Korolev

11] Jupiter C / Explorer 1 (including date of launch)

12] Vanguard

13] Project Mercury

14] Yuri Gagarin (including date of flight)

15] Alan Shepard (including date of flight)

16] Project Gemini

17] Project Apollo

18] The Apollo 1 disaster (including astronauts and date)

19] Apollo 11 (including crew and date of lunar landing)

20] Apollo 13 accident

21] Apollo 17 (including date of mission)

22] Skylab

23] Apollo-Soyuz Mission (ASTP)

24] Pioneer I0 &11, Missions

25] Voyager 1&2 Missions

26] Viking Missions

27] X-l Rocket plane

28] Chuck Yeager

29] X-15 Rocket plane

30] Space Shuttle (including date of first flight)

31] Space Shuttle "Challenger" accident (including date, cause and impact on space program)

32] Space Shuttle “Columbia” accident (including date, cause and impact on space program)

33] Hubble Space Telescope

34] International Space Station - ISS

PART TWO:

Briefly discuss each of the following topics relating to the history of space exploration.

35] What prompted the Germans to develop the V-2 rocket during The Second World War?

36] Why did the Soviets have more powerful rockets than the U.S. during the 1950's and early 1960's?

37] What do space experts mean when they talk of the "broken promises" of the Space Shuttle? Is there a fear that the Space Station may be another shuttle fiasco?

38] What are the current plans for the future of U.S. manned spaceflight? What has been proposed as our goal(s) and what are the plans for the retirement and replacement of the remaining shuttles?

39] What nations are seen as potential competitors in the exploration of space? How likely will this be to ignite a new “space race”?