50 Years in Space
Abstract
During the past 50 years, America has experienced all of man's triumphs and tragedies in Space. Some of you may remember December 1958, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent his Christmas greeting to the world from the Army's Project SCORE (Signal Communication by Orbiting Relay Equipment); the world's first communications satellite. Many of you may also remember when Americans were extremely anxious after a Soviet astronaut named Yuri Gagarin became the first man in Space on April 12, 1961, and intensely proud when 23 days later, Commander Alan Shepard became the first American in Space; placed there, by the way, on an Army Redstone developed rocket Our nation experienced great sorrow, when America suffered her first Space casualties on Jan. 27, 1967. That is when Astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee tragically lost their lives after a flash fire broke out in the first Apollo Command Module during a launch pad test at Launch Complex 34. Their deaths led to a redesign of the Apollo Capsule, and the successful completion of a program that safely landed the first men on the moon. There were to be many more triumphs and failures during the decades of Space exploration leading up to today. Some would remind us just how very dangerous Space travel can be, and others would forever change our view of the world and how we interact on a global scale. Space is the reason we now have instantaneous global communications as well as the ability to carry out rapid, global, financial transactions. Because of Space, we can easily navigate to any given point on the earth and we can obtain high resolution maps of our destination when we want them. Weather forecasts identify and track major weather events. From the perspective of the United States Army, Space exploration and commercialization has profoundly impacted day-to-day combat operations and has totally changed the face of modern warfare.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2008
- Accession Number
- ADA517783
Entities
People
- Kevin T. Campbell
Organizations
- United States Army Space and Missile Defense Command