FIRST PRIMATE IN SPACE
January 31, 1961 - U.S. launched a 4-year-old male chimpanzee
The U.S. launched a 4-year-old male chimpanzee named Ham on a Mercury-Redstone 2 rocket into suborbital flight to test the capabilities of the Mercury capsule. During his 16.5 minute suborbital flight, Ham experienced about 7 minutes of weightlessness, reached an altitude of 108 miles and a speed of 13,000 mph. He was wired to medical sensors to monitor his vital signs. During flight, Ham performed some simple tasks such as pulling levers when a light came on for a reward of banana pellets. Ham was recovered safely 1,425 miles downrange. This was a test flight before risking the lives of human beings. Now, after Ham's successful flight, NASA was ready to launch the first Mercury astronaut, Alan Shepard, into sub-orbital flight three months later.
FIRST AMERICAN SATELLITE
January 31, 1958 - United States
The United States entered the space age by launching the first successful orbiting satellite, Explorer-I, four months after the Soviet launch of Sputnik on 4 Oct 1957. Explorer-I measured cosmic radiation, and led to the discovery of the Van Allen radiation belt. Its instrumentation included temperature sensors, a micrometeorite impact microphone, and a ring of micrometeorite erosion gauges. Data from these instruments were returned by a 60-mW transmitter operating on 108.03 MHz and a 10-milliwatt transmitter operating on 108.00 MHz. Explorer-I was 80-inch long, 6-in diam, weighed 31-lb with 18-lb of payload and was delivered into orbit using a Jupiter-C rocket. The orbit had a period of 114.9 minutes.
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RANDOM QUOTES
A Change is Gonna Come
by Meredith Grey
"...Change; we don't like it, we fear it, but we can't stop it from coming. We either adapt to change, or we get left behind. It hurts to grow, anybody who tells you it doesn't is lying. But here's the truth: Sometimes the more things change, the more they stay the same. And sometimes, oh, sometimes change is good. Sometimes change is everything...."
Until a man duplicates a blade of grass
by Earth Day, Thomas Alva Edison Inventor
"...Until a man duplicates a blade of grass, Nature can laugh at his so-called scientific knowledge. Remedies from chemicals will never stand in favorable comparison with the products of Nature, the living cell of a plant, the final result of the rays of the sun, the mother of all life...."
RANDOM FACTS
Drug Abuse
about Facts about Drugs
Facts about drugs can protect against drug abuse. Legal drugs, such as alcohol and tobacco, kill more people than illegal drugs. Tobacco (smoking cigarettes) kills more people than any other drug. Illegal drugs including heroin, cannabis, ecstasy and amphetamines can have unknown or dangerous ingredients. Mixing drugs, especially with alcohol, can be fatal.
More vehicles
about Stolen On New Year's
More vehicles are stolen on New Year's Day than any other holiday throughout the year. (So does that mean thieves are having their last fling before changing their ways or are they trying for a big score to start the New Year?)
Spacecraft :
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Category Information : Spacecraft
This is our Spacecraft category. If you are interested in Spacecraft, feel free to browse these listings. If you have a site that fits within this category, Submit it for inclusion.
NASA'S vision: To reach for new heights and reveal the unknown so that what we do and learn will benefit all humankind. To do that, thousands of people have been working around the world -- and off...
Champagne hot air Balloon flights over Berkshire, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Oxford, Surrey and London. The perfect surprise gift for that special occasion - Birthday Presents, Valentine Surprises, ...
Has grown into the largest supplier of live entertainment for weddings, corporate events and private parties in the UK. With over 90,000 previous customers and an artist roster of over 1750 bands, ...
Carvers for Conservation was started to introduce the people conserving the habitat of migratory birds to the premier bird sculptors in the world. My intention was to be mutually beneficial to the ...
The course of the River Thames as we know it today was created about 10,000 years ago, by melt water from the ice-sheets that covered much of the United Kingdom during the last ice-age...