 Magellan Probe on it's 4 year orbit around Venus. |
Space
Exploration Nasa pulls ahead!
|
| Home
Family Interests Space Stations 21st Century Space Our NASA Connections What good is the Family Interests Space Exploration Space Stations 21st Century Space Our NASA Connections What good is the |
Here is a recap of what has happened so far: In 7
years, The soviets have launched 24 rockets/probes. 14 were headed to the moon, either as
fly-by's or impacts. 5 were headed to Mars. The remaining were either the first attempts
to orbit the earth, or were headed to Venus. The US has tried 17 times. The majority of
those were lunar attempts. Both countries did however, have down the earth's orbit process. It was escaping the gravitational pull of the earth, or breaking away from earth's orbit that was the biggest problem. Not that they did not understand the dynamics of it, or 'how to'...there were still rocket failures...third, fourth and/or last stage engine failures that were causing the problem. Not to mention over-shooting their destinations, equipment failure and a host of other problems. The majority of the probes simply did not make it to the intended destination. You have to also understand that by now there were manned orbits around the earth. The Mercury Project had ended in May of 1963. The Apollo Missions were on the drawing board at NASA, having been announced July 29th, 1960 (source:Nasa Aeronautics and Astronautics Chronology, 1960.) NASA realized there needed to be an step between Mercury Project and the Apollo Program, so they developed Gemini. It was announced to the general public December 1961. The first Gemini Program Rocket launched March 23, 1965. In addition to all of this, NASA had been busy doing a host of other things. They were placing communications and weather satellites in orbit right and left. Since 1957, the X-15 project was in full swing. Many other aerospace projects were on the drawing board. NASA was in full colors. Meanwhile, the Soviets have been busy with their own programs. Despite the many launch failures with the probe launches, they did have the first ever manned space flight in 1962. Their first program was called Vostok (like our first manned flight program was Mercury). There first manned orbit was on 12 April 1961. They are getting better much better though as you will see in 1964..... NASA starts the year off By sending Ranger 6 on January 30, 1964. This was another attempt to send a lunar photographic probe to the moon. It had been 18 months since the last Ranger series of probes had been sent. They had taken a lot of time working out bugs. The mission was the same as the last Ranger mission, except they had added additional, somewhat more technically advanced equipment. All went as scheduled and the probe made it's impact just 63 hours after launch. No photo's were taken though. Someone had inadvertantly flipped a switch that effected the antennas during the period of booster seperation. They would try again later in the year. The Soviets however... Were planning to send another probe to Venus. They started their year off by launching Venera 1964A on February 19,1964. It failed to reach earths orbit, so the launched Venera 1964B just less than 2 weeks later, on March 1, 1964 It too failed to reach earths orbit. Then came Luna 1964A, launch date: March 21, 1964 another attempt at the Moon, but it failed to reach earths orbit as well. So they launched another identical vehicle about a month later (April 20, 1964) and it also failed to reach earths orbit. 4 ships in 4 months could not make it to earths orbit....the year did not start out too well for the Soviets. What next? Well, they launched on March 27, 1964, what we can assume was originally named Venera 1964C, another Venus Fly-by attempt. It reached Earths Orbit, but could not break away, hence the name found now for this attempt is Cosmos 27. Then they launched Zond 1, a Venus Fly-by craft on April 2, 1964. It made it out of earths orbit, and was thought to have passed within 100,000 km of Venus on July 14, 1964. All contact was lost on May 14, and it entered heliocentric orbit. Next was Luna 1964B on April 20, 1964. It was an attempt at the moon again, but once again, failed to reach earths orbit. Zond 1964A June 4, 1964 came next. It was an attempt at a moon shot, and publicized as a test of the Zond space craft, to be used in future Mars shots. It failed to reach earths orbit. NASA is ready for another Ranger Launch and Moon shot! Ranger 7 was launched on July 18, 1964. It was to replace the Ranger 6 moon shot. This time, NASA had added and adjusted television transmission equipment, and the Ranger 7 made it. Spectacular photos were taken of the moon. Nasa received Transmission of over 4,300 photographs in just 17 minutes, before Ranger 7 impacted the moons surface. A perfect moon voyage!
November 11, 1964 Nasa launched Mariner 3. Its destination was Mars, and was to be a fly-by photographic journey. She was loaded down with equipment including cosmic ray detectors, cosmic dust sensors, and solar panels (for power). All this equipment made her heavy as well. A protective shield failed to uncover all the equipment, so none of it was exposed. The extra weight from the shield caused a problem as well. She made it away from earths gravatational pull, but the added weight prevented her from making the correct trajectory to Mars. She is still out there...somewhere... Mariner 4 was launched on November 28, 1964, just 2 1/2 weeks after Mariner 3. She carried basically the same load as her sister ship, and she made it. After 7 1/2 months of space flight, the Mariner 4 beemed it's first transmissions back to NASA on July 14, 1964. She continued to beem data back to Nasa until October 1965, (over a year mind you!) until Nasa lost contact with her. She was not finished though and contact was made again in late 1967 for a few weeks. It was a good year for NASA and the United States! The year was not over for the Soviets though... On November 30, Zond 2 was launched. The mission was a fly-by of Mars. This one made it, and it is presumed to have flown by Mars August 6, 1965, at a distance of 1500 km. That is close! However, the communications system had failed before she got there.... On to:1965: The end of the Ranger Missions!
This free space provided by |
