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Space Exploration

Information about the United States' space flight programs, including NASA missions and the astronauts who participate in the efforts to explore Earth's galaxy.
Contents:

Space Centers

Aldrin posing by flag on moon's surface
"Buzz" Aldrin posing by U.S. flag on moon's surface.
(Courtesy of NASA JSC Digital Image Collection)

Space Programs

Project Mercury, 1961-1963 Flights

Alan Shepard in pressure suit
Close up of Alan Shepard in his pressure suit.
(Courtesy of NASA JSC Digital Image Collection)

Project Gemini, 1965-1966 Flights Apollo Program, 1968-1972 Flights
  • Apollo
    National Air and Space Museum site dedicated to the Apollo Program: gives the current location and pictures of the all of the NASA program crafts, separate sections on all of the Apollo flights, pictures of the mission patches and some technical diagrams
  • Apollo Lunar Surface Journal
    Journals for Apollo 11 - Apollo 17
  • The Apollo Program
    Links to a large number of NASA and non-NASA sites and to over fifteen online books about the Apollo Program, press kits, flight journals, and transcripts or audio of President Kennedy's White House meeting on space flight
  • Project Apollo Drawings and Technical Diagrams

Earth taken from moon's surface
Picture of Earth taken from surface of the moon from Apollo 11 spacecraft.
(Courtesy of NASA JSC Digital Image Collection)

  • Apollo 1, 1967 (Apollo 1 never reached flight status.)
    • Apollo 1
      Dedicated to the Apollo 1 fire that claimed the lives of Gus Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee: gives information about the accident, the investigation into the accident, and the conclusions; includes a section on the incident from chapter nine of book Chariots of Apollo: A History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft.
Apollo 11 crew
Apollo 11 crew during training.
(Courtesy of NASA JSC Digital Image Collection)
Skylab, 1973-1974 Flights

Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, 1975 Flight

Astronaut Thomas Stafford and Cosmonaut Aleksey Leonov in Soyuz Orbital Module
Picture of Astronaut Thomas Stafford and Cosmonaut Aleksey Leonov in Soyuz Orbital Module.
(Courtesy of NASA JSC Digital Image Collection)

Space Shuttle Program, 1981-present Flights

  • History of the Space Shuttle
  • NASA Human Spaceflight
    Information about all the Shuttle missions, includes an interesting feature called Living in Space page, which covers space food, wear, work and fun
  • NASA Space Shuttle Launches
    Links to launch schedules, the Shuttle image library, and pages about each shuttle mission
  • Shuttle Location
    Gives the current location of a Space Shuttle when one is in orbit
  • Spacecraft
    Links to information on the parts of the Shuttle, the importance of altitude, launch windows, launch location, and Spacelab, also includes recent news

Astronaut Piers Sellers
Picture of Astronaut Piers Sellers on spacewalk.
(Courtesy of NASA Human Space Flight Gallery)

Shuttle-Mir, 1994-1998 Flights
  • History of Shuttle-Mir
    NASA site on the Shuttle-Mir Program: links to the history of the program, scientific experiments, spacecraft information, and information about the participating astronauts and cosmonauts
  • Living on Mir
    Interview with Shannon Lucid about life on Mir

sunrise from Space Shuttle Endeavor Mission STS-068
Sunrise from Space Shuttle Endeavor Mission STS-068.
(Courtesy of NASA Human Space Flight Gallery)

International Space Station, 2000-present Flights

Hubble Space Telescope (HST)

storm of turbuent gases taken by Hubble
Storm of turbulent gases taken by Hubble Space Telescope.
(Courtesy of NASA, European Space Agency, and J. Hester (ASU))

  • Everything You Wanted to Know About the Hubble Telescope, But Were Afraid to Ask
    Hubble site from the Public Broadcasting System featuring information provided by the Space Telescope Science Institute: includes diagram of the Hubble, information about its scientific instruments, data storage and transmission, and mission operations and observations

  • Fun Facts
    Hubble trivia

  • The Hubble Project
    Official NASA Hubble Site at Goddard Sapce Center: provides information on operations, technology, servicing missions, project news, and images

  • The Hubble Project Servicing Mission 3B

  • HubbleSite
    Created by the Space Telescope Science Institute: image gallery, news center, reference desk, discoveries, and technical information on the telescope

  • Hubble Space Telescope
    Hubble section on the Space Telescope Science Institute Web site: extensive information about Hubble and a helpful Hubble Primer, which can be accessed by clicking on the HST Overview link and then the Introduction to the Hubble link

  • J-Track 2.5
    Shows the current location of Hubble (HST)

  • Spacelink Hubble Space Telescope
    Many Hubble links, including those to Hubble images and discoveries

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