CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Rob Mueller, left, NASA senior technologist in the Surface Systems Office in Kennedy Space Center's Engineering and Technology Directorate, talks with former NASA Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin during a demonstration of the Regolith Advanced Surface System Operations Robot, or RASSOR, at the automated landing and hazard avoidance technology, or ALHAT, hazard field at the north end of the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The event was held to announce Moon Express Inc., of Moffett Field, California is selected to utilize Kennedy facilities for NASA's Lunar Cargo Transportation and Landing by Soft Touchdown, or Lunar CATALYST, initiative. Moon Express is developing a lander with capabilities that will enable delivery of payloads to the surface of the moon, as well as new science and exploration missions of interest to NASA and scientific and academic communities. Moon Express will base its activities at Kennedy and utilize the Morpheus ALHAT field and a hangar nearby for CATALYST testing. The Advanced Exploration Systems Division of NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate manages Lunar CATALYST. Photo credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky KSC-2014-4377
Summary
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Rob Mueller, left, NASA senior technologist in the Surface Systems Office in Kennedy Space Center's Engineering and Technology Directorate, talks with former NASA Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin during a demonstration of the Regolith Advanced Surface System Operations Robot, or RASSOR, at the automated landing and hazard avoidance technology, or ALHAT, hazard field at the north end of the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The event was held to announce Moon Express Inc., of Moffett Field, California is selected to utilize Kennedy facilities for NASA's Lunar Cargo Transportation and Landing by Soft Touchdown, or Lunar CATALYST, initiative. Moon Express is developing a lander with capabilities that will enable delivery of payloads to the surface of the moon, as well as new science and exploration missions of interest to NASA and scientific and academic communities. Moon Express will base its activities at Kennedy and utilize the Morpheus ALHAT field and a hangar nearby for CATALYST testing. The Advanced Exploration Systems Division of NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate manages Lunar CATALYST. Photo credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky
The Space Shuttle program was the United States government's manned launch vehicle program from 1981 to 2011, administered by NASA and officially beginning in 1972. The Space Shuttle system—composed of an orbiter launched with two reusable solid rocket boosters and a disposable external fuel tank— carried up to eight astronauts and up to 50,000 lb (23,000 kg) of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO). When its mission was complete, the orbiter would re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and lands as a glider. Although the concept had been explored since the late 1960s, the program formally commenced in 1972 and was the focus of NASA's manned operations after the final Apollo and Skylab flights in the mid-1970s. It started with the launch of the first shuttle Columbia on April 12, 1981, on STS-1. and finished with its last mission, STS-135 flown by Atlantis, in July 2011.
The mission plan of Apollo 11 was to land two men on the lunar surface and return them safely to Earth. The spacecraft carried a crew of three: Mission Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., was launched by a Saturn V from Cape Kennedy on July 16, 1969, and after three days until they entered lunar orbit. Collins was awaiting on Lunar orbit while the Eagle Lunar Module with Armstrong and Aldrin and has landed in Moon's Mare Tranquillitatis at 3:17 p.m. EST on July 20, 1969. Immediately after landing on the Moon, Armstrong and Aldrin prepared the LM for liftoff as a contingency measure. Following the meal, the astronauts began preparations for the descent to the lunar surface. Armstrong emerged from the spacecraft first. While descending, he released the Modularized Equipment Stowage Assembly on which the surface television camera was stowed, and the camera recorded humankind's first step on the Moon. A sample of lunar surface material was collected and stowed to assure that, if a contingency required an early end to the planned surface activities, samples of lunar surface material would be returned to Earth. Astronaut Aldrin subsequently descended to the lunar surface. The astronauts collected lunar samples, deployed several experiments, and made photographs of the lunar surface. Two and a quarter hours later, the astronauts reentered the Lunar Module, after which the astronauts slept. The ascent from the lunar surface began 21 hours and 36 minutes after the lunar landing. In about four days, the Command Module entered Earth atmosphere and landed in the Pacific Ocean.
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