"This site should be the homepage of every 4th, 5th, and 6th grade school computer in America." Hugh Hewitt

Superhero Topic

AMELIA EARHART
On July 2, 1937, Amelia Earhart flew away from a town called Lae in the South Pacific. Earhart was attempting to circumnavigate the globe. After taking off from Lae, she disappeared. The Superhero Historians will investigate her life, her final flight, and the possible outcomes to that flight.
See all posts in this topic

Previous Topics
Superhero Tips

If you enjoy Superhero Historians, please consider leaving a tip. Thanks!

Feed and Email

Click the Feed Icon to subscribe to the Superhero Historian Feed or click on "Superhero Email" to get posts emailed to your inbox.

Superhero Email

Topic: THE SPACE RACE

On October 4, 1957 history changed forever. On that day the Soviet Union lauched Sputnik I into space. Find out how a basketball sized satellite changed the world. We will cover a lot, putting more focus on Project Mercury.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Capsule with a View

Dorothy Duckinsie, Invention / Things Historian

Everyone likes a good view.  The Mercury 7 astronauts wanted a view too.  For the first mission into space, Alan Shepard viewed through a periscope.  Well, one of the improvements that the astronauts asked for was a window.  They got it!  The engineers who worked on Project Mercury didn’t think the window was necessary.

Here was Alan Shepards view of space:

image

By: Dorothy Duckinsie, Invention / Things Historian
Topic: THE SPACE RACE
permalink Permalink

Monday, September 17, 2007

Freedom 7

Dorothy Duckinsie, Invention / Things Historian

Each of the Mercury astronauts got the opportunity to choose a name.  Alan Shepard chose Freedom 7.  Let’s go over his flight.


By: Dorothy Duckinsie, Invention / Things Historian
Topic: THE SPACE RACE
permalink Permalink

Friday, September 14, 2007

Upon Landing

Rhonda Rodentilly, Document Historian

Okay, this is really neat.  Have you ever flown in an airplane?  Remember the instructions on what do do in case of an emergency?  They even have diagrams of what to do.  Well, the Project Mercury astronauts had a diagram too!  Their capsule came down in the ocean and they had to know how to get out of it safely.  They called it “Egress Procedures.” Check it out by clicking here.

By: Rhonda Rodentilly, Document Historian
Topic: THE SPACE RACE
permalink Permalink

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Alan Shepard

Dean Dillopolis, People Historian

Alan Shepard was the first American astronaut in space.  He was born on November 18, 1923 and died on July 21, 1998.  He graduated Annapolis and became a Navy test pilot and fighter pilot.  He logged more than 8,000 hours flying time.


By: Dean Dillopolis, People Historian
Topic: THE SPACE RACE
permalink Permalink

Monday, September 10, 2007

Survival Training

Barley Hugg, Location Historian

You can imagine that training for Project Mercury would include all sorts of things.  Did you know that the Mercury astronauts had to survive in the Nevada desert as part of the training?


By: Barley Hugg, Location Historian
Topic: THE SPACE RACE
permalink Permalink

Friday, September 07, 2007

Colonel Yuri Gagarin

Dean Dillopolis, People Historian

First the animals blasted into space, next comes the humans.  Colonel Yuri Gagarin entered space on April 12, 1961.  The Russian cosmonaut beat the United States by a month!  Talk about a race.  If this were the hundred-yard dash the Soviet Union would have clipped the tape about a half second before the United States.  Awesome.


By: Dean Dillopolis, People Historian
Topic: THE SPACE RACE
permalink Permalink

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Project Mercury

Dorothy Duckinsie, Invention / Things Historian

Project Mercury was NASA’s first program to put man into space.  You read a bit about Laika, the Russian dog that launched into space.  There were also mice and monkeys who flew into the atmosphere.  Now it was time for NASA to have humans fly into space.


By: Dorothy Duckinsie, Invention / Things Historian
Topic: THE SPACE RACE
permalink Permalink

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

3…2…1…Watch!

Barley Hugg, Location Historian

You can view a shuttle or rocket launching into space.  Sure you can.  Watch a launch from the Kennedy Space Center.  This website has the schedule of launches.  Later on I will tell you more about the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

image

By: Barley Hugg, Location Historian
Topic: THE SPACE RACE
permalink Permalink

Friday, August 31, 2007

Space Pen

Dorothy Duckinsie, Invention / Things Historian

Here is something interesting, the first astronauts used pencils to write in space.  Makes sense to me.  They needed to write things down and with zero gravity, pens would not work.  The story of the space pen is an interesting one where technology and money collide.


By: Dorothy Duckinsie, Invention / Things Historian
Topic: THE SPACE RACE
permalink Permalink

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Laika

Dean Dillopolis, People Historian

First came Sputnik, and then came Laika.  What is Laika?  Think of man’s best friend.  That’s right; Laika was a dog that the Soviet Union sent into space!


By: Dean Dillopolis, People Historian
Topic: THE SPACE RACE
permalink Permalink

Monday, August 27, 2007

NASA

Alistair Flush, Military Historian

What do you think the military has to do with the space race?  I know you are wondering what I’m doing here.  Space is all about science and technology.  Well, let me take you back to the 1950’s and Sputnik 1.


By: Alistair Flush, Military Historian
Topic: THE SPACE RACE
permalink Permalink

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Sputnik 1

Dorothy Duckinsie, Invention / Things Historian

Here is a picture of Sputnik 1:

image

Pretty cool, huh?  It weighed 184.3 pounds.  It took a little over 96 minutes to orbit the Earth.  It had a 23 inch diameter and transmitted radio signals back to Earth.  Very neat.  It orbited the Earth 1,440 times.

By: Dorothy Duckinsie, Invention / Things Historian
Topic: THE SPACE RACE
permalink Permalink

Monday, August 20, 2007

On Your Mark…

Dorothy Duckinsie, Invention / Things Historian

We got a little excited here at Superhero Historians after we did the post about the flag on the moon. That seemed like a good next topic… well, not the flag on the moon, but space. Space and how we got there.

How did the Space Race start? On October 4, 1957 the Soviet Union put Sputnik I into space, but it started a bit before then. In 1952 the International Council of Scientific Unions declared July 1, 1957 to December 31, 1958 as the International Geophysical Year. In 1954 they called for artificial satellites to be launched that could map the Earth’s surface. The Space Race was on…

By: Dorothy Duckinsie, Invention / Things Historian
Topic: THE SPACE RACE
permalink Permalink
Page 2 of 2 pages  <  1 2