in what year did the U.S. launch the first space shuttle? What was its name?
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The prototype was named the Enterprise... it's first voyage was in 1977.  It never flew into space.\n\nCrippin & Young flew the Columbia into space on April 12, 1981.  It was mission STS-1.
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The first traffic light in the United States was installed in Cleveland on August 5, 1914.\n\nThe Cincinnati Reds became the first professional baseball team.\n\nNative son Neil Armstrong (born in Wapakoneta) was the first man to walk on the moon.\n\nOhio has been the birthplace of 7 U.S. presidents: Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Harrison, McKinley, Taft and Harding.\n\nHalf of the residents of the United States live within 500 miles of Columbus, Ohio. (it's true!)\n\nThe state animal of Ohio is the white-tailed deer, the state reptile is the black racer snake, the state flower is the red carnation, and the state rock song is "Hang On Sloopy", by the McCoys.
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Lunar Module: Eagle  \nCommand and Service Module: Columbia \nCrew:  Neil Armstrong ,commander\nMichael Collins, command module pilot\nEdwin Aldrin, lunar module pilot \nLaunch: July 16, 1969\n13:32:00 UT (09:32 a.m. EDT) Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A \nLanding Site: Mare Tranquillitatis (Sea of Tranquility)\n0.67 N, 23.47 E \nLanded on Moon: July 20, 1969\n20:17:40 UT (4:17:40 p.m. EDT)  \nFirst step: 02:56:15 UT July 21, 1969\n(10:56:15 p.m. EDT July 20, 1969) \nEVA duration: 2 hours, 31 minutes  \nLunar Surface Traversed: ~250 meters \nMoon Rocks Collected: 21.7 kilograms \nLM Departed Moon: July 21, 1969\n17:54:01 UT (1:54:01 p.m. EDT) \nReturned to Earth: July 24, 1969\n16:50:35 UT (12:50:35 p.m. EDT) \nTime on Lunar Surface: 21 hours, 38 minutes, 21 seconds  \nMission Duration: 195 hr. 18 min. 35 sec. \nRetrieval site: Pacific Ocean 13° 19'N latitude and 169° 9'W longitude  \nRetrieval ship: U.S.S. Hornet \nSpecial Payload: \nPlaque (commemorates first manned landing) \nCarried to Moon and returned two large American flags, flags of the 50 states, District of Columbia and U.S. Territories, flags of other nations and that of the United Nations. \nMEPS (Modularized Equipment Stowage Assembly) containing TV camera to record first steps on Moon and EASEP (Early Apollo Science Equipment Package). \n \n \nHighlights:\n\nFirst men on the Moon, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. First return of samples from another planetary body. \nThe prime mission objective of Apollo 11 is stated simply: "Perform a manned lunar landing and return". \nFirst return of samples from another planetary body. These first samples were basalts, dark-colored igneous rocks, and they were about 3.7 billion years old.\n\nPlaque affixed to the leg of the lunar landing vehicle signed by President Nixon, Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. The plaque bears a map of the Earth and this inscription: HERE MEN FROM THE PLANET EARTH\nFIRST SET FOOT UPON THE MOON \nJULY 1969 A.D. \nWE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND\n\n \nMore:\n\nThe Apollo 11 spacecraft was launched from Cape Kennedy at 13:31:01 GMT on July 16, 1969. After 2 hr and 33 min in Earth orbit, the S-IVB engine was reignited for acceleration of the spacecraft to the velocity required for Earth gravity escape. \n\nLunar-orbit insertion began at 75:50 ground elapsed time (GET). The spacecraft was placed in an elliptical orbit (61 by 169 nautical miles), inclined 1.25 degrees to the lunar equatorial plane. At 80:12 GET, the service module propulsion system was reignited, and the orbit was made nearly circular (66 by 54 nautical miles) above the surface of the Moon. Each orbit took two hours. Photographs taken from lunar orbit provided broad views for the study of regional lunar geology.\n \nThe lunar module (LM), with Astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin aboard, was undocked from the command-service module (CSM) at 100:14 GET, following a thorough check of all the LM systems. At 101:36 GET, the LM descent engine was fired for approximately 29 seconds, and the descent to the lunar surface began. At 102:33 GET, the LM descent engine was started for the last time and burned until touchdown on the lunar surface. Eagle landed on the Moon 102 hr, 45 min and 40 sec after launch.\n\nImmediately after landing on the Moon, Armstrong and Aldrin prepared the LM for liftoff as a contingency measure. Following the meal, a scheduled sleep period was postponed at the astronauts' request, and the astronauts began preparations for descent to the lunar surface.\n \nAstronaut Armstrong emerged from the spacecraft first. While descending, he released the Modularized Equipment Stowage Assembly (MESA) on which the surface television camera was stowed, and the camera recorded humankind's first step on the Moon at 109:24:19 GET. 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, sam
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Yuri Gagarin aboard Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961
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"At 11:38 a.m., the Space Shuttle Challenger launched from Pad 39-B at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida.\n\n\nAt first, everything seemed to go well. However, 73 seconds after lift-off, Mission....."
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The first US service helicopter was the Sikorsky R-4 Helicopter. They were first used in 1942.
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Here's a selection of first person in space from various nations around the world.\n\nYuri Gagarin - Soviet Union\nAlan Shepard - United States\nVladimír Remek - Czechoslovakia\nBertalan Farkas - Hungary\nJean-Loup Chrétien- France\nRakesh Sharma - India\nSalman al-Saud - Saudia Arabia\nRodolfo Neri Vela - Mexico\nToyohiro Akiyama - Japan\nHelen Sharman - United Kingdom\nIlan Ramon - Israel\nYáng Lìwěi - China
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The first moon landing by a human was that of American Neil Armstrong, Commander of the Apollo 11 mission. On July 20, 1969, while their teammate Michael Collins controlled the command module "Columbia," Armstrong, accompanied by Buzz Aldrin, landed the lunar module, "Eagle" on the surface of the moon at 4:17 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. This article covers the events immediately surrounding the successful moon landing.\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_landing
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Mission: STS-121 - 18th International Space Station Flight (ULF1.1) - Multi-Purpose Logistics Module\nVehicle: Discovery (OV-103)\nLocation: Launch Pad 39B\nLaunch Date: July 1, 2006, 3:49 p.m. EDT\nLaunch Pad: 39B\nCrew: Lindsey, Kelly, Sellers, Fossum, Nowak, Wilson and Reiter\nInclination/Orbit Altitude: 51.6 degrees/122 nautical miles
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Mir (Мир, which can mean both world and peace in Russian) was a highly successful Soviet (and later Russian) space station. It was humanity's first consistently inhabited long-term research station in space. Through a number of collaborations, it was made internationally accessible to cosmonauts and astronauts of many different countries. Mir was assembled in orbit by successively connecting several modules, each launched separately from February 19, 1986 to 1996. The station existed until March 23, 2001, at which point it was deliberately de-orbited and broke apart during atmospheric re-entry.
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The Space Shuttle Challenger (OV-99) exploded shortly after takeoff in 1986. The Space Shuttle Columbia (OV-102) exploded during re-entry in 2003.\n\nThe other space shuttles are:\nDiscovery\nAtlantis\nEndeavour (replacing Challenger)\n\nThe test shuttle, which did not actually go into orbit, was Enterprise.
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Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova was the first woman in space. however, on Vostok 6 in 1963
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John Glenn, Jr., Astronaut / U.S. Senator \n\nBorn: 18 July 1921 \nBirthplace: Cambridge, Ohio \nBest Known As: The first American to orbit Earth
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Neil Armstrong was the first.\nBuzz Aldrin was the second.
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History changed on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The world's first artificial satellite was about the size of a basketball, weighed only 183 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path. That launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments. While the Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the space age and the U.S.-U.S.S.R space race. http://history.nasa.gov/sputnik/\n\nThe Gulf of Tonkin Incident was a pair of alleged attacks by North Vietnamese gunboats on two American destroyers, the USS Maddox and the USS C. Turner Joy, in August of 1964 in the Gulf of Tonkin. Later research, including a report released in 2005 by the National Security Agency, indicates that the second attack did not occur.\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Tonkin_Incident
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I can barely remember that day in kindergarten. All the adults standing around in disbelief at what had happened. I think even at that age I was shocked as I watched the television in the general assembly area. One of the teachers left the room grief stricken after watching the news footage just once. Now many years later the shuttles still continue to launch. The brave men and women still going into space as if in tribute to all those who have died pursuing the goal of space travel. They carry on in the face of tragedy, every step forwards honoring the challenger astronauts.
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Sputnik 1957\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite#The_first_artificial_satellite