1. SATURN -- Visitors who enter Space Park from the
Ford Building pass under the business end of the five-engine
S-1C stage of the three-stage Saturn V, which will propel American
astronauts toward the Moon. This boattail alone stands 51 feet,
but when fully assembled with the Apollo Command, Service and
Lunar Excursion Modules mounted on top, Saturn V will be some
365 feet tall. Thrust: 7.5 million pounds (compared with 367,000
pounds for the Atlas, which launched Mercury astronauts). TOP
2. APOLLO -- Two of the three parts of the moonship
are shown in this full-scale model: the Command Module (11 feet
long, about 5 1/2 tons), which will carry the crew of three as
well as guidance and control instruments; and the Service Module
(23 feet long, about 25 tons), which holds main propulsion elements.
TOP
3. LEM (for Lunar Excursion Module) -- This is the third
major part of the Apollo craft, a full-sized model of "the
Bug" in which two of the three astronauts will land on the
Moon. A film depicts the Moon mission. TOP
4. HEARTBEAT
SENSOR -- Visitors can
see their heartbeat measured on this display explaining how biological
sensors monitor physical state of men in space. TOP
5. TITAN II
-- As seen in Space Park, with
the Gemini spacecraft in place for launch, Titan II stands 109
feet tall and is 10 feet in diameter. Basically, it is a two-stage
90-foot booster developed by the Air Force. Its first stage develops
about 430,000 pounds of thrust at sea level; its second stage,
about 100,000 pounds at altitude. With two large solid-fuel rockets
strapped on and a liquid-fuel third stage, it becomes Titan III-C,
which stands 103 feet tall and can develop about 2.5 million
pounds of thrust. TOP
6. GEMINI -- the two-man Gemini spacecraft externally
resembles the one-man Mercury but is wider at the base (6 feet
vs. 7.5), taller (10 feet vs. 11), and heavier (3,200 pounds
vs. 7,700). It also has docking apparatus for connecting with
another vehicle in space -- i.e., the Agena -- and, instead of
an escape tower like the Mercury, has ejection seats. TOP
7. MERCURY SPACECRAFT -- This is the actual Aurora 7
in which Astronaut M. Scott Carpenter orbited the Earth three
times May 24, 1962. It is about 6 feet across the base, 10 feet
tall, and weighs 3,200 pounds. TOP
8. MERCURY SPACE
RIDE -- Here's a chance
for the kids -- and father, too, if he has the urge -- to take
a simulated trip into space in a full-scale animated Mercury
spacecraft. Climb in, push the button, and the countdown begins
for an up-and-down ride made realistic by colored film of the
Earth as it looks to an astronaut from 100 miles up. TOP
9. ATLAS -- As shown in Space Park, with the Mercury
spacecraft in place, Atlas stands 92 feet tall. The basic launch
vehicle, developed by the Air Force, has three liquid propellant
engines developing about 367,000 pounds of thrust, stands 69
feet tall and measures 16 feet across the engine nacelles and
10 feet across the tank section. With Centaur as a second stage,
Atlas can rocket a 1,300-pound spacecraft to Venus or Mars or
a 2,300-pound payload to the Moon. TOP
10. RANGER -- This is an exact full-scale model of the
Ranger VII, which televised more than 4,000 photographs of the
Moon's surface before hitting the Moon July 31, 1964. It is identical
with the successful Rangers VIII and IX. TOP
11. THOR DELTA -- The full-scale booster on display, 90
feet high, has three stages and can rocket about 105 pounds to
the Moon. Among 22 consecutive successful launches, it orbited
Echo I, the TIROS satellites, and Ariel I. The Thor booster,
which develops 172,000 pounds of thrust, also is used in Thor
Agena, a two-stage 76-foot-tall rocket, and the thrust-augmented
Thor (TAD), which has three Thiokol solid-fuel engines mounted
around the base and develops 332,000 pounds of thrust. TOP
12. EXPLORER
I, the first U.S. satellite
to achieve orbit, was launched by the Army January 31, 1958,
from Cape Kennedy, and is generally credited with discovering
the Van Allen radiation belt. It was launched by a four-stage
Jupiter C. TOP
13. OSO (for Orbiting Solar Observatory) is a series
of satellites like the full-scale model shown. Purpose: to study
the Sun and its atmosphere. Also displayed are 1/8-sclae models
of OGO (for Orbiting Geophysical Observatory) and OAO (for Orbiting
Astronomical Observatory). TOP
14. MARINER
II -- It was a spacecraft like
this full-scale model which on December 14, 1962, flew within
22,000 miles of Venus and made scientific observations of that
planet and the region of space between Venus and Earth. TOP
15. NUCLEAR
TEST DETECTION RESEARCH SATELLITES,
like that shown in full scale here, are being used to design
world-wide detection systems. The Air Force launched two such
spacecraft, five feet in diameter with 14,000 solar cells to
power their 40,000 electric components, with the same rocket
and put them into separate orbits. TOP
16. MARINER
IV -- Display shows a full-size
model of the spacecraft launched toward Mars on November 28,
1964, on a 325 million mile space voyage to take measurements
in interplanetary space and to photograph the Red Planet. TOP
17. AGENA, named after a star, is 20 feet long, five
feet in diameter, and its restartable rocket engine develops
16,000 pounds of thrust. With Atlas as a first stage, Agena launched
Mariners and Rangers. In later Gemini flights, Agena will be
a rendezvous-docking target. TOP
18. ALOUETTE
I,
launched September 29, 1962, by a Thor Agena, was a project of
the Canadian Defense Research Board and a part of NASA's Topside
Sounder Program to examine the structure of the ionosphere from
above. TOP
19. ARIEL
-- Both Ariel I, the first international satellite to be launched
April 26, 1962, and Ariel II, placed in orbit March 27, 1964,
designed and fabricated by the United Kingdom and launched by
NASA. TOP
20. DISCOVERER
XIV, first
U.S. satellite recovered from space by an aircraft in flight,
was snared by an Air Force C-119 flying 8,000 feet over the Pacific
southwest of Hawaii August 19, 1960. The 300-pound satellite,
launched by a Thor Agena from Vandenberg Air Force Base, fired
retro-rockets after 17 orbits, and a parachute lowered it into
the recovery area. TOP
21. TELSTAR
I,
launched July 10, 1962, was the first communications satellite
to handle all types of signals, including black-and-white and
color television. Telstar II was launched May 7, 1963, and though,
like Telstar I, was launched by NASA, had all costs paid by the
American Telephone & Telegraph Co. as a step toward developing
commercial satellite communications. TOP
22. SYNCOM,
for Synchronous Communications, is a satellite orbiting 22,300
miles above the Equator at a speed which makes it appear motionless
from the revolving Earth. Syncom II launched July 26, 1963. Syncom
III was launched August 19, 1964. TOP
23. ECHO II,
this highly visible inflatable 135-foot sphere of 0.00035-inch
Mylar sandwiched in 0.0002-inch aluminum foil, was put in orbit
January 25, 1964. The passive reflector communications satellite
has been seen by millions of people worldwide. TOP
24. NIMBUS,
an advanced weather satellite that demonstrated the feasibility
of around-the-clock cloud-cover photography from orbit. Nimbus
I, launched August 28, 1964, sent back High Resolution Infrared
Radiometer (HRIR) pictures by night and APT (Automatic Picture
Transmission) pictures by day. TOP
25. TIROS
is an acronym for a series of Television Infra-Red Observation
Satellites, the world's first weather satellites. One TV camera
system can photograph more than 600,000 square miles at a time;
the other, more than 200,000 square miles. TIROS VIII tested
the Automatic Picture Transmission (APT) system, which sends
cloud-cover photos to relatively inexpensive (about $300,000)
mobile ground stations. TOP
26. BIOSATELLITE
- A series of six biosatellites will be put in near-Equatorial
orbits, starting in 1966, at altitudes of 180-200 miles for three
to 30 days to investigate the effects of weightlessness, space
radiation, and changes in day-night rhythm on such living things
as laboratory animals, plants, cells, and tissues. Purpose: to
see how long-duration space flights might affect men. TOP
27.SPACE SHUTTLE
- The six-foot-high, jet-propelled, one-man craft shown here
is a concept developed by the Air Force Aeronautical Systems
Division for hauling cargo and personnel between orbiting spacecraft.
Its three mechanical arms could be used to assemble structures
in space. TOP
28. EXPLORER
XVI,
launched December 16, 1962, by a Scout from Wallops Island, Virginia,
responded to 1,600 commands to read out experiment data between
December 16, 1962, and July 26, 1963. It recorded more than 15,000
meteoroid hits on sensors covering about one-tenth of its experimental
surface. TOP
29. SNAP-8
(for Space Nuclear Auxiliary Power System) a 35-kilowatt generator
with 10,000 hour lifetime, is intended for such uses as Moon-based
electric power plant and an on-board electric power plant for
large manned space laboratories. AEC and its contractor, Atomics
International, are responsible for the nuclear subsystem; NASA
and its contractor, Aerojet General, for the power conversion
subsystem. TOP
30. NERVA
(for Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application) is a project
to harness the power developed by hydrogen heated to a very high
temperature in a nuclear reactor and expanded through a nozzle.
Under the Space Nuclear Propulsion Office, a joint office of
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Atomic
Energy Commission, the work is being done by an industrial contractor
team on the basis of technology from AEC's Kiwi reactor at Los
Alamos. TOP
31. X-15 -
The full-scale model on display is the X-15(2), the newest configuration
of the record-smashing rocket-powered airplane which was jointly
sponsored and built by the NASA, Air Force, and Navy. The first
craft was delivered in October 1958, to NASA's Flight Research
Center on Rogers Dry Lake near Edwards, California. TOP
32. Offices.
33. Reception
area.
Source: NASA
Press Release, March 30, 1965
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