THE SPACE AGE
Americancorner | 2013-02-28 16:46
Running almost in tandem with the Atomic Age has been the Space Age. American Robert H. Goddard was one of the first scientists to experiment with rocket propulsion systems. In his small laboratory in Worcester, Massachusetts, Goddard worked with liquid oxygen and gasoline to propel rockets into the atmosphere. In 1926 he successfully fired the world's first liquid-fuel rocket, which reached a height of 12.5 meters. Over the next 10 years, Goddard's rockets achieved modest altitudes of nearly two kilometers, and interest in rocketry increased in the United States, Great Britain, Germany, and the Soviet Union.
 
Expendable rockets provided the means for launching artificial satellites, as well as manned spacecraft. In 1957 the Soviet Union launched the first satellite, Sputnik I, and the United States followed with Explorer I in 1958. The first manned space flights were made in the spring of 1961, first by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and then by American astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr.
 
From those first tentative steps to the 1969 moon landing to today's reusable space shuttle, the American space program has brought forth a breathtaking display of applied science. Communications satellites transmit computer data, telephone calls, and radio and television broadcasts. Weather satellites furnish the data necessary to provide early warnings of severe storms. Space technology has generated thousands of products for everyday use -- everything from lightweight materials used in running shoes to respiratory monitors used in hospitals.
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