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Getting Ready For Adventures - Space Skills 101
Getting Ready For Adventures - Space Skills 101

Virginia Air & Space Science Center
NASA Langley Visitor Center

SPACE SKILLS 101
The NASA Langley Research Center drafted a plan to put a human into space in the fall of 1958. Considering humanity was in the first year of the Space Age, Project Mercury sounded like science fiction to most. Langley engineers had to design and build a spacecraft, select and train astronauts, invent flight and tracking procedures, and oversee the development of safe rockets to turn this science fiction into science fact.

The newly chosen astronauts had to prepare for a host of unknowns. No one had ever ridden a rocket to orbital speed, experienced prolonged weightlessness, piloted a vehicle in a vacuum environment, or tried to maintain control of a wingless craft plummeting through the atmosphere like a meteor. None of these challenges could have been overcome without the trajectory calculations performed by Katherine Johnson, the human computer who was portrayed by Taraji P. Henson in the Hollywood film "Hidden Figures." Katherine Johnson was a critical component of every space flight from Alan Shepard's first space flight (Freedom 7 of Project Mercury) to the Space Shuttle missions.


PROJECT MERCURY AND BEYOND
Three weeks after Project Mercury's first piloted flight in May 1961, President Kennedy announced that the United States would put a human on the Moon by the end of the decade. If Mercury astronauts faced a host of unknowns, then those who would fly the Gemini and Apollo missions faced a task of almost incomprehensible complexity.

To meet this challenge, astronauts and ground crew worked on problems as a team, developing solutions and then rehearsing them over and over in realistic training and simulations. This philosophy of training, training, and more training is followed by all space personnel to this day.

Attribution Noncommercial Some rights reserved
Taken on: October 12, 2022
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Sets appears in:   • NASA Langley Virginia Air & Space Science Center   
Camera: Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark II, f/1.8, 1/30 sec, 8.8mm, ISO 320 (more info) (hide info)
Camera: Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark II
Aperture: f/1.8
Exposure Time: 0.033 sec (1/30)
Focal Length: 8.8mm
ISO: 320
Exposure Bias: -2/3 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program: Program AE
Exposure Mode: Manual
Metering Mode: Center-weighted average
White Balance: Auto
Color Space: sRGB
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Getting Ready For Adventures - Space Skills 101

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