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78-505: Gemini 2 ( Gemini-Titan 2 ; GT-2 ) was the second spaceflight of the American human spaceflight program Project Gemini , and was launched and recovered on January 19, 1965. Gemini 2, like Gemini 1 , was an uncrewed mission intended as a test flight of the Gemini spacecraft . Unlike Gemini 1, which was placed into orbit, Gemini 2 made a suborbital flight, primarily intended to test

156-421: A spaceport (cosmodrome), which may be equipped with launch complexes and launch pads for vertical rocket launches and runways for takeoff and landing of carrier airplanes and winged spacecraft. Spaceports are situated well away from human habitation for noise and safety reasons. ICBMs have various special launching facilities. A launch is often restricted to certain launch windows . These windows depend upon

234-496: A sub-orbital spaceflight the spacecraft reaches space and then returns to the atmosphere after following a (primarily) ballistic trajectory. This is usually because of insufficient specific orbital energy , in which case a suborbital flight will last only a few minutes, but it is also possible for an object with enough energy for an orbit to have a trajectory that intersects the Earth's atmosphere, sometimes after many hours. Pioneer 1

312-512: A "time buffer" and substantially widened the allowable launch windows . The parking orbit gave the crew and controllers time to thoroughly check out the spacecraft after the stresses of launch before committing it for a long journey to the Moon. Robotic missions do not require an abort capability and require radiation minimalization only for delicate electronics, and because modern launchers routinely meet "instantaneous" launch windows, space probes to

390-443: A counter measure to United States bomber planes in the 1950s. The Tsiolkovsky-influenced Sergey Korolev became the chief rocket designer, and derivatives of his R-7 Semyorka missiles were used to launch the world's first artificial Earth satellite , Sputnik 1 , on October 4, 1957. The U.S., after the launch of Sputnik and two embarrassing failures of Vanguard rockets , launched Explorer 1 on February 1, 1958. Three years later,

468-416: A flight that normally lasts over twenty hours , could be traversed in less than one hour. While no company offers this type of transportation today, SpaceX has revealed plans to do so as early as the 2020s using Starship . Suborbital spaceflight over an intercontinental distance requires a vehicle velocity that is only a little lower than the velocity required to reach low Earth orbit. If rockets are used,

546-451: A launch tower and flame trench. It is surrounded by equipment used to erect, fuel, and maintain launch vehicles. Before launch, the rocket can weigh hundreds of tons. The Space Shuttle Columbia , on STS-1 , weighed 2030 metric tons (4,480,000 lb) at takeoff. The most commonly used definition of outer space is everything beyond the Kármán line , which is 100 kilometers (62 mi) above

624-595: A liquid-fueled rocket on March 16, 1926. During World War II , the first guided rocket, the V-2 , was developed and employed as a weapon by Nazi Germany . During a test flight in June 1944, one such rocket reached space at an altitude of 189 kilometers (102 nautical miles), becoming the first human-made object to reach space. At the end of World War II, most of the V-2 rocket team, including its head, Wernher von Braun , surrendered to

702-529: A local park. On 24 October, Lake Champlain joined in a classic exercise of sea power – the quarantine of Cuba, where the Soviet Union was constructing bases for offensive missiles. To block this grave threat, U.S. warships deployed throughout the western Atlantic, choking off the flow of military supplies to Cuba and enforcing American demands for the withdrawal of the Russian offensive missiles. After

780-502: A loss of hydraulic pressure and shut down the engines about one second after ignition. On the second launch attempt on January 19, 1965, Gemini 2 lifted off from Launch Complex 19 at Cape Kennedy at 9:03:59 a.m. EST (14:03:59.861 UTC). Shortly after launch the Mission Control Center suffered a power outage. Control of the mission was transferred to a tracking ship. The outage was later traced to an overload of

858-575: A midshipmen's cruise to Halifax , Nova Scotia, returning on 12 August. Beginning on 7 February, she made a cruise to the Caribbean, returning on 2 March. Lake Champlain was selected as the prime recovery ship for America's first crewed space flight . She sailed for the recovery area on 1 May 1961, and was on station on 5 May when Commander Alan Shepard was recovered, along with his spacecraft Freedom 7 , after splashdown some 300 miles (480 km) down range from Cape Canaveral . Helicopters from

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936-611: A pre-programmed list of operations that will be executed unless otherwise instructed. A robotic spacecraft for scientific measurements is often called a space probe or space observatory . Many space missions are more suited to telerobotic rather than crewed operation, due to lower cost and risk factors. In addition, some planetary destinations such as Venus or the vicinity of Jupiter are too hostile for human survival, given current technology. Outer planets such as Saturn , Uranus , and Neptune are too distant to reach with current crewed spaceflight technology, so telerobotic probes are

1014-486: A speed record, averaging 32.048 kn, for crossing the Atlantic on 26 November 1945 when she arrived at Norfolk , Virginia, having completed a run from Gibraltar , a distance of 3360.3 nautical miles, in 4 days, 8 hours, 51 minutes. This record stood until surpassed by SS  United States in the summer of 1952. Lake Champlain was laid up in the reserve fleet at Norfolk on 17 February 1947. Lake Champlain

1092-913: A test flight for the United States Air Force Manned Orbiting Laboratory program. It was launched on a Titan IIIC rocket on a 33-minute suborbital flight from LC-40 at Cape Kennedy. It is the only Gemini spacecraft to have flown with U.S. Air Force insignia, but there is an unflown Gemini B spacecraft in USAF markings on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton , Ohio . [REDACTED]  This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of

1170-502: A yard overhaul, she departed for the Mediterranean on 10 June and visited Spain, Denmark, and Scotland , before returning to Mayport on 9 August. The carrier operated off Florida and in the Caribbean until 15 June 1958, when she sailed on another Mediterranean cruise returning to her newly assigned home port, Quonset Point , Rhode Island, on 4 September. The carrier operated out of Quonset Point until 29 June 1960, when she made

1248-491: Is done by a set of orbital maneuvers called space rendezvous . After rendezvousing with the space station, the space vehicle then docks or berths with the station. Docking refers to joining of two separate free-flying space vehicles, while berthing refers to mating operations where an inactive vehicle is placed into the mating interface of another space vehicle by using a robotic arm . Vehicles in orbit have large amounts of kinetic energy. This energy must be discarded if

1326-887: Is effective mainly because of its ability to sustain thrust even as the atmosphere thins. Many ways to reach space other than rocket engines have been proposed. Ideas such as the space elevator , and momentum exchange tethers like rotovators or skyhooks require new materials much stronger than any currently known. Electromagnetic launchers such as launch loops might be feasible with current technology. Other ideas include rocket-assisted aircraft/spaceplanes such as Reaction Engines Skylon (currently in early stage development), scramjet powered spaceplanes, and RBCC powered spaceplanes. Gun launch has been proposed for cargo. On some missions beyond LEO (Low Earth Orbit) , spacecraft are inserted into parking orbits, or lower intermediary orbits. The parking orbit approach greatly simplified Apollo mission planning in several important ways. It acted as

1404-586: Is impossible. To date several academics have studied intergalactic travel in a serious manner. Spacecraft are vehicles designed to operate in space. The first 'true spacecraft' is sometimes said to be Apollo Lunar Module , since this was the only crewed vehicle to have been designed for, and operated only in space; and is notable for its non-aerodynamic shape. Spacecraft today predominantly use rockets for propulsion , but other propulsion techniques such as ion drives are becoming more common, particularly for uncrewed vehicles, and this can significantly reduce

1482-541: Is known as Kessler syndrome . There are several terms that refer to a flight into or through outer space . A space mission refers to a spaceflight intended to achieve an objective. Objectives for space missions may include space exploration , space research , and national firsts in spaceflight. Space transport is the use of spacecraft to transport people or cargo into or through outer space. This may include human spaceflight and cargo spacecraft flight. The first theoretical proposal of space travel using rockets

1560-647: Is more fuel-efficient for a craft to burn its fuel as close as possible to its periapsis (lowest point); see Oberth effect . Astrodynamics is the study of spacecraft trajectories, particularly as they relate to gravitational and propulsion effects. Astrodynamics allows for a spacecraft to arrive at its destination at the correct time without excessive propellant use. An orbital maneuvering system may be needed to maintain or change orbits. Non-rocket orbital propulsion methods include solar sails , magnetic sails , plasma-bubble magnetic systems , and using gravitational slingshot effects. The term "transfer energy" means

1638-455: Is not generally recognized by the public that the increase in potential energy required to pass the Kármán line is only about 3% of the orbital energy (potential plus kinetic energy) required by the lowest possible Earth orbit (a circular orbit just above the Kármán line.) In other words, it is far easier to reach space than to stay there. On May 17, 2004, Civilian Space eXploration Team launched

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1716-650: Is the fifth spacecraft put on an escape trajectory leaving the Solar System . Voyager 1 , Voyager 2 , Pioneer 10 , Pioneer 11 are the earlier ones. The one farthest from the Sun is Voyager 1 , which is more than 100 AU distant and is moving at 3.6 AU per year. In comparison, Proxima Centauri , the closest star other than the Sun, is 267,000 AU distant. It will take Voyager 1 over 74,000 years to reach this distance. Vehicle designs using other techniques, such as nuclear pulse propulsion are likely to be able to reach

1794-487: The Mediterranean , participating with NATO forces. On 25 April 1957, in response to tensions between Jordan's king and parliament (see 1957 alleged Jordanian military coup attempt ), she joined elements of her fleet in a high-speed run to the vicinity of Lebanon, where she backed King Hussein. King Hussein ended Jordan's constitutional democracy, dissolving political parties, dismissing municipal councils, censoring

1872-471: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration . Spaceflight Spaceflights include the launches of Earth observation and telecommunications satellites, interplanetary missions , the rendezvouses and dockings with space stations , and crewed spaceflights on scientific or tourist missions. Spaceflight can be achieved conventionally via multistage rockets , which provide

1950-484: The Tsiolkovsky rocket equation , can be used to find the total Δ v {\displaystyle \Delta v} , or potential change in velocity. This formula, which is still used by engineers, is a key concept of spaceflight. Spaceflight became a practical possibility with the work of Robert H. Goddard 's publication in 1919 of his paper A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes . His application of

2028-461: The USSR made one orbit around the Earth. In official Soviet documents, there is no mention of the fact that Gagarin parachuted the final seven miles. As of 2020, the only spacecraft regularly used for human spaceflight are Soyuz , Shenzhou , and Crew Dragon . The U.S. Space Shuttle fleet operated from April 1981 until July 2011. SpaceShipOne has conducted three human suborbital space flights. On

2106-628: The United States Navy . She was the second US Navy ship to bear the name, and was named for the Battle of Lake Champlain in the War of 1812 . Commissioned on 3 June 1945, Lake Champlain did not participate in World War II, but did serve as a transport, bringing troops home from Europe as part of Operation Magic Carpet . Like many of her sister ships, she was decommissioned shortly after

2184-573: The X-15 , and the only one until Space Shuttle Columbia flew its second mission in 1981; it would also be the only space capsule to be reused until Crew Dragon Endeavour was launched a second time in 2021. The Titan II/Gemini launch vehicle was dismantled to protect it from two hurricanes in August and September 1964. The second stage of the vehicle was taken down and stored in a hangar on August 26, 1964, in preparation for Hurricane Cleo , and

2262-457: The de Laval nozzle to liquid-fuel rockets improved efficiency enough for interplanetary travel to become possible. After further research, Goddard attempted to secure an Army contract for a rocket-propelled weapon in the first World War but his plans were foiled by the November 11, 1918 armistice with Germany . After choosing to work with private financial support, he was the first to launch

2340-720: The American demands were substantially complied with, Lake Champlain sailed for home on 23 November via St. Thomas, Virgin Islands , and arrived Quonset Point on 4 December 1962. For the next few months the carrier was in New England waters for operations and overhaul. In September 1963, while she was on a cruise to Guantanamo Bay, her training schedule was interrupted when she was ordered to Haiti to relieve distress caused by Hurricane Flora . Her helicopters located homeless victims and flew them food and medical supplies. On 6 May 1964, an collision occurred between Lake Champlain and

2418-567: The Atlantic coast and in the Caribbean. In June 1962, she and her escorts embarked First and Third Class Regular NROTC Midshipmen for a summer training cruise from NAS Quonset Point to offshore training areas, Canadian Forces Base Halifax , Naval Station Guantanamo Bay , and Kingston, Jamaica , where she represented the US at the island's celebration of its independence on 3 August. The midshipmen acted as tour guides for visitors aboard and provided an honor guard ashore for then-VP Lyndon Johnson's speech in

Gemini 2 - Misplaced Pages Continue

2496-403: The Earth's surface. (The United States defines outer space as everything beyond 50 miles (80 km) in altitude.) Rocket engines remain the only currently practical means of reaching space, with planes and high-altitude balloons failing due to lack of atmosphere and alternatives such as space elevators not yet being built. Chemical propulsion, or the acceleration of gases at high velocities,

2574-515: The GT-3 launch operation. As a result of this practice operation, it was established that all physical examinations, bioinstrumentation sensor attachment, and suit donning would be done in the pilot ready room at Launch Complex 16 . Gemini 2 had been scheduled for launch on December 9, 1964. On that date, the countdown reached zero and the first stage engines were ignited. The launch vehicle's Malfunction Detection System detected technical problems due to

2652-644: The Gemini program ended just before the Apollo 1 tragedy. Following multiple uncrewed test flights of the Saturn 1B and the Saturn V , the U.S. launched the crewed Apollo 7 mission into low earth orbit . Shortly after its successful completion, the U.S. launched Apollo 8 (first mission to orbit the moon), Apollo 9 (first Apollo mission to launch with both the CSM and the LEM ) and Apollo 10 (first mission to nearly land on

2730-459: The GoFast rocket on a suborbital flight, the first amateur spaceflight. On June 21, 2004, SpaceShipOne was used for the first privately funded human spaceflight . Point-to-point, or Earth to Earth transportation, is a category of sub-orbital spaceflight in which a spacecraft provides rapid transport between two terrestrial locations. A conventional airline route between London and Sydney ,

2808-539: The Moon and developed continuous crewed human presence in space with a series of space stations , ranging from the Salyut program to the International Space Station . Rockets are the only means currently capable of reaching orbit or beyond. Other non-rocket spacelaunch technologies have yet to be built, or remain short of orbital speeds. A rocket launch for a spaceflight usually starts from

2886-423: The Moon and other planets generally use direct injection to maximize performance by limiting the boil off of cryogenic propellants . Although some might coast briefly during the launch sequence, they do not complete one or more full parking orbits before the burn that injects them onto an Earth escape trajectory. The escape velocity from a celestial body decreases as the distance from the body increases. However, it

2964-514: The USA on the 20th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin 's flight, on 12 April 1981. During the Shuttle era, six orbiters were built, all of which flown in the atmosphere and five of which flown in space. The Enterprise was used only for approach and landing tests, launching from the back of a Boeing 747 and gliding to deadstick landings at Edwards AFB, California . The first Space Shuttle to fly into space

3042-537: The USSR launched Vostok 1, carrying cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into orbit. The US responded with the suborbital launch of Alan Shepard on May 5, 1961, and the orbital launch of John Glenn on February 20, 1962. These events were followed by a pledge from U.S. President John F. Kennedy to go to the moon and the creation of the Gemini and Apollo programs. After successfully performing a rendezvous and docking and an EVA ,

3120-644: The United States, and were expatriated to work on American missiles at what became the Army Ballistic Missile Agency , producing missiles such as Juno I and Atlas . The Soviet Union , in turn, captured several V2 production facilities and built several replicas, with 5 of their 11 rockets successfully reaching their targets. (This was relatively consistent with Nazi Germany's success rate.) The Soviet Union developed intercontinental ballistic missiles to carry nuclear weapons as

3198-542: The United States, touched at Gibraltar and arrived at Quonset Point on 25 November. The first half of 1965 found Lake Champlain performing training duties and conducting exercises up and down the East Coast, and on 19 January 1965, was the recovery ship for the uncrewed Gemini 2 mission. For FY 1966, the Navy proposed a modernization program for Lake Champlain . Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara refused to authorize

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3276-502: The Wet Mock Simulated Launch, a full-scale countdown exercise which included propellant loading. Procedures for flight crew suiting and spacecraft ingress and egress were practiced during simulated launch. The prime flight crew for Gemini 3 donned pressure suits and full biomedical instrumentation, assisted by their backup crew and the space suit bioinstrumentation and aeromedical personnel who would participate in

3354-526: The carrier visually tracked the descent of the capsule and were over it two minutes after splashdown. They recovered Shepard and the Freedom 7 capsule, delivering them safely to Lake Champlain ' s flight deck. During retrieval, the vessel was under the command of then- Captain Ralph Weymouth . There were some complications in retrieval, as the helicopters that were to retrieve Alan Shepard from

3432-592: The case of uncrewed spacecraft in high-energy orbits, to boost themselves into graveyard orbits . Used upper stages or failed spacecraft, however, often lack the ability to deorbit themselves. This becomes a major issue when large numbers of uncontrollable spacecraft exist in frequently used orbits, increasing the risk of debris colliding with functional satellites. This problem is exacerbated when large objects, often upper stages, break up in orbit or collide with other objects, creating often hundreds of small, hard to find pieces of debris. This problem of continuous collisions

3510-499: The command of Captain Logan Ramsey. The ship was sponsored by Mrs. Mildred Lucas, wife of Senator Warren Austin of Vermont . After shakedown and visits to New York and Philadelphia , Lake Champlain was assigned to "Magic Carpet" duty to repatriate US military personnel. She departed Norfolk for England on 14 October, and arrived at Southampton on the 19th where she embarked veterans and returned them to New York. She set

3588-464: The craft did not have the explosive squibs required to cut the Mercury craft's radio antenna. The Mercury craft's antenna was designed to help locate the craft if it landed out of visual tracking range. The antenna would have gotten in the way of retrieving Shepard from the craft if it had deployed; fortunately, it had a malfunction and was unable to deploy. For the next year, the ship operated along

3666-598: The destroyer Decatur while underway in the Atlantic Ocean. No one was injured during the accident and Decatur sailed back to Norfolk under her own power with significant damage to her mast, superstructure and stack. Lake Champlain returned to Quonset Point on 9 November for operations in New England waters. She visited Bermuda briefly in spring of 1964 and steamed to Spain in the fall for landings near Huelva . She sailed on 6 November from Barcelona for

3744-484: The electrical system from the network television equipment used to cover the launch. Gemini 2 flew a ballistic suborbital arc over the Atlantic Ocean reaching a maximum altitude of 92.4 nautical miles (171.1 km). The spacecraft was run by an onboard automatic sequencer. At 6 minutes 54 seconds after launch, retrorockets were fired. The spacecraft landed 1,847.9 nautical miles (3,422 km) downrange from

3822-483: The end of the war, but was modernized and recommissioned in the early 1950s, and redesignated as an attack carrier (CVA). She participated in the Korean War but spent the rest of her career in the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Mediterranean. In the late 1950s, she was redesignated as an antisubmarine carrier (CVS). Lake Champlain was the prime recovery ship for the first crewed Project Mercury mission ( Freedom 7 ),

3900-564: The enemy until the truce was signed on 27 July. Relieved by Kearsarge on 11 October, Lake Champlain headed toward the South China Sea arriving Singapore on 24 October. Bidding farewell to the Pacific Ocean on 27 October, she steamed toward home, touching at Colombo , Port Said , Cannes , and Lisbon before arriving Mayport, Florida, on 4 December 1953. In the years that followed, Lake Champlain made several cruises to

3978-499: The entire launch vehicle was subsequently dismantled and removed from Cape Kennedy Air Force Station 's Launch Complex 19 in early September before Hurricane Dora passed over Cape Kennedy on September 9. The Gemini launch vehicle was erected for the final time on 12 September 1964. Many ground tests were carried out on the Gemini 2 and Titan rocket in November 1964. On November 24, Gemini-Titan (GT) 2 successfully completed

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4056-625: The largest ship to date to transit the Suez Canal . She moored at Yokosuka , Japan, on 9 June 1953. As flagship of Carrier Task Force 77 (TF 77), she sailed from Yokosuka on 11 June and arrived off western Korea on 14 June. The carrier's air group immediately launched sorties cratering runways; assaulting enemy troops; attacking trenches, bunkers, gun positions; and giving close air support to hard pressed ground forces. Her planes also escorted B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers on their way to enemy targets. Lake Champlain continued to strike at

4134-463: The launch pad. The flight lasted 18 minutes 16 seconds. The landing was 14 nautical miles (26 km) short of the planned impact point, and 45 nautical miles (83 km) from the recovery aircraft carrier, USS  Lake Champlain . The spacecraft was brought aboard the carrier at 15:52 UT (10:52 a.m. EST). Most goals were achieved, except the fuel cells had failed before liftoff and were turned off. The spacecraft cooling system temperature also

4212-409: The moon). These events culminated with the first crewed moon landing, Apollo 11 , and six subsequent missions, five of which successfully landed on the moon. Spaceflight has been widely employed by numerous government and commercial entities for placing satellites into orbit around Earth for a broad range of purposes. Certain government agencies have also sent uncrewed spacecraft exploring space beyond

4290-406: The nearest star significantly faster. Another possibility that could allow for human interstellar spaceflight is to make use of time dilation , as this would make it possible for passengers in a fast-moving vehicle to travel further into the future while aging very little, in that their great speed slows down the rate of passage of on-board time. However, attaining such high speeds would still require

4368-447: The night of 14 October 1957 . The American ambassador to Spain, John Davis Lodge , requested that Lake Champlain provide assistance for rescue operations. The ship's Chickasaw helicopters undertook numerous rescue missions, and the ship's crew fought in the "mud battle" that followed the disaster. She departed Bayonne , New Jersey, on 8 February 1958 for another Mediterranean cruise returning to Mayport, Florida, on 30 October. After

4446-402: The only way to explore them. Telerobotics also allows exploration of regions that are vulnerable to contamination by Earth micro-organisms since spacecraft can be sterilized. Humans can not be sterilized in the same way as a spaceship, as they coexist with numerous micro-organisms, and these micro-organisms are also hard to contain within a spaceship or spacesuit. The first uncrewed space mission

4524-399: The position of celestial bodies and orbits relative to the launch site. The biggest influence is often the rotation of the Earth. Once launched, orbits are normally located within relatively constant flat planes at a fixed angle to the axis of the Earth, and the Earth rotates within this orbit. A launch pad is a fixed structure designed to dispatch airborne vehicles. It generally consists of

4602-481: The press, imposing military curfew, and culling the military of dissenting elements. The tensions eased and Lake Champlain returned to Mayport on 27 July. Converted to an antisubmarine carrier and reclassified (CVS-39) on 1 August, Lake Champlain trained off the eastern seaboard to master her new role. Lake Champlain was near the island of Majorca when the Spanish city of Valencia was devastated by floods on

4680-511: The proposal, citing the limited effectiveness of anti-submarine carriers. Lake Champlain completed her last major duty on 29 August 1965 when she served as the primary recovery ship for Gemini 5 . Shortly afterward, she sailed to Philadelphia Navy Yard , where she commenced inactivation. She was decommissioned on 2 May 1966 and was laid up in the Reserve Fleet. The Spanish Navy considered acquiring Lake Champlain but instead chose

4758-464: The remainder heats the atmosphere. The Mercury , Gemini , and Apollo capsules splashed down in the sea. These capsules were designed to land at relatively low speeds with the help of a parachute. Soviet/Russian capsules for Soyuz make use of a big parachute and braking rockets to touch down on land. Spaceplanes like the Space Shuttle land like a glider . After a successful landing,

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4836-555: The second uncrewed Gemini mission ( Gemini 2 ), and for the third crewed Gemini ( Gemini 5 ) space mission. Lake Champlain had a unique modernization history. She was the only Essex -class ship to receive the SCB-27 conversion which was a rebuild of the superstructure, flight deck and other features but without also receiving the SCB-125 conversion which would have given her an angled flight deck and hurricane bow . Therefore, she

4914-463: The size of the rocket relative to the payload is similar to an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). Any intercontinental spaceflight has to surmount problems of heating during atmospheric re-entry that are nearly as large as those faced by orbital spaceflight. A minimal orbital spaceflight requires much higher velocities than a minimal sub-orbital flight, and so it is technologically much more challenging to achieve. To achieve orbital spaceflight,

4992-504: The spacecraft's heat shield . It was launched on a Titan II GLV rocket. The spacecraft used for the Gemini 2 mission was later refurbished into the Gemini B configuration, and was subsequently launched on another suborbital flight, along with OPS 0855 , as a test for the US Air Force Manned Orbital Laboratory . Gemini spacecraft no. 2 was the first craft to make more than one spaceflight since

5070-640: The spacecraft, its occupants, and cargo can be recovered. In some cases, recovery has occurred before landing: while a spacecraft is still descending on its parachute, it can be snagged by a specially designed aircraft. This mid-air retrieval technique was used to recover the film canisters from the Corona spy satellites. Uncrewed spacecraft or robotic spacecraft are spacecraft without people on board. Uncrewed spacecraft may have varying levels of autonomy from human input, such as remote control , or remote guidance. They may also be autonomous , in which they have

5148-610: The tangential velocity around the Earth is as important as altitude. In order to perform a stable and lasting flight in space, the spacecraft must reach the minimal orbital speed required for a closed orbit . Interplanetary spaceflight is flight between planets within a single planetary system . In practice, the use of the term is confined to travel between the planets of our Solar System . Plans for future crewed interplanetary spaceflight missions often include final vehicle assembly in Earth orbit, such as NASA's Constellation program and Russia's Kliper / Parom tandem. New Horizons

5226-495: The thrust to overcome the force of gravity and propel spacecraft onto suborbital trajectories . If the mission is orbital , the spacecraft usually separates the first stage and ignites the second stage , which propels the spacecraft to high enough speeds that it reaches orbit. Once in orbit, spacecraft are at high enough speeds that they fall around the Earth rather than fall back to the surface. Most spacecraft, and all crewed spacecraft, are designed to deorbit themselves or, in

5304-411: The total amount of energy imparted by a rocket stage to its payload. This can be the energy imparted by a first stage of a launch vehicle to an upper stage plus payload, or by an upper stage or spacecraft kick motor to a spacecraft . In order to reach a space station , a spacecraft would have to arrive at the same orbit and approach to a very close distance (e.g. within visual contact). This

5382-460: The use of some new, advanced method of propulsion . Dynamic soaring as a way to travel across interstellar space has been proposed as well. Intergalactic travel involves spaceflight between galaxies, and is considered much more technologically demanding than even interstellar travel and, by current engineering terms, is considered science fiction . However, theoretically speaking, there is nothing to conclusively indicate that intergalactic travel

5460-413: The vehicle is to land safely without vaporizing in the atmosphere. Typically this process requires special methods to protect against aerodynamic heating . The theory behind reentry was developed by Harry Julian Allen . Based on this theory, reentry vehicles present blunt shapes to the atmosphere for reentry. Blunt shapes mean that less than 1% of the kinetic energy ends up as heat reaching the vehicle, and

5538-410: The vehicle's mass and increase its delta-v . Launch systems are used to carry a payload from Earth's surface into outer space. Most current spaceflight uses multi-stage expendable launch systems to reach space. The first reusable spacecraft, the X-15 , was air-launched on a suborbital trajectory on 19 July 1963. The first partially reusable orbital spacecraft, the Space Shuttle , was launched by

5616-453: Was Sputnik , launched October 4, 1957 to orbit the Earth. Nearly all satellites , landers and rovers are robotic spacecraft. Not every uncrewed spacecraft is a robotic spacecraft; for example, a reflector ball is a non-robotic uncrewed spacecraft. Space missions where other animals but no humans are on-board are called uncrewed missions. The first human spaceflight was Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961, on which cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin of

5694-480: Was NASA's first space probe intended to reach the Moon. A partial failure caused it to instead follow a suborbital trajectory to an altitude of 113,854 kilometers (70,746 mi) before reentering the Earth's atmosphere 43 hours after launch. The most generally recognized boundary of space is the Kármán line 100 km (62 mi) above sea level. (NASA alternatively defines an astronaut as someone who has flown more than 80 km (50 mi) above sea level.) It

5772-449: Was found to be too high. The Gemini 2 spacecraft was in excellent condition. Its heat shield and retrorockets functioned as expected. The Gemini 2 mission was supported by 6,562 United States Department of Defense personnel, 67 aircraft, and 16 ships. Gemini 2 had flight instrumentation pallets installed in the crew cabin, similar to those in Gemini 1 . The Gemini 2 reentry module was refurbished and flown again on November 3, 1966, in

5850-542: Was needed again for the Korean War . In August 1950, she began her SCB-27A modernization program at Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company . She recommissioned on 19 September 1952. A shakedown cruise in Cuban and Haitian waters lasted from 25 November to 25 December 1952. The carrier departed Mayport , Florida, for Korea on 26 April 1953 via the Red Sea , Indian Ocean, and South China Sea . Lake Champlain became

5928-663: Was published by Scottish astronomer and mathematician William Leitch , in an 1861 essay "A Journey Through Space". More well-known is Konstantin Tsiolkovsky 's work, " Исследование мировых пространств реактивными приборами " ( The Exploration of Cosmic Space by Means of Reaction Devices ), published in 1903. In his work, Tsiolkovsky describes the fundamental rocket equation: Δ v = v e ln ⁡ m 0 m f {\displaystyle \Delta v=v_{e}\ln {\frac {m_{0}}{m_{f}}}} Where: This equation, known as

6006-712: Was the Columbia , followed by the Challenger , Discovery , Atlantis , and Endeavour . The Endeavour was built to replace the Challenger , which was lost in January 1986. The Columbia broke up during reentry in February 2003. USS Lake Champlain (CV-39) USS Lake Champlain (CV/CVA/CVS-39) was one of 24 Essex -class aircraft carriers completed during or shortly after World War II for

6084-556: Was the last operational US aircraft carrier with an axial flight deck. Lake Champlain was decommissioned in 1966 and sold for scrap in 1972. Lake Champlain was one of the "long-hull" Essex -class ships. She was laid down in Drydock No. 8 at the Norfolk Navy Yard , Portsmouth, Virginia, on 15 March 1943. The hull was launched from drydock on 2 November 1944. Lake Champlain commissioned on 3 June 1945 under

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