120-609: The Langley Research Center ( LaRC or NASA Langley ), located in Hampton, Virginia , near the Chesapeake Bay front of Langley Air Force Base , is the oldest of NASA 's field centers . LaRC has focused primarily on aeronautical research but has also tested space hardware such as the Apollo Lunar Module . In addition, many of the earliest high-profile space missions were planned and designed on-site. Langley
240-590: A Moon landing took place in 1962 during the Rangers 3, 4 and 5 missions flown by the United States. All three Block II missions basic vehicles were 3.1 m high and consisted of a lunar capsule covered with a balsa wood impact-limiter, 650 mm in diameter, a mono-propellant mid-course motor, a retrorocket with a thrust of 5,050 pounds-force (22.5 kN), and a gold- and chrome-plated hexagonal base 1.5 m in diameter. This lander (code-named Tonto )
360-482: A civilian space agency, NASA . Military efforts were initiated to develop and produce mass quantities of intercontinental ballistic missiles ( ICBMs ) that would bridge the so-called missile gap and enable a policy of deterrence to nuclear war with the Soviets known as mutual assured destruction or MAD. These newly developed missiles were made available to civilians of NASA for various projects (which would have
480-563: A crewed flight. Thus as of mid-1966, the United States had begun to pull ahead of the Soviet Union in the so-called Space Race to land a man on the Moon. Advances in other areas were necessary before crewed spacecraft could follow uncrewed ones to the surface of the Moon. Of particular importance was developing the expertise to perform flight operations in lunar orbit. Ranger, Surveyor and initial Luna Moon landing attempts all flew directly to
600-446: A fifty-milliwatt radio transmitter, a temperature sensitive voltage controlled oscillator to measure lunar surface temperatures, and a seismometer designed with sensitivity high enough to detect the impact of a 2.3 kg (5 lb) meteorite on the opposite side of the Moon. Weight was distributed in the payload sphere so it would rotate in its liquid blanket to place the seismometer into an upright and operational position no matter what
720-489: A flyby of the Moon were thwarted by in-flight failure of the onboard flight computer. This was probably because of prior heat sterilization of the spacecraft by keeping it above the boiling point of water for 24 hours on the ground, to protect the Moon from being contaminated by Earth organisms. Ranger 3 later began orbiting the Sun, called heliocentric orbit. Heat sterilization was also blamed for subsequent in-flight failures of
840-758: A gantry over a simulated lunar landscape. There was experimental work on some Lunar Landing Research Vehicles (LLRV). Langley Research Center supported NASA's mission with the designing of a spacecraft for a landing on Mars. (see the Mars Exploration Rover .) Langley Research Center conducts Earth science research to support NASA's mission. LRC scientists and engineers have won the Collier Trophy 5 times, listed below. 37°05′33″N 76°22′57″W / 37.0925°N 76.3825°W / 37.0925; -76.3825 Hampton, Virginia Hampton ( / ˈ h æ m p t ə n / )
960-411: A large role in the city's sports culture. Sporting stars such as Allen Iverson , Francena McCoroy , and T'erea Brown are from Hampton. The city's stadium, Darling Stadium, serves as the high school football stadium with games usually spread over Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. The stadium also hosts various track-and-field events. Additional sports options can be found just outside Hampton. On
1080-460: A launch resulted in a spacecraft going beyond Earth orbit. The policy had the effect of hiding Soviet Moon mission failures from public view. If the attempt failed in Earth orbit before departing for the Moon, it was frequently (but not always) given a " Sputnik " or " Cosmos " Earth-orbit mission number to hide its purpose. Launch explosions were not acknowledged at all. The U.S. was not able to reach
1200-477: A major venue for entertainment acts such as Monster Jam and WWE wrestling, musical concerts from artists such as Bruce Springsteen , The Rolling Stones , The Grateful Dead and Phish and various regional sports games from the area. The arena has a seating capacity of 9,800 to 13,800 depending on configuration. The city is served by the Hampton Public Library. The system began in 1926 as
1320-654: A man-made island across the channel) were completed in 1834. Fort Monroe is the largest stone fort ever built in the United States. Fort Monroe, Hampton and the surrounding area played several important roles during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Although most of Virginia became part of the Confederate States of America , Fort Monroe remained in Union hands. It became notable as a historic and symbolic site of early freedom for former slaves under
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#17327760757131440-522: A mission managed by the United States Air Force , exploded during launch; all subsequent Pioneer lunar flights had NASA as the lead management organization. The next two returned to Earth and burned up upon reentry into the atmosphere after achieved maximum altitudes of around 114,000 kilometres (71,000 mi) and 1,530 kilometres (950 mi) respectively, far short of the roughly 400,000 kilometres (250,000 mi) required to reach
1560-460: A one-meter diameter spherical spin-stabilized spacecraft body equipped to take images of the lunar surface with a television-like system, estimate the Moon's mass and topography of the poles , record the distribution and velocity of micrometeorites, study radiation, measure magnetic fields , detect low frequency electromagnetic waves in space and use a sophisticated integrated propulsion system for maneuvering and orbit insertion as well. None of
1680-459: A soft landing. Two organizations have attempted but failed to achieve soft landings: Israeli private space agency SpaceIL with their Beresheet spacecraft (2019), and Japanese company ispace 's Hakuto-R Mission 1 (2023). On 22 February 2024, Intuitive Machine's Odysseus successfully landed on the Moon after taking off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 liftoff on 15 February 2024 in a mission between NASA , SpaceX , and Intuitive Machines , marking
1800-632: A spacecraft, or they can be deliberately arranged for vehicles which do not have an onboard landing rocket. There have been many such Moon crashes , often with their flight path controlled to impact at precise locations on the lunar surface. For example, during the Apollo program the S-IVB third stage of the Saturn V rocket as well as the spent ascent stage of the Lunar Module were deliberately crashed on
1920-408: A successful hard Moon landing with a ruggedized seismometer package in 1962 all failed. The Soviets first achieved the milestone of a hard lunar landing with a ruggedized camera in 1966, followed only months later by the first uncrewed soft lunar landing by the U.S. The speed of a crash landing on its surface is typically between 70 and 100% of the escape velocity of the target moon, and thus this
2040-550: Is WHRO-TV 15. Hampton residents also can receive independent stations, such as WSKY broadcasting on channel 4 from the Outer Banks of North Carolina and WGBS-LD broadcasting on channel 11. Hampton is served by Verizon FiOS and Cox Cable . In the Hampton Roads region, water crossings are a major issue for land-based transportation. The city is fortunate to have a good network of local streets and bridges to cross
2160-528: Is August with an average of 2.4 inches of rain falling on 11–12 days, although in March it typically rains on more days with 2.3 inches of rain falling in 12 to 13 days. The hottest day on record was August 1, 1980, when the temperature hit 105.1 °F (40.6 °C). The lowest recorded temperature of −2.7 °F (−19.3 °C) was recorded on January 21, 1985. As of the census of 2010, there were 137,436 people, 53,887 households, and 35,888 families residing in
2280-443: Is also served by several major primary and secondary highways. These notably include U.S. Routes 17 , 60 and 258 , and Virginia State Routes 134 and 143 . The Hampton Transit Center, located close to the downtown area at the intersection of West Pembroke Avenue and King Street, offers a hub for local and intercity public transportation. It hosts HRT buses, Greyhound/Trailways services and taxicabs. Hampton Roads Transit (HRT)
2400-577: Is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The population was 137,148 as of the 2020 census , making it the seventh-most populous city in Virginia . Hampton is included in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, the 37th-largest in the United States, with a total population of 1,799,674 in 2020. This area, known as "America's First Region", also includes
2520-842: Is home to several arts venues and museums dedicated to Hampton's rich history. Notable venues in the city include The American Theatre, the Casemate Museum, the Charles Taylor Visual Arts Center, the Hampton History Museum, the Hampton University Museum , the Performing & Creative Arts Center, and the Virginia Air & Space Center . The Hampton Coliseum , a multi-purpose arena built in 1968, serves as
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#17327760757132640-616: Is land and 85 square miles (220 km ) (62.3%) is water. Hampton has a humid subtropical climate ( Köppen : Cfa ) characteristic of the Southeast United States. The weather in Hampton is temperate and seasonal with hot and humid summers and mild winters. The mean annual temperature is 60.2 °F (15.7 °C), with an average annual snowfall of 6 in (150 mm) and an average annual rainfall of 47 in (1,200 mm). The wettest month by average rainfall
2760-504: Is located in Virginia's 3rd congressional district , represented by Bobby Scott. (Democrat). The main provider of public primary and secondary education is Hampton City Public Schools . There are four high schools – Kecoughtan , Bethel , Phoebus , and Hampton – eighteen K-5 elementary schools, two PK-8 schools, five middle schools, one early childhood center, and one gifted center in the city. Several private schools are located in
2880-600: Is served by a variety of radio stations on the AM and FM dials, with towers located around the Hampton Roads area. Hampton is also served by several television stations. The Hampton Roads designated market area (DMA) is the 42nd largest in the U.S. with 712,790 homes (0.64% of the total U.S.). The major network television affiliates are WTKR-TV 3 ( CBS ), WAVY-TV 10 ( NBC ), WVEC-TV 13 ( ABC ), WGNT 27 ( CW ), WTVZ 33 ( MyNetworkTV ), WVBT 43 ( Fox ), and WPXV 49 ( ION Television ). The Public Broadcasting Service station
3000-562: Is similar to the EBF³ process but with a thin, grated heating element as its melting apparatus. Both are run by CAD data and deal with various freeform fabrication of raw materials. Since the start of Project Gemini , Langley was a center for training of rendezvous in space. In 1965, Langley opened the Lunar Landing Research Facility for simulations of Moon landings with a mock Apollo Lunar Module suspended from
3120-630: Is the Newport News–based Daily Press . Other papers include Norfolk's The Virginian-Pilot , Port Folio Weekly , the New Journal and Guide , and the Hampton Roads Business Journal . Coastal Virginia Magazine serves as a bi-monthly regional magazine for Hampton and the Hampton Roads area. Hampton Roads Times serves as an online magazine for all the Hampton Roads cities and counties. Hampton
3240-562: Is the local provider of transit service within the city, as well offering a regional bus system with routes to and from seven other cities in Hampton Roads . Intercity bus service is provided by Greyhound Lines and its Carolina Trailways affiliate. The buses serve the Hampton Transit Center. Low cost curbside intercity bus service is also provided by Megabus , with service to Richmond, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Philadelphia. Lunar landing Clickable map of
3360-466: Is the soft moon landing on Titan carried out by the Huygens probe in 2005. As the moon with the thickest atmosphere, landings on Titan may be accomplished by using atmospheric entry techniques that are generally lighter in weight than a rocket with equivalent capability. The Soviets succeeded in making the first crash landing on the Moon in 1959. Crash landings may occur because of malfunctions in
3480-411: Is the total velocity which must be shed from the target moon's gravitational attraction for a soft landing to occur. For Earth's Moon, the escape velocity is 2.38 kilometres per second (1.48 mi/s). The change in velocity (referred to as a delta-v ) is usually provided by a landing rocket, which must be carried into space by the original launch vehicle as part of the overall spacecraft. An exception
3600-666: The American Hockey League field baseball and hockey teams respectively. In Virginia Beach, the Hampton Roads Piranhas field men's and women's professional soccer teams. The city uses a council-manager government , with Donnie Tuck serving as mayor, Mary Bunting serving as the city manager , and six council members serving as representatives to the districts in the city. As of 2020 , the Hampton City Council consisted of: Hampton
3720-727: The Hampton Roads Beltway . The HRBT is located on Interstate 64 near downtown Hampton and the MMMBT is a few miles away on Interstate 664 near downtown Newport News. (These two major interstates converge in Hampton near the Hampton Coliseum .) The third crossing option is the James River Bridge , also in Newport News, which connects to Isle of Wight County and the town of Smithfield . Hampton
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3840-711: The Joint Strike Fighter ) but had been inactive since 2004. Langley retained transonic wind tunnel testing capabilities facilities in the National Transonic Facility , a high pressure, cryogenically cooled 8.2 feet (2.5 m) closed loop wind tunnel. LaRC also houses a large collection of various inexpensive plastic reformation machines. These machines are used in the freeform fabrication department for faster timing, better precision, and larger quantities of low-cost toys, model , and industrial plastic parts. The fabrication of plastic parts
3960-461: The Thor booster modified with an Able upper stage carried an infrared image scanning television system with a resolution of 1 milliradian to study the Moon's surface, an ionization chamber to measure radiation in space, a diaphragm/microphone assembly to detect micrometeorites , a magnetometer , and temperature-variable resistors to monitor spacecraft internal thermal conditions. The first,
4080-511: The Virginia Air and Space Center . Hampton features many miles of waterfront and beaches. The city features a wide array of business and industrial enterprises, retail and residential areas, historical sites, and other points of interest, such as a NASCAR short track , the oldest Anglican parish in the Americas (1610) , and a moated, six-sided, historical bastion fort . Indigenous Americans settled in present-day Hampton before 10,000 BCE. In
4200-533: The attack on Pearl Harbor ; the V-2 rocket , a ballistic missile which killed thousands in attacks on London and Antwerp ; and the atom bomb , which killed hundreds of thousands in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki . In the 1950s, tensions mounted between the two ideologically opposed superpowers of the United States and the Soviet Union that had emerged as victors in the conflict, particularly after
4320-493: The kinetic energy of a returning spacecraft and reduce its speed for safe landing. These functions greatly complicate a moon landing mission and lead to many additional operational considerations. Any moon departure rocket must first be carried to the Moon's surface by a moon landing rocket, increasing the latter's required size. The Moon departure rocket, larger moon landing rocket and any Earth atmosphere entry equipment such as heat shields and parachutes must in turn be lifted by
4440-431: The lunar south pole region, making India the fourth nation to successfully complete a soft landing on the Moon. Chandrayaan-3 saw a successful soft landing of its Vikram lander and Pragyan rover at 6.04 pm IST (1234 GMT), marking the first uncrewed soft landing in the little-explored region. On 19 January 2024, JAXA successfully landed its SLIM lander , making Japan the fifth nation to successfully complete
4560-410: The radar and landing systems required to make a true controlled touchdown. Five of Surveyor's seven missions made successful uncrewed Moon landings. Surveyor 3 was visited two years after its Moon landing by the crew of Apollo 12. They removed parts of it for examination back on Earth to determine the effects of long-term exposure to the lunar environment. Within four months of each other in early 1966
4680-479: The Atlantic Ocean to North America. After a long voyage, they first landed at the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay on the south shore at a place they named Cape Henry (for Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales , the elder son of their king). During the first few days of exploration, they identified the site of Old Point Comfort (which they originally named "Point Comfort") as a strategic defensive location at
4800-656: The Grand Contraband Camp led to educational efforts which eventually included establishment of Hampton University , site of the famous Emancipation Oak . The original site of the Native American's Kecoughtan Settlement was near the present site of a Hampton Roads Transit facility. To the south of present-day Hampton, a small unrelated incorporated town also named Kecoughtan many years later and also located in Elizabeth City County
4920-553: The Hampton area experienced significant losses in war and peacetime due to family members in combat and peacetime military accidents. Fort Monroe was an active army base until its decommissioning on September 15, 2011. Shortly after, the fort was named a National Monument by President Barack Obama, on November 1. In particular, during the Vietnam War, Langley Air Force Base was a designated 'waiting base' and thousands of Air Force families were transferred to Hampton from all over
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5040-606: The Hampton area, a high concentration of families of unaccounted for wartime casualties. In many cases Hampton-stationed military families of "Missing in Action" or "Prisoner of War" pilots and sailors spent many years in the area waiting to find out what had happened to their missing or captured airmen and sailors. According to the United States Census Bureau , the city has a total area of 136 square miles (350 km ), of which 51 square miles (130 km )
5160-522: The Langley Laboratory are named after aviation pioneer Samuel Pierpont Langley . The Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps had established a base there earlier that same year. The first research facilities were in place and aeronautical research was started by 1920. Initially, the laboratory included four researchers and 11 technicians. Langley Field and NACA began parallel growth as air power proved its utility during World War I . The center
5280-645: The Luna 9 hard landing of a ruggedized sphere using airbags at a 50-kilometre-per-hour (31 mph) ballistic impact speed had much more in common with the failed 1962 Ranger landing attempts and their planned 160-kilometre-per-hour (99 mph) impacts than with the Surveyor 1 soft landing on three footpads using its radar-controlled, adjustable-thrust retrorocket. While Luna 9 and Surveyor 1 were both major national accomplishments, only Surveyor 1 had reached its landing site employing key technologies that would be needed for
5400-553: The Moon at close range, the Ranger 7 mission was viewed as a national turning point and instrumental in allowing the key 1965 NASA budget appropriation to pass through the United States Congress intact without a reduction in funds for the Apollo crewed Moon landing program. Subsequent successes with Ranger 8 and Ranger 9 further buoyed U.S. hopes. The Luna 9 spacecraft, launched by the Soviet Union , performed
5520-404: The Moon during their descent. The Ranger 1 and 2 Block I missions were virtually identical. Spacecraft experiments included a Lyman-alpha telescope, a rubidium-vapor magnetometer , electrostatic analyzers, medium-energy-range particle detectors , two triple coincidence telescopes, a cosmic-ray integrating ionization chamber , cosmic dust detectors, and scintillation counters . The goal
5640-470: The Moon several times to provide impacts registering as a moonquake on seismometers that had been left on the lunar surface. Such crashes were instrumental in mapping the internal structure of the Moon . To return to Earth, the escape velocity of the Moon must be overcome for the spacecraft to escape the gravity well of the Moon. Rockets must be used to leave the Moon and return to space. Upon reaching Earth, atmospheric entry techniques are used to absorb
5760-564: The Moon were conducted by the Apollo program , with the last departing the lunar surface in December 1972. After Luna 24 in 1976 there were no soft landings on the Moon until Chang'e 3 in 2013. All soft landings took place on the near side of the Moon until January 2019, when Chang'e 4 made the first landing on the far side of the Moon . Six government space agencies, Interkosmos , NASA , CNSA , ISRO , JAXA and ESA , have reached
5880-640: The Moon with the Pioneer and Ranger programs , with fifteen consecutive U.S. uncrewed lunar missions from 1958 to 1964 failing their primary photographic missions. However, Rangers 4 and 6 successfully repeated the Soviet lunar impacts as part of their secondary missions. Three U.S. missions in 1962 attempted to hard land small seismometer packages released by the main Ranger spacecraft. These surface packages were to use retrorockets to survive landing, unlike
6000-423: The Moon with uncrewed missions. Three private/commercial missions, Beresheet (hard landing), Hakuto-R (hard landing), and Odysseus (soft landing) have also reached the lunar surface (see #Commercial landings ). The Soviet Union (Interkosmos), the United States (NASA), China (CNSA), India (ISRO), and Japan (JAXA) are the only five nations to have successfully achieved soft landings. The Soviet Union performed
6120-497: The Moon, where they successfully operated for 10 and 4 months respectively, covering 10.5 km (6.5 mi) ( Lunokhod 1 ) and 37 km (23 mi) ( Lunokhod 2 ). These rover missions were in operation concurrently with the Zond and Luna series of Moon flyby, orbiter and landing missions. The U.S. robotic Surveyor program was part of an effort to locate a safe site on the Moon for a human landing and test under lunar conditions
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#17327760757136240-495: The NASA Lunar Prospector orbiter was deliberately targeted to impact a permanently shadowed area of Shoemaker Crater near the lunar south pole. It was hoped that energy from the impact would vaporize suspected shadowed ice deposits in the crater and liberate a water vapor plume detectable from Earth. No such plume was observed. However, a small vial of ashes from the body of pioneer lunar scientist Eugene Shoemaker
6360-525: The R-7 rocket was used to launch the first escape from Earth's gravity into a solar orbit , the first crash impact onto the surface of the Moon, and the first photography of the never-before-seen far side of the Moon . These were the Luna 1 , Luna 2 , and Luna 3 spacecraft. The U.S. response to these Soviet achievements was to greatly accelerate previously existing military space and missile projects and to create
6480-413: The Ranger lunar probes: Block I prototypes, which would carry various radiation detectors in test flights to a very high Earth orbit that came nowhere near the Moon; Block II, which would try to accomplish the first Moon landing by hard landing a seismometer package; and Block III, which would crash onto the lunar surface without any braking rockets while taking very high resolution wide-area photographs of
6600-562: The Russians. ...We're ready to spend reasonable amounts of money, but we're talking about fantastic expenditures which wreck our budget and all these other domestic programs, and the only justification for it, in my opinion, to do it is because we hope to beat them and demonstrate that starting behind, as we did by a couple of years, by God, we passed them." — John F. Kennedy on the planned Moon landing, 21 November 1962 This payload sphere contained six silver- cadmium batteries to power
6720-443: The Soviet Union and the United States had accomplished successful Moon landings with uncrewed spacecraft. To the general public both countries had demonstrated roughly equal technical capabilities by returning photographic images from the surface of the Moon. These pictures provided a key affirmative answer to the crucial question of whether or not lunar soil would support upcoming crewed landers with their much greater weight. However,
6840-551: The United States' first soft unmanned Moon landing in over 50 years. This event marked the first successful landing of a privately owned spacecraft on the Moon. A total of twelve astronauts have landed on the Moon. This was accomplished with two pilot-astronauts flying a Lunar Module on each of six NASA missions. The missions spanned a 41-month period starting 20 July 1969, beginning with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on Apollo 11 , and ending on 14 December 1972 with Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt on Apollo 17 . Cernan
6960-455: The added benefit of demonstrating the payload, guidance accuracy and reliabilities of U.S. ICBMs to the Soviets). After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, historical records were released to allow the true accounting of Soviet lunar efforts. Unlike the U.S. tradition of assigning a particular mission name in advance of a launch, the Soviets assigned a public " Luna " mission number only if
7080-664: The area, including Denbigh Baptist Christian School , Hampton Roads Academy , and Peninsula Catholic High School . Virginia School for the Deaf, Blind and Multi-Disabled at Hampton , operated by the State of Virginia, was formerly in Hampton. The city contains Hampton University and Virginia Peninsula Community College . Other nearby universities in the Hampton Roads region include Christopher Newport University , Old Dominion University , Norfolk State University , and The College of William and Mary . Hampton's daily newspaper
7200-418: The center expanded to include rocket research, leading to the establishment of a flight station at Wallops Island, Virginia . A further expansion of the research program permitted Langley Research Center to orbit payloads, starting with NASA's Explorer 9 balloon satellite in mid-February 1961. As rocket research grew, aeronautics research continued to expand and played an important part when subsonic flight
7320-436: The city of Hampton, the incorporated town of Phoebus and Elizabeth City County merged into the independent city of Hampton. It was the first of a series of political consolidations in the Hampton Roads region during the third quarter of the 20th century. Hampton has a rich and extensive 20th-century military history – home of Langley Air Force Base, the nation's first military installation dedicated solely to air power and
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#17327760757137440-442: The city's population was down slightly to more, 145,579. The median income for a household in the city was $ 39,532, and the median income for a family was $ 46,110. Males had a median income of $ 31,666 versus $ 24,578 for females. The per capita income for the city was $ 19,774. About 8.8% of families and 11.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 15.9% of those under age 18 and 8.6% of those age 65 or over. Hampton
7560-413: The city. The population density was 2,828.0 inhabitants per square mile (1,091.9/km ). There were 57,311 housing units at an average density of 1,106.8 units per square mile (427.3 units/km ). The racial makeup of the city was 49.6% Black or African American , 42.7% White , 2.2% Asian , 0.4% Native American , 0.1% Pacific Islander , 1.3% from other races , and 3.7% from two or more races. 4.5% of
7680-734: The collegiate level, the College of William and Mary , Norfolk State University and Old Dominion University offer NCAA Division I athletics. Virginia Wesleyan College and Christopher Newport University also provide sports at the NCAA Division III level. Professional sports can be found in the area as well. In Norfolk, the Norfolk Tides of the International League and the Norfolk Admirals of
7800-788: The counties of James City and York are also located nearby in the Peninsula sub-region, and many roads lead to them. To reach most of its other neighbors in the South Hampton Roads sub-region, it is necessary to cross the harbor and/or the mouth of the James River . There are 3 major motor vehicle crossings. Among these are the Hampton Roads Bridge–Tunnel (HRBT) and the Monitor–Merrimac Memorial Bridge–Tunnel (MMMBT), each forming part of
7920-597: The design and testing of the hypersonic X-43 , which achieved a world speed record of Mach 9.6 (11,800 km/h; 7,310 mph). LaRC assisted the NTSB in the investigation of the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 . Work began in July 2011 to remove the 1940s era 16 feet (4.9 m) transonic wind tunnel. The facility supported development and propulsion integration research for many military aircraft including all fighters since 1960 ( F-14 , F-15 , F-16 , F-18 and
8040-462: The development by both countries of the hydrogen bomb . On 4 October 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 as the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth and so initiated the Space Race . This unexpected event was a source of pride to the Soviets and shock to the U.S., who could now potentially be surprise attacked by nuclear-tipped Soviet rockets in under 30 minutes. The craft
8160-604: The early 1600s, the Tidewater region was populated by the Powhatan peoples who called the lands Tsenacommacah . The Powhatan Chiefdom was made up of over 30 tribes numbering an estimated 25,000 people before the arrival of English colonists. In December 1606, three ships carrying men and boys left England on a mission sponsored by a proprietary company. Led by Captain Christopher Newport , they sailed across
8280-405: The entire lunar surface for the selection of crewed landing sites and, for the Soviets, the checkout of radio communications gear that would be used in future soft landings. An unexpected major discovery from initial lunar orbiters were vast volumes of dense materials beneath the surface of the Moon's maria . Such mass concentrations (" mascons ") can send a crewed mission dangerously off course in
8400-533: The entrance to the body of water that became known as Hampton Roads . This is formed by the confluence of the Elizabeth , Nansemond , and James rivers. The latter is the longest river in Virginia. Weeks later, on May 14, 1607, they established the first permanent English settlement in the present-day United States about 25 miles (40 km) further inland from the Bay which became the site of fortifications during
8520-484: The final minutes of a Moon landing when aiming for a relatively small landing zone that is smooth and safe. Mascons were also found over a longer period of time to greatly disturb the orbits of low-altitude satellites around the Moon, making their orbits unstable and forcing an inevitable crash on the lunar surface in the relatively short period of months to a few years. Controlling the location of impact for spent lunar orbiters can have scientific value. For example, in 1999
8640-405: The final resting orientation of the external landing sphere. After landing, plugs were to be opened allowing the freon to evaporate and the payload sphere to settle into upright contact with the landing sphere. The batteries were sized to allow up to three months of operation for the payload sphere. Various mission constraints limited the landing site to Oceanus Procellarum on the lunar equator, which
8760-459: The final twenty-minute period before crashing on the lunar surface. Camera resolution was 1,132 scan lines, far higher than the 525 lines found in a typical U.S. 1964 home television. While Ranger 6 suffered a failure of this camera system and returned no photographs despite an otherwise successful flight, the subsequent Ranger 7 mission to Mare Cognitum was a complete success. Breaking the six-year string of failures in U.S. attempts to photograph
8880-516: The first robotic probe to land on the Moon and safely return a sample of lunar soil back to Earth. It represented the first lunar sample return mission by the Soviet Union , and was the third lunar sample return mission overall, following the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 missions. This mission was later successfully repeated by Luna 20 (1972) and Luna 24 (1976). In 1970 and 1973 two Lunokhod ("Moonwalker") robotic lunar rovers were delivered to
9000-679: The first Africans to arrive were Anthony and Isabella. Their child, the first of African descent born in North America, was born baptized January 1624. In 1813, the fort was captured again by the British as part of the War of 1812 . Shortly after the war ended, the US Army built a more substantial stone facility at Old Point Comfort. It was called Fort Monroe in honor of President James Monroe . The new installation and adjacent Fort Calhoun (on
9120-714: The first free county library in Virginia. Today, the main library includes the main library and three branches. The Peninsula Pilots of the Coastal Plain League are a collegiate summer baseball league based in Hampton. The Pilots have been playing at War Memorial Stadium since 2000. The Hampton University Pirates & Lady Pirates compete in the Big South Conference in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision . High school sports (especially football & basketball) play
9240-411: The first hard Moon landing – "hard" meaning the spacecraft intentionally crashes into the Moon at high speeds – with the Luna 2 spacecraft in 1959, a feat the U.S. duplicated in 1962 with Ranger 4 . Following their initial hard landings on the Moon, sixteen Soviet, U.S., Chinese and Indian spacecraft have used braking rockets ( retrorockets ) to make soft landings and perform scientific operations on
9360-399: The first successful soft Moon landing on 3 February 1966. Airbags protected its 99-kilogram (218 lb) ejectable capsule which survived an impact speed of over 15 metres per second (54 km/h; 34 mph). Luna 13 duplicated this feat with a similar Moon landing on 24 December 1966. Both returned panoramic photographs that were the first views from the lunar surface. Luna 16 was
9480-510: The following 200 years. Slightly south, near the entrance to Hampton River , the colonists seized the Native American community of Kecoughtan under Virginia's Governor, Sir Thomas Gates . The colonists established their own small town, with a small Anglican church (known now as St. John's Episcopal Church) , on July 9, 1610. This came to be known as part of Hampton. (With Jamestown having been abandoned in 1699, Hampton claims to be
9600-518: The former Elizabeth City County and the incorporated town of Phoebus , consolidated by a mutual agreement. After the end of the American Civil War , historic Hampton University was established opposite from the town on the Hampton River , providing an education for many newly freed former slaves and for area Native Americans. In the 20th century, the area became the location of Langley Air Force Base , NASA Langley Research Center , and
9720-490: The four spacecraft built in this series of probes survived launch on its Atlas ICBM outfitted with an Able upper stage. Following the unsuccessful Atlas-Able Pioneer probes, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory embarked upon an uncrewed spacecraft development program whose modular design could be used to support both lunar and interplanetary exploration missions. The interplanetary versions were known as Mariners ; lunar versions were Rangers . JPL envisioned three versions of
9840-403: The home of the U.S. Air Force's 633rd Air Base Wing and 1st and 192nd Fighter Wings. Hampton has been a center of military aviation training, research and development for nearly a hundred years, from early prop planes and Zeppelins to rocket parts and advanced fighters. Its proximity to Norfolk means that Hampton has long been home to many Navy families. Together, many Air Force and Navy families in
9960-493: The independent cities of Chesapeake , Virginia Beach , Newport News , Norfolk , Portsmouth , and Suffolk , as well as other smaller cities, counties, and towns of Hampton Roads. Hampton traces its history to the city's Old Point Comfort , the home of Fort Monroe for almost 400 years, which was named by the 1607 voyagers, led by Captain Christopher Newport , who first established Jamestown as an English colonial settlement. Since consolidation in 1952, Hampton has included
10080-499: The lander ideally would reach 66 hours after launch. No cameras were carried by the Ranger landers, and no pictures were to be captured from the lunar surface during the mission. Instead, the 3.1 metres (10 ft) Ranger Block II mother ship carried a 200-scan-line television camera to capture images during the free-fall descent to the lunar surface. The camera was designed to transmit a picture every 10 seconds. Seconds before impact, at 5 and 0.6 kilometres (3.11 and 0.37 mi) above
10200-478: The locations of all successful soft landings on the Moon to date (top) A Moon landing or lunar landing is the arrival of a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon , including both crewed and robotic missions. The first human-made object to touch the Moon was Luna 2 in 1959. In 1969 Apollo 11 was the first crewed mission to land on the Moon. There were six crewed landings between 1969 and 1972, and numerous uncrewed landings. All crewed missions to
10320-492: The lunar surface in a Moon landing and then hauling it all back into space yet again, working against lunar gravity both ways. Such considerations lead logically to a lunar orbit rendezvous mission profile for a crewed Moon landing. Accordingly, beginning in mid-1966 both the U.S. and U.S.S.R. naturally progressed into missions featuring lunar orbit as a prerequisite to a crewed Moon landing. The primary goals of these initial uncrewed orbiters were extensive photographic mapping of
10440-487: The lunar surface, the Ranger mother ships took pictures (which may be viewed here ). Other instruments gathering data before the mother ship crashed onto the Moon were a gamma ray spectrometer to measure overall lunar chemical composition and a radar altimeter. The radar altimeter was to give a signal ejecting the landing capsule and its solid-fueled braking rocket overboard from the Block II mother ship. The braking rocket
10560-460: The lunar surface. In 1966 the Soviet Union accomplished the first soft landings and took the first pictures from the lunar surface during the Luna 9 and Luna 13 missions. The U.S. followed with five Surveyor soft landings. China's ongoing "Chang'e" program has landed 4 times since 2013, achieving robotic soil sample return and the first landing on the far side of the Moon. On 23 August 2023, ISRO successfully landed its Chandrayaan-3 module in
10680-501: The main office of the Space Task Group . In September 2019, after previously serving as associate director and deputy director, Clayton P. Turner was appointed director of NASA Langley. After U.S.-German relations had deteriorated from neutral to hostile around 1916, the prospect of U.S. war entry became possible. On February 15, 1917, the newly established Aviation Week warned that the U.S. military aviation capability
10800-466: The oldest continuously occupied English settlement in the United States.) Hampton was named for Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton , an important leader of the Virginia Company of London , for whom the Hampton River , Hampton Roads and Southampton County were also named. The area became part of Elizabeth Cittie [ sic ] in 1619, Elizabeth River Shire in 1634, and
10920-432: The original launch vehicle, greatly increasing its size by a significant and almost prohibitive degree. The political context of the 1960s helps to parse both the United States and Soviet Union's efforts to land spacecraft, and eventually humans, on the Moon. World War II had introduced many new and deadly innovations including blitzkrieg -style surprise attacks used in the invasion of Poland and Finland , as well as in
11040-407: The parent vehicle, which was designed to deliberately crash onto the surface. The final three Ranger probes performed successful high altitude lunar reconnaissance photography missions during intentional crash impacts between 2.62 and 2.68 kilometres per second (9,400 and 9,600 km/h). Three different designs of Pioneer lunar probes were flown on three different modified ICBMs. Those flown on
11160-434: The population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. There were 53,887 households, out of which 32.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.2% were married couples living together, 16.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.4% were non-families. 26.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 7.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size
11280-509: The presence of the Van Allen radiation belts before reentering Earth's atmosphere. The second passed by the Moon at a distance of more than 60,000 kilometres (37,000 mi), twice as far as planned and too far away to trigger either of the on-board scientific instruments, yet still becoming the first U.S. spacecraft to reach a solar orbit . The final Pioneer lunar probe design consisted of four " paddlewheel " solar panels extending from
11400-534: The present-day region of Angola to Point Comfort . They had been removed by its crew from a Portuguese slave ship , the "São João Bautista". These were the first recorded slaves from Africa in the Thirteen Colonies . John Rolfe , the widower of Pocahontas , wrote in a letter that he was at Point Comfort and witnessed the arrival of the first Africans. The Bantu from Angola were considered indentured servants , but in effect, were to be slaves. Two of
11520-678: The provisions of contraband policies and later the Emancipation Proclamation . After the War, former Confederate President, Jefferson Davis was imprisoned in the area now known as the Casemate Museum on the base. To the northwest of Fort Monroe, the Town of Hampton had the misfortune to be attacked during the American Revolutionary War and burned down during the War of 1812 and the American Civil War . From
11640-494: The ruins of Hampton left by evacuating Confederates in 1861, "Contraband" slaves (formerly owned by Confederates and under a degree of Union protection) built the Grand Contraband Camp , the first self-contained African American community in the United States. A number of modern-day Hampton streets retain their names from that community. The large number of contraband slaves who sought the refuge of Fort Monroe and
11760-460: The simulation of lunar gravity, and the Viking program for Mars exploration. The center also developed standards for the grooving of aircraft runways based on a previous British design used at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport . Grooved runways reduce aquaplaning which permits better grip by aircraft tires in heavy rain. This grooving is now the international standard for all runways around
11880-449: The spacecraft computer on Ranger 4 and the power subsystem on Ranger 5. Only Ranger 4 reached the Moon in an uncontrolled crash impact on the far side of the Moon. Block III probes replaced the Block II landing capsule and its retrorocket with a heavier, more capable television system to support landing site selection for upcoming Apollo crewed Moon landing missions. Six cameras were designed to take thousands of high-altitude photographs in
12000-417: The surface without a lunar orbit. Such direct ascents use a minimum amount of fuel for uncrewed spacecraft on a one-way trip. In contrast, crewed vehicles need additional fuel after a lunar landing to enable a return trip back to Earth for the crew. Leaving this massive amount of required Earth-return fuel in lunar orbit until it is used later in the mission is far more efficient than taking such fuel down to
12120-607: The surrounding area over the loss and transfer of so many jobs to Houston. Though they had lost out on the Manned Spacecraft Center, Langley still played an important role in conducting research and training during the Apollo Program. Langley Research Center performs critical research on aeronautics, including wake vortex behavior, fixed-wing aircraft , rotary wing aircraft , aviation safety , human factors and aerospace engineering . LaRC supported
12240-416: The target moon, a spacecraft will be drawn ever closer to its surface at increasing speeds due to gravity. In order to land intact it must decelerate to less than about 160 kilometres per hour (100 mph) and be ruggedized to withstand a "hard landing" impact, or it must decelerate to negligible speed at contact for a "soft landing" (the only option for humans). The first three attempts by the U.S. to perform
12360-410: The various rivers and creeks. Many smaller bridges, especially those along Mercury Boulevard , were named to honor the original NASA astronauts, who had trained extensively at NASA's Langley facilities. The city is located contiguously to the neighboring independent cities of both Newport News and Poquoson. Many roads and streets are available to travel between them. Likewise, Williamsburg, Yorktown and
12480-585: The vicinity of the Moon. NASA then collaborated with the United States Army 's Ballistic Missile Agency to fly two extremely small cone-shaped probes on the Juno ICBM, carrying only photocells which would be triggered by the light of the Moon and a lunar radiation environment experiment using a Geiger-Müller tube detector. The first of these reached an altitude of only around 100,000 kilometres (62,000 mi), gathering data that established
12600-616: The world to wait while their husbands and fathers served in Vietnam. Thousands of Navy families associated with Naval bases in Norfolk next door also waited in Hampton during this era. Vietnam was a very high casualty war for Air Force and Navy pilots (some types of planes experienced a 50% casualty rate), and Naval "river rats" who fought on the rivers of the Mekong Delta experienced high casualties as well. There accumulated over time, in
12720-416: The world. Langley was also a contender for the site of NASA Mission Control , prior to the eventual selection of Houston, due to Langley's prominence with NASA at the time, the large existing aerospace industry already present in the Hampton Roads region, and the proximity to Washington, D.C. The selection of Houston actually took many higher-ups at Langley by surprise and caused some lingering controversy in
12840-512: Was 2.49 and the average family size was 3.02. The age distribution is 24.2% under the age of 18, 12.6% from 18 to 24, 32.5% from 25 to 44, 20.4% from 45 to 64, and 10.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 98.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.6 males. Population update: estimated population in July 2002: 145,921 (-0.4% change) Males: 72,579 (49.6%), Females: 73,858 (50.4%) The Census estimate for 2005 shows that
12960-501: Was advanced and supersonic and hypersonic flight were introduced. Langley Research Center claims many historic firsts, some of which have proven to be revolutionary scientific breakthroughs. These accomplishments include: Development of the concept of research aircraft leading to supersonic flight, the world's first transonic wind tunnel, training the first crews of astronauts, the Lunar Landing Facility which provides
13080-443: Was also barely visible to the naked eye as the steady beeping of the radio beacon aboard Sputnik 1 as it passed overhead every 96 minutes, which was widely viewed on both sides as effective propaganda to Third World countries demonstrating the technological superiority of the Soviet political system compared to that of the U.S. This perception was reinforced by a string of subsequent rapid-fire Soviet space achievements. In 1959,
13200-626: Was also considered a potential site for NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center prior to the eventual selection of Houston , Texas. Established in 1917 by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the research center devotes two-thirds of its programs to aeronautics and the rest to space . LaRC researchers use more than 40 wind tunnels to study and improve aircraft and spacecraft safety, performance, and efficiency. Between 1958 and 1963, when NASA (the successor agency to NACA) started Project Mercury , LaRC served as
13320-411: Was annexed by the city of Newport News in 1927. It is now part of that city's East End . Hampton was incorporated as a city in 1849. On March 30, 1908, Hampton was separated from Elizabeth City County and became an independent city. However, it remained the county seat and continued to share many services with the county. On July 1, 1952, following approval of voters of each locality by referendum,
13440-619: Was built at NASA's Ames Research Center in California. The West Area Computers were African American , female mathematicians who worked as human computers at the Langley Research Center from 1943 through 1958. The West Computers were originally subject to Virginia's Jim Crow laws and got their name because they worked at Langley's West Area, while the white mathematicians worked in the East section. Early in 1945,
13560-402: Was deemed vital to be assured of capturing high-bandwidth television transmissions from the Moon during a one-shot fifteen-minute time window in subsequent Block II and Block III lunar descents. Both Block I missions suffered failures of the new Agena upper stage and never left low Earth parking orbit after launch; both burned up upon reentry after only a few days. The first attempts to perform
13680-415: Was designed to provide impact cushioning using an exterior blanket of crushable balsa wood and an interior filled with incompressible liquid freon . A 42-kilogram (93 lb) 30-centimetre-diameter (0.98 ft) metal payload sphere floated and was free to rotate in a liquid freon reservoir contained in the landing sphere. "Everything that we do ought to really be tied-in to getting onto the Moon ahead of
13800-531: Was included in Elizabeth City County when it was formed in 1643. By 1680, the settlement was known as Hampton, and it was incorporated as a town in 1705 and became the seat of Elizabeth City County. In the latter part of August 1619, the White Lion , a privateer captained by John Colyn Jope and sailing under a Dutch letter of marque , delivered approximately 20 enslaved Africans , from
13920-639: Was less than what was operating in the European war . President Woodrow Wilson sent Jerome Hunsaker to Europe to investigate, and Hunsaker's report prompted Wilson to command the creation of the nation's first aeronautics laboratory, which became NASA Langley. In 1917, less than three years after it was created, the NACA established the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory on Langley Field . Both Langley Field and
14040-443: Was originally established to explore the field of aerodynamic research involving airframe and propulsion engine design and performance. In 1934 the world's largest wind tunnel was constructed at Langley Field with a 30-by-60-foot (9.1 m × 18.3 m) test section; it was large enough to test full-scale aircraft. It remained the world's largest wind tunnel until the 1940s, when a 40-by-80-foot (12 m × 24 m) tunnel
14160-424: Was the last man to step off the lunar surface. All Apollo lunar missions had a third crew member who remained on board the command module . To get to the Moon, a spacecraft must first leave Earth's gravity well ; currently, the only practical means is a rocket . Unlike airborne vehicles such as balloons and jets , a rocket can continue accelerating in the vacuum outside the atmosphere . Upon approach of
14280-425: Was to place these Block I spacecraft in a very high Earth orbit with an apogee of 110,000 kilometres (68,000 mi) and a perigee of 60,000 kilometres (37,000 mi). From that vantage point, scientists could make direct measurements of the magnetosphere over a period of many months while engineers perfected new methods to routinely track and communicate with spacecraft over such large distances. Such practice
14400-504: Was to slow and the landing sphere to a dead stop at 330 metres (1,080 ft) above the surface and separate, allowing the landing sphere to free fall once more and hit the surface. On Ranger 3, failure of the Atlas guidance system and a software error aboard the Agena upper stage combined to put the spacecraft on a course that would miss the Moon. Attempts to salvage lunar photography during
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