Now a days space travel is a trending issue. The Evergreen Space Museum transports you back to a time when travel to the stars was just a dream, and then winds you through history from miniature rockets launched from remote farms to the robotic spacecraft we know today. See the artifacts and spacecraft up close – from rocket booster systems to manned and unmanned spacecrafts.
Some history: ( Regarding: https://www.evergreenmuseum.org/space-flight)
Goddard 1926 Liquid Fuel Rocket Replica Humanity stepped onto to road to the stars in March, 1926 when Dr. Robert Goddard launched his first successful liquid-fueled rocket in Auburn, Massachusetts. A simple design utilizing a rocket motor mounted above the fuel tanks for stability, burning liquid oxygen and gasoline, the rocket lifted out of its launch stand and flew to a height of 41 feet before crashing to earth. Despite its short flight, the rocket proved that liquid fuels could be used as propellants for future space vehicles. The replica on display was built by the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum volunteers.
V-2 Rocket The V-2 rocket was the first long-range ballistic missile and is the first manmade object to reach space. Developed by Germany at Peenemünde and produced by forced labor in an underground factory called Mittelwerk, the Nazis used the V-2 as a terror weapon. Over 5000 were launched at England and the Netherlands. Captured V-2s, and the scientists who designed them became the core of the US missile program following World War II.
Loon Missile Based on a captured German V-1 Buzz Bomb, the Loon was America’s first production cruise missile. It was reverse-engineered from wrecked V-1s gathered by Allied forces in World War II and was produced for use against Japan. Like the V-1, it was launched from a ramp on the ground or from under the wing of an airplane, but experiments were also done by the Navy, launching them from submarines. Although the war ended before the Loon could be used in combat, it gave the US lots of practical experience in operating missiles. This original Loon is on loan from the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center.
Gorgon IIa Missile As aircraft became faster and faster in the jet age, machine guns simply did not have the range to be effective in aerial combat, so a new weapon was needed: the air to air missile. The Gorgon IIa was designed by Martin to be launched from one aircraft to shoot down another, and was remotely guided by an operator using a television camera in the nose. It proved to be totally unsuited for that role, as the rocket powered missile was very hard to control and needed a big aircraft to carry it. Only 21 Gorgon IIa missiles were built.
North American X-15 While NASA worked on sending humans into space in space capsules, they were also involved in sending men to space in a winged vehicle; the X-15. A rocket powered aircraft carried aloft beneath the wing of a B-52 bomber, the X-15 was designed to test the hypersonic flight realm. Eight X-15 pilots would earn their astronaut wings, flying over 50 miles high. The three X-15s flew 199 research flights, with only one fatal accident. This X-15 is a full scale mock-up built by North American Aviation and is on loan from the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center.
The commercial race to get tourists to space is heating up between Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson and former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. On Sunday 11 July, Branson ascended 80 km to reach the edge of space in his piloted Virgin Galactic VSS Unity spaceplane. Bezos’ autonomous Blue Origin rocket which launched July 20, coinciding with the anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
Though Bezos loses to Branson in time, he is set to reach higher altitudes (about 120 km). The launch will demonstrate his offering to very wealthy tourists: the opportunity to truly reach outer space. Both tour packages will provide passengers with a brief ten-minute frolic in zero gravity and glimpses of Earth from space. Not to be outdone, Elon Musk’s SpaceX will provide four to five days of orbital travel with its Crew Dragon capsule later in 2021.
Space for Humanity’s mission is to expand access to space, train our leaders of tomorrow and contribute to a culture of interconnectedness. By sending citizens to space—as well as hosting conversations, events and launch parties—Space for Humanity will cultivate a global network of transformational leaders better equipped to create a sustainable future for us all.
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