The Apollo 11 mission was the mission that sent man to the moon. This was a goal set by a former U.S President John F. Kennedy. The main crew consisted of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. These were the first two men to set foot on the moon. This sparked a vision that man could go further and further. Now, Nasa is planning to send men to Mars and an Astroid. This all came from the achievement of Apollo 11. In the words of Neil Armstrong "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind".



The Challenger was the second of five shuttles launched since 1981. Its first launch was on April 4th 1983. It had a total of nine trips until the disaster that occured on January 28th 1986. The crew comprised of 7 members. One member was a teacher from New Hampshire called Christa McAuliffe. The superiors were warned by the engineers that it would be dangerous to go ahead with the launch, as the temperature was seriously low and the components struggle to work at low temperatures. The Challenger launch still went ahead, despite the engineer's warning. After one minute and 13 seconds the Challenger exploded infront of millions of spectators there and all over the country, as this was on live television.

NASA have been launching five space shuttles since 1981. The names of the five shuttles used are Challenger, Discovery, Endeavour, Atlantis and Columbia. These Shuttles have flown more than half a billion miles and have carried over 350 people to space from 1981-2011. The first shuttle from NASA was launched on April 12 1981, 20 years after the Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was launched into space. The shuttle model is the STS-1 with an orbiter vehicle an expendable external tank and a pair of recoverable solid rocket boosters. These missions were for launching probes, satellites and the hubble telescope.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration or better known as 'NASA' is an Agency in the U.S.A that focuses on Space and Planitary research. Nasa's main headquarters are based in Washington D.C. A former US president, President Eisenhower, Established NASA in 1958. John F. Kennedy had a dream that man would go to the man. The Kennedy Space Centre has been the place of all the American manned missions to the moon. The great achievement of landing a man on the moon came from Kennedy's vision that it could be achieved. Of course at the time, it was also who got boasting rights during the cold war. In 1969 Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon. Four years prior to that, the Soviets sent a Cosmonaut into space. Yuri Gagarin was the first human in the space and this was a great embarrassment to the Americans. Nasa had a huge involment in the cold war sending Apollo 11 to the moon. This was the era of the "Space Race" between U.S.A and Russia.

Hello,

My name is Matthew and over the next while I will be blogging about the Geography of Nasa. In this i will talking about the details of Nasa and how it was founded, who set it up, etc.

I hope you enjoy it