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The first usage of X-ray telescopes for astronomy was for observing the Sun, the only X-ray source in the sky producing an abundance of signal. Because the Sun is so bright in X-rays, the focusing element can be small, and photographic film can be used as a detection medium. The first X-ray picture of the Sun employing a rocket-borne telescope was taken by John V. Lindsay of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and collaborators in 1963. The first orbiting X-ray telescope flew on Skylab in the early 1970's and recorded over 35,000 full-disk images of the Sun over a 9-month period.

Until the invention of cameras and photographs, followed by the development of a practical way to print photographs in newspapers, the reading public pictured an event with the aid of an artist's rendering. In the 1860s, photographers recorded some events in American history for the first time. When photographer Matthew Brady exhibited photographs of corpses on the battlefield in 1862 at his New York City gallery, the public saw the gruesome realism of broken bodies for the first time. (See below.)

The Flights of the Space Shuttle: Basic information about each mission in the Space Shuttle.
NASA Shuttle Launches by Vehicle: Information on each orbiter.
Shuttle History Archive at Kennedy Space Center: A fine collection of materials relating to each Space Shuttle mission including an impressive collection of images.
Shuttle Press Kits from the the NASA Newsroom

Louis Braille was born on 4th January, 1809, at Coupvray, near Paris. At three years of age an accident deprived him of his sight, and in 1819 he was sent to the Paris Blind School-which was originated by Valentin Hauy. Here he made rapid progress in all his studies. He learned to read by embossed Roman letter, which was exclusively used at the time and which continued popular for fifty years in that country and our own, and is still used in many schools in America.

Milestones
1980: First proposals to survey the solar system using the name "Spacewatch".
1982: 0.9-m Newtonian telescope of Steward Observatory made available.
1983: 320x512 pixel RCA CCD in operation.
1984: First production-mode astronomical use of TDI drift scanning. Began astrometry of asteroids and comets

Apollo was America's program to land men on the moon and get them safely back to the earth. In May 1961 President Kennedy gave the signal for planning and developing the machines to take men to that body. This decision, although bold and startling at the time, was not made at random - nor did it lack a sound engineering base. Subcommittees of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), predecessor of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), had regularly surveyed aeronautical needs and pointed out problems for immediate resolution and specific areas for advanced research. After NASA's creation in October 1958, its leaders (many of them former NACA officials) continued to operate in this fashion and, less than a year later, set up a group to study what the agency should do in near-earth and deep-space exploration. Among the items listed by that group was a lunar landing, a proposal also discussed in circles outside NASA as a means for achieving and demonstrating technological supremacy in space. From the time Russia launched its first Sputnik in October 1957, many Americans had viewed the moon as a logical goal. A two-nation space race subsequently made that destination America's national objective for the 1960s.

The Moon is the Earth's only natural satellite, circling in a slightly elliptical orbit at 2,300 miles per hour (3,683 km/hr). At this speed, it takes about 27 days to completely encompass the Earth, which is 240,250 miles (384,400 km) away. Although it doesn't revolve around the Sun, because of its size and composition, planetary scientists call the Moon a "terrestrial planet" - akin to Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.

Eating in space for John Glenn turned out to be an easy though not too tasty experience. Before the flight, some experts were worried that, in weightlessness food would be hard to swallow and as a result, collect in the throat. Glenn found that eating in space was relatively easy and once the food reached the mouth, there was no problem in swallowing. Other Mercury astronauts following John Glenn were forced to endure bite-sized cubes, freeze dried foods, and semi-liquids in aluminum toothpaste-type tubes. They found the food unappetizing, had trouble rehydrating the freeze-dried foods, and disliked squeezing the tubes. Futhermore, crumbs from the bite-sized cubes had to be captured to prevent them from fouling instruments.

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learn about each Super Scientist!

The scientists, Seth Meek and Charles Gilbert, had discovered a new species of fish. They named it Etheostoma nianguae. Today we know it as the Niangua darter, a now federally threatened fish found nowhere else but in streams in the Osage River basin. The pair's scientific expedition across the Ozarks that summer and other work vastly expanded our knowledge of the richly varied aquatic life in Missouri's streams.