Astronomy and Space Exploration

Neil Alden Armstrong 1930-, American astronaut, b. Wapakoneta, Ohio, grad. Purdue Univ. A U.S. Navy fighter pilot during the Korean War, Armstrong became a test pilot for what was then the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics in 1955. In 1962, already a veteran of the X-15, Armstrong became a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut and served as command pilot of the Gemini 8 mission. As commander of Apollo 11 (July 16-24, 1969), he was the first person (July 20 EDST) to set foot on the moon, saying: "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind" (the "a" was apparently lost in transmission due to static). Armstrong taught aeronautical engineering at the Univ. of Cincinnati from 1971 to 1979. In 1985, President Reagan appointed him to the National Commission on Space and in 1986 named him vice chairman of the panel that investigated the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger earlier that year. Bibliography: See his First on the Moon (1970), written with G. Farmer and D. Hamblin; biography by J. R. Hansen (2005).

space station or space platform, artificial earth satellite, usually manned, that is placed in a fixed orbit and can serve as a base for astronomical observations; zero-gravity materials processing; satellite assembly, refueling, and repair; or, possibly, as weapons platforms. The first space station was the Soviet Salyut 1, launched in Apr., 1971. The Soyuz 10 spacecraft docked with this station, but the crew did not enter it; two months later the cosmonauts aboard the Soyuz 11 spacecraft docked and entered Salyut 1, remaining aboard for 22 days. By 1982 five more Salyut space stations had been orbited successfully, two of them for military purposes. By rotating the crews regularly, the Soviets were able to staff the stations for extended periods. All the Salyut space stations have decayed and are no longer in orbit. During this period the United States launched its only true space station. Called Skylab, it was placed in orbit in May, 1973. Skylab housed three three-person crews, the last remaining aboard for 84 days, which at that time was a record for continuous residency in space. Among the tasks accomplished by the Skylab astronauts were biomedical studies to evaluate the effects of weightlessness, photographing the earth to monitor volcanoes and earthquake faults, astronomical observations of optical sources (including extensive studies of Comet Kohoutek), and materials-processing activities such as brazing and welding (to see how they were...