The Columbia Space Shuttle Program

On September 12, 1942, our 35th president, John F. Kennedy, delivered a speech that made it possible for men to be walking on the moon for the first time in history. Standing in front of thirtyfive thousand people, he proclaimed to the world that the United States was going to complete this seemingly impossible task before the 1970s. His connection to the very broad audience made the speech connect for nearly every individual listening. Kennedy’s particular word choice and voice motivated not only inspired the nation, but motivated them to be willing to do whatever it takes to achieve his goal. He uses the ideology of exploring space to exploring out west as we have done in the past to show that it is in our nature. He provides concrete evidence in the way of the major technological advancements that have been made in the past to show that it is possible and the next big step for man. Within ten years, the success of John F. Kennedy's speech and it rhetoric made the seemingly impossible task possible.

Where the World Wars and commercialization allowed aviation to develop from the Wrights’ simple aircraft, to large commercial plane, to extremely complex military aircraft. Today, reorganized to form NASA, its main goal is the advancement of space technology and the human exploration of space. Using the private companies to commercialize low-orbit travel and the development of better rocketry, NASA can focus on deep exploration. NASA believes that commercialization is not only a method to be cost effective, but help raise the number of crew aboard the ISS, provide new economic frontiers in space travel, and brings the frontier to civilians. In the near future, with the aid of space commercialization and NASA research, astronauts and spacecraft will become independent of Earth. Meaning, that astronauts and spacecraft will no longer need to reenter Earth’s orbit for resupplies, but are able to self-sustain their systems. This will enable humanity to push further into the depths of space, beyond the asteroid belt or even

The world today revolves around technology and is in an ever upward spiraling path of new advancements. This path is now at what some people call the “final frontier”, or the space age. The discoveries being made on this front are overwhelming in comparison to the technology that the world had only twenty years ago. Space exploration was once left up to the governments, as they battled to be the first country in space, but with national debts raising and the cuts made in response, space exploration is beginning to become new grounds for private business owners. Private companies are already beginning to send off rockets at a fraction of the cost that government does, but if more money was put into the government space program, then they

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is perhaps the most well known space agency in the world. Since its formation in 19581, it has pioneered in space science, yet is also renowned for its large budget. NASA has the highest budget of any space agency, $18.6 billion2 in 2015, the equivalent of every American paying $54 towards the agency3, meaning 0.14% of total GDP is spent on NASA3 . This money is spent on the ISS, sending astronauts, probes and satellites into space, astrophysics and planetary science research, maintaining and developing NASA’s space telescopes (the Wide Field Infrared Survey telescope searching for dark energy and exoplanets, the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope) and developing spacecraft2. Space exploration is an incredibly expensive process with one shuttle launch costing $450 million4 however NASA’s colossal budget benefits the USA greatly; the agency employs 18,000 people5 as astronauts, engineers, scientists and teachers and G. Scott Hubbard, former director of the NASA Ames Research Center estimates that every dollar spent on NASA returns $8 to the economy6.While this figure is an estimate, it demonstrates NASA’s worth and capacity for money making. NASA works on pioneering research and as its patents and licenses return to the US treasury, it

On July 21, 1969, the United States rocket Apollo 11 landed on the moon, marking a monumental and unprecedented feat of mankind. Culminated as the product of breakthrough innovations in engineering and physics and overwhelming government support (which granted NASA over 4% of the federal budget), the moon landing was the crowning moment of NASA’s accomplishments. At that time, a new era of space exploration seemed to be on the verge of occurrence. However, fifty years later, NASA has seemed to have fallen from its old glory, with the United States Federal government spending only 0.5% of the nation’s federal budget on its space endeavors. With increased concerns of NASA’s

Stars, mankind has been staring up at them for thousands of years. Over those many years dreams and mythology have been created to explain those lights in the heavens. Mankind grew sick of just staring, and decided to find ways to discover more about it. Eventually over hundreds of years mankind has, been able to send men to the moon, launch satellites into space, and even send rovers to Mars. These feats of science would have been unimaginable hundreds of years ago, and to others that heard of it was only science fiction. With all these accomplishments, it seems humanity has a bright future of further discovery, but a recent development has surfaced regarding Space Exploration. That debate regards the future of space Exploration, and whether or not It should be continued through NASA or private companies. Various opinions have come from all over the scientific and astronomy concerned world. Others side that NASA should continue its lead into the future, because of its contributions to discovery and the scientific world. Others blame that NASA’s lack of progress in previous projects has lead to a disbelief of Nasa, and a turn to Private industries due to their smaller budgets and recent success. Even some see a balanced future of NASA working with private companies, and even healthy competition that will allow a faster progress into the future. Mankind has always had the desire to reach the unreachable, and it cannot go forward

Throughout the twentieth century, space exploration and advancements allowed for the American dream to come to life. The space race, first man on the moon, and other space missions not only helped establish America’s opposing world power, but also acknowledged the fact that the United States encouraged its citizen and gave them a dream to aspire to as a nation. Space exploration achieved the American dream as the United States became a dominant world power and discovered new hopes for knowledge and peace which is emphasized by astronaut Neil Armstrong, President John F. Kennedy, and the first moon landing in 1969.

We have dreamt of spaceflight since ancient times. Humans have developed and thought of many ways to acquire this immense feat and it wasn’t till the 20th century mankind were able to build rockets powerful enough to overcome the force of gravity. Since then, we’ve successfully sent mankind to the moon, rovers to mars and space probes deep into the reaches of our solar system. Nations have striven to advance and attain great heights in the field of space exploration. The constant competitiveness between USA and USSR during the cold war led to many major breakthroughs in the history of space exploration beginning with USSR launching the first international space station and USA successfully landing a human on the moon. The international space station (ISS) stands as the basis of how international collaboration can affect space exploration. Even though some nations are unwilling to work together, space exploration provides a platform for nations to form relationships that benefits one another and create beneficial relationships with each other.

Following World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union sprung into what is now called the Cold War, and subsequently the Space Race. This was a time period where our country’s debt more than quadrupled, there was a constant fear of Nuclear War, and relations with another world superpower and former ally were rendered nearly irreparable. National Security and pride faltered initially, but from what seemed like it could have been the end of the capitalist world as we knew it, something incredible happened: we made it to the moon. After countless losses in many different categories of the Space Race to the USSR, the United States shifted its focus to the more long term goal of landing the first manned spacecraft on the moon.

It launched for the first time on mission STS-1 on April 12, 1981, the first flight of the Space Shuttle program. Over 22 years of service it completed 27 missions before disintegrating during re-entry near the end of its 28th mission, STS-107 on February 1, 2003, resulting in the deaths of all seven crew members.

On February 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia was just coming in for re-entry after being in space for almost a month, when it had spontaneously exploded over Texas. The seven crew members on the shuttle had lost their lives and an unforgettable image is burned into the memory of the American people. I will be discussing mainly about how USA Today has covered the disaster and provide examples as to how the agency makes it seem as though NASA was the one responsible for the disaster and how the news agency tries to make it seem as though NASA wasn’t concerned about the safety of its employees. I will also provide a small summary about each article that I mention.

Many critics believe that NASA and space exploration should not be the main focus of the government. However, NASA is not just about flying rockets and putting men into space. There is science and engineering that is being developed to push humanity forward in life. This space program is essential to answering philosophical questions, creating new technology for practical everyday use, the international collaboration with other countries, and the long-term survival of the human

Neil Armstrong 's 1969 lunar landing was one of humanity 's greatest accomplishments. Since then, we have found that an infinite supply of knowledge and resources await us just outside our atmosphere. Today, however, critics are beginning to argue more and more that the cost of space exploration is too high, and therefore new technological developments should be left to the private sector. Whether funded privately or by the government, funding of space exploration is imperative because NASA is essentially the only agency with the technological capabilities to support aircraft manufacturing, air safety and air transportation. Space exploration has also resulted in remarkable innovations that has played a key role in aeronautics research, preventative medicine, and allows scientists to study asteroids, along with other space debris and their impacts on Earth.

This semester during the research paper, there were many challenges to overcome. Among choosing the topic for the paper, there were entirely too many research articles to go through and find relevant information. Writing the paper took considerable time as it needed to constantly be readjusted to let the information flow. The points brought out in the paper do not mesh as nicely as I would have hoped for, however the information was able to be put in a logical order to accommodate the start to finish timeline that I was looking for. The main struggle of this paper became the research.

Columbia’s Final Mission video case is designed to help you understand how failures occur and how you might prevent them in your own organizational life.