Falcon Heavy Demonstration Mission

Launch date: February 6, 2018

Mission Goals:

• Successfully launch the Falcon Heavy
• Separate and land the side boosters
• Seperate the center core and land it
• Achieve orbit with upper stage
• Put payload into heliocentric orbit

Interesting Facts:

The dummy payload for this test was a Tesla Roadster with a dummy named “starman” in the driver seat wearing a SpaceX spacesuit.

The car’s sound system played David Bowie’s Starman and Space Oddity on repeat.

A copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is in the glovebox.

The center core rocket did not successfully land on the drone ship and was destroyed on impact, this was the only failure of the mission.

Exhibit by: Devin Cherry

Enterprise

First Flight: August 12, 1977

Mission Goals:

• Test the atmospheric flight capabilities of the shuttle design.
• Test the aerodynamics and weight configurations of the shuttle design.
• In 1978 the Enterprise was attached to a set of inert boosters and subjected to vibration tests simulating a launch.

Interesting Facts:

Originally planned to be named Constitution, Star Trek fans petitioned President Gerald Ford to rename the Shuttle after the famous fictional spaceship.

The Enterprise, like all shuttles, are designed as a glider and do not have their own propulsion when landing.

A total of five glider test flights were conducted, but the Enterprise was not capable of spaceflight.

Enterprise now resides at the Intrepid Museum in New York City.

Exhibit by: Devin Cherry

Mercury Redstone

First Flight: December 19, 1960

Mission Goals:

• Qualifying flight on 12/19/1960 was unmanned and proved the capabilities of the Redstone rocket and Mercury Capsule.
• Ham, a chimp, launched on 01/31/1961 to prove the trip was survivable.
• On 5/5/1961 Alan Shepard became the first American in space riding inside a Mercury capsule.

Interesting Facts:

Alan Shepard’s named his capsule Freedom 7 and its maiden flight lasted only 15 minutes.

Just three weeks before Shepard’s flight the Soviet Union beat America in getting the first human, Yuri Gagarin, to space.

Exhibit by: Devin Cherry

Apollo’s Saturn V

First Flight: Apollo 4; Nov. 9, 1967

Mission Goals:

• Developed for the Apollo program, the Saturn V rocket was designed to reach the Moon.
• Apollo 11, launched July 16, 1969, would send Astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin to the Lunar surface, and Command Module Pilot Michael Collins to Lunar orbit.

Interesting Facts:

With the apollo command module on top it stood 363 feet tall and weighed 6.5 million pounds fully fueled.

The rocket used three single use stages with the astronauts inside the command module at top and the lunar lander housed just below it.

Exhibit by: Devin Cherry

Starship 13/31

First Flight: Nov. 19, 2024

Mission Goals:

• The 6th test flight of the Starship.
• Gather flight data for future ship recovery and reuse.
• Test the limits of maneuvering flaps upon reentry.
• Demonstrate the deorbiting capabilities of Starship with an in-space burn of a single engine.

Interesting Facts:

With its booster, the Starship is the tallest rocket ever launched at 397 feet tall.

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Unlike test 5’s successful return and catch of the booster stage, B13 lost connection with the tower and was diverted to splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico where it crashed and sank. The upper stage made a successful splashdown in the Indian ocean and parts were recovered for study, but it will not be reusable.

A stuffed banana was included as a “zero-g indicator” and is the first “payload” included in a Starship test flight.

Exhibit by: Devin Cherry

Cobe: Cosmic Background Explorer

Launch date: November, 18 1989

Mission Goals:

• Cobe was a satellite launched with the goal to discover the cosmic microwave background. This would help prove the big bang theory. The Cobe model gave us a glimpse into the roots of our Universe.

Interesting Facts:

• Cobe was retired Dec 23,1993
• Cobe investigators John Mather and George Smooth were awarded nobel peace prize in physics for their work on Cobe.
• This mission started a new era with cosmologists to be more precise on measurements and paved the way for deeper exploration

James Webb Space Telescope

Launch date: December 25, 2021.

Mission Goals:

• First Light and Reionization: Study the formation of the first galaxies and starts after the Big Bang.
• Assembly Of Galaxies: investigate how galaxies form and evolve over time.
• Birth Of Starts and Protoplanetary systems: Observe the formation of stars and planetary systems.
• Planetary Systems and the origins of Life: Study the physical and chemical properties of planetary systems, including our own, and investigate the potential for life in other systems.

Interesting Facts:

• Golden Mirror: the telescope's primary mirror is made up of 18 hexagonal segments coated with a thin layer of gold to enhance its ability to reflect infrared light.
• When fully deployed the mirror is 6.5 meters in diameter, significantly larger than the Hubble Space Telescope’s 2.4 meter mirror. This makes images much crisper than the hubble, as seen in the image here.

Insight

Launch date: 5 May 2018

Mission Goals:

• Improve our understanding

of the formation

and evolution of the

terrestrial planets by

understanding the origin and evolution of Mars.

• To take the planet's vital signs: its pulse, temperature and reflexes using a seismometer and drill.

Interesting Facts:

InSight is the first interplanetary launch from the West Coast.

InSight's magnetometer is the first to be used on the surface of Mars.

Insight detected vibrations in the crust dubbed “Mars Quakes” by scientists.