Washington, United States: Boeing with its Starliner is set to join the elite company of a few spaceships that will take humans beyond Earth.
Astronaut Adventures: A Historic Journey
Here’s a recap of the prestigious crewed spaceships.
Mercury
In 1958, Project Mercury launched America’s inaugural foray into space exploration. Alan Shepard’s iconic flight in May 1961 marked the dawn of American human spaceflight, closely followed by John Glenn’s historic orbit in February 1962. Notably, Katherine Johnson’s contributions to the program were invaluable, as depicted in “Hidden Figures.”
Gemini
Gemini, succeeding Mercury, focused on advancing mission durations and refining critical manoeuvres like spacewalking and spacecraft docking. Featuring a two-person crew, Gemini introduced primitive onboard computers, pivotal for space rendezvous. Buzz Aldrin’s manual calculations during a critical docking underscored the program’s ingenuity.
Apollo
In response to President Kennedy’s challenge, Apollo aimed to land humans on the Moon before the 1960s ended. Key to this feat were the colossal Saturn V rocket, the spacious command module, and the lunar descent vehicle. Apollo 11’s successful Moon landing in 1969 was a monumental achievement tempered by the tragic loss of the Apollo 1 crew in a preflight fire.
Space Shuttle
NASA’s Space Shuttle program, operational from 1981 to 2011, revolutionized space travel with its combined rocket launch, re-entry capsule, and runway landing capabilities. Despite milestones like deploying the Hubble Space Telescope and constructing the ISS, the program was marred by the Challenger (1986) and Columbia (2003) disasters, resulting in the loss of 14 lives.
Crew Dragon and Starliner
Following the shuttle’s retirement, NASA turned to commercial partners for crewed missions, awarding contracts to SpaceX and Boeing. SpaceX’s success with Crew Dragon in 2020 highlighted its rapid ascent, while Boeing faced setbacks with its Starliner capsule. Both companies feature modernized capsule designs, emphasizing autonomy and reusability.