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James A Lovell, Jr.
1928-
Lovell was selected as an astronaut in 1962. He was in Gemini 7 when it rendezvoused with Gemini 6 in 1965, the first time two manned spacecraft had met in space. Three years later, he was onboard Apollo 8 when it orbited the Moon on Christmas Eve and sent pictures of the Moon's surface back to Earth. On 11 April 1970, Lovell was again en route to the Moon in Apollo 13. As the spacecraft neared the Moon, an oxygen tank ruptured. Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise battled for three days to stay alive and bring their craft back to earth.
USNA 1952
Cold War to Space War:
With the fall of Nazi Germany, the Allies and Soviet Union rushed to capture as much of the advanced German missile technology as possible. Scientists, engineers, and equipment were rounded up and put to work improving missile capabilities.
In October 1957, the Soviet Union beat the United States into space with the launch of Sputnik. Two months later, America's first attempt, the Navy's Vanguard, exploded on the launch pad. The space race was on, and Navy and Naval Academy graduates would play prominent roles.
Viking Rocket:
Among the contraband captured from post-War Germany were V-2 rockets. After some test firings, the Naval Research Laboratory developed an enlarged rocket called the Viking, which was used to explore the upper atmosphere. The feasibility of launching a rocket from shipboard was tested on board the carrier Midway.
In the 1950s, Wernher von Braun, a leading German rocket engineer who had come to the United States after the war, lobbied to use existing technology to place a satellite in orbit. The idea was taken up by the United States as part of its effort in the International Geophysical Year, 1957-58.
In 1947, the Navy launched a V-2 from the deck of the USS Midway to demonstrate that rockets could be launched from ships.
Alumni in Space:
The United States has always drawn those who are attracted by the challenge of the frontier, whether westward across the Mississippi River, or northward across the Rio Grande. That challenge is now directed beyond the bounds of Earth into space. Just as the United States Navy of the 19th century was at the forefront of exploration of the land and sea, today's Navy and Naval Academy contribute to the exploration of space.
Project Mercury -- 1959-1963:
Sputnik galvanized the United States into action. Project Mercury sought nothing less than putting human beings into orbit. On 5 May 1961, Alan B Shepard Jr, a 1944 graduate of the Naval Academy, made a short suborbital flight aboard Freedom 7. A few days later, President John F Kennedy set a national goal to land an American on the moon.
A subsequent Mercury mission was also manned by an Academy graduate, Walter Schirra. He made six orbits of the earth on 3 October 1962.
Alan B Shepard, Jr (1923-1998) USNA 1945:
Alan Shepard became the first American in space on 5 May 1961 in a flight that lasted less than 15-1/2 minutes. Short though the flight was, Shepard demonstrated that a human could control a craft in the extreme conditions encountered in space.
Shepard went on to command 1971's Apollo 14 flight, which landed in the Lunar Highlands.
Project Gemini -- 1963-1966:
Sending a man to the moon required a practical plan. The first step was to develop a two-man capsule. Of the 21 astronauts who flew in the Gemini program, six were Naval Academy graduates.
The original Gemini 6 mission, to rendezvous with a target satellite, was scrubbed when the target's rocket broke up after launch. Since Gemini 7 was already scheduled for December, and [sic[ it was decided that Gemini 6 -- redesignated Gemini 6A -- would launch the same month. The two capsules would then rendezvous.
On 4 December 1965, Gemini 7 was launched on a 13-day, 18-hour space mission -- lengthy even by today's standards.
Gemini 6 was launched 15 December on a mission that lasted less than 26 hours.
On 15 December, the two spacecraft rendezvoused, coming within about a foot of each other. ...
Thomas P. Stafford (1930-) USNA 1952:
Upon graduation from the Naval Academy, Stafford received his commission as a second lieutenant in the Air Force. In 1959, he graduated from the Air Force Experimental Flight Test Pilot School and was selected as an astronaut in 1962.
After piloting Gemini 6 and commanding Gemini 9, Stafford commanded Apollo 10, a Lunar orbital flight that paved the way for the Moon landing. His fourth space mission saw the union of the American Apollo and the Soviet Soyuz.
The Last Gemini -- November 1966:
On 11 November, James Lovell and Edwin Aldrin took off on the last of the Gemini missions. Once in orbit, they docked with a Gemini Agena Target Vehicle -- the second stage of a rocket that had been launched about an hour and a half earlier. While Lovell piloted the spacecraft, Aldrin opened a hatch and, attached to a long tether, ventured into the open. The astronauts managed to photograph a total eclipse of the sun.
Walter M. Schirra, Jr. (1923-2007) USNA 1946:
After completing six orbits of the earth on 3 October 1962, Schirra splashed down in the Pacific Ocean just 9,000 yards from the recovery ship, USS Kearsage. Schirra experimented with a hand-held camera during the flight and participated in the first live television broadcast of a manned American space flight.
He later flew on the Gemini 6 and Apollo 7 missions.
Men on the Moon:
The Apollo Project fulfilled President Kennedy's goal of putting an American on the Moon. More than just a propaganda event, Apollo's missions were to develop technology that could be applied to other national interests in space, carry out the scientific exploration of the Moon, and develop man's capability to work on the Moon.
Naval Academy graduates were on board six of the eleven Apollo flights.
Continuing the Mission:
Throughout our history, the Navy and Naval Academy graduates have probed the boundaries of the known world and pushed into space. Men and women from the Naval Academy are still in the forefront of the continuing exploration of space. More than fifty graduates have been on board Space Shuttle missions, investigating a broad spectrum of scientific questions.
We cannot read the future, and we do not know where mankind will venture next, but we can be sure that Naval Academy graduates will continue to lead in America's quest of the unknown. |