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The Space Exploration Portal
'''Space exploration''' is the endeavor of humans to use technology to reach, explore, and exploit the space outside the Earth's atmosphere. It is generally based on the use of rockets to transport machines, animals, and humans to space. Objects launched into space may stay in orbit around Earth, travel in the space between the planets, or aim to leave the space dominated by the Sun completely.
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Article of the month
Christopher C. Kraft, Jr. (born February 28, 1924) is a retired NASA engineer and manager. After graduating from Virginia Tech in 1944, Kraft was hired by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the predecessor organization to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). He worked for over a decade in aeronautical research before being asked in 1958 to join the Space Task Group, a small team entrusted with the responsibility of putting America's first man in space. Assigned to the flight operations division, Kraft became NASA's first flight director. He was on duty during such historic missions as America's first spaceflight, first orbital flight and first spacewalk.
At the beginning of the Apollo program Kraft retired as a flight director in order to concentrate on management and mission planning. In 1972 he became director of the Manned Spacecraft Center (later Johnson Space Center), following in the footsteps of his mentor Robert Gilruth. He held the position until his retirement from NASA in 1982. During his retirement, Kraft has consulted for numerous companies including IBM and Rockwell International, and he published an autobiography entitled Flight: My Life in Mission Control.
Recently featured: Space Shuttle Challenger disaster – Atmospheric reentry – Apollo 8
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Biography of the Week
Dr. Roberta Lynn Bondar, O.C., O.Ont, M.D., Ph.D, D.Sc, F.R.C.P.(C), Canada's first woman astronaut (born December 4, 1945, in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.) She holds a B.Sc in zoology and agriculture from the University of Guelph (1968), an M.Sc in experimental pathology from the University of Western Ontario (1971), a Ph.D in neurobiology from the University of Toronto (1974), an MD from McMaster University (1977), and is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in neurology 1981.
She began astronaut training in 1984, and in 1990 was designated a prime Payload Specialist for the first International Microgravity Laboratory Mission (IML-1). Dr. Bondar flew on the NASA Space Shuttle Discovery during Mission STS-42, January 22-30, 1992, during which she performed experiments in the Spacelab.
Dr. Bondar left the Canadian Space Agency in 1992 to pursue her research. She was appointed chancellor of Trent University in 2003.
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