Browsing: Travel

A Brief History On May 30, 2020, the Crew Dragon Demo-2 spacecraft was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida courtesy of a Falcon 9 booster rocket from the private firm of SpaceX.  The capsule, named Crew Dragon Endeavor, contained two astronauts, the first manned space flight to launch from the United States since the last Space Shuttle flight in 2011. Digging Deeper This first ever commercial manned orbital space flight on behalf of the American government space program was on a mission to link up with the International Space Station and have the two American astronauts work with…

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A Brief History On May 27, 1996, President Boris Yeltsin of Russia met with Chechen rebels to negotiate a cease fire in what is known as The First Chechen War.  The Chechen Republic is an almost autonomous region within the Russian Federation, which fought a war for independence from December of 1994 to August of 1996. Digging Deeper The Chechen people lost as many as 14,000 fighters killed in the war, and another 80,000 to 100,000 civilians slain.  The Russians lost about 3,000 to 5,000 killed.  A second Chechen War was fought from 1999 to 2009. Chechnya is part of…

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A Brief History On May 26, 1951, Sally Ride was born in Los Angeles, California.  She would grow up to earn BA, BS, MS and PhD diplomas from Stanford University, and in June of 1983 became the first American woman to take a ride into space, via the Space Shuttle Challenger. Digging Deeper Ride became the third woman space explorer, having been preceded into space by Soviet cosmonauts Belarusian Valentina Tereshkova in 1963 and Russian Svetlana Savitskaya in 1982. Since the flights of these history making women, women have made over 75 space flights by at least 70 women.  In…

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A Brief History On May 24, 1962, an American Atlas LV-3B rocket blasted off, carrying astronaut Scott Carpenter in his Project Mercury space capsule he had named Aurora 7, the 6th manned space flight in history. Digging Deeper Manned space flight began in April of 1961 when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made his historic trip into orbit, and a month later the Americans launched astronaut Alan Shepard into space, although on a sub-orbital flight. Project Mercury was the NASA answer to the Soviet Vostok manned space capsule, and each Mercury capsule contained a single astronaut.  Designed by Belize born engineer…

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A Brief History On May 13, 2023, Americans can celebrate the annual National Train Day, a day invented by Amtrak back in 2008, but cancelled for 2016 due to budget cuts! Digging Deeper Have you heard of any other “National” Days that have been eliminated?  Trains have had it rough in recent decades and even in recent weeks.  On February 3, 2023, a train carrying tanker cars of Vinyl Chloride derailed at East Palestine, Ohio and created an environmental disaster and political controversy. Trains helped build the United States and much of the world, with a peak of railroad employees…

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