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Modern Wonders of the World
Architectural Wonders of
the World
Ajanta
and Ellora
Alhambra
Bali
Borobudur
Chichen
Itza
Colosseum
and Roman
Forum
Colossus
of Rhodes
Cuzco
and Machu
Picchu
Eiffel
Tower
El
Escorial
Great
Wall of China
Great
Zimbabwe Ruins
Hanging
Gardens
of Babylon
Jerusalem
Light
House of Pharos in Alexandria
Nara
Persepolis
Pyramids
of Egypt
Shwe
Dagon
Sistine
Chapel
St.
Paul's Cathedral
Statue
of Liberty
Statue
of
Zeus
at Olympia
Taj
Mahal
Temple
of
Goddess Artemis
(Diana)
Temple
Palace
of Angkor Wat
Terracotta
Warriors of Xian
Tomb
of
Mausolus at
Halicarnassu
Tower
of London
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Kennedy
Space Centre
The
Kennedy Space Center is probably best known as the launch site of
the Apollo space programme, which sent people to the Moon in the 1960s
and
1970s. Today, the Center is both a working site and a tourist
attraction.
Visitors can see an exhibition of space rockets and visit the assembly
areas
and the space shuttle launch pads on Cape Canaveral. The cape, on the
Atlantic
coast of Florida, was the starting point for many of the most exciting
scientific explorations made this century.
CAPE
CANAVERAL
The site was originally a US
Air Force base and missile test centre. It was used to launch the first
US
satellite in 1958. Then on 5th May 1961 Alan Shepard blasted
off in
a Mercury spacecraft, to become the first American in space. Three
weeks later,
President Kennedy announced the Apollo programme, to build a spacecraft
that
could land men on the Moon by 1970. After the President's death in
1963, the
site was renamed the John F. Kennedy Space Center.
SPACECRAFT
ASSEMBLY
The Apollo spacecraft that
travelled to the Moon were launched by powerful Saturn rockets. The
rockets
were put together in a huge, 160 meter high building that could hold
four
Saturn rockets at a time. The spacecraft and rockets then had to be
moved over
5 kilometers to the launch pad. The whole assembly weighed over 5000
tonnes and
was carried on a massive vehicle called a crawler-transporter. The
crawler is
40 meters long, 35 meters wide and moves at a top speed of 1.6
kilometers an
hour.
THE
FIRST MAN ON
THE MOON
The first Apollo mission was
due to be launched in 1967, but disaster struck at the Space Center.
During a
routine countdown test, fire suddenly swept through the space capsule
at the
tip of the rocket and the three astronauts on board were killed. The
Apollo
programme was changed to allow, more unmanned test flights. Then on 16th
July 1969 a giant Saturn rocket blasted off from launch pad 39, sending
Apollo
11 astronauts on their journey into space. Four days later, Neil
Armstrong was
the first human being to set foot on the surface of the Moon.
THE
SPACE SHUTTLE
During the 1970s, the huge
expense of the Apollo Moon programme led to the development of a new
type of
space vehicle - the space shuttle. The shuttle looked more like an
aeroplane
than a moon rocket and, unlike a rocket; it could be used time and time
again.
A fixed launch tower was placed at launch pad 39, ready for the first
shuttle
flight in 1981. A runway, 4572 meters long, was also built, so that
shuttles
could land back at the Space Center after each mission.
A
NEW FRONTIER
By 1986 NASA had launched 24 successful shuttle
missions. But then Shuttle Challenger exploded after take-off and all
seven
astronauts were killed. Over two years passed before the next shuttle
lifted
off in September 1988. Since then a large number of scientific and
commercial
missions have been launched from Kennedy Space Center in pursuit of the
dream
of living and working in space.
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