The Complete Book of Spaceflight: From Apollo 1 to Zero Gravity

138 fission, nuclear
fission, nuclear
A process in which a heavy atomic nucleus splits into
smaller nuclei accompanied by the release of large
amounts of energy. A chain reaction results when the neutrons
released during fission cause other nearby nuclei to
break apart.
flame bucket
A deep cavity built into a launch pad to receive hot gases
during rocket thrust buildup. One side is angled to form
a blast deflector.
flap
A movable control surface on an aircraft or rocket that
deflects air. Ailerons, elevators, and rudders are all flaps.
Flaps are also used as air brakes.
Firsts in Spaceflight (continued)
First Spacecraft/Individual Date
Joint US/USSR space project Echo 2 Jan. 25, 1964
Geostationary satellite Syncom 3 Aug. 19, 1964
Spacewalk Alexei Leonov, Voshkod 2 Mar. 18, 1965
Commercial comsat Early Bird/Intelsat 1 Apr. 6, 1965
Human death in space Vladimir Komarov, Soyuz 2 Apr. 24, 1967
Manned flight to leave Earth orbit Apollo 8 Dec. 21, 1968
Human to walk on the Moon Neil Armstrong, Apollo 11 Jul. 20, 1969
Soft landing on Venus Venera 7 Dec. 15, 1970
Space station Salyut 1 Apr. 19, 1971
International docking in space Apollo-Soyuz Test Mission Jul. 17, 1971
Flyby of Jupiter Pioneer 10 Dec. 3, 1973
Gravity-assist to reach other planet Mariner 10 Feb. 5, 1974
Flyby of Mercury Mariner 10 Mar. 29, 1974
Soft landing on Mars Viking 1 Jul. 20, 1976
Flyby of Saturn Pioneer 11 Sep. 1, 1980
Reusable space vehicle Space Shuttle Columbia, STS-1 Apr. 12, 1981
Probe to go beyond outermost planet Pioneer 10 Jun. 1983
Untethered spacewalk Bruce McCandless, Shuttle STS-41B Feb. 11, 1984
Satellite repaired in orbit SMM, by Shuttle STS-41C Apr. 6, 1984
Spacewalk by a woman Svetlana Savitskaya, Soyuz T-12 Jul. 17, 1984
Flyby of a comet nucleus (Halley) Giotto Mar. 13, 1986
Satellites brought back from space Westar 6 and Palapa B2, Shuttle STS-51A Nov. 16, 1984
Year in space Musa Manarov & Vladimir Titov, Mir Dec. 21, 1988
Flyby of an asteroid (Gaspra) Galileo Oct. 29, 1991
Ion-powered deep space probe Deep Space 1 Oct. 24, 1998
International Space Station mission Zarya module, Proton Nov. 20, 1998
Landing on an asteroid (Eros) NEAR-Shoemaker Feb. 12, 2001
flashback
A reversal of flame propagation in a system, counter to
the usual flow of the combustible mixture.
Fletcher, James Chipman (1919–1991)
A NASA administrator who oversaw or initiated many of
the major American space projects of the 1970s and
1980s during two spells in office: 1971–1976 and
1986–1988. He was in charge at the time of the three Skylab
missions in 1973–1974 and the Viking landings on
Mars in 1976. He also approved the Voyager probes to
the outer planets, the Hubble Space Telescope program,
and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. Most significantly,
he won approval from the Nixon administration on January
5, 1972, to develop the Space Shuttle as the