Page 73 - 2000

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W hat was once thought to be impossible
became a reality in 1969, when Apollo 11
astronauts set foot on the moon. Those
historic steps were taken by Edwin E. Aldrin
Jr. and Neil A. Armstrong, who descended
to the moon's surface and landed their lunar
module in the Sea of Tranquility. Armstrong
1958
stepped first and addressed the world with
what has become one of the best-known
phrases of modern times: "That's one small
1953
step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
It was also a giant leap ahead for
A Americans in the space race with Russia. S ix
-V '3 additional Apollo missions were made 1957
" ■ before the end of the program in December
1972 and, with the exception of Apollo 13,
1961
all landed successfully on the lunar surface.
1962

1964

The explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in
1965
1986, resulting in the deaths of all seven astronauts
aboard, horrified the nation and the world and
dealt a severe blow to NA SA 's fledgling shuttle pro­
1968
gram. Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff
from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, as millions
watched on television. A presidential panel deter­
1973
mined that the fatal flaw was not in Challenger, but
rather a faulty sealant ring in one of two 149-foot-
tall solid rocket boosters. Dead as a result of the
1974
worst disaster in the history of space exploration
was Christa McAuliffe, who was to be the first
teacher and private citizen in space, and crew
1978
members Frank Scobee, Michael Smith, Judith
Resnik, Ellison Onizuka, Ronald M cNair and
Gregory Jarvis. Two years passed before 1981
another shuttle was launched into space. * w 'w t
1985
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1986

1989
The first widely used commercial computer,
Univac I, was built in 1951 for the U.S.
Census Bureau. From vacuum tube logic 1991
gates to transistors to microchips, powerful
desktop computers and tiny microprocessors
helped shape late 20th Century life. Found 1993
everywhere by 1990, computers evolved to
move the w orld out of the space age and
into the Internet-driven information age. W ith 19-97
the Internet and electronic mail, or e-mail, all
corners of the globe were now at the
computer-user's fingertips.