Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut in outer space outside a spacecraft. In the absence of a breathable Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environmental support. EVA includes spacewalks and lunar or planetary surface exploration. In a stand-up EVA (SEVA), an astronaut stands through an open hatch but does not fully leave the spacecraft. EVAs have been conducted by the Soviet Union/Russia, the United States, Canada, the European Space Agency and China.
Space Shuttle Challenger (OV-099) was a Space Shuttle orbiter manufactured by Rockwell International and operated by NASA. Named after the commanding ship of a nineteenth-century scientific expedition that traveled the world, Challenger was the second Space Shuttle orbiter to fly into space after Columbia, and launched on its maiden flight in April 1983. It was destroyed in January 1986 soon after launch in a disaster that killed all seven crewmembers aboard.
Armageddon is a 1998 American science fiction disaster film produced and directed by Michael Bay, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and released by Touchstone Pictures. The film follows a group of blue-collar deep-core drillers sent by NASA to destroy a gigantic asteroid, which is the size of Texas, on a collision course with Earth. It stars an ensemble cast including Bruce Willis with Billy Bob Thornton, Liv Tyler, Ben Affleck, Will Patton, Peter Stormare, Keith David, Owen Wilson, William Fichtner and Steve Buscemi.
Judith Arlene Resnik was an American electrical engineer, software engineer, biomedical engineer, pilot and NASA astronaut who died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. She was the fourth woman, the second American woman and the first Jewish woman of any nationality to fly in space, logging 145 hours in orbit.
On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members aboard. The spacecraft disintegrated 46,000 feet (14 km) above the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11:39 a.m. EST. It was the first fatal accident involving an American spacecraft while in flight.
Barbara Radding Morgan is an American teacher and a former NASA astronaut. She participated in the Teacher in Space Project as backup to Christa McAuliffe for the 1986 ill-fated STS-51-L mission of the Space Shuttle Challenger. In 1998, eight years after the Teacher in Space Project had ended, she was selected by NASA as an astronaut candidate, training as a mission specialist; astronaut Morgan flew on STS-118 in August 2007. As such, she became the first teacher to go into space.
STS-41-C was NASA's eleventh Space Shuttle mission, and the fifth mission of Space Shuttle Challenger. The launch, which took place on April 6, 1984, marked the first direct ascent trajectory for a Space Shuttle mission. During the mission, Challenger's crew captured and repaired the malfunctioning Solar Maximum Mission satellite, and deployed the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) experimental apparatus. STS-41-C was extended one day due to problems capturing the Solar Max satellite, and the landing on April 13, 1984, took place at Edwards Air Force Base, instead of at Kennedy Space Center as had been planned. The flight was originally numbered STS-13.
Kathryn Dwyer Sullivan is an American geologist, oceanographer, and former NASA astronaut and US Navy officer. She was a crew member on three Space Shuttle missions.
Shannon Matilda Wells Lucid is an American biochemist and retired NASA astronaut. She has flown in space five times, including a prolonged mission aboard the Russian space station Mir in 1996, and is the only American woman to have stayed on Mir. From 1996 to 2007, Lucid held the record for the longest duration spent in space by an American and by a woman. She was awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in December 1996, making her the tenth person and the first woman to be accorded the honor.
Kathryn Ryan Cordell Thornton is an American scientist and a former NASA astronaut with over 975 hours in space, including 21 hours of extravehicular activity. She was the associate dean for graduate programs at the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science, currently a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.
José Moreno Hernández is a Mexican-American engineer and astronaut. He currently serves as a Regent of the University of California.
Marooned is a 1969 American science fiction film directed by John Sturges and starring Gregory Peck, Richard Crenna, David Janssen, James Franciscus and Gene Hackman about three astronauts who are trapped and slowly suffocating in space. It was based on the 1964 novel Marooned by Martin Caidin. While the original novel was based on the single-pilot Project Mercury, the film depicted an Apollo command and service module with three astronauts and a space station resembling Skylab. Caidin acted as technical adviser and updated the novel, incorporating appropriate material from the original version.
Escape from Mars is a 1999 made-for-TV film produced for the UPN Network. The story concerns five astronauts who make the first crewed trip to Mars in 2015.
Challenger is a 1990 American disaster drama television film based on the events surrounding the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986. Its production was somewhat controversial as the families of the astronauts generally objected to it. A prologue states that the film was "researched with the consultation of the National Aeronauts and Space Administration" and partly filmed at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
"Space" is the ninth episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files, premiering on the Fox network on November 12, 1993. It was written by series creator Chris Carter, directed by William Graham, and featured guest appearances by Ed Lauter and Susanna Thompson. The episode is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, unconnected to the series' wider mythology. "Space" earned a Nielsen household rating of 6.5, being watched by 6.1 million households in its initial broadcast, and received negative reviews from critics.
The Dream is Alive is an American IMAX documentary film, released on June 1, 1985, about NASA's Space Shuttle program. The film was narrated by Walter Cronkite, and directed by Graeme Ferguson.
The United States Astronaut Hall of Fame, located inside the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex Heroes & Legends building on Merritt Island, Florida, honors American astronauts and features the world's largest collection of their personal memorabilia, focusing on those astronauts who have been inducted into the Hall. Exhibits include Wally Schirra's Sigma 7 space capsule from the fifth crewed Mercury mission and the Gemini IX spacecraft flown by Gene Cernan and Thomas P. Stafford in 1966.
The Challenger is a 2013 TV movie starring William Hurt about Richard Feynman's investigation into the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. The film was co-produced by the BBC, the Science Channel, and Open University, and it premiered on 12 May 2013 on BBC2.
The soundtrack to SpaceCamp is a release of the film's musical score by John Williams, first released on 45 and LP in 1986, and reissued on CD in 1992 and again in 2010. Although originally released on LP in the United States in 1986 by RCA Victor, it was withdrawn from the market because of the film's unintentional similarities to the Challenger accident that had happened the same year. RCA Records' German LP release and Japanese 45 release were not likewise affected. A limited Japanese printing of 1000 CDs was re-released in 1992, and the Intrada Special Collection limited a CD printing to 3000 copies in 2010. Intrada Records released a 2-disk remastered and expanded soundtrack in May 2022, containing both the complete score from the film and the original soundtrack album.
