The balls didn’t actually go for miles. Shepard later gave his estimate to be about 200 to 400 yards. Considering that he swung with one hand in a suit that restricted movement, with a rigged six iron, it wasn’t a bad shot. The golf shot was unplanned and unauthorized. Shepard smuggled the golf club head inside his uniform.

The Apollo 14 mission was the first mission after the failed Apollo 13 mission. Alan Shepard along with Edgar Mitchell became the 5th and 6th man to walk on the moon. Stuart Roosa orbited the moon in the Command Module.

The mission lasted from January 31 to February 9, 1971. Shepard and Mitchell spent 33 1/2 hours on the moon. Nine hours and 23 minutes was spent outside of the Lunar Capsule.

This was Shepard’s second and final time in space. Ten years earlier on May 5, 1961, he became the first American to travel into space when he piloted Freedom 7. That flight was a sub-orbital flight which carried him to an altitude of 116 statute miles. With the Apollo 14 mission he became the only astronaut from Project Mercury to reach the moon. At 47, he also was the oldest to walk on the moon.

For Shepard the mission was a personal triumph. He had been grounded from 1964 to 1968 from Ménière’s disease, a condition in which fluid pressure builds up in the inner ear. An operation performed in 1968 was able to remedy the problem and he was allowed to fly again. Even though Alan B. Shepard never intended to be a hero, he was one.

Command Pilot Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Senior Pilot Edward Higgins White, II and Pilot Roger B. Chaffee.

Gus Grissom, born on April 3, 1926 in Mitchell, Indiana, was one of the first astronauts selected in 1959 for the Mercury Program. He was the second person to fly in space on Liberty Bell 7 launched on on July 21, 1961. He also flew in the Gemini program as the Command Pilot on Gemini 3 launched on March 23, 1965.

Ed White, born November 14, 1930 in San Antonio, Texas, was chosen as one of the second group of astronauts in 1962. He was the pilot of Gemini 4 launched on June 3, 1965 and during that mission 4 hours after lift-off he performed the first Spacewalk by an American. He was outside of the capsule for 15 minutes 40 seconds.

Roger Chaffee, born February 15, 1935 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, had been chosen as one of the third group of astronauts in 1963. This would have been his first mission into space.

Chaffee and Grissom are both buried in Section 3 of Arlington National Cemetery. White is buried at West Point Cemetery. These three fallen men were heroes in every sense of the word and even in death helped the United States become the only nation on earth to sent men to the moon.

From left to right; Grissom, White and Chaffee

The Hewlett-Packard HP-35 was first introduced on February 1, 1972 and was the first handheld electronic calculator sold by HP. It was also the first handheld ever to perform logarithmic and trigonometric functions with one keystroke.

Digital Watches are introduced.

Atari was founded in June 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney and they install the first prototype of the video game Pong at Andy Capps Bar in September of the same year.

Pepsi-Cola introduced the Twelve-pack.

Woody Guthrie may have died in 1967, but The Woody Guthrie Foundation was founded in 1972. The foundation serves as administrator and caretaker of the Woody Guthrie Archives.

On its fourth orbit Gemini 6A meet Gemini 7, with Command Pilot Frank F. Borman II and Pilot James A. Lowell Jr., which was already in orbit. Gemini 7 had launched on December 4, 1965 and was already 11 days into their 14 day mission.

Gemini 6A was actually suppose to have been launched before Gemini 7. Gemini 6′s mission was to meet and dock with a vessel in space. It was originally suppose to have docked with an Agena Target Vehicle. The target vessel failed 6 minute into its mission and Gemini 6 mission was aborted.

Had it not been for the quick thinking of Wally Schirra on December 12, the rescheduled launch date, Gemini 6 may never had launched. On launch the engines briefly fired, but stopped cause the mission to be aborted. Mission rules was for the astronauts to eject, but since Schirra and Stafford not feeling any upwards motion they elected not to eject. With the work of many engineers it was decided to try to launch on the 15th.

Before sleep time the two capsule moved to a distance of 10 miles apart. The next day Gemini 6A splashed down 16 kilometers from their target point. They were the first to have a truly accurate reentry.

On December 18 Gemini 7 splashed down even closer to their target point being only 11.8 Kilometers away.

The Challenger also had some great firsts as well. On June 24, 1983, on its second mission, the first female American who went into space, Sally Ride, returned to earth at Edwards Air Force Base. The mission began on June 18th and lasted a total of 6 days, 2 hours, 23 minutes and 59 seconds.

The Challenger also became the first to carry two women into space in October 1984 with Kathryn D. Sullivan and Sally Ride who made her second and last flight. On that flight Kathryn Sullivan became the first American woman to walk in space.

Even its first flight had a first. During that flight in April of 1983, the first spacewalk from a shuttle was performed by Donald Peterson and F. Story Musgrave. This mission also was the first to use a new lightweight external tank.

Prior to its 4th mission in February 1984 all space walks required the walker to be tethered to a capsule or shuttle. During this flight Bruce McCandless performed the first untethered walk using the Manned Maneuvering Unit, a small rocket propulsion backpack.

In all the Space Shuttle Challenger had 10 space fights (9 successful and its final disastrous one) including three of the first four missions that helped put Spacelab into orbit.

Even though these four moon are bright, they would not have been seen without the aid of a telescope. They could be seen if they were farther away from Jupiter.

Galileo initially called his discovery the Cosmica Sidera (“Cosimo’s stars”), in honour of Cosimo II de’ Medici (1590–1621). At Cosimo’s suggestion, Galileo changed the name to Medicea Sidera (“the Medician stars”).

The received their final names Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto by Simon Marius after the lovers of the Greek god Zeus. Zeus is the equivalent of to the Roman god Jupiter. Galileo refused to use these names and just simply used a numbering scheme listing them from closest to Jupiter outward as I, II, III, IV.

The Galilean moons would be considered dwarf planets if they were in direct orbit around the sun and not also orbiting Jupiter. The are spheroidal in shape.

If one counts a recently discovered moon that hasn’t established an orbit, Jupiter has 63 moons. Jupiter has eight moons that are termed regular satellites. This include the Galilean moons. The other 55 are classified as irregular satellites with 14 of these are still unnamed.