Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Orion Capsules

Before the shuttles, there were capsules.  Now, think about it.  Someone comes to you and says that they're gonna strap you to some monster rockets, launch you into space, then let you drop like a rock thousands of feet back to earth and splash down in the ocean.  You might ask, what keeps me from sinking?  How about a flotation collar?  Alan Shepherd took on the challenge and was the first American in space.

Project Mercury ran from 1959 into 1963.  Think about the state of computers in that time frame.  What I get in a laptop now, they used entire floors for in the 60's.  No computer in this capsule, huh?


After that, in just two years, Project Gemini put ten manned  flights into space.  They were practice runs for landing on the moon:  orbital maneuvers, EVA's, rendezvous and dockings in order to return to earth.  The Gemini capsule was supposed to try out a paraglider wing for a more controlled re-entry landing.  It was an inflatable delta wing.
 

Notice the capsule in the background has wheels - all the better to roll to a sweet stop.  (The one in the foreground was for our understanding of what they looked like on the inside.)  There were too many technical difficulties to overcome in too short a time frame, so the concept never became operational.  Ultimately the paraglider wing took hold and was used for hang gliders.

The final capsule to evolve was the Apollo series.  Three astronauts died in Apollo 1 on the launch pad when the cabin caught on fire.  Apollo 13 was an amazing show of American ingenuity.  (You might remember a movie called "Apollo 13" with Tom Hanks.)  Ultimately the Apollo program would take three astronauts to the moon, with two of them actually walking (and playing golf) on the moon.

The Orion capsule being built by Lockheed Martin is part of the Constellation program began in 2005.  A test flight is scheduled for 2014 with the first manned mission to take place after 2020.  However, the Obama Administration's cancellation of the Constellation program was signed into law October 11, 2010.  The bill now moves the U.S. space exploration objective more toward a near-earth mission and an eventual Mars landing.