Today, Irish is the first official language of the Republic of Ireland but in practice English still has a dominant position in government. It is not spoken by most Irish people outside the Gaeltacht in day-to-day life, although many speak it when among friends or family. It also must be taught in all schools in Ireland.
The newest Gaeltacht in Ireland is on the Falls Road in Belfast City, where the whole community now tries to use Irish as their first language. This area is called the Gaeltacht Quarter.
There are around 2 million speakers. The places where Irish is spoken a lot are called Gaeltacht areas or in Irish, "Gaeltachtaí". Around 70% of the people in these areas speak Irish.
Irish
Irish could mean:
Max and Ruby
Max and Ruby is a Canadian children's television series created by Rosemary Wells. The series originally aired on Nick Jr. on Nickelodeon in the United States and Treehouse TV in Canada. It is aimed at a preschool children. The series was created by children's book author / illustrator Rosemary Wells. It is based on the fictional world of her "Max and Ruby" books. The episodes show stories about three year old Max, an anthropomorphised toddler bunny, and his big sister, seven year old Ruby, a patient young lady. The show has a good message for its audience by showing Max and Ruby playing together and using respect and love in solving their problems.
Max gets into trouble in almost every episode, but Ruby gives him a helping hand.
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400
Year 400 (CD) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Stilicho and Aurelianus (or, less frequently, year 1153 "Ab urbe condita"). The denomination 400 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
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Apollo program
The Apollo program (or Project Apollo) was a project by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The goal was to send a human to explore the Moon and bring him home to earth safely. It was started by US President John F. Kennedy in 1961. He said:
One reason the program started was that the Soviet Union was the first country to send a person into outer space. Since this was during the Cold War, many in the US thought that the US needed to stay ahead of the USSR in space exploration.
The Apollo spacecraft was made up of a Command and Service Module, and a Lunar Module. The Command Module was a space capsule. The Lunar Module was a lander. These spacecraft docked on the way to the Moon. Mercury and Gemini spaceships were very small and cramped, but the Apollo capsule was much bigger. Astronauts could move around and not have to stay in their seats. The Lunar Lander was also big on the inside. The only part of the Apollo spacecraft to come back to Earth was the capsule, the Lunar Module would crash on the moon.
The Apollo program ended in 1975. After that, NASA began to work on the Space Shuttle program, the International Space Station, and many unmanned space exploration projects.
There was a movie made about the problems that happened on the Apollo 13 mission.
In September 1967, Owen Maynard of the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas proposed a series of Apollo missions that would lead to landing a person on the Moon. There were seven types of mission, each testing a specific set of parts and tasks. Each step would need to be completed successfully before the next mission type could begin. These were:
The first manned Lunar Module, LM-3, was not ready for the December 1968 launch date of Apollo 8. The mission flew as a lunar orbital mission, using just the CSM. The E mission was canceled.
The first landing would be followed by more advanced lunar missions:
The Apollo flights were carried into space by the Saturn I and V rockets.
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent agency of the United States Federal Government that deals with space exploration and aeronautics, the operating and designing of planes. NASA has had many successful missions, for example the ISS, and Apollo 11, which put the first man on the Moon in 1969. NASA was started on July 29, 1958. NASA's motto is: "For the Benefit of All". The current Administrator of NASA is Bill Nelson since April 2021.
NASA was preceded by the "HouseNational Advisory Committee for Aeronautics" (NACA). NACA was a US federal agency founded on March 3, 1915 to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958 the agency was dissolved, and its assets and personnel transferred to the newly created National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NASA was founded to compete with the Soviet Union in the space race. In the 1950s and 1960s there was a space race between the US and the Soviet Union - now called Russia. The Soviets started first launching Sputnik 1, the first object made by people to go into orbit, in October 1957. The Americans were worried by this. It caused a crisis known as the Sputnik Crisis as the Americans feared the Russians might start building weapons in space. This all happened at a time called the Cold War when the USA and the Soviet Union were always very close to war.
Originally NASA was very small with only four laboratories and around eighty people working there. German engineers and scientists led by Wernher von Braun helped them build rockets. They had helped build the V-2 missile in Germany during World War II and the Redstone missile for the US Army afterwards. Their Army missile laboratory was transferred to NASA.
In 1960 they set up the Mercury project. The Mercury Project space missions were designed by NASA, mostly to test if humans could survive in space. After they proved it was possible for people to live in space they moved on.
On May 15th 1961 astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American in space. Less than a year later, John Glenn became the first American to orbit or circle the Earth. He did so in a spacecraft called Friendship 7. Once the Mercury Project proved that humans could live in space, the Gemini Project was started. Less than a year after it began, the Apollo Program also began.
After the success of Mercury, NASA realized it had to start planning for its missions to the Moon. The Gemini spacecraft was built for two men. It was still small and cramped similar to the Mercury capsule, but allowed for more freedom of movement. Project Gemini proved that two spacecraft could rendezvous (meet and dock) in space. Neil Armstrong, the first man on the Moon, was also on the first Gemini flight to dock with another spacecraft in outer space. The Gemini spacecraft did not dock with another spacecraft with people in it. Instead, it docked with a rocket called "Agena target vehicle". The last few Gemini missions were science experiments and spacewalks designed to prepare for the Apollo Program, which would land human beings on the Moon.
The Apollo program was started by President John F Kennedy in the 1960s. The program was made of 16 missions designed to send a man to the Moon and return him safely back to Earth. The first Apollo mission, Apollo 1, ended in disaster when a fire in the command module killed all the astronauts on board. The Apollo 8 and 10 missions went to the moon. They tested equipment and took photos but did not land.
The project's main success came in 1969 when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon as part of Apollo 11. The mission was a big success for NASA and over six million people watched it worldwide. After Apollo 11, six more Apollo flights went to the moon. Five of them landed. The one that did not land, Apollo 13, had to abort its mission when an oxygen tank exploded in the spaceship. Apollo 17 was the last mission to land on the Moon.