The Vostok rocket was developed by the Soviet Union to as their main launch vehicle for space flights. It was based on the R-7, an ICBM designed by Sergei Korolev and first launched in 1957. An R-7 rocket was used to carry Sputnik 1 into space on October 4, 1957. It was a single rocket with 4 booster engines attached to the sides, which acted like a multi stage rocket. The Vostok was an R-7 with an extra upper stage rocket, called Blok-E. This upper stage would fire as the lower stages ran out of fuel (a mix of kerosene and liquid oxygen.
The Vostok was the first rocket with enough power to reach a solar orbit, with Lunar 1, launched on January 2, 1959. Luna 2 was the first rocket to reach the Moon, launched September 14, 1959. Luna 3, launched October 4, 1959, was able to take photographs of the far side of the Moon.
A Vostok rocket carried the Vostok 1 spacecraft, carrying Yuri Gagarin, the first person to go into space on April 12, 1961. Vostok 6 carried Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space on June 16, 1963.
Robin Wright
Robin Gayle Wright (born April 8, 1966 in Dallas, Texas) is an American actress. Her roles include starring as Jenny in the Academy Award winning movie "Forrest Gump". She played in many other movies and television series. Wright was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for her acting in the soap opera "Santa Barbara".
Wright was married to actor Sean Penn from 1998 until 2010. They have 2 children.
Australian Aboriginal astronomy
Australian Aborigines were some of the first people in the world to develop ideas with astronomy. It is possible that their interpretation of astronomy is the oldest still alive today. Studying astronomical subjects – such as the Sun, Moon, stars and planets – and the way they appeared to move was used as a way to find and explain the relationship between people, nature and the sky. The ideas that came from this contributed to their basic perception of the universe (their cosmology), and still form an important part of traditional culture and knowledge. Many legends, art forms, music and ceremonies originate from interpretations of astronomical phenomena and objects in the sky. Many Aboriginal groups give spiritual or mythological meanings to these things. Some groups used their knowledge of the movement of objects across the sky to develop practical tools like calendars.
Old Australian Aboriginal culture is an oral tradition, so knowledge of astronomy has been passed down through stories, song and dance. A lot of knowledge is kept secret, only passed to those who have been initiated. As in all aspects of Aboriginal society, some things are only known to men, other things are only known to women. The earliest written account of Aboriginal astronomy was published in 1857. It was written by Edward Stanbridge, an Englishman who became friends with the Boorong people of Victoria.
Astronomy is a huge part of Aboriginal people's social, cultural and religious knowledge. It has little relation to the scientific theory of Western thinking. There are many different Aboriginal groups in Australia, and each interpret the sky in different ways. The interpretations all developed along the same lines and share the same basic themes, but can be very different in meaning. Most objects and phenomena are interpreted as figures or events in the Dreaming. Unlike in other ancient cultures, these legends and beliefs are still part of modern life for Australian Aborigines.
In most Aboriginal cultures, the Sun is regarded as a woman, and the Moon is a man. Tradition in Arnhem Land says that each morning, the Sun wakes up and lights a fire at her camp in the east. She then gets up and carries a torch across the sky from east to west, creating daylight. The Yolngu call her Walu, and believe that at sunrise and sunset her ochre body paint is brushed onto the clouds. At night, she is said to travel under ground back to her camp in the east. Similar stories are used to explain the phases of the Moon. For example, the Kuwema people say that at each full moon, he grows fat by eating the spirits of those who disobey tribal law. Some coastal peoples, such as the Yolngu, clearly saw the connection between the Moon and the tides. In other groups, the Moon is linked with fertility due to the similar pattern of the lunar cycle and the female menstrual cycle.
Solar and lunar eclipses were widely explained as the male Moon and female Sun mating with or marrying each other. Several astronomers note that these explanations show Aborigines understood that eclipses are caused by the paths of the Sun and Moon crossing each other. Norris (2009) argues that early Aborigines must have had a very good understanding of this in order to identify a lunar eclipse as being caused by the alignment of the Sun and Moon (since the Sun does not actually appear in the sky).
In his study of the central desert peoples, anthropologist Charles P. Mountford wrote that most, if not all, of the stars seen in the southern hemisphere had Aboriginal myths associated with them. Most groups distinguish red, white, blue and yellow stars. Stars are often grouped together in unique ways – some groups classify stars using social kinship systems. So many of the constellations known to Aboriginal groups are different to those known to Western astronomers.
The broad band of the Milky Way that runs across the sky at night is commonly interpreted by Aboriginal groups as a legendary river. Several groups in the central desert believe the river divides two tribes of ancestor spirits who live on either side. To some groups, the stars along the river represent fish; other groups, such as the Yolngu, believe the stars are the campfires of their ancestors. Other groups identfy the Milky Way as the Rainbow Serpent, a major creator being.
The Emu is a constellation known to many Aboriginal groups in Australia. It is not a constellation in the usual sense, because it is defined by areas of dark shadow between the bands of the Milky Way (caused by dust and gas clouds in space), rather than by stars. The emu's head is the very dark Coalsack nebula, next to the Southern Cross. The body and legs are other dark clouds trailing out along the Milky Way and across the Scorpius constellation.
This shape in the sky is said to have influenced the style of the emus drawn on rock art. Where it appeared in the sky during the course of the year indicated when ceremonies should be held. Just north of Sydney is a well-known set of rock engravings, one of which is an emu in the same pose and orientation as the emu in the sky. In autumn, the emu in the sky will stand directly over her portrait on the rock, indicating to the Kuring-gai people that it is time to gather emu eggs.
At the head of the emu, the Southern Cross is easily spotted in the sky, and there are many different interpretations of this constellation across Australia. Several groups identify it as an eagle, a sky god, or both. For the Arrernte, it represents the foot of Waluwara, an eagle spirit – the four bright stars mark his talons, and the Coalsack is his nest. To the Ngarrindjeri of South Australia, the Southern Cross is a stingray being chased by two sharks. The sharks, which is a sacred totem to the Ngarrindjeri, are represented by Alpha Centauri and Beta Centauri. In Victoria, the Boorong people identified the Southern Cross as the possum Bunya hiding from an emu spirit whose outline could be seen in the Coalsack nebula. To the Wardaman, the Coalsack is the head of a "law man". In 1972, the poet Oodgeroo Noonuccal wrote of the Southern Cross as the hands and feet of a wise leader named Mirabooka, who was given eternal life as a spirit in the sky.