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Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
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Explore the people, places, events, achievements, struggles and stories that shaped our journey.
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
Innovation, patents, science, technology and world-changing contributions.
Pioneers, champions, Negro Leagues, records, activism and excellence.
Meet the people whose lives, choices and achievements shaped the journey.
Black towns, communities, institutions and places where history happened.
Moments that changed communities, movements, institutions and the nation.
Wilmington, North Carolina once had a thriving Black middle class and an elected interracial government. In 1898 white supremacists used violence to overthrow that government, kill Black residents and drive many others from the city.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
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The Self Defense Test Ship (SDTS) is an asset of the United States Navy. It is a refurbished ship that is in some cases operated by remote control; that capability is designed to support self-defense engineering, testing, and evaluation.[1]
When uncrewed, it can avoid the safety constraints and other problems associated with crewed ships. During typical operations, launched threats attack the ship, and the combat or weapon system being tested responds to these threats, defending the ship. The pre-arranged attack is, in practice, aimed at a decoy barge pulled 150 feet behind the SDTS in case of damage. Systems installed on the SDTS include MK 57 NATO Sea Sparrow, MK 23 Target Acquisition system, Rolling Airframe Missile, AN/SLQ-32(V) 3 ESM, and Phalanx Close-in Weapon System.[2]
The current SDTS is the former USS Paul F. Foster (DD-964), now ex-Paul F. Foster. In addition to being a remote-controlled ship, she is a test-bed for numerous systems, technologies, and weapons, ranging from bio-fuels to lasers. She replaced the former USS Decatur (DDG-31) in 2003.[3]
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The Self Defense Test Ship (SDTS) is an asset of the United States Navy. It is a refurbished ship that is in some cases operated by remote control; that capability is designed to support self-defense engineering, testing, and evaluation. When uncrewed, it can avoid the safety constraints and other problems associated with crewed ships. During typical operations, launched threats attack the ship, and the combat or weapon system being tested responds to these threats, defending the ship. The pre-arranged attack is, in practice, aimed at a decoy barge pulled 150 feet behind the SDTS in case of damage. Systems installed on the SDTS include MK 57 NATO Sea Sparrow, MK 23 Target Acquisition system, Rolling Airframe Missile, AN/SLQ-32(V) 3 ESM, and Phalanx Close-in Weapon System. The current SDTS is the former USS Paul F. Foster (DD-964), now ex-Paul F. Foster. In addition to being a remote-controlled ship, she is a test-bed for numerous systems, technologies, and weapons, ranging from bio-fuels to lasers. She replaced the former USS Decatur (DDG-31) in 2003.
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 crew members aboard. Initially manufactured as a test article not intended for spaceflight, it was used for ground testing of the Space Shuttle orbiter's structural design. However, after NASA found that their original plan to upgrade Enterprise for spaceflight would be more expensive than upgrading Challenger, the orbiter was pressed into operational service in the Space Shuttle program. Lessons learned from the first orbital flights of Columbia led to Challenger's design possessing fewer thermal protection system tiles and a lighter fuselage and wings. This led to it being 2,200 pounds (1,000 kilograms) lighter than Columbia, though still 5,700 pounds (2,600 kilograms) heavier than Discovery. During its three years of operation, Challenger was flown on ten missions in the Space Shuttle program, spending over 62 days in space and completing almost 1,000 orbits around Earth. Following its maiden flight, Challenger supplanted Columbia as the leader of the Space Shuttle fleet, being the most-flown orbiter during all three years of its operation while Columbia itself was seldom used during the same time frame. Challenger was used for numerous civilian satellite launches, such as the first tracking and data relay satellite, the Palapa B communications satellites, the Long Duration Exposure Facility, and the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite. It was also used as a test bed for the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) and served as the platform to repair the malfunctioning SolarMax telescope. In addition, three consecutive Spacelab missions were conducted with the orbiter in 1985, one of which was the first German crewed spaceflight mission. Passengers carried into orbit by Challenger include the first American female astronaut, the first American female spacewalker, the first African-American astronaut, and the first Canadian astronaut. On its tenth flight in January 1986, Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff, killing the seven-member crew of STS-51-L that included Christa McAuliffe, who would have been the first teacher in space. The Rogers Commission concluded that an O-ring seal in one of Challenger's solid rocket boosters failed to contain pressurized burning gas that leaked out of the booster, causing a structural failure of Challenger's external tank and the orbiter's subsequent breakup due to aerodynamic forces. NASA's organizational culture was also scrutinized by the Rogers Commission, and the Space Shuttle program's goal of replacing the United States' expendable launch systems was cast into doubt. The loss of Challenger and its crew led to a broad rescope of the program including replacing it with Endeavour, and numerous aspects – such as launches from Vandenberg, the MMU, and Shuttle-Centaur – were scrapped to improve crew safety; Challenger and Atlantis were the only orbiters modified to conduct Shuttle-Centaur launches. The recovered remains of the orbiter are mostly buried in a missile silo located at Cape Canaveral LC-31; one piece is on display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.
The Lockheed X-7 (dubbed the "Flying Stove Pipe") is an American unmanned test bed of the 1950s for ramjet engines and missile guidance technology. It was the basis for the later Lockheed AQM-60 Kingfisher, a system used to test American air defenses against nuclear missile attack.
The Lockheed Martin CATBird is a highly modified Boeing 737-330 designed as an avionics flight testbed aircraft. The name is an adaptive acronym, from Cooperative Avionics Test Bed; CATBIRD is Lockheed's ICAO-designated company callsign. The aircraft was modified in order to provide an economic means of developing and flight testing the avionics suite for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. CATBird has a distinctive appearance, with an F-35's nose and a pair of small canards located just aft of the forward entrance doors. Inside, the aircraft is equipped with racks to hold all of F-35's avionics, as well as an F-35 cockpit. The aircraft was modified under contract by BAE Systems Inc. at their facility at the Mojave Spaceport. Work began in December, 2003, and the aircraft began post-modification taxi tests in November 2006. First flight took place on January 23, 2007 at Mojave. After the initial flight test program conducted at Mojave, on March 2, 2007, the aircraft was ferried to Lockheed's Fort Worth facility for Phase 2 of the modification program, which would install the flight test stations and actual avionics and sensor systems to be tested. In 2014 the CATBird's software test station was upgraded by Northrop Grumman with Tech Refresh 2 hardware which gives the CATBird capability to test F-35 Block 3 Software.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Mae Jemison, aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992.