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Vandenberg Air Force Base

(Encyclopedia)Vandenberg Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 3,456 acres (1,399 hectares), SW Calif., near Lompoc; chief Pacific coast launch site for military satellites, and headquarters of the U.S. Space...

Pereira, I. Rice

(Encyclopedia)Pereira, I. Rice (Irene Rice Pereira) pərāˈrə [key], 1907–71, American painter, b. Chelsea, Mass. In 1935, Pereira helped found the Federal Art Project design laboratory and taught there for sev...

Tsiolkovsky, Konstantin Eduardovich

(Encyclopedia)Tsiolkovsky, Konstantin Eduardovich kənstəntyēnˈ ĕdwärˈdəvĭchˈ tsēōlkŏvˈskē [key], 1857–1935, Russian inventor and rocket expert. He lost his hearing in childhood, and, as he could no...

weightlessness

(Encyclopedia)weightlessness, the absence of any observable effects of gravitation. This condition is experienced by an observer when he and his immediate surroundings are allowed to move freely in the local gravit...

Kuhn, Thomas Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Kuhn, Thomas Samuel, 1922–96, American philosopher and historian of science, b. Cincinnati, Ohio. He trained as a physicist at Harvard (Ph.D. 1949), where he taught the history of science from 1948 ...

Thomson, Sir John Arthur

(Encyclopedia)Thomson, Sir John Arthur, 1861–1933, Scottish naturalist and writer. From 1899 to 1930 he was Regius professor of natural history at the Univ. of Aberdeen. In 1924 he lectured at Union Theological S...

von Braun, Wernher

(Encyclopedia)von Braun, Wernher vôn broun [key], 1912–77, German-American rocket scientist and astronautics engineer, b. Germany, grad. Berlin Technological Institute (B.S., 1932), Univ. of Berlin (Ph.D., 1934)...

Huntsville, cities, United States

(Encyclopedia)Huntsville. 1 City (2020 pop. 215,006), seat of Madison co., N Ala.; inc. 1811. A major center for U.S. space research, Huntsville is the site of the ...

aerial and satellite photography

(Encyclopedia)aerial and satellite photography, technology and science of taking still or moving-picture photographs from a camera mounted on a balloon, airplane, satellite, rocket, or spacecraft. In the 19th cent....

Merritt Island

(Encyclopedia)Merritt Island, c.40 mi (60 km) long and c.6 mi (10 km) wide, E Fla., separated from the mainland by Indian River (a lagoon) and from the Canaveral peninsula on the east by Banana River (a lagoon). It...