What is the greatest thing mankind has accomplished? Now, how did the person behind it accomplish something so great? It is because of goals. Everyone has goals, whether it is getting honor roll for a marking period or maybe it is to become the first human to set foot on the surface of Mars. No matter how big or small they may be, goals are what drive humans to do their best. What would have happened if John F. Kennedy never challenged the United States to land a man on the moon by the end of the 1960’s? Well, the United States would probably still be years behind in science, if not tied up in the cold war. In Homer Hickam’s memoir, Rocket Boys, he is the John F. Kennedy or Steve Jobs of his town. In his memoir, Hickam tells about the seemingly un-attainable goals he set for himself and …show more content…
Homer Hickam tries his best to source materials for his rockets. In Coalwood, some of the necessary materials are hard to find and has to negotiate to get these parts. Hickam also worked hard to form his team, he convinced Quentin to join the team and build the rockets and more importantly the team to work with Quentin. Hickam approaches Quentin and asks him to join to which Quentin replies, “‘Ho-ho!’ he exclaimed. ‘The same as you, old chap! If I learn how to build a rocket, I’ll stand a better chance of getting on down at the Cape’” (Hickam 70). Lastly, he constantly improved the design of his rockets. Homer Hickam was in charge of calculating the De Laval nozzles’ design and the launch of the first rocket bearing his design is described as: “It [The Rocket] flew straight, slicing without flinching through the plane of the mountaintops. Sherman counted. ‘Ten, eleven, twelve …’ I watched as the smoke trailed off from the Auk, and then it disappeared” (Hickam 268). He launched numerous rockets at once which exposed possible patterns of failure, and he immediately worked to fix flaws in his
In the book “The Boys of Winter” by Wayne Coffey, shows the struggle of picking the twenty men to go to Lake Placid to play in the 1980 Olympics and compete for the gold medal. Throughout this book Wayne Coffey talks about three many points. The draft and training, the importance of the semi-final game, and the celebration of the gold medal by the support the team got when they got home.
In the novel, October Sky by Homer Hickam, Sonny’s parents have two different views on what Sonny should be when he is older, his dad, Homer Hickam Sr., says a coal miner, but his mom, Elsie Hickam, says he can be anything he wants. Although Sonny’s dad wants him to be a coal miner, Sonny wants to build rockets and him mom understands that, so therefore his mom understands Sonny better than his father. Sonny lives in a coal mining town and most men or boys who live in the town are or are going to become coal miners. It is a tradition in their society. If their father is a coal miner, the boys in the family become coal miners. But, Sonny doesn’t want to become a coal miner. Sputnik inspired him to build rockets. His mother believes that Sonny should be able to be whatever he wants, no matter what his father does.
As we see David Metzenthen about to accept yet another award on his latest book, we feel it necessary to review other titles this author has produced. Published in 2003, the best-selling novel ‘boys of blood and bone’ is a highly-commended book receiving an honor award from the ‘The Children’s book council.’ It is also selected nationwide as a year 10 curriculum novels. Although this impressive list looks appealing, the actual content of the novel is sadly not. Being a duel narrative, the author uses war and contrasting modern day to express the meaning of relationships in adolescent lives. Less prevalent values in the book are honor, mate ship and the acceptance of responsibility. This shows the potential to be a great influence on young lives
Celebrity worship is a term given to those who obsess over one or more celebrity. Jake Halpern's "The Popular Crowd," discusses how loneliness increases the likelihood of someone worshiping celebrities. Worshiping of celebrities is not necessarily bad, it can be helpful for those who have a social need that they need satisfied. However, this worshiping can sometimes lead to stalking and violence towards celebrities. Once this happens celebrities are put in danger. Some celebrities receive phone calls, letters, emails, and more from stalkers. They might not feel like this is a sign of danger, but it is. In order for celebrities to remain safe, they need to be educated about dangers that come with having fans.
In the book Boys In the Boat, Daniel Brown tells the story of the U.S.’s rowing team’s Olympic journey to gold in 1936. The games were held in Berlin, right under Hitler’s eye. Though the games were held in Berlin that didn’t stop Joe Rantz, the book’s main character, and his team from going for gold. The boys had to show perseverance and teamwork to even be able to row. From country boys, to gold medal winners, rowing and hardships helped them embody the American spirit of hard work and teamwork. The boys had to overcome hardships, to work hard, and they never stopped being a team in order to win gold in Berlin.
...space, so he asked congress for 7 billion through 9 billion dollars over the next 5 years, for the space program. Within a year Gus Grissom and Alan Shepard became the first Americans in space. Although America wasn’t the first to space we had accomplished Kennedy’s goal.
[REVISE] The success of Apollo 11 which included the historic presence of the first humans on the moon signified the greatest extent of human intellectual advancement. Various circumstances were undertaken throughout the effort in success that established the United States’ superiority in terms of scientific and military progress.
I love little pussy, /Her coat is so warm, /And if I don’t hurt her, /She’ll do me no harm. /So I’ll not pull her tail, /Nor drive her away, /But pussy and I, /Very gently will play. (http://www.zelo.com/family/nursery/pussy.asp)
1. The Hickam family can be described through several different concepts based on the family systems approach. The first is through boundaries. Boundaries are defined as open or closed a system is (lecture). These boundaries in the system can be within the family itself or can occur between various systems as well (textbook). Boundaries are unhealthy when the boundary is extremely closed or extremely open (lecture). Boundaries seen in the movie October Sky were the Hickam family as a family system, but within the family, boundaries were between the parents and the kids, Homer and his father and Homer’s mom with Homer’s dad. The Hickam family also had boundaries with Miss Riley, the coal mine, Coalwood, college, and rocket science.
While clearly the scientific advances in space exploration were the most obvious successes of the Apollo program, some historians like NASA’s Roger D. Launius report that perhaps the most important legacy of the program was in the way so many people had to come together to manage such a gigantic and important project. This had never been done before and many think it could never be replicated again.
The Space Race improved our knowledge of space. When the United States successfully launched their first satellite, Explorer 1, on January 1, 1958, it carried a small payload that informed us on the magnetic radiation belts around the Earth (Garber). This gave us a small and raw amount of information but it gave us information to study. This also helped motivate us and our curiosity of space to get us to strive further and find more info. When the race started in 1957 following the successful launch of Sputnik, the US wanted to be a part of it and wanted to be better and wanted to prove it. With the launch of Explorer 1, they were able to prove that it was better than Sputnik because Explorer 1 actually provided us with information, whereas Sputnik just made a constant, meaningless beeping sound as it orbited our Earth. This h...
On a cold winter’s morning on the 28th day of January in the year 1986, America was profoundly shaken and sent to its knees as the space shuttle Challenger gruesomely exploded just seconds after launching. The seven members of its crew, including one civilian teacher, were all lost. This was a game changer, we had never lost a single astronaut in flight. The United States by this time had unfortunately grown accustomed to successful space missions, and this reality check was all too sudden, too brutal for a complacent and oblivious nation (“Space”). The outbreak of sympathy that poured from its citizens had not been seen since President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. The disturbing scenes were shown repeatedly on news networks which undeniably made it troublesome to keep it from haunting the nation’s cognizance (“Space”). The current president had more than situation to address, he had the problematic undertaking of gracefully picking America back up by its boot straps.
The 1960’s were full of questions, and one of the biggest questions the world was pondering about was regarding the Space Race: was the USA going to beat their communist enemy, the Soviet Union? The Space Race was a series of events that helped to symbolize and determine in the worlds’ eyes which form of government was better, communism (Soviets) or democracy (United States)? In the beginning of the race, the Soviets had the lead, and it was not looking good for America. Then the United States picked up the pace and spent well over eight billion dollars funding the space studies. This period of time made many scientists and astronauts heroes in the eyes of Americans. The Space Race was a combination of determination, intelligence, space projects, and American pride, all used to reach our exploration goals and surpass the Soviets.
"We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard" (Kennedy). When John F. Kennedy said these famous words, he set the stage for one of the greatest accomplishments the United States of America has ever made. Over the course of that decade, the space race would be in full swing; a universal goal would unite the nation to achieve the dream of sending a man to the moon and safely back to earth. Through human determination, the United States made enough scientific breakthroughs to alter events back on planet earth. In one decade, this nation was able to prove that the sky is no longer the limit. How was the United States able to effectively accomplish such a colossal task, and what was the global significance at the time?
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” It was July 20 1969, the day that reshaped our nation and gave us unparalleled dreams for the future. The impact of the day goes far beyond our pride and nationalism; that day would change space exploration and technology forever. Just like a shooting star, that day would give us a glimpse of hope. A chance to see an event so breathtaking and defying, it would be man’s greatest accomplishment in the 20th century. As millions of people watched from their TV sets, a rush of euphoria came over the nation as Neil Armstrong stepped foot on the surface of the moon. It was the first time in the history of mankind that we would step on the surface of another celestial body. John F. Kennedy dared us to dream, he inspired the nation to reach for the moon, to set ourselves apart from the rest of the world. The Space Race was symbolic of many things. Our future as the technically dominate nation was secured in place; just as secure as Old Glory would be, when she was driven down into the soil of the moon. We not only reached the moon, we conquered it as a nation; united.