Page 4 - Curriculum Visions Dynamic Book

Space, a distant mystery... . And so it has seemed to people through the centuries. Until the last half century anyone could only look, for there was never a chance of reaching out into space. Even Earth-bound telescopes are very limited in what they can help us see, partly because the Earth’s atmosphere obscures distant vision, and partly because many objects in space (such as the Moon) show us only one side all year.
The development of spacecraft has changed all our perspectives on space. No telescope picture comes remotely close to the sensation we all feel when we see an astronaut put a foot down on the Moon, or when a probe takes pictures close to a moon on the edge of our solar system, revealing beauty that could not have been imagined.
 Although we are very familiar with seeing rocket launches at a distance (above), it is only when we come face to face with a launcher, such as Saturn V at the Kennedy Space Centre (right), that we can start to appreciate the sheer vastness of the power needed to get into space.
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