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"The National Marine Sanctuaries Media Library is an online vault where a comprehensive collection of select video clips and high-resolution still images from America's underwater treasures are securely stored and available for searchable access and download. "

" About Us Contact Us How Do I? * Register with the recreational fishing information program? * Report a marine mammal or sea turtle stranding? * Apply for a fishing permit? * Request permission to use a photo found on the NMFS website? * Import/export fishery products? * Request an essential fish habitat consultation? Catch Share Task Force Download the QuickTime Movie "This is NOAA Fisheries" Video 2009 - 2010 Calendar New NMFS 2009-2010 Calendar! 2009 Business Report 2009 Business Report Featured Stories NOAA Working to Stem the Tide of Gulf Sea Turtle Casualties NOAA Fisheries Scientist Conduct Longest-Known Plankton Transect NOAA Endorses Innovative Management of Pacific Coast Groundfish NOAA Launches Enhanced Essential Fish Habitat Mapper v2.0 Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument Designated as a World Heritage Site NOAA Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Science Missions Skip to NOAA Navigation Skip to Main Content Skip to Main Navigation Skip to Supporting Navigation Skip to Search Welcome to NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries Service). NOAA Fisheries Service is dedicated to the stewardship of living marine resources through science-based conservation and management, and the promotion of healthy ecosystems. As a steward, NOAA Fisheries Service conserves, protects, and manages living marine resources in a way that ensures their continuation as functioning components of marine ecosystems, affords economic opportunities, and enhances the quality of life for the American public. "

"Chronology of Selected Highlights in the First 100 American Spaceflights, 1961-1995"

"The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) emerged in some measure because of the pressures of national defense during the cold war with the Soviet Union, a broad contest over the ideologies and allegiances of the nonaligned nations of the world in which space exploration emerged as a major area of contest. From the latter 1940s, the Department of Defense pursued research and rocketry and upper atmospheric sciences as a means of assuring American leadership in technology. A major step forward came when President Dwight D. Eisenhower approved a plan to orbit a scientific satellite as part of the International Geophysical Year (IGY) for the period, 1 July 1957 to 31 December 1958, a cooperative effort to gather scientific data about the Earth. The Soviet Union quickly followed suit, announcing plans to orbit its own satellite."

"Gallery Banner Beginning in 1946, two XS-1 experimental research aircraft (later redesignated X-1s) conducted pioneering tests at Muroc Army Air Field (now Edwards Air Force Base) in California to obtain flight data on conditions in the transonic speed range. These early tests culminated on October 14, 1947, in the first piloted flight faster than Mach 1.0, the speed of sound. The XS-1 was the first high-speed aircraft built purely for aviation research purposes. The model was never intended for production. The XS-1 was designed largely in accordance with specifications provided by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) [now National Aeronautics and Space Administration], paid for by the Army Air Forces, and built by Bell Aircraft Inc. The XS-1 #2 (serial number 46-063) was flight tested by the NACA to provide design data for later production high-performance aircraft. The research techniques used in the X-1 program became the pattern for all subsequent X-craft projects. The NACA X-1 procedures and personnel also helped lay the foundation of America's space program in the 1960s. The X-1 project defined and solidified the post-war cooperative union between U.S. military needs, industrial capabilities, and research facilities. The flight data collected by the NACA in the X-1 tests then provided a basis for American aviation supremacy in the latter half of the 20th century. As a result of the X-1's initial supersonic flight, the National Aviation Association voted its 1948 Collier Trophy to be shared by the three main participants in the program. Honored at the White House by President Truman were Lawrence "Larry" Bell for Bell Aircraft, Captain Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager for piloting the flights, and John Stack of NACA for the NACA contributions. "

""Centennial of Flight Day: December 17, 2003""

"On July 20, 1969, the human race accomplished its single greatest technological achievement of all time when a human first set foot on another celestial body."

"The JSC History Portal offers access to the JSC History Collection, other JSC history materials, and hundreds of NASA history web pages."

NASA homepage

A Primer of Gemstones Where do diamonds fit into the pantheon of gems? Here, we present 20 of the world's most prized gemstones, together with the properties that experts use to distinguish them from one another and from artificial lookalikes. Click on the gems at left and become, for the moment, a gemologist.

neat site that tells where in the US you can find various gemstones native to the area.

" As colorful as the rainbow and as sparkling as fine leaded crystal, gemstones have captured the imaginations and desires of men and perhaps especially, women, for ages. The pursuit of gems have become the subject of legends, fairy tales, epics, and major motion pictures ("Romancing the Stone", for one). Today, more fine gemstone specimens are available to the average person than at any time in history. "

"Gemstone jewelry is always a winner, but do you know what characteristics to consider when you buy gemstones? These tips will help you evaluate and buy gemstone jewelry."