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Space Race
The Space Race refers to the XX century competition between the USSR and the US, for dominance in spaceflight capability.
The Space Race spawned pioneering efforts to launch artificial satellites, uncrewed space probes of the Moon, Venus, and Mars, and human spaceflight in low Earth orbit and to the Moon.
The Space Race began when the Soviet Union responded to the US announcement of intent to launch artificial satellites by declaring they would also launch a satellite "in the near future". -
Sputnik 1
The Sputnik was the first artificial Earth satellite.
The Soviet Union launched it into an elliptical low Earth orbit on 1957, orbiting for three weeks before its batteries died, then silently for two more months before falling back into the atmosphere.
It was a 58 cm diameter metal sphere, with four external radio antennas to broadcast radio pulses.
This surprise success triggered the Space Race. The launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments. -
Sputnik 2
Sputnik 2 was the second spacecraft launched into Earth orbit, and the first to carry a living animal, a dog named Laika.
Launched by the U.S.S.R., Sputnik 2 was a 4-meter high cone-shaped capsule with a base diameter of 2 meters.
A separate sealed cabin contained the dog Laika.
Little was known about the impact of spaceflight on living creatures, and the technology to de-orbit had not yet been developed, so engineers used flights by animals as a necessary precursor to human missions. -
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Project Mercury
Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the US. Its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Union. It conducted 20 unmanned developmental flights (some using animals) and 6 successful flights by astronauts.
The astronauts were collectively known as the "Mercury Seven", and each spacecraft was given a name ending with a "7" by its pilot.
The flight was designed to be controlled from the ground via the Manned Space Flight Network. -
Explorer 1
Explorer 1 was the first satellite of the United States, launched as part the International Geophysical Year.
Explorer 1 was launched at the Cape Canaveral,Florida. It was the first spacecraft to detect the Van Allen radiation belt, returning data until its batteries were exhausted after nearly four months. It remained in orbit until 1970, and has been followed by more than 90 scientific spacecraft in the Explorer series.
Explorer/Nasa -
Luna 1
Luna 1 was the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Earth's Moon, and the first spacecraft to be placed in heliocentric orbit. Intended as an impactor, Luna 1 due to an incorrectly timed upper stage burn during its launch, it missed the Moon, in the process becoming the first spacecraft to leave geocentric orbit, and was then renamed Mechta (Dream).
The measurements obtained during this mission provided new data on the Earth's radiation belt and outer space. -
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The Luna programme
The Luna programme was a series of robotic spacecraft missions sent to the Moon by the Soviet Union. 15 were successful, each designed as either an orbiter or lander, and accomplished many firsts in space exploration. They also performed many experiments, studying the Moon.
24 spacecraft were formally given the Luna designation. Those that failed in low Earth orbit were usually given Cosmos designations. -
Luna 2
Luna 2 was the second of the Soviet Union's Luna programme spacecraft launched to the Moon. It was the first spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon, and the first man-made object to land on another celestial body.
Luna 2 transmitted information back to Earth using three different transmitters that provided precise information, allowing scientists to make calculations. In order to be able to provide visual it released a vapor cloud that would be seen by observatories in Alma Ata, Byurakan... -
Luna 3
Luna 3 was the first-ever mission to photograph the far side of the Moon and the third Soviet space probe to be sent to the neighborhood of the Moon.
The historic, never-before-seen views of the far side of the Moon caused excitement and interest and a tentative Atlas of the Far Side of the Moon was created,
These views showed mountainous terrain, very different from the near side, and only two dark, low-lying regions which were named Mare Moscoviense and Mare Desiderii. -
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The Vostok programme
The Vostok programme was a Soviet human spaceflight project to put the first Soviet citizens into low Earth orbit and return them safely. Competing with the United States Project Mercury, it succeeded in placing the first human into space, Yuri Gagarin, in a single orbit.
The programme carried out six manned spaceflights.
The longest lasted 5 days, and the last 4 were one day apart. This exceeded Project Mercury's capabilities of a longest flight of just over 34 hours, and of single missions. -
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The Venera series.
The Venera series space probes were developed by the Soviet Union to gather data from Venus.
Ten probes from the Venera series successfully landed on Venus and transmitted data from the surface of Venus, including the two Vega program and Venera-Halley probes. In addition, thirteen Venera probes successfully transmitted data from the atmosphere of Venus.
The probes of the series became the first human-made devices to enter the atmosphere of another planet. -
Vostok 1
Vostok 1 was the first manned spaceflight in history.
The Vostok space capsule was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome by the U.R.S.S., with Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin aboard, making him the first human to cross into outer space.
The orbital spaceflight consisted of a single orbit around Earth which skimmed the upper atmosphere at its lowest point. The flight took 108 minutes from launch to landing.
Gagarin parachuted to the ground separately from his capsule after ejecting at 7 km altitude. -
Freedom 7
Freedom 7 was the first UUSS human spaceflight, piloted by astronaut Alan Shepard.The mission was a 15-minute flight with the objective of demonstrate his ability to brook launch and atmospheric re-entry.
His spacecraft reached an altitude of 187.5km and traveled 487.3km. It was the fourth Mercury flight launched with the Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle, from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
During the flight, Shepard tested the capsule.
After re-entry, the capsule landed by parachute on the Bahamas. -
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The Mariner Programme
The Mariner program was a 10-mission program conducted by the NASA. The program launched a series of robotic interplanetary probes designed to investigate Mars, Venus and Mercury.
Of the 10 vehicles in the Mariner series, 7 were successful.
The name of the Mariner program was decided in the suggestion of Edgar M. Cortright to have the "planetary mission probes ... patterned after nautical terms", to convey "the impression of travel to great distances and remote lands. -
Marine 2
Mariner 2 was the first robotic space probe to conduct a successful planetary encounter. The first successful spacecraft in the NASA Mariner program. The original plans called for the probes to be launched on the Atlas-Centaur, but developmental problems switch plans. As such, the design was simplified.
The Mariner 2 spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral and passed the closest to Venus on December 14, 1962.
The mission was to receive communications and information from Venus. -
Vostok 6
Vostok 6 was the first human spaceflight to carry a woman, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, into space.
Data collected during the mission provided understanding of the female body's reaction to spaceflight. Like other cosmonauts Tereshkova maintained a flight log, took photographs, and manually oriented the spacecraft. Her photographs were later used to identify aerosol layers within the atmosphere. The mission, was originally conceived two Vostoks, but the Vostok program experienced cutbacks. -
Marine 4
Mariner 4 was the fourth in a series of spacecraft intended for planetary exploration in a flyby mode. It was designed to conduct closeup scientific observations of Mars and to transmit these observations to Earth. Mariner 4 performed the first successful flyby of the planet Mars, returning the first close-up pictures of the Martian surface. It captured the first images of another planet ever returned from deep space.
On December 21, 1967 communications with Mariner 4 were terminated. -
Luna 9
Luna 9 was the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on the Moon coming to rest in Oceanus Procellarum.It used a landing bag to survive the impact speed of 22 kilometres per hour.
It was a hermetically sealed container with radio equipment, heat control systems, scientific apparatus, and a television system.
After touchdown, Luna 9 began transmitting data , but it was seven hours before the probe began sending the first of nine images (including five panoramas) of the surface of the Moon. -
Luna 10
Luna 10 was the first artificial satellite of the Moon.
Luna 10 conducted extensive research in lunar orbit, gathering important data on the strength of the Moon’s magnetic field, its radiation belts, and the nature of lunar rocks, cosmic radiation, and micrometeoroid density, but the most important one was the evidence of mass concentrations areas of high density below the mare basins that distort lunar orbital trajectories. -
Mariner 5
Mariner 5 was a spacecraft that carried a complement of experiments to probe Venus' atmosphere by radio occultation, measure the hydrogen Lyman-alpha spectrum, and sample the solar particles and magnetic field fluctuations above the planet.Its goals were to measure interplanetary and Venusian magnetic fields, charged particles, plasma, radio refractivity and UV emissions of the Venusian atmosphere, which it was discovered to had a very hot surface and an atmosphere denser than expected. -
Mariner 6 and 7
As part of NASA's Mariner program, Mariner 6 and Mariner 7 completed the first dual mission to Mars. The craft flew over the equator and south polar regions, analyzing the atmosphere and the surface, and recording pictures. The goals were to study the surface and atmosphere of Mars, in order to establish the basis for future investigations, particularly those relevant to the search for extraterrestrial life, and to demonstrate and develop technologies required for future Mars missions. -
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Apollo Programme
The Apollo program was the third United States human spaceflight program carried out by the NASA, which accomplished landing the first humans on the Moon. Apollo was later dedicated to President John F. Kennedy's national goal of "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth, wich was accomplished on the Apollo 11 mission. -
Apollo 11
Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that landed the first two people on the Moon. Mission commander Neil Armstrong and pilot Buzz Aldrin, both American. Armstrong became the first person to step onto the lunar surface, on live TV.
They spent about two and a quarter hours together outside the spacecraft, and collected 21.5kg of lunar material to bring back.
After being sent to the Moon, the astronauts traveled for three days until they entered into lunar orbit and landed in the Sea of Tranquillity. -
Venera 7
Venera 7 was a Soviet spacecraft, part of the Venera series of probes to Venus. When it landed on the Venusian surface, it became the first spacecraft to land on another planet and first to transmit data from there back to Earth.
The Venera 7 returned data to Earth for 23 minutes. -
Mariner 9
Mariner 9 was an unmanned NASA space probe that contributed greatly to the exploration of Mars. Mariner 9 was launched from Cape Canaveral and reached the planet on November 14, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit another planet, only narrowly beating the Soviets' Mars 2 and Mars 3, which both arrived within a month. After months of dust storms it managed to send back clear pictures of the surface.
Mariner 9 returned 7329 images over the course of its mission, which concluded in October 1972. -
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The Mariner Jupiter-Saturn program/ Voyager program
The program proposed two Mariner-derived probes that would perform a mission in the two gas giants. Trajectories were chosen to allow one probe to visit Jupiter and Saturn firstand the other probe would arrive at Jupiter and Saturn later, and its trajectory would continue on to Uranus and Neptune.
On August 25 of 2012, data from Voyager 1 indicated that it had succeded.The two Voyager space probes were originally conceived as part of the Mariner program, later renamed the Voyager Program. -
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The Space Shuttle Program
The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the NASA, which accomplished routine transportation for Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo.
The Space Shuttle, with two reusable solid rocket boosters and a disposable fuel tank, carried up to eight astronauts and up to 23,000kg into low Earth orbit. When its mission was complete, the orbiter would re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and land like a glider at either the Kennedy Space Center or Edwards Air Force Base. -
Pioneer 10
Pioneer 10 is an American space probe, that completed the first mission to the planet Jupiter.
Thereafter, Pioneer 10 became the first of five artificial objects to achieve the escape velocity that will allow them to leave the Solar System. This space exploration project was conducted by the NASA.
Radio communications were lost with Pioneer 10 on January 23, 2003, because of the loss of electric power for its radio transmitter, with the probe at a distance of 12 billion kilometers from Earth. -
The Apollo–Soyuz Test Project
The ASTP was the first joint U.S.–Soviet space flight as a symbol of the policy of détente that the superpowers were pursuing at the time. It involved the docking of an Apollo Command/Service Module with the Soviet Soyuz 19. The unnumbered Apollo vehicle was a surplus from the terminated Apollo program and the last one to fly. This mission ceremoniously marked the end of the Space Race that had begun with the Sputnik launch.
The mission included both joint and separate scientific experiments. -
Viking 1
Viking 1 was the first spacecraft sent to Mars as part of NASA's Viking program. It became the first spacecraft to land successfully on Mars and perform its mission.
Viking 1 held the record for the longest Mars surface mission of 2307 days (over 6¼ years) until that record was broken by Opportunity on May 19, 2010.
Landing on Mars was planned for July 4, but took place instead on July 20, the seventh anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. -
Space Shuttle Enterprise
Enterprise was the first orbiter of the Space Shuttle system. It was built for NASA as part of the Space Shuttle program to perform atmospheric test flights after being launched.. It was constructed without engines or a functional heat shield, and was therefore not capable of spaceflight.
Originally, it had been intended to be refitted for orbital flight, However, during the construction, details changed, making it simpler. -
Space Transportation System-1
The STS-1 was the first orbital spaceflight of NASA's Space Shuttle program. The first orbiter, Columbia, returned on 54.5 hours after its launching, having orbited the Earth 36 times. Columbia carried a crew of two – mission commander John W. Young and pilot Robert L. Crippen. STS-1 was the only maiden test flight of a new US spacecraft to carry a crew, though it was preceded by atmospheric testing of the orbiter and ground testing of the space shuttle system. -
Salyut 7
Salyut 7 was a space station in low Earth orbit until February 1991. It was last visited in 1986, by Soyuz T-15.
It was the tenth space station of any kind launched. Salyut 7 was the last space station of the Salyut Program, which was replaced by Mir.
On 1985, contact was lost. It was decided to repair the station, which was "one of the most impressive feats of in-space repairs in history".
Salyut 7 movie/watch?v=bKOy2qE9mEE -
Atlantis
Atlantis was a Space Shuttle orbiter vehicle belonging to the NASA, Atlantis is the fourth operational and the second-to-last Space Shuttle built.
Atlantis embarked on its 33rd, final mission, also the final mission of a space shuttle, Atlantis landed for the final time at the Kennedy Space Center on 21 July 2011.
By the end of its final mission, Atlantis had orbited the Earth a total of 4,848 times, traveling nearly 203,000,000 km or more than 525 times the distance from the Earth to the Moon. -
Mir
Mir was the first modular space station. At the time it was the largest artificial satellite in orbit, succeeded by the International Space Station (ISS) after Mir's orbit decayed. The station served as a microgravity research laboratory in which crews conducted experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology and spacecraft systems with a goal of developing technologies required for permanent occupation of space. -
The Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. Although not the first space telescope, Hubble is one of the largest and most versatile and is well known as both a vital research tool and a public relations boon for astronomy. The HST is named after the astronomer Edwin Hubble and is one of NASA's Great Observatories.
Hubble is the only telescope designed to be serviced in space by astronauts. -
The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory
The CGRO was a space observatory detecting photons with energies in Earth orbit. It featured four main telescopes in one spacecraft, covering X-rays and gamma rays, including various specialized sub-instruments and detectors.
The CGRO was part of NASA's "Great Observatories" series, along with the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope. -
Endeavour
Space Shuttle Endeavour is a retired orbiter from NASA's Space Shuttle program and the fifth and final operational shuttle built. It was expected to be the final mission of the Space Shuttle program, but Atlantis became the last shuttle to fly.
Structural spares built during the construction of Discovery and Atlantis were used in its assembly. NASA chose, on cost grounds, to build Endeavour from spares rather than refitting Enterprise. -
International Space Station
The ISS is a space station in low Earth orbit. Its first component launched into orbit in 1998, and the last pressurised module was fitted in 2011. The station is expected to operate until at least 2028. Development and assembly of the station continues, with components scheduled for launch in 2018 and 2019. The ISS is the largest human-made body in low Earth orbit and can often be seen with the naked eye from Earth. The ISS consists of pressurised modules, solar arrays, and other components. -
The Chandra X-ray Observatory
The CXO, previously known as the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility, is a Flagship-class space observatory. Chandra is sensitive to X-ray sources 100 times fainter than any previous X-ray telescope, enabled by the high angular resolution of its mirrors. Since the Earth's atmosphere absorbs the vast majority of X-rays, they are not detectable from Earth-based telescopes; therefore space-based telescopes are required to make these observations. Chandra is an Earth satellite in a 64-hour orbit. -
Opportunity
Opportunity is a robotic rover active on Mars since 2004. Launched as part of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover program, it landed in Meridiani Planum, three weeks after its twin Spirit touched down on the other side of the planet. With a planned 90 sol duration of activity, Spirit functioned until ceasing communications in 2010, while Opportunity was active when a dust storm forced it to hibernation on June 12, 2018. It was hoped it would reboot once the atmosphere cleared, but it did not. -
Shenzhou 5
Shenzhou 5 was the first human spaceflight mission of the Chinese space program, launched on 15 October 2003. The Shenzhou spacecraft was launched on a Long March 2F launch vehicle. There had been four previous flights of unmanned Shenzhou missions since 1999. China became the third country in the world to have independent human spaceflight capability after the Soviet Union (later, Russia) and the United States. -
New Horizons
New Horizons is an interplanetary space probe that was launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program, the spacecraft was launched in 2006 with the primary mission to perform a flyby study of the Pluto system in 2015, and a secondary mission to fly by and study one or more other Kuiper belt objects in the decade to follow.
It is the fifth artificial object to achieve the escape velocity needed to leave the Solar System.
On January 15, 2015, the spacecraft began its approach phase to Pluto. -
Phoenix
Phoenix was a robotic spacecraft on a space exploration mission on Mars under the Mars Scout Program. Mission scientists used instruments aboard the lander to search for environments suitable for microbial life on Mars, and to research the history of water there.
The program was under the direction of NASA, partnership of universities in the US, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, the UK, MDA and other aerospace companies. It was the first mission to Mars led by a public university in NASA history. -
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite
The TESS is a space telescope for NASA's Explorers program, designed to search for exoplanets using the transit method in an area 400 times larger than that covered by the Kepler mission. During its 2-year mission, it is expected to find more than 20,000 exoplanets, compared to about 3,800 exoplanets known when it launched.
The objective for TESS is to survey the brightest stars near the Earth for transiting exoplanets over a two-year period. With TESS, it is possible to study small planets. -
InSight
InSight is a robotic lander designed to study the interior of the planet Mars. The mission launched is expected to land on the surface of Mars at where it will deploy a seismometer and burrow a heat probe. It will also perform a radio science experiment to study the internal structure of Mars.
InSight's objective is to bring new understanding of the Solar System's terrestrial planets. By reusing technology from the Mars Phoenix lander, it is expected that the cost and risk will be reduced. -
Lucy
Lucy is a planned NASA space probe that will tour five Jupiter trojans, asteroids which share Jupiter's orbit around the Sun, orbiting either ahead of or behind the planet. All will be fly-by missions.
The mission is named after the 'Lucy' hominin skeleton, because the study of Trojans could reveal the "fossils of planet formation": materials that clumped together in the early history of the Solar System to form planets and other bodies. -
The James Webb Space Telescope
The JWST is the successor to the HST. It will provide improved resolution and sensitivity, and will enable a broad range of investigations in astronomy and cosmology. One of its goals is observing some of the most distant events and objects in the universe, such as the formation of the first galaxies. These targets are beyond the reach of current ground- and space-based instruments. Other goals include understanding the formation of stars and planets, and direct imaging of exoplanets and novas. -
Psyche
Psyche is a planned orbiter mission that will explore the origin of planetary cores by studying the metallic asteroid 16 Psyche.
16 Psyche is the heaviest known M-type asteroid, and is thought to be the exposed iron core of a protoplanet.This asteroid may be the remnant of a violent collision with another object that stripped off the outer crust. Radar observations of the asteroid from Earth indicate an iron–nickel composition. -
Orion
NASA’s Orion spacecraft is built to take humans farther than they’ve ever gone before. Orion will serve as the exploration vehicle that will carry the crew to space, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel, and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities. Orion will launch on NASA’s new heavy-lift rocket, the Space
The Orion Crew Vehicle is an interplanetary spacecraft intended to carry a crew of 4 astronauts to destinations at or beyond LEO.
