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Period: to
1609-1957
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Galileo's Telescope
Around 1610, Galileo pointed his telescope towards the skies, and he made amazing discoveries about the solar system that would encourage others to search for more secrets in our universe for years to come. The picture shows one of Galileo's illustrations of the moon compared to a modern picture. -
How Rockets Work
In 1687, Isaac Newton created the three basic laws of motion that were used to describe how rockets performed. He stated that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This explains that when an explosion pushes molecules out of one end of the rocket, it moves in the opposite direction with just as much force. -
Tsiolkovsky's Breakthroughs
Before 1903, a Russian teacher named Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was studying rockets and made many great discoveries to help improve them. He noticed that rockets were more efficient with liquid fuel, and that multiple stages in the rocket's launch that dropped unnecessary parts, like an empty fuel tank, helped the rocket's flight. He drew many designs for his rockets, but never actually built one. -
Rocket Patents
The astronomer Robert Goddard filed patents to the U.S. on his multi-staged and his liquid fuel based rockets. He was given the patents as requested. -
Goddard's Launch
Just before the spring of 1926, Robert Goddard launched his first liquid fueled rocket. The launch took place in Auburn, Massachusetts. The launch was not very successful, only reaching 41 feet during a 2.5-second flight, but it showed that liquid fuels were a very possible option for flight. -
First Research launch
After Germany launched a rocket called the V2 into space for military purposes, The U.S. recovered on of the V2s, improved it, and sent it back into space to test cosmic radiation. -
Animals in Space
The U.S. sent fruit flies into up 68-miles. The purpose was to test radiation at high altitudes. Once the ship reached it's peak height, the capsule deployed with all the flies and they were all recovered alive. -
First ICBM
The Soviet Union developed an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile during The cold war that made 28 successfull launches, but it was never used for war. -
Sputnik I
In 1957, Russia launched the Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite in orbit. It was launched in low-earth orbit. It gave scientists information about the density of the upper atmosphere and about the ionsphere. The idea of Sputnik 1 was proposed by Sergei Korolev. -
Laika
Laika was the unfortunate dog inserted in Russia's Sputnik II. It was the first animal to be launched into space. It was thought to be impossible for humans to survive conditions in outer space, so animals, like Laika, were tested first. Due to the fact that no de-orbit technology was invented yet, Laika was not expected to survive the ordeal. She died soon after the launch due to overheating. -
Period: to
1958-1980
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Luna 1
The USSR launched the first rocket into Earth's orbit. It then made it into the moon's orbit but it missed the moon. Still being the first rocket to leave geocentric orbit. -
Far Side of the Moon
The USSR eventually launched the Luna 3 that took the first pictures of the far side of the moon that is not viewable from the Earth due to it's revolution and rotation lining up so that only one side views us. -
First Human Spaceflight
The USSR performed another successfull launch when they sent the first human to the moon (Yuri Gagarin). The launch of the Vostok 1 also got the achievment of the first manned orbit. -
First Woman in Space
The USSR was at it again when they sent Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman cosmonaut, into space. The mission of the Vostok 6 was to track the reaction of a female body with the effects of space. Valentina took a space log and many pictures on her mission. -
Venus Impact
The Venera 3 was sent out by the USSR and it was the first impact with another planet. It was unable to send any information though because it's radio systems failed before it reached the planet. -
Ultraviolet
The First telescope that observed in ultraviolet light succesfully was launched by NASA. It was titled OAO-2 and it observed stuff successfully until 1973. -
Apollo 11
The first succesful spacecraft to land a person on the moon was the Apollo 11. It carried three men, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. However, Collins stayed back in the Columbia spacecraft orbiting the moon while Neil and Buzz took the first steps onto the moon. The trip in it's entirety cost the U.S. about $8,997,557,800! -
Uhuru
The NASA was the first group to llaunch an X-Ray observitory. It searched space for celestial objects that gave off X-Rays. -
Skylab
People like Wernher von Braun, writer Arthur C. Clarke thought that a space station would be influential for a good start to space exploration. Eventually, Skylab was the first US space station. It could hold three astronauts at a time, and it supported three manned missions before crashing in 1979. -
Multinational Manned Mission
The USSR and NASA collaborated in a project called the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. It was there to show the world that the space race was over. It included many individual and joint missions. It made way for projects like the ISS. -
Period: to
1981-Present Day
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Solar System Picture
NASA used the unmanned spacecraft Voyager 1. It explored the solar system for 36 years discovering new details and new celestial bodies unknown of beforehand. It worked it's magic until 2005 when it's generators could no longer supply enough power to keep it's systems running. -
Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope, named after Edwin Hubble, Was launched off of the space shuttle Atlantis. It can observe in near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared light. Since it's placed outside of the atmosphere, so it will have images without distortion, and with barely any background light. -
Jupiter's Atmosphere
NASA's Galileo sent a probe into Jupiter while orbiting. The probe entered the atmosphere giving direct information about it to NASA. -
International Space Station
The construction of the ISS began in 1998, and it was an extremely influential step in space exploration, and the unity of countries around the world. After it's launch, many countries have added bits and pieces to the station to improve it. The countries involved are: USA, Russia, Canada, Japan and several countries in Europe (including France, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Norway) -
Asteroid Orbit
The satellite called the NEAR shoemaker, named after Eugene Shoemaker, was the first satellite to orbit an asteroid. It was used to study the Near-Earth Asteroid Eros for a year. -
Mars Exploration Rover Mission
During the MER (Mars Exploration Rover) mission, two rovers were sent into space, called the Spirit, and the Opportunity. Their primary mission cost $820 Million to perform, and since they lived well beyond that mission, they were able to perform 5 others. The project management team included: John Callas, Bruce Banerdt, Diana Blaney, Larry Bryant, Steven Squyres, and Ray Arvidson. -
Chang Zheng-2F
The Chang Zheng-2F (translated into English as The Long March 2F) was one of China's most succesful Spacecrafts. It had 10 launches, each of them a success, and it eventually brought the first Chinese astronaut into space. His name was Yang liwei. -
Sample from Asteroid
Japan launched the Hayabusa to collect samples from the Near-Earth Asteroid 25143 Itokawa. It studied things like the shape, colors, density, etc. of the asteroid as well as taking samples. -
Space Shuttle Atlantis
The space shuttle Atlantis took the final shuttle program flight in 2011to bring additional supplies to the ISS. It contained four astronauts necessary for the mission. -
Explorer 1
Explorer 1 was the first satellite launched by the U.S. in response to the Sputnik I. It's primary goal was to check the radioactivity of outer space. The provider of the expiriment, Dr. James Van Allen, was surprised to find that there were less cosmic rays than expected.
