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First telescope created
Hans Lippershey was the first to invent the telescope. Although Galileo Galilei is credited with inventing the telescope, he only started using it for astronomy in 1609, but Lippershey invented it in 1608. -
First Use of Telescopes
Barely a year after the telescope was invented, Galileo Galilei first used it for astronomy, proving the Roman Catholic Church wrong about the Earth being the center of everything. -
Saturn discovery
Christiaan Huygens discovers Saturn's rings. -
Polar Ice Caps
Giovanni Cassini finds Martian polar ice caps. -
First reflecting telescope
The first reflecting telescope was built by Sir Isaac Newton. 1675 Danish astronomer Ole Romer measures the speed of light. 1675 Cassini discover -
Satirn's rings discovery 2
Cassini discovers that Saturn's rings are split into two parts. Today the gap is called the "Cassini Division". -
Light is measured
Danish astronomer Ole Romer measures the speed of light. This lead to many other scientific discoveries. -
Accidential Discovery
Messier discovers galaxies, nebula, and star clusters while looking for comets. -
Mars' Moons
Asaph Hall discovers Phobos and Deimos, the moons of Mars. -
USSR Launch
The USSR launched the first satellite, Sputnik, into space. This started the Space Race. -
Explorer 1
Explorer 1 was the first satellite launched by the United States when it was sent into orbit on January 31, 1958. It was designed and built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of the California Institute of Technology. The satellite was sent aloft from Cape Canaveral in Florida by the Jupiter C rocket that was designed, built, and launched by the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) under the direction of Dr. Wernher Von Braun. -
First man in space
Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space -
American milestone
Astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American in space. -
Kennedys progress
President Kennedy challenged the country to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. -
Women in space
Valentina Nikolayeva Tereshkova became the first woman in space. -
First look at Mars
The spacecraft Mariner 4 transmitted the first pictures of Mars. -
On the moon
The Russian spacecraft Luna 9 became the first spacecraft to land on the moon. -
Apollo 8
Apollo 8 was launched, and later her crewmembers became the first men to orbit the moon. -
Men on the moon
July 20 - Neil Armstrong and "Buzz" Aldrin became the first men on the moon. -
Saturn
The U.S. probe Pioneer 11 reached Saturn and began transmitting images. -
Space Shuttles
Columbia became the first Space Shuttle to be launched. -
African American milestone
Guion Bluford became the first African-American in space. -
Liftoff catastrophe
The Space Shuttle Challenger exploded seconds after liftoff -
Hubble's launch
The Space Shuttle Discovery deployed the Hubble Space Telescope -
African American milestone 2
Mae Jemison became the first African-American woman in space. -
Spitzer Telescope
NASA launched the largest-diameter infrared telescope ever in space, the Spitzer Space Telescope. -
Risky Opportunity
Space Shuttle Discovery was launched with seven astronauts aboard; this was America’s first manned space shot since the 2003 Columbia disaster. -
Ice on the moon?
NASA launched the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, also known as LCROSS. The mission is to confirm the presence or absence of ice on the moon. On November 13, 2009, NASA scientists announced the discovery of a "significant amount" of ice in a crater near the moon’s South Pole. -
Last Shot
The space shuttle Atlantis became the last American space shuttle to be launched into space. Mission STS-135 and its 4-member crew brought much-needed supplies and equipment to the International Space Station (ISS). -
Water on Mars?
NASA confirms that there is flowing water on Mars and polar ice caps. Soon we will be testing the water to see if it is able to drink.
