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The First Spotting of The Moon
In the year of 1610 Gallileo Galili a famous astronomer was the first person to spot the moon through a telescope. This event in history is very important because without Gallileo who figured out how to see the moon through a telescope, we may have never discovered how to. Also this was around the time -
Publication of Principia
Sr. Isaac Newton published the principia on this day in history. In this he was able to prove his principle of universal gravitation and how gravity contributes to falling bodies on the Earth, and movements of planets, comments, and other objects in space. This is a very important event in history because astronomers from this day on will be able to use this principle to prove and discover new things about space. -
First Liquid-Fueled Rocket Launched
On March 16, 1926 a man by the name of Robert H. Goddard successfully launched the first liquid-fueled rocket. The rocket traveled for 2.5 seconds at the speed of 60 miles per hour, it reached an altitude of around 41 feet. The rocket stretched ten feet tall and was built out of thin pipes. This event is important to our history because from this day out liquid-fueled rockets could continue to be improved and used in Space Exploration. -
Rocket Club
In the year of 1927 something called the Rocker Club was made. This club consisted of amateur rocket scientists/enthusiasts in Germany- later this group of people would make huge contributions to space flight. This is important because without some of these people many successes in space may have never been made. -
Soviet Union First Rocket
The first rocket the Soviet Union launched was on August 17, 1933 and it reached an altitude of 400 meters. The rocket was in flight for 13 seconds. This event is important in the history of Space Exploration because soon big competitions would break between the Soviet Union and the soon to be born NASA. -
First High Altitude U.S. Flight
The U.S. Military launched there first high altitude rocket from New Mexico using rebuilt parts from the German V-2 rocket. The rocket reached an altitude of 70 miles. This event is important in Space Exploration history because now with this success the U.S. can build off of it to create higher achieving rockets. -
First American Designed Rocket To Reach Space
The rocket known as the Wac Corporal was the first U.S. rocket to reach space at an altitude of 50 miles. This event is important in the history of Space because it was a huge achievement for the U.S. because they now know the basics of rockets that go to space. -
The First Animals Launched Into Space
Fruit Flies were the first animals ever launched into space. They were launched into space by the United States to study the radiation exposure at high altitudes. The fruit flies attained a distance of 68 miles within 3 minutes and 10 seconds. 68 miles into our sky is approximately where the imaginary line (Karman line) lies which is about where Earth's atmosphere meets outer space. This helped the U.S. to began finding out how to make something safe for humans to go to space in. -
First Artificial Satellite In Space
The first artificial satellite was launched into space by the USSR on the fourth of October in 1957. The satellite was called Sputnick and was a 23 inches in diameter metal sphere. It weighed 184 pounds and took around 98 minutes to fully orbit the Earth. This event is a major part of space history because it marks the beginning of the well known Space Race. -
First Dog In Space
Laika was the first dog ever to be launched into space. She was also the first animal to be placed in orbit of the Earth. Laika weighed 13 pounds and was launched into orbit of the Earth in November 3, 1957 by the Soviet Union. She did not return alive. This was a huge time in history because through this experiment astronomers could take this information to create rockets that could support mammals. -
NASA Is Born
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (a.k.a. NASA) was made on this day in time. NASA took over the responsibilities of the existing National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics. This event is huge in the history of Space Exploration because NASA has made many huge discoveries from then to present day. -
First Spacecraft to Impact on the Moon
The Russian satellite (Luna 2) was launched on September 12, 1959 and became the fst man-made object to make contact with the Moon. This is an important event in history because from this event, people can improve rockets/satellites to land on the moon. -
The First Man in Space
The first man in space was from Russia, his name was Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin. He made one complete orbit aroud the Eath in 108 minutes reaching altitudes of 112 to 203 miles. He touched back down on Earth within an hour and 48 minutes. This is a huge event in Space Exploration because now we know it is possible to send a human being into space. -
First Space Walk
Alexei Leonov performed the first ever tethered space walk outsidevof his spacecraft while in Earth's orbit. His space walk lasted 12 minutes. From this day on, astronauts know that it is physically possible to "walk' in Space and can collect lots of data from this. -
First U.S. Space Tradegy
During a routine run of the Apollo 1 spacecraft on the launch pad, a spark was the cause of a fire in the crew section of the command module. This incident was the loss of several lives. This accident will help NASA in the future know what to do differently so things like this don't happen again. -
First Venus Probe
The Soviet Union sent a capsule into the atmosphere of Venus. The capsuke brought back data about its compostition. This is a great achievement in Space Exploration because from that day and on other space programs such as NASA are able to send probes like the one the Soviet Union made, to Venus to bring back valuable information. -
First Manned Moon Landing
Two men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, Jr. become the first human beings to set foot on the Moon. This is a great success in Space Exploration because now that we know people can successfully land on the Moon, we can conduct experiments and find out more about our Moon. This was the end of the Space Race. -
First Space Station
The Salyut 1 space station is the first space station in orbit and was launched by the Soviet Union. It remained in orbit for a little over 2 years. Putting a space station in orbit is huge because with that astronauts can make plenty new discoveries and conduct experiments. -
Discovery of Water Frost on Mars
In Septemeber of 1976 water frost was found on Mars by the Viking 2 spacecraft. With this new information NASA and other space programs can study more about life on the other planets. -
Launch of Historic Voyager Missions
The Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft left Earth August of 1977 to go on an extrodinary tour of the Solar System. They would meet with many of the planets bringing back many new discoveries and lots of new information. -
First American Woman in Space
The astronaut by the name of Sally K. Ride beacame the first American woman to go into space on the Space Shuttle Challenger. This achievement is huge becasue it shows women can also go into space and discover things as well as men. -
Mir Station Launched
The first module of the Mir space station was successfully launched on this day. The Mir station would continue to be used by Americans and Russians to complete several missons. It came crashing down in 2001. -
Voyager 2 Arrvies at Neptune
On this day Voyager 2 arrived at Neptune and began to give us close-up views of the blue planet and its moons. These photographs led to many scientific discoveries. -
Launch of Hubble Space Telescope
The telescope was successfully launched into orbit around the Earth on this day. Later there were complications found such as fuzzy images but were fixed. This telescope is the most powerful one ever made and it would do so much for NASA, making thousands of discoveries. -
Cassini Probe Arrives at Saturn
After seven years the probe Cassini reached Saturn and would continue to spend 4 years on the "Ringed Planet" taking pictures of the planet and its many moons. This will help us to have a bettter understanding of the other planets in our Solar System. -
First Landing on an Alien Moon
The Huygens probe landed on Saturn's largest moon (Titan). The probe has brought back many images to Earth and discoveries have been made about other planets moons through this probe. -
First Comet Samples Returned to Earth
After a journey of seven years and 2.9 billion miles NASA's stardust mission came to a successful end. With the data collected from this mission samples of the coments may be able to help uncover some secrets on the solar systems formation. -
Hunt for Extrasolar Planets
The Kepler spacecraft launces a mission to search for planets that are outside our solor system. Kepler can use infromation to detect its approximate size and orbit. With this information astrnomers can learn more about the other planets in the universe. -
Curiosity Rover Lands on Mars
NASA's Curiostiy rover successfuly landed on Mars, it is the larest and most technologically advanced rover to ever land on Mars. The rover will search for signs of life on Mars and make discoveries on the Red Planet. -
Water Found on Mars
Recently NASA's Red Rover has found liquid water on Mars. This could be a sign of life that is or once was. This discovery is huge in Space Exploration because if there is life on Mars that is huge.
