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Sputnik launch date
The Soviet Union launched the Satellite Sputnik was the first man made object that ever went into space. Sputnik was the size of a basketball but weighed 184.3 pounds and orbited the earth 1,440 times. -
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Space Exploration
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Pioneer
The first pioneer was launched on august 17th 1958. The next 9 Pioneer's were not very succesful until The Pioneer 10 was launched from Cape Canaveral on the 2nd of March in 1972. The Pioneer 10 succesfully traveled to Jupiter and observed many things about Jupiter including the atmosphere and the magnetic fields. -
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Venera probes
The Venera probes were a program sponsore and created by both the Soviet Union and the European space agency. The Venera probes were sent out to Venus and discovered much about it. There were 16 total missions and Venera three was the first spacecraft to land on another planet. -
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Mariner spacecraft
The Mariner spacecraft was a project with 10 missions in total. The first Mariner spacecraft launched on August 27 1962 and the last one on November 3 1973.The Mariner spacecraft was sponsored by NASA and built by the JPL. The unmanned Mariner spacecraft were sent out to Mars, Venus, and Mercury and 7 out of 10 of these missions were successful. -
Viking
The Viking spacecraft was launched on the 20th of August, 1975.The second viking spacecraft was launched on september 9th 1975. These viking spacecraft were both sent to Mars to take high resolution pictures of the surface and to try to find evidence of life. Bth of these were NASA projects and have been since shut down. -
Voyager
The voyager spacecraft were a mission in which NASA and the JPL collaborated to build two voyager probes that went out to interstellar space. These probes where launched very close to eachother and are expected to operate to the year 2020. -
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Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle project was sponsored and built by the US department of defense and NASA. there were 135 missions and the Space Shuttle was the first reusable spacecraft ever. it retired in 2011. -
Magellan Space Probe
The Magellan space probe was launched in Cape Canaveral Florida and was both Launched and funded by NASA. The Magellan space probes mission was to go to Venus and it arrivied there on August 14 1990. The Magellan discovered many things about Mars like it has no magnetic fields or moons. The Magellan probe was commanded to crash on October 14th 1994. The mission cost a total of 680 million dollars. -
Galileo Spacecraft
The Galileo spacecraft was launched on October 18th 1989. This probe was sent out into space to mainly study Jupiter and its moons. This probe cost 1.6 billion dollars and was manufactured by the Jet Propulsion Labroratory. -
Hubble space telescope
The Hubble space telescope was launched on the 24th of April 1990 and is still operable today though it is thought its operation will end by the end of this year. The hubble telescope was the first telescope outside the atmosphere and in space. This has led to many new discoveries by the telescope like dark energy. -
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NEAR shoemaker project
The NEAR shoemaker was a probe that was sponsored by NASA and designed by John Hopkins university to study an asteroid. The probe was launched from Cape Canaveral and touched down on the near earth asteroid 433 Eros. The probe is still on the asteroid and still sends back information to earth about the asteroid. -
Mars Rover
The first succesful Mars rover landed on July 4th 1997. This was the American Rover by the name of Sojourner which was sponsored by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. After the Sojourner rover there were 4 more rovers one wich was british and failed and the other three were american (sponsored and built by NASA) which were all successful and 2 of which are still active today. These rovers have discovered a lot about mars and about its enviornment and climate -
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Cassini space probe
The Cassini spacecraft was a space probe that went on a mission to Saturn to study Saturn and its moons. The Cassini probe project was a joint project between NASA, the ESA, and the Italian space agency. The probe cost 3.26 billion dollars and the cassini project ended in 2008 but the probe is still in operation. -
Space Stations
The first crew of the International Space Station boarded the space station on the 31 of October in 2000. During this time the scientists in the space station have been experimenting with the durability of materials, Vaccine Development and air purification. The most recent crew in the space station landed on the 28th of March in 2013. -
Genesis Spacecraft
The Genesis spacecraft was a NASA project that was built and funded in the U.S.. The Genesis spacecraft brought back a sample of Solar Wind and was an unmanned mission. In 2003 Genesis crash landed in Utah on September 8th because of a parachute failure.