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Sputnik, Mercury, and Gemini Programs
Sputnik: A 98 minute orbit around Earth launched by the Soviet Union. Launched on October 4th, 1957. This was the first artificial (man-made) satallite around Earth.
Mercury: The U.S.'s first human-space program took Alan Shepard, the first American, into space on May 5th, 1961. It cost $392.6million and lasted from August 21st, 1959 to May 5th, 1963.
Gemini: The second human-flight of NASA and the first space-walk. Lasted from 1962-1966 and set a new altitude record. -
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Pioneer Program
This prgram was mostly done by the Department of Defence. They spent time studying Jupiter and Saturn. The Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to travel throught the astroid belt. It was launched on March 2nd, 1972. The astriod 5th, 1973. Neither spacecraft returned to Earth. -
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Venera Probes
Probes launched by Russia and the Soviet Union to learn more about Venus. Russia was the first to send probes to Venus and, in this times, they launched 16 probes.
The 1st was launched on Ferbruary 12th, 1961
The 3rd was launced on November 16th, 1965
The 7th was launched on August 17th, 1970
and the 10th was launched on June 14th, 1975 -
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Mariner Program
This program was a Mars Exploration program build and launched by NASA and JPL. It was made to learn more about Mars, Mercury, and Venus: the three closest planets to Earth. It was the first program to take a picture of another planet and cost $544million. This program sent out 12 spacecrafts. Numbers 1, 3, and 8 failed. All of the spacecrafts were hexagonal or octagonal shapes.This time spans is between the first and last launches of the program. -
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Viking Project
The Viking 1 and 2 were both prjects launched and built by NASA. They cost $1billion and were sent as probes searching for life on Mars. The Viking 1 was launched on August 20th, 1975, entered Mar's orbit on June 19th, 1976, and ended in 1982. The Viking 2 was launched on September 9th, 1975, entered Mar's orbit on August 17th, 1976, and ended in 1980. The probes discovered proof of water on Mars as well as volcanoes similar to those on Earth. -
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Voyager Probes
These two probes were launched by NASA. They were the first probes to go so far into deep space. They cost $658million and were the first space exploration mission other than the Eath to Moon. The Voyager 1 was launched on September 5th, 1977 and the Voyager 2 was launched August 20th, 1977. Both probes continue to move away from Earth on this day. On April 2nd, Voyager 1 was 18,467,117,822km away and Voyager 2 was 15,171,385,370km away. -
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Space Shuttle
A project by NASA, the first space shuttle used in space was in 1982. The space shuttle was also built by the Air Force and NACA. It cost $23.9billion.
Fact: on January 28, 1986 the Chanllenger disintigrated 98 seconds after its launch. -
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Space Station
This project involved the Soviet Union, Russia, and the U.S. It cost $4.3billion and took ten years to build. It was orbiting EArth and was occupied until August of 1999. It was the 1st inhabited long-term research station and was mostly occupied by the New Russian Federal Space Agency and was visited by 12 different countries. -
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Magellan Spacecraft
The Magellan was launched by NASA and built by JPL. Its mission was to map out the surface of Venus. It was the first spacecraft to be launched with a satallite and aerobreak into orbit. It cost $639million and measured atmospheric pressure and gravitational pull.The spacecraft entered Venus's orbit on August 10th, 1990 and lost communications on October 12th, 1994. It was presumed to have crashed on Venus the following day. It used advanced technology and telecommunication systems. -
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Galileo Spacecraft
This spacecraft was a project by NASA and JPL and Germany. It was sent out to find proof of lifeforms and study Jupiter. It spent two years observing Jupiter and four more years studying one of the moon of Jupiter, Europa. It orbited Jupiter, detected winds, and took photos. It also detected liquid water under the planet's surface. -
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Hubble Space Telescope
This project was funded and built by NASA, THe European Space Agency, and the Space Telescope Science Institute. It cost $200million and was built to make discoveries about our universe. It tooks images of the furthest galaxies that we have ever seen and shown millions of them. It used a Near Infared Camera, a Multi-Objects Spectrometer, and a Space Telescope Imaging System. Congress gave the OK to build the telescope in 1977 after multiple recomendationa in 1962, 1965, and 1969. -
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Near Earth Astroid Rondezous
The N.E.A.R was the first spacecraft to orbit and land on a spacecraft. It cost $220.5million and was built to learn about astroids. Although it wasn't intended to land on an astroid, the N.E.A.R. stayed operational for 16 days after it landed on the astroid Eros. I landed on Eros on February 12, 2001. The mission ended when the spacecraft lost contact. -
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Cassini Mission
This mission involved 16 European countries, especially including France and Italy. The U.S. was also involved. as they paid for 80% of the project. The first mission (Cassini Equinox) lasted until July 30th, 2008 and cost $3,260thousand. The point of this mission was to explore the rings of Saturn. Six moons were discovered by the Cassini Spacecraft. New technology was used to give the spacecraft prtection inside of the rings. The Cassini Solstice Mission (extended) is continuing today. -
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Genesis
Built by Lockheed Martin and launched by NASA, this project spend 884 days in halo orbit collecting solar wind to discover how our Sun has changed. It cost $164million and crashed due to parachute failure while re-entering Earth's atmophere. Most of the collected solar winds were lost. -
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The Mars Curiosity Rover
The Mars Rover, which was built by NASA was a project started in 2004. It was mostly built by 2008, but its launch was delayed until Novemeber of 2011. On August 6th, 2012, it landed on Mars and has been there sinse then. It was sent up to record information about Mars and discovered evidence of anchient water on Mars.