United States Hitstory: Space Race

First Weather Satellite

Feb 17, 1917

Weather Satellite This was a big advancement because it would allow weather channels to be more accurate. The satellite would turn and couldn't always run. The other thing is it only ran at night.

First US Satellite.

Jan 31, 1958

SatelliteThe first US satellite was launched by the army. It is in orbit around the Earth. It was launched in Cape Canaveral, Florida

First Solar satellite

Mar 17, 1958

This satellite is the oldest artificial satellite still orbiting. It has traveled about 200,000 times around the Earth. It was launched on March 17, 1958

First successful US spy satellite

Jul 5, 1960

After it failed the first time, the created a plane. It flew higher and had a satellite attached to it. The satellite took pictures of one area on the ground.

First film recovery

Aug 18, 1960

The first film recovery was carefully planned. The roll of tape was in a heat shield. It had a parachute and a plane caught it out of the air. If the plane missed it was to land in the ocean float and then sink

First orbital solar Observatory

Mar 7, 1962

The first was part of eight different parts that were launched up. They were launhed using Delta rockets. They were to be used to look at a sun spot.

***First reusable pilotes spacecraft

Jul 19, 1963

Before this happened each mission was a new ship. These costed a lot of money for the coorperation. This advancement was greatly thought of because they didn't want things going wrong.

First landing in on the moon by USA

Nov 9, 1967

The first landing is the first manned mission. The Soviet Union had an unmanned ship land on the moon. This could actually be considered the first landing.

Launch of Apollo 11

Jul 16, 1969

Apollo 11The Apollo 11 was teh first ship to the moon. It took off from the Kennedy Space Center. They took of on July 16 and landed on July 20.

**** First walk on moon

Jul 20, 1969

The first person to walk on the moon was Neil Armstrong. He walked around for about three hours. He brought back bits of moon rock and also left the American flag on the moon

First photograph of Earth from orbit

Dec 7, 1972

The first picture of Earth was taken at about 28,000 miles. It was collected after the apollo 17 mission. It is genuinly called the Blue Marble.

**** US launches first space station

May 14, 1973

The Skylab was the name of the station and was in space from 1973 to 1979. It was used as a dock for ships and more. There were three manned mission to the space station.

Mars Pathfinder

Jul 4, 1997

Mars PathfinderPathfinder lands on Mars. It was a wheeled robot that would wander aorund the surface of Mars. The rover stayed in space for eighty days. Then was returned to Earth.

First piece of International space station.

Nov 20, 1998

This was a station that orbited Earth and could house people. The name of the first piece was Zarya and was launched by a proton rocket. It remained empty for 1 and a half years.

SpaceShipOne

Sep 30, 2004

First privately built craft to reach outer space. It was a suborbital space plane. It won the Ansari X prize then was retired.