Space Exploration
Some Space Firsts
| March 16, 1926 | Robert Goddard launched the first successful rocket using liquid fuel. Robert Goddard is considered the "father of American rocketry." This along with the work of Russian engineer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and German physicist Hermann Oberth laid the foundation of modern space exploration. |
| October 4, 1957 | Sputnik 1 is launched by the Soviet Union becoming the first human-made satellite to orbit the Earth. The "Space Race" between the Soviet Union and the United States is on. |
| January 31, 1958 | Explorer 1 is launched by the United States and discovers the Van Allen radiation belts. These are electrically charged particles surrounding the Earth that affect radio and electrical activity on Earth. |
| April 1, 1960 | Tiros I, the first successful weather satellite, is launched by the United States. It sends back the first picture of Earth's cloud cover. |
| April 12, 1961 | Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin bcomes the first human in space. He orbits the Earth once. |
| May 5, 1961 | Alan Shepard Jr. becomes the first American astronaut to enter space. His Mercury Freedom 7 spacecraft does not orbit the Earth. |
| February 20, 1962 | John Glenn Jr. becomes the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth. He is aboard a Mercury Freedom 7 spacecraft. |
| July 10, 1962 | Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly over a planet other than Earth and send back information. This American space probe visits Venus. |
| June 16, 1963 | Soviet cosmonuat Valentina Tershkova becomes the first woman in space and orbits the Earth 48 times. |
| March 18, 1965 | Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov becomes the first person to take a "space walk" when he exits his orbiting spacecraft for 12 minutes. |
| July 20, 1969 | America makes good on President Kennedy's pledge to, by the end of the decade, "put a man on the moon and safely return him to Earth." Neil Armstrong is the first human to set foot on the moon taking "one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." Buzz Aldrin accompanies Armstrong to the surface while Michael Collins remains in orbit about the moon. Their spacecraft is Apollo 11. They leave a flag and plaque signed by the three astronauts and President Richard Nixon. Altogether, 12 people will set foot on the moon, all Americans. |
| November 13, 1971 | Mariner 9 is the first spacecraft to successfully orbit another planet as it maps the entire surface of Mars. |
| July 17, 1975 | Apollo 18 docks with the Soviet's Soyuz 19. Soyuz means unity. This is the first international space mission and marks a turning point in the race for space and the cold war. |
| September 3, 1976 | Viking 2 lander touches down on Mars. It and Viking 1 test Mars for life and send back 1,400 pictures. |
| April 12, 1981 | Columbia space shuttle orbits the Earth for two days becoming the first manned reusable spacecraft. |
| June 19, 1983 | Sally Ride is the first American woman in space. |
| February 20, 1986 | The main unit of the Mir space station is luanched by the Soviets. |
| April 24, 1990 | The Hubble Space Telescope is launched. After a series of repairs by space shuttle astronauts, this powerful orbiting telescope allows astronomers to look back billions of years in time and space. |
| September 26, 1996 | Astronaut Shannon Lucid sets an American record for time in space after serving aboard the Mir space station. |
| December 4, 1996 | Mars pathfinder is launched. The low-cost rover sends back more than 16,500 pictures and 2 billion bits of information before contact is lost. |
| October 29, 1998 | John Glenn Jr. becomes the oldest human to ever travel in space. He conducts a series of experiments onboard the space shuttle to help doctors better understand the effects of space travel on the human body. Many effects reported by astronauts are similar to those associated with aging. |
| November 20, 1998 | The first unit of the international space station is launched by the Soviets. On December 4, the U.S. launches and connects the second section. |
These are some of the historic milestones in space exploration reported in the Mini-Page of The Record, April 6, 1999. The journey continues. There are many other firsts that could be listed. A website worth a visit is Space Flight maintained by NASA.
Did NASA land astronauts on the moon? If they didn't, where did they get the 841 pounds of lunar rock? Try getting the facts before falling for the fiction.
Is there life on planets other than Earth? Astronomers have found planets in other solar systems, but so far the search for life as we know it has been in vain. What are some of the challenges to finding life in a vast universe? Check out Life Beyond Earth for an intriguing discussion of the possibility of extraterrestrial life.
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