The Space Exploration | Exploring from Earth, The Space Age
Exploring from Earth
1543 – Nicolaus Copernicus publishes On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres claiming that the Earth and planets revolve around the Sun.
1609 – Galileo first uses a telescope to observe stars and planets.
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1668 – Isaac Newton invents the first reflecting telescope.
1686 – Isaac Newton publishes The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, in which he lays the foundations for universal gravitation and describes the motion of the Sun and planets.
1801 – The first asteroid, Ceres, is discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi.
1926 – Robert Goddard invents and launches the first liquid-fuelled rocket. Goddard’s work on rocket technology will make space flight possible.
1942 – The German V-2 rocket becomes the first vehicle in space.
1947 – Fruit flies become the first animals to travel into space aboard a V-2 rocket sent by the United States.
The Space Age Begins
1957 – On August 21, 1957, Russia (the Soviet Union) launched the satellite Sputnik 1, becoming the first satellite to orbit the Earth. This ushered in the space age. He also launched the Space Race between the Russians and the United States.
1957 – On November 3, 1957, the Russian dog Laika becomes the first animal to orbit.
1961 – On April 12, 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first person to fly into space and the first to orbit the Earth.
1961 – Alan Shepherd becomes the first American in space just three weeks after Yuri Gagarin. 1962 – John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth.
1963 – Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman to fly into space.
1965 – Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov becomes the first person to walk in space.
1965 – The American spacecraft Mariner 4 makes the first flight of the planet Mars.
1969 – The Apollo 11 spacecraft lands on the Moon and Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to set foot on the Moon.
1971 – Russia launches its first space station, Salyut 1.
1971 – Mariner 9 becomes the first spacecraft to orbit Mars.
1973 – Pioneer 10 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by the planet Jupiter.
1973 – The United States launches its first space station called Skylab.
1975 – The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project becomes the first multinational manned space mission. This effectively ended the space race between Russia and the United States.
1976 – Viking 1 successfully lands on Mars. It returned images and scientific data for the next six years.
1981 – The United States launches its first space shuttle, Columbia. The program eventually carried out 135 space missions over the next 30 years.
1983 – Sally Ride becomes the first American woman to fly into space.
1986 – Mir becomes the first permanent manned space station. It remained in orbit until 2001.
1990 – The Hubble Space Telescope is put into orbit by the space shuttle.
1998 – The International Space Station is launched into space.