Space Exploration Timeline

By: Leighton Weber

1900

• 1900- Konstantin Tsiolkovsky started testing rockets. He was born in Russia and stayed true to his country. At age 17 he first dreamed about the possibility of space flights. He published The Exploration of Cosmic Space by Means of Reaction Devices demonstrating the theoretical possibility of space exploration.

1914-1926

• 1914- Robert H. Goddard of the United States received 2 patents for rockets. One of them was for a multi-stage rocket and the other was for a gasoline and liquid nitrous oxide fueled rocket.

• 1926- Goddard launched a liquid fueled rocket in Auburn, Massachusetts. The rocket was named Nell, it was 4 feet tall, went 41 feet high at a speed of 60 mph, and lasted 2 and a half seconds.

1930-1944

• 1930- The V-2 spacecraft’s purpose was for it to be the Nazi Germans most powerful weapon. It was used during World War 2. The V-2 Spacecraft was a single stage rocket powered by alcohol and liquid oxygen

• 1944- On Friday evening, September 8, 1944 Germany launched the V-2 spacecraft after two failed attempts it was the first rocket to leave the Earth’s atmosphere. It reached an altitude of 62 miles.

1954-1967

• 1954- Viking was launched on May 24, 1954 by the United States. It went 159 miles into the upper atmosphere. It took high altitude photographs of the Earth.

• 1961- On April 12, 1961 Yuri Gagarin became the first human in Space. He was in a rocket named Vostok I launched by the Soviet Union (Russia) Vostok I circled the Earth for 108 minutes. He didn’t land inside Vostok I but ejected from the spacecraft and landed by parachute.

• 1967- On May 4, 1967 The United States launched Lunar Orbiter 4. It photographed the moon and mapped the nearside and 95% of the far side of the moon.

1969

• 1969- On July 20, 1969 Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. He was born August 5, 1930 in Ohio. He was a Navy fighter pilot in the Korean war. He joined NASA (USA) and was accepted into the astronaut corp in 1962. He was commander of the Apollo 11 mission. His crew mates were Michael Collins and

Buzz Aldrin.

1971- 1973

• 1971- On May 30, 1971 the United States launched Mariner 9. It orbited Mars on November 13, 1971 and took 7,329 pictures of Mars.

• 1972- On April 16, 1972 the United States launched Apollo 16 from Kennedy Space Center. It landed on the moon April 21, 1972 and took pictures of the Earth. This was the first use of the moon as an astronomical observatory.

• 1973- On March 14, 1973 Skylab was launches by the USA. It was the first US space station and it will be

occupied by 3 crews.

1976- 1979

• 1976- On July 20, 1976 the first pictures of the surface of Mars are sent back to Earth by Viking I, the first US spacecraft to successfully land on another planet.

• 1979- The Marshal Space Flight Center Solar Branch Members (USA) were involved with the soft x-ray telescope, S-056. this grazing incidence telescope produced images of the sun in x-rays. The images were taken through 6 different filters.

1981- 1986

• 1981- On April 12, 1981 the first reusable shuttle, Columbia, was successfully launched by the Space Transportation System (USA).

• 1983- On April 4, 1983 the US Challenger embarks on it’s first mission into space.

• 1986- On February 20, 1986 the first phase of the Russian space station, Mir, is successfully launched and placed into Earth’s orbit.

1990- 1995

• 1990- On April 24, 1990 the US Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off for mission STS-31, carrying the Edwin P. Hubble Space Telescope. It contained a flawed mirror resulting in fuzzy images.

• 1995- On December 7, 1995 the United States Galileo spacecraft arrives at Jupiter after a six year journey. It is there 2 years orbiting and studying the planet.

1996-1998

• 1996- On December 4, 1996 the Mars Pathfinder was launched and released the first Marian rover called Sojourner. In 3 months it took 16,000 pictures from the Lander and 550 from the Rover.

• 1998- On December 4, 1998 the first modules of the International Space Station were launched in a joint effort by Russia and the United States. The space shuttle Endeavor lifts off for space carrying the unity module which will be attached to the Russian Zarya Module.

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