-
Period: to
Space Exploration Timeline Project
-
Sputnik, Mercury and Gemini Space Programs
All three of these programs marked the start of the race to space with the Soviet Union. They were sent to get more information about the moon before we sent humans up there. Sputnik launched on October 4, 1957. Mercury launched on October 7, 1958. Gemini launched its first of 12 on April 8, 1964. Its 12th mission was sent on November 11, 1966. -
Pioneer Program
The Pioneer Program sent 12 probes to learn more information about our planets. Their missions was to study Jupiter, Earth's moon and Venus. -
Venera Probes
The Venera probes' missions were to reach Venus and get a better idea of Venus using 15 probes. Venera 1 was sent on February 12, 1961 and the Venera 16 returned on October 14, 1983. They wanted to be the first people to explore Venus. -
Apollo Missions
May 25, 1951 is when the idea of getting man on the moon first was proposed. There was a total of 17 missions, 6 were successful and man was on the moon. We brought bak a total of 840 pounds of moon rock and other investigations has given us memory foam, cordless tools and other things we use a lot. The program lasted until 1972. July 20, 1969 was when Armstrong landed on the moon in front of the whole world. -
Mariner Program
The Mariner Program sent 10 probes into space to send back information about Mars, Venus and Mercury. It helped us get a better understanding of the universe and was the first to take pictures from another planet. It also gave us the first up-close picture of Mercury. -
Critical Space Stations
Space station are flying buildings in space that conduct research on gravity and other space objects.The first one was the Salyut by the Soviet Union and stopped in 1991. The Skylab (owned by US) was sent on August 8, 1969 and was deorbited on July 11, 1979. Lastly, the Mir (Soviet Union) was launched on February 20, 1986. -
Viking Space Program
The Viking Program consisted of 2 mars rovers, Viking 1 and Viking 2. Viking 1 launched on August 20, 1975 and Viking 2 launched on September 9, 1975. They wanted to see if there is any life on Mars and if it livable for humans there. They discovered that many, many years ago, Mars had an underwater ocean. Both are still there today, but cannot send any data back to Earth. -
Project Voyager
Voyager 1 launched on September 5, 1977 and Voyager 2 launched on August 20, 1977. Voyager 2 observed Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Voyager 1 observed Jupiter and Saturn and recently just left our solar system unexpectedly. -
Space Shuttle Missions
The 3 space shuttles in these missions were the Challenger, Colombia and the Atlantis. The Colombia launched on April 12, 1981 and completed 27 missions. The Challenger blew up 73 seconds into its flight. Atlantis launched on July 21, 2011 and has traveled a total of 126,000,000, orbiting 4,848 times around the earth. -
Magellan Spacecraft
The Magellan spacecraft orbited Venus and gave us a map of 99% of Venus' surface. It started orbiting on August 10, 1990 and eventually burned in the atmosphere. -
Galileo Spacecraft
The Galileo Spacecraft's mission was to learn more about Jupiter. It was sent on October 18, 1989 and its probe landed on December 7, 1995. We learned that Jupiter has a similar composition to the Sun, has 16 moons and is 1,000 times the size of Earth. It also has a temperature of -150 degrees Celsius. -
Hubble Spacecraft
The Hubble Spacecraft was launched on April 25, 1990. It is still in space today. It has told us that the Universe has an unimaginable amount of galaxies and is older than we thought. In 2011, it made its millionth observation. -
N.E.A.R. Shoemaker Mission
The N.E.A.R. launched on February 19, 1996 and its mission was to land on the nearest asteroid to earth, Eros. It also orbited Eros and learned that there are more than 100,000 craters on the asteroid. -
Mars Exploration Rover
These 4 rovers were sent to examine the surface of Mars. Sojourner landed on July 4, 1997, Mer-A lauded on June 10, 2003 and Mer-B landed on July 7, 2003. They wanted to collect rock samples from the Mars. Mars 3 lost connection shortly after landing. -
Cassini Space Mission
The Cassini Space Mission was to gather information about Saturn and its biggest moon, Titan. It launched on October 15, 1997. We learned that Saturn has 30 moons, one of which is bigger than Mercury. All of Saturn's moons are icy because of their extremely cold temperature. -
Genesis Spacecraft
The mission of the spacecraft was to collect solar dust and bring it back to Earth. Genesis' path resembled a roller coaster with its many loops in a certain area from the earth to the Sun. It started collecting solar dust within a few months and returned back to Earth on September 1, 2004.