Space

Important dates in space exploration

By 100643grace

  • Philadelphia committee led by Benjamin Franklin attempts to regulate waste disposal and water pollution.

  • Henry David Thoreau publishes Walden

  • The term ecology is coined in German as Oekologie by Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel

  • The term acid rain is coined by Robert Angus Smith in the book Air and Rain

  • The term smog is coined by Henry Antoine Des Voeux in a London meeting to express concern over air pollution

  • US Congress created the National Park Service

  • The world's first artificial satellite

    The world's first artificial satellite

    In 1957, the USSR launched the first man made object to leave the Earth's atmosphere, Sputnik 1
  • first animals to survive a trip to space

    first animals to survive a trip to space

    launched into space by the US, two monkeys named Able and Baker became the first living creatures to survive a space flight
  • the first man in space

    the first man in space

    Yuri Gagarin, sent into space by the USSR into space, made a single orbit of Earth in 108 minutes, travelling at more than 17,000 miles per hour
  • second man in space

    second man in space

    the US launched Alan Shepard into space less than a month after the USSR launched Alan Shepard into space, making him the second man to be in space

  • Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring

  • first woman in space

    first woman in space

    in 1963, Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to have flown in space, She orbited the Earth 48 times, spent almost three days in space.
  • first space walk

    first space walk

    Aleksey Leonov became the first person to go on a space walk . He floated for 10 minutes.

  • The Apollo 8 picture of Earthrise

  • apollo 8

    apollo 8

    Apollo 8 was the first crewed spacecraft to leave low Earth orbit
  • first man on the moon

    first man on the moon

    sent up by the US, Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the Moon

  • Earth Day

    millions of people gather in the United States for the first Earth Day organized by Gaylord Nelson, former senator of Wisconsin, and Denis Hayes, Harvard graduate student. US Environmental Protection Agency established
  • first space station launched

    first space station launched

    in 1971 the Soviet Union launched the first space station, Salyut 1, into space.
  • first spacecraft to orbit another planet

    first spacecraft to orbit another planet

    launched on May 30, 1971, Mariner 9 became the first artificial satellite of Mars when it went into orbit.
  • first free flying space walk

    first free flying space walk

    Bruce McCandless became the first person to do a 90 minute spacewalk without being attached to a spacecraft

  • Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer entered into force

  • The Kyoto Protocol was negotiated in Kyoto, Japan in December. Countries that ratify this protocol commit to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases

  • U.S. rejects the Kyoto Protocol

  • U.S. announces it will cease participation in the Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation

  • U.S. announces it will rejoin the Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation