Our Exploration of Space

Tycho Brahe

1500

Made the most accurate celestial observations and challenged the thought of how the universe was organized.

Galileo's discovery of the Galien Moons

1610

Galileo Galilei, an Italian polymath who improved the telescope and made an early version of a thermometer. Named after him, his discovery of the moons of Jupiter, changed the understanding of the universe, it proved that Earth was not in centre of the cosmos and that we orbited the Sun just like the other planets. Also, the discovery of this helped us determine where on Earth we are.

Newton

1671

Full name, Sir Isaac Newton, invented calculus and explorations in optics. He is also one of the first to discover the laws of universal gravity.

Edwin Hubble

1917

Created the first, largest (at that time) telescope that would provide breathtaking views of the universe.

Sputnik 1

Oct 4, 1957

Sputnik 1 is the first satellite launched by a man to reach outer space and to orbit the Earth. It circled the Earth every 96 minutes and remaining, till 1958 when it burned in the Earth's atmosphere. This satellite was lunched by the Soviet Union.

Sputnik 2 - Laika Dog

Nov 3, 1957

Sputnik 2, also launched by the Soviet union. Was the first satellite sent to space with a living animal to be sent to space. Which opened up the possibility for humans to go to space.

Yuri Gagarin

Apr 12, 1961

Yuri Gargin, Russian cosmonaut who was the first human to reach outer space and orbited the Earth once.

Alan Shepard

May 5, 1961

Alan Shepard, an American astronaut, First American to reach space, and the second human.

Project Mercury

Jul 21, 1961

Project Mercury, was NASA's first human spaceflight program. The mission of this program was to send humans to space and to see if humans can survive in space for minutes or even hours. NASA had a mission to send a Chimp to space but it was unsuccessful.

John Glenn

Feb 20, 1962

John Glenn, was the 1st American astronaut to orbit the Earth. In fact, he orbited the Earth three times, in 5 hours. He also made record by being the oldest person to travel in space at the age of 77.

Project Gemini

1965

Project Gemini, by NASA, was a preparation with sets of two astronauts training to make landing on the Moon.

Penzias & Wilson (Big Bang Theory)

1965

Is the theory of the universe being very small, and over the last 13.8 billion years it has been expanding. The first ones to come up with the theories were Arno Penzia and Robert Wilson. On 1965, this theory was published by Princeton University.

Neil Armstrong

Jul 20, 1969

Neil Armstrong, a NASA astronaut, was the first human to be on the Moon.

Skylab

May 14, 1973

Skylab was America's first space station. However, due to its meteoroid shield opening 63 seconds after the launch. Which then the atmosphere cut of the skylab off

Project Apollo

Jul 17, 1975

America and Russia. First two nations to meet and work together in space with their own national spacecraft. Two Russians and three Americans went to space to demeanour experiments.

Viking

Aug 20, 1975

First spacecraft to land on Mars, sent by NASA

Voyager 1&2

1977

Was the first spacecraft to reach interstellar space launched along with voyager 2

Marc Garneau

1984

Marc Garneau, is the First Canadian astronaut to reach space.

Pathfinder

Jul 4, 1997

First NASA mission to reach Mars, successfully. A small sized rover called sojourner

International Space Station (ISS)

Nov 2, 2000

First multi-nation space station to conduct experiments on Earth. Countries involved include, United States of America, Canada, Russia, Japan, United Kingdom, Denmark, Belgium, France, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Spain, The Netherlands, and Switzerland.