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Robert Goddard
Goddard was considerd as the father of modern rocketry. He launched the first successful liquid fuel rocket in 1926. Goddards space flight center was established on May 1, 1959. When WWII was going on the militay started to have an interest in Goddards work. His work was getting the attention because of the terrifying new weapons the Germans had. -
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Space
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German V2
The A-4 later called the V-2 was a single stage rocket fueled by alcohol and liquid oxygen. It was 46.1 feet high and 56,000 pounds. Germans launched the German V2 which was the first to reach 100 km from earths surface. The rocket was designed by Wernher Von Braun who later worked with NASA as a creator of rockets that went to the moon. -
Fruit flies
Fruit flies were launched into space and were used to study the effects of space travel on animals and were chosen because they are more similar to humans than most would think The fruit flies traveled with a supply of corn to eat on the flight. -
Sputnik 2
Sputnik 2 was 4 meters high and cone shaped. Sputnik was made to carry the first human being to go to outer space. Sputnik carried Laika a female Samoyed terrier. Sputnik was big enough for Laika to stand up or lie down. They soon realized that she would run out of oxygen in ten days of orbiting the earth -
Yuri Gargarin
Yuri Gargain was the first human being in space making a 108 minute orbital flight in his Vostok 1 spacecraft. Vostok 1 had two sections, one for Yuri Gagarin and one for the supplies Needed to live including oxygen and water. Gargain was from the Soviet Union. He was the first person to see that the earth was indeed round and mostly water. He was killed in a plane crash before he could travel in space a second time. -
John F. Kennedy
John F Kennedy promised the world that the United States would land men on the moon before 1970. Before sending humans to the moon they sent a robot spaceship to make sure they would be able to fly safely. Once landed the robot started taking photos of the moons surface and that were sent back to the scientist in America. -
Apollo 11
this flight carried the first men on the Moon, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. They were the first to returnwith samples from another planetary body. These samples were basalts, dark colored igneous rocks, and they were about 3.7 billion years old.Very few changes were made to the Apollo 11 space vehicle from the Apollo 10. The most significant change was thestructural change they added room for scientific experiments package and the tools needed. -
Pioneer Missions
The Pioneer 10's purpose was to study Jupiter and the outer solar system. Pioneer 10 was the first space probe to travel past the orbit of Pluto.Pioneer 10 ended January 23, 2003. Pioneer 10 and 11 were the first space probes to visit the outer planets. Pioneer 11 was launched on April 5, 1973. It was going to follow Pioneer 10. Pioneer 11 made the first direct observation of Saturn. It ended on September 30 1995. There have been no connections to either one scene they ended. -
Space Probe on Mars
In 1973, Russian space probe Mars 2 explored Mars The probe was made of two parts. One part stayed in orbit for one year and sent pictures of Mars back to earth. The other was to land and explore the surface of Mars, but it was destroyed when its parachute failed to open. -
Sputnik 1
Sputnik 1 was launched by the Soviets in 1975. This was the first satellite to be launched. Sputnik 1 orbited for 57 days until it fell on to earth and burned in the atmosphere. It was 58 centermeters in diamiter, this is about the size of a beach ball. It took Sputnik 98 minutes to orbit earth once. Its mass was 83.6kg. -
Space Shuttle Challenger
Space Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after launch, because of a fuel system failure. All seven astronauts on board were killed, and all shuttles were grounded for nearly three years.
This accident reminded the world of the dangers of space travel, and the bravery that all astronauts had to have. -
Helen Sharman
Helen Sharman entered a competition to become the first British astronaut in space. After 18 months of intensive training, Helen was part of a Russian mission to the MIR space station.She spent eight days in space conducting scientific experiments.
