Space Exploration By sarahbailey23 Jan 1, 1611 Galileo improved the telescope Oct 4, 1957 Sputnik 1 was launched At approximately 7:28 pm! Nov 3, 1957 Sputnik 2 was launched Jan 4, 1958 Sputnik 1 crashes to Earth Jan 31, 1958 Explorer 1 lifts off and discovers Earths radiation belt. Mar 5, 1958 Explorer 2 is launched and fails to reach orbit Mar 17, 1958 Vanguard 1 is launched into orbit and continues for 3 years. Apr 13, 1958 Sputnik 2 stopped its orbit May 15, 1958 Sputnik 3 is launched Oct 1, 1958 NASA was founded Apr 12, 1961 Vostok 1 is launched by the U.S.S.R, it carried the first man in space (Cosmonaut Yuri A. Gargarin). He orbits the earth once. Aug 6, 1961 Vostok 2 is launched and was the first day-long Soviet space flight. Feb 20, 1962 Mercury Friendship 7 takes off with John H. Glenn Jr. who was the first American in orbited. It orbited Earth 3 times. May 24, 1962 Mercury Aurora 7 is launched and makes 3 orbits Dec 14, 1962 US Mariner 2 was the first successful planetary spacecraft. It flew past Venus and entered a solar orbit. Jun 16, 1963 Vostok 6 orbited the Earth 48 times with the first woman in space (Cosmonaut Valentia Tereshcova) Jul 31, 1964 US Ranger 7 gets the first close-range photographs of the moon Dec 4, 1965 Gemini 7 is launched, making 206 orbits around Earth and proving a trip to the moon is possible Sep 15, 1968 Soviet Zond 5 is launched and was the first spscecraft to orbit the moon and return. Jul 16, 1969 Apollo 11 landed on the Moon. Apr 24, 1990 Hubble Telescope was launched Jan 1, 2002 Space X was founded Jan 1, 2006 Space X was awarded a commercial orbital transportation services contract Dec 9, 2010 Space X became the first company to successfully launch, orbit, and recover a spacecraft (COTS Demo Flight 1) Aug 1, 2012 Mars Land Rover landed
