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Space Exploration
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Sputnik
It was a artifical satellite sent into space by the Soviet Union to gain information on atmospheres. -
Pioneer Program
This program sent probes to other planets and all of the missions were unmanned. The last one was sent on August 8th, 1978 -
Mercury
Sent a spacecraft into space with a man inside of the spacecraft -
Venera Probes
The purpose of this mission was to explore the planet Venus because they wanted to create a map of the planet. -
Mariner Program
Ended November 3rd, 1973. Mariner 9 took photos of Mars. It cost over $544 million dollars. It was launched to study other planets atmostpheres and used planet's gravitational pull to orbit. -
Gemini
The US launched this spacecraft during the race to get man out into space and on the Moon. -
Apollo Missions
NASA and JFK were involved. JFK had challenged the US to be the first to space, and have a man sucessfully walk on the moon, which we did after only 8 years! Cost 25.4 billion dollars when it started, about 170 billon dollars today. 3 astronauts died in a fire. Brought back 840 lbs of moon rock. -
Viking Probes - Viking 1
Sent to take pictures, orbit, and land on Mars, Viking 1 landed on August 17th 1980 -
Viking Probes - Viking 2
Sent to take pictures, orbit and land on Mars. It also searched for evidence of life. Landed on July 25th 1978. -
Voyager Probes
First Voyager Probe launched, second one launched on August 20th 1977. Discovered Neptune in1989 and the purpose was to learn about Uranus. Expected to operate for 25 more years. -
The Space Shuttle
Russia and the US were both trying to get a space shuttle into space, and the first launch was done by the US on April 1st, 1981, Columbia, and the last one, Atlantis, was launched on June 28th 2011. -
Magellan Spacecraft
The purpose was to learn about Venus, and it found that the planet was almost the complete opposite of Earth's. Too hot for humans and there is no water. On October 12th 1997, the experiment was terminated, and a day later the spacecraft was supposedly lost. -
Galileo Probe
Sent to study Jupiter and its natural satellites, and its main focus point was Europa. -
Hubble Space Telescope
Project by NASA and European Space Agency. First pictures were blurry, but after the mirror was adjusted, it got great pictures. It helped find moons of Pluto, helped figure out how fast the universe is expanding, helped figure out how old the universe is -
N.E.A.R. Mission
The purpose was to go around an asteriod, and it landed on it, being the first to make a successful landing on an asteriod. It returned February 18th 2001 -
The Cassini Mission
Took place in Italy and the US, sent a spacecraft to Saturn, and was the first object to orbit and observe all four seasons and a year on the planet. One of the probes landed on Titan on January 14th, 2005, the first time a probe has landed on Titan. -
Space Stations (Internation Space Station)
Second Module- December 4, 1998
Third Module- July 12, 2000
Fourth Module- February 7, 2001
Fifth Module- July 12, 2001
Sixth Module- September 14, 2001
Seventh Module- October 23, 2007
Eighth Module- February 7, 2008
Ninth Module- March 11, 2008
Completely assembled in 2011 in space
Used for peace between countries and for education. It is located 248 miles above Earth. It is the largest, most used space station. -
Liftoff of Genesis Spacecraft
The Genesis Spacecraft took off from Cape Canaveral on August 8th at 9:13:40 PDT -
Mars Exploration Rover
Spirit lifted off on June 4th, 2003, and Opportunity lifted off on July 8th. They landed January 2004. The purpose was to beat the Soviet Union in the race to explore Mars -
Landing/Crash of the Genesis Spacecraft
The SRC entered the atmosphere but the parachuet didn't deploy so it crashed.