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In his first year of observation Galileo noticed that, Venus has phases like our moon, found Jupiters four largest moons, many new stars, and strengthened the Heliocentric theory because he said that contrary to popular belief at that time, the earth and planets rotate around the sun.
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William Moore, a British mathematician, publishes a book on rocket mechanics based off of Newton's third law.
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Konstantin Tsiolkovsky publishes the book, The Exploration of Cosmic Space by Means of Reaction Devices. This is the first serious work showing space exploration is possible.
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Robert Goddard launches his first liquid fueled rocket, this is significant because solid fuel couldn't allow a rocket to escape earths atmosphere.
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The German made rocket, the V-2, is launched and achieves the first man made object to fly in suborbital space.
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At the White Sands Proving Grounds in New Mexico, the first US rocket named Wac corporal, reached space.
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A couple vials of fruit flies were flown into space in a V-2 rocket at the height of 60 miles. Later the vials were recovered intact.
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Soviet Union launches the R-7 Semyorka and traveled 3,728 miles.
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USSR launches Sputnik 1 into space and it transmits radio signals back for a short time.
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Sputnik 2 launched with a dog inside a pressurized capsule called Laika. Laika survived for 8 days until food and water supply ran out.
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The first US satellite, Explorer 1, made by the California Institute of Technology, was launched into space.
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Soviet Union launches Sputnik 5, carrying dogs Strelka and Belka, they returned from space alive.
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Yuri Gagarin, a Russian cosmonaut, becomes the first man in space.
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Alan Shepard becomes first American in space.
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John Glenn is first man to in orbit.
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Valentina Nikolayeva Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space.
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Luna 9, a Russian spacecraft, was the first spacecraft to land on the moon
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Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to walk on the moon.
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US launches its first space station, Skylab.
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Voyager 2 is launched, this will lead to many high definition pictures of planets.
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Voyager 1 launched, this would lead to many high definition pictures of planets and their moons.
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Columbia became the first space shuttle launched.
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Sally Ride, on the second Challenger mission, became the first American woman to be in space.
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The third space shuttle, Discovery is launched.
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Voyager 2 reaches and starts taking images of Neptune.
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The space shuttle Discovery deploys the Hubble space telescope.
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Mars pathfinder arrives on Mars and begins taking images of the surface.
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Kepler spacecraft is launched, its mission, is to find planets outside our solar system.
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The company SpaceX launched a spacecraft and returned it to earth. This is the first non-government funded space travel.
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Voyager 1 reaches interstellar space.
