Space Exploration Timeline

By s-cguy

  • Sputnik is launched

    The U.S. Sputnik is launched.

  • Mercury is launched

    The U.S. Mercury is launched.
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    Pioneer Program

    The Pioneer program was launched to collect information about Jupiter for 170 million dollars per unit. While Pioneer 0 blew up 77 seconds after launch, Pioneer 10 is now 8 billion miles away.

  • Gemini is launched

    The U.S. Gemini is launched.

  • Mariner Program

    The Mariner Program was run by NASA to capture general pictures of space for 554 million dollars and was launched in 1962.
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    N.E.A.R. Mission

    The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (N.E.A.R.) Mission was launched in 1966 to land on and study Eros. It had its last call to Earth in 2001 before it was lost.
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    Viking Probes

    The Viking Probes were created by NASA in 1968 for 2 billion dollars to explore the atmosphere on Mars. The Probes found no life on Mars after 6 years of collected data and officially ended in 1982.

  • Venera Probes

    The Venera Probes were created by the Soviet Union to explore Venus and send pictures back to Earth, which eventually came through in 1970. The project started launching probes in pairs in 1978, and eventually shut down from low funding.

  • Voyager Probes

    The Voyager Probes were launched in 1977 for 250 million dollars to study the rest of our solar system.
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    Magellan Spacecraft

    The Magellan Spacecraft was built by Martin Marietta to explore Venus and mapped out 98% of the planet’s surface. It was launched in 1989 and started its 6 mapping cycles in 1990. The program eventually ended in 1994.

  • Cassini Mission

    The Cassini Mission was created by NASA, ESA, and the Italian Space Agency to explore Saturn and its moon. The moon, Titian, is the only other planet known to have an atmosphere. Cassini was launched in 1997 to verify the 3D structure of Saturn’s rings and the moon’s atmosphere. The materials for the project were mainly supplied by Europe.
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    Genesis Project

    The Genesis takes off from Cape Canaveral, Florida in 2001 for 264 million dollars to collect solar wind. It stayed in space for 886 days and crash landed in Utah in 2004. Its mission was successful.

  • Rovers

    The rovers were created by NASA to explore the possibility of water or life on Mars. The two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, landed on Mars in 2004.