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Space Exploration Timeline 1981-Present
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Venus Soil
The Soviet spacecraft Venera 13 provided scientists with the soils from Venus. Scientists were able to experiment with the soil and take notes on it. -
Hubble Space Telescope
The launch of the Hubble Space Telescope was a great stride forward to seeing beyond Earth and the solar system. But when it was first deployed, there was a major problem--Hubble's primary mirrors was the wrong size, about 1/50th the thickness of a sheet of paper. Noticing this flaw, there was a mission to save Hubble. Astronauts were brought into space to fix Hubble. It was fixed and produced many great images. -
Detailed Study of an Asteroid
A spacecraft made for the purpose of studying asteroids near Earth, Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR), made it to the orbit of asteroid Eros. NEAR was supposed to send back images of Eros' surface. It also was given the task to study the gravity and composition of Eros. Eros was about 20 miles long and 8 miles wide. -
Cassini Arrives at Saturn
The Cassini probe finally arrived at Saturn after nearly seven years of traveling. It photographed the planet and its moons. Another small probe within Cassini, Huygens, would later arrive on Titan, Saturn's largest moon. -
Alien Moon
The Huygen probe, the smaller probe within Cassini, lands on Titan after parachuting down for 2 hours and 28 minutes. After landing, Huygen successfully sent images back to Earth. Scientists could study other moons from the pictures that Huygen sent back. -
Colliding with a Comet
A US spacecraft, Deep Impact, successfully pulls of its mission of colliding with a comet, Tempel 1. After traveling for 174 days, Deep Impact collided with Tempel 1, which revealed the water and ice within the comet. -
Extrasolar Planets
Kepler was launched on a mission to search for other solar systems in the universe. The spacecraft uses an ability that allows it to search for planets that are orbiting stars. The slight dim of a distant star regularly can be detected by Kepler. -
Spacecraft to Orbit Mercury
NASA's spacecraft became the first to orbit Mercury. MESSENGER was given the mission to map out Mars and capture the planet's surface in photographs with high definition images. It will also look for signs of water that could be underneath all the frozen ice and study the planet's atmosphere. -
Largest Space Telescope
With the launch of Spektr-R, Russia has the largest space telescope in orbit. Spektr-R is a radio telescope missioned to study objects in space that has angles and seperate it into two seperate images. -
Spacecraft Orbits a Comet
The first spacecraft to orbit a comet was the European Space Agency's Rosetta space probe. After traveling for 10 years, the space probe sends back images of the comet's surface. The images showed cliffs, deep steeps, and boulders. Rosetta will follow the comet to provide close-up images.
