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Sputnik 1
The first Artifical Satellite to be lauched anss sucesfully soar through space was Sputnick 1. Sputnick 1 was launched on October 4, 1957, 7:28pm by Soviet Union, now known as Russia. In space it took about an hour and forty-five minutes to orbit Earth on a path called "Elliptical path". The path orbits all the planets. Sputnik was a very small satellite - about the size of a beach ball. -
First Human In Space
The first human to enter the space atmostphere was the one and only Yuri Gagarin, he entered space on April 12, 1961. He is also a Russian astronaut. He was lauched in a space rocket called the Vostok 3KA. He was also the first person to orbit the Earth. In 1941 Yuri was 17 when Nazis took over Soviet Union. He had two sisters that were sent to work as laborers. So it was difficult to learn. -
Project Mercury
Project Mercury was the NASA program that put the first American Astronauts in space. There was a total of six spaceflights during Project Mercury. Two of thise flights reached space and came right back down. There are called Suborbital flights. The other 4 went into orbit and circuled the Eath. The first flight was made in 1961 and the last flight was made in 1963. Alan shepard made the first Mercury flight, this made him the first American in space. Alan's capsule was named Freedom 7. -
Project Mercury
Before astronauts went up, NASA made several test flights. These tests helped them to fix the probloms they found. Before they sent astronauts up theytested to see if it was safe by sending monkeys into space.One chimpanzee, Enos launched on an Atlas rocket and made two orbits around Eath. Sam, a rhesus monkey and Ham, a chimpanzee made suborbital flights. Project Mercury helped NASA to learn how to put astronaunts in orbit arond the Earth. They leaned how to operate a spacecaft in orbit. -
Project Gemini
On March 23, 1965 astronauts John Young and Gus Grissom became the first Gemini crew to fly. Gemini was an early NASA human spaceflight program. This project helped NASA get ready for the Apollo moon landings. Ten crews flew missions on the two-man Gemini spacecraft. These missions were flown in 1965 and 1966. NASA named the Gemini spacecraft and program after the constellation Gemini. The name is Latin and means "twins". The Gemini capsule would carry two people. -
Project Gemini
The first flights tested the new vehicle, Gemini Titan 3. Mission 4 included the first U.S. spacewalk. 5 stayed in orbit for more than a week. The Gemini 6A and 7 were in space at the same time and met each other in orbit. 7 stayed in orbit for two weeks. 8 connected with another unmanned spacecraft in orbit. 9 mission tested different ways of flying near another spacecraft. 10 connected with another spacecraft and used its engines to move together.11 flew higher than others. 12 solved probloms. -
Project Apollo
Proect Apollo took many years to accomplish, from 1963-1972 that's 11 years. The Apollo program designed people to land on the moon and explore it for more information.There were 17 trials of Apollo, only six made it to the moon safely. Apollo 1 lauched on 1/27/1967 lauched three astronauts. Apollo 8 was lanched an 12/21/1968, went to the luner orbit and had to return. Apollo 13 launched 11/14/1970 had to return because the oxygen tank bursted. Apollo 11 caried the first humans to the moon. -
Lunar Prospector
Lunar Prospector was launched on January 6, 1998. It mapped the moon's surface and looked for possible depsits of polar ice, measure magnetic and gravity fields. Also studied the lunar "out grassing". On March 5,1998, scientists said that it's neutron spectrometer instrument had detected hydrogen at both of the poles. Scientists thought this was a form of water ice. It was possible to be 330 million short tons that was mixed into the regolith at each pole. The mission ended on 7/31/1999.
