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sputnik 1 was launched by soviet union
The Soviet Union starts the spacee race with the launch of Sputnik 1. A technological feat, the beach ball-size satellite weighs 184 pounds. It was the first artificial satilite lauched in the world. -
November 3, 1957: First Animal in Orbit
Laika died within hours, maybe because of a life-support failure that caused her container to overheat. She survived the launch but the soviet union tried to hide laika's fate for years. -
January 31, 1958: First Successful American Satellite
The first successful american sattelite is launched on january 31, 1958. It has tools on board such as:a cosmic-ray detection package, an internal temperature sensor, three external temperature sensors, a nose-cone temperature sensor, a micrometeorite impact microphone, and a ring of micrometeorite erosion guages. it ran out of batteries on May 31 -
July 29, 1958: NASA Signed Into Law
Fearful that Soviet successes in space mean the U.S. was losing the Cold War, congressional leaders, including future President Lyndon B. Johnson, quickly wrote the National Aeronautics and Space Act. The act creates a civilian agency, NASA, to assume the duties (and about 8,000 employees) of the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics. The new agency, which represent the U.S. in the space race, began operation. -
April 12, 1961: First Human in Space
After several unsuccessful (and apparently fatal) attempts at manned flight, the Soviet Union launches Yuri A. Gagarin on a 108-minute flight.His ship, however, is not designed to land at a safe speed, so during the descent, Gagarin jumps out and parachutes the final few thousand meters. -
May 5, 1961: First American in Space
Determined to keep up with the Russians, the U.S. launched Alan Shepard on a 15-minute suborbital journey. the astronaut rode the capsule all the way back down, a victory made easier by the U.S. decision to conduct splashdowns in the Atlantic, rather than the difficult terrestrial landings made by the Russians. Unlike Gagarin, who was just a passenger, Shepherd got to pilot his Mercury spaceship. -
March 18, 1965: First Spacewalk
Knowing that future missions would require astronauts to work outside their spaceships, Russian Alexei Leonov exits his Voskhod 2 capsule for a 12-minute spacewalk. His spacesuit balloons oddly from air pressure, and Leonov must let air out. He also had a problem with getting his tall body back into the small area. Then, the spacecraft landed way off course, and he and Commander Pavel I. Belyayev spent a day in Russia's northern hemisphere, waiting for ground crews to come and help them. -
July 20, 1969: First Manned Moon Landing
On July 20, 1969 Apollo 11, nicknamed the Eagle, touches down on the moon, with 30 seconds' worth of fuel to spare."That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," Armstrong said. "Beautiful. Beautiful. Magnificent desolation," Aldrin added.They returned to Earth on July 24, -
June 7, 1971: First Occupation of Space Station
Three cosmonauts from the Soviet Union's Soyuz 11 mission successfully boarded the Salyut 1 space station. Their 24-day mission completed scientific experiments that set a new endurance record for space travel. Sadly, a failed valve caused the Soyuz 1 to vent air on the return home, and on June 29, all three cosmonauts died. No more missions were sent to the Soyuz 1 space station. -
May 14, 1973: First American Space Station Launched
Skylab was launched on what was going to be a six-year mission. Three crews, with a total of nine astronauts, occupyed the Skylab in 1973-1974, completing experiments and making spacewalks to repair a damaged solar panel and make a sunshade to keep the Skylab from overheating. One Australian town fined the U.S. $400 for littering when the station returned to earth. -
April 12, 1981: First Space Shuttle Launch
Columbia was launched on april 12, 1981. Onboard were Commander John Young and pilot Robert Crippen. They spent two days in orbit around the Earth on the test flight and landed, like an arplane, at Edwards Air Force Base in California. -
February 7, 1984: First Untethered Spacewalk
NASA's new Manned Maneuvering Unit, a sort of rocket backpack.
Bruce McCandless exited the space shuttle Challenger without a safety line. He flew 320 feet (100 meters) away from the shuttle and returned safely. -
April 25, 1990: Hubble Space Telescope Deployed
The space shuttle Discovery opened its cargo bay doors open to deploy a unique cargo: the 12-ton Hubble Space Telescope. More than a single telescope, the Hubble is an orbiting collection of instruments designed to view the universe free from Earth's atmosphere.A flaw in the telescope's largest mirror blurs many images taken by the telescope. there was a mission to fix it in 1993 that was successful. -
January 3, 2004: Spirit Rover Landing on Mars
NASA's most complex rover yet, is designed to search mars for three months. It continued searching mars for three more years though! It has traveled about 5 miles as of 2007. -
The discovery of planet x
Planet x, larger than Pluto, was discovered using the Samuel Oschin Telescope at Palomar Observatory near San Diego, Calif. The discovery was announced by planetary scientist Dr. Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology. -
Space Shuttle Retirement Plan
The shuttles are aging and expensive, their key task is nearly completed and NASA wants to use the money spent on them to do something new. George W. Bush made the decision to stop sending shuttle missions in 2004. He wanted astronauts to go back to the moon, and eventually to Mars. For NASA to afford to build a new spaceship, it had to stop spending about $4 billion a year on the shuttle program.
