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Sputnik/Mercury/Gemini Program
Sputnik was launched on this date. Sputnik was involved with the Soviet Union, and the Mercury/Gemini Program was American. The Sputnik started the race to space between the Soviet Union and America. -
Pioneer Program
NASA created the Pioneer program and it's purpose was to go to Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the Sun. There were no men on the shuttle, and all 13 missions were succeseses. The last time it was launched was on August 8, 1978. -
Mariner Program
The first Mariner launched on this date, but exploded shortly after reaching space. The mission was to investiate Mars, Venus and Mercury. There were 10 missions total. -
Mars Viking Probes
Both probes were built by NASA and provided the first high def pictures of Mars, Viking 1 was launched on this fate, Viking 2 was launched on September 9, 1975. Both reached Mars in little under a year. -
Voyager Probes
Funded by NASA, it was used to study the space outside the solar system and interstellar medium. Voyager 1 was the first object in space and Voyager 2 is excepted to continuing running and communicating with us until 2020. -
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle was America's first reusable shuttle. NASA, Japan, Germany, and the European space agency all have used it. The purpose was to launch and recover space satellites, and the first launch of it was on April 12, 1981. -
Magellan
The mission was to map Venus' suface and geography. Magellan also measured Venus' gravitational field. -
Galileo
It was built to learn more about Jupiter, and it also learned about Jupiter's 6 moons. Galileo learned about Jupiter's atmospheric and weather data, and discovered moons can orbit an asteroid. -
The Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope was constructed by NASA with help from the European Space Agency. The cost to build was 2.5 millions dollars, and the telescope discovered dark energy and observed Pluto in detail. It's expected to function until 2013. -
N.E.A.R.
NEAR was the first to orbit an asteroid. It orbited the asteroid Eros 230 times. -
Cassini
Cassini was made to orbit Saturn and its moons. The cost to make was 3.26 billion dollars and is the about the same size as a school bus. Cassini took over 300,000 pictures of Saturn, Titan and its moons. Cassini landed on Titan on January 14th, 2005 -
Space Stations
The Space Station were built by - NASA, Boeing, JAXA, CSA, ROSCOSMOS, and EASA. It was designed to hold a crew and help them stay in space for a long period of time. The crew will land back down on earth on May 13. Two other groups were launched at different times. They were sent out to study the effect of microgravity and other effects space has on the human body. -
Genesis
NASA funded the project and the objective was to collect solar wind, which is pieces of the sun. -
Mars Rovers
It was built by NASA, ESA, and JPL. The Mars Rovers were sent to study Mars, and learn if it was possible that life could exist on it. They had 4 successful rovers.