Things never knew astronomy e454e5d

astronomy midterm assignment

By MollyG

  • The Soviet Union launched the first satellite, Sputnik, into space.

  • The Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 2 was launched with a dog named Laika on board. Laika did not survive the voyage.

  • Explorer 1 was the first satellite launched by the United States

    Explorer 1 was the first satellite launched by the United States when it was sent into orbit on January 31, 1958. It was designed and built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of the California Institute of Technology. The satellite was sent aloft from Cape Canaveral in Florida by the Jupiter C rocket that was designed, built, and launched by the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) under the direction of Dr. Werner Von Braun

  • The Soviet craft Sputnik 5 was launched

    The Soviet craft Sputnik 5 was launched, carrying the dogs Strelka and Belka. They became the first living beings to survive a trip into space.

  • Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space.

  • Astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American in space.

  • President Kennedy challenged the country to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.

  • Astronaut John Glenn became the first American in orbit.

  • Valentina Nikolayeva Tereshkova became the first woman in space.

  • While tethered to his spacecraft, cosmonaut Alexi Leonov became the first man to walk in space.

  • Astronaut Ed White became the first American to walk in space.

  • The spacecraft Mariner 4 transmitted the first pictures of Mars.

  • The Russian spacecraft Luna 9 became the first spacecraft to land on the moon.

  • Surveyor 1 became the first American spacecraft to land on the moon

  • Astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee were killed in an accidental fire in a command module on the launch pad.

  • Cosmonaut Vladimir M. Komarov was killed in a crash when the parachute on his Soyuz 1 spacecraft failed to deploy.

  • A descent capsule from the Soviet probe Venera 4 collected data about the atmosphere of Venus.

  • The Soviet spacecraft Zond 5 was launched and later became the first spacecraft to orbit the moon and return to Earth.

  • Apollo 8 was launched, and later her crewmembers became the first men to orbit the moon.

  • Neil Armstrong and "Buzz" Aldrin became the first men on the moon.

  • Apollo 13 was launched.

  • The Soviet craft Luna 16 was launched and became the first automatic spacecraft to return soil samples of the moon.

  • The Soviet automatic robot Lunokhod 1 landed on the moon with Luna 17.

  • The Soviet Venera 7 became the first probe to land on Venus.

  • The Soviet space station Salyut 1 was launched.

  • The moon rover was driven on the moon for the first time.

  • The Mariner 9 probe became the first craft to orbit another world - Mars.

  • Eugene Cernan and Harrison "Jack" Schmitt became the last men to walk on the moon.

  • The U.S. launched its first space station, Skylab.

  • The American Apollo 18 and Soviet Soyuz 19 dock in the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.

  • The American probe Viking 2 discovered water frost on the Martian surface

  • Period: to

    Voyagers 1 and 2 were launched

    (Voyager 2 was launched before Voyager 1, but Voyager 1 was on a faster trajectory.)

  • The U.S. probe Pioneer 11 reached Saturn and began transmitting images.

  • Period: to

    Voyagers 1 and 2 began transmitting images of Jupiter and her moons.

  • Voyager 1 reached Saturn and began transmitting images.

  • Columbia became the first Space Shuttle to be launched.

  • Voyager 2 reached Saturn and began transmitting images.

  • The second Space Shuttle, Challenger, was launched.

  • Sally Ride became the first American woman in space on Challenger’s second mission.

  • Guion Bluford became the first African-American in space.

  • Kathryn Sullivan became the first American woman to walk in space.

  • Astronaut Bruce McCandless became the first man to take an untethered space walk.

  • The third Space Shuttle, Discovery, was launched

  • Atlantis, the fourth Space Shuttle, was launched.

  • Voyager 2 began transmitting images from Uranus.

  • The Space Shuttle Challenger exploded seconds after liftoff.

  • The core section of the Space Station Mir was launched

  • Voyager 2 began transmitting images from Neptune.

  • The Magellan spacecraft began mapping the surface of Venus using radar equipment.

  • The Space Shuttle Discovery deployed the Hubble Space Telescope.

  • The Space Shuttle Endeavor was launched on her maiden voyage.

  • Mae Jemison became the first African-American woman in space.

  • The Space Shuttle Endeavor made the first servicing mission of the Hubble Space Telescope.

  • Sergei Krikalev became the first Russian cosmonaut to fly on a Space Shuttle.

  • The Galileo probe began transmitting data on Jupiter.

  • Eileen Collins became the first female Shuttle pilot.

  • The Mars Pathfinder arrived on Mars and later began transmitting images.

  • John Glenn became the oldest man in space.

  • Eileen Collins became the first female Shuttle Commander.

  • The U.S. Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft began transmitting images of the asteroid Eros.

  • NEAR landed on the surface of Eros.

  • American Dennis Tito became the first tourist in space after paying the Russian space program $20,000,000.

  • The Space Shuttle Columbia broke up on re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.

  • An investigative panel found that superheated air almost certainly seeped through a breach in space shuttle Columbia’s left wing and possibly its wheel compartment during the craft’s resulting in the deaths of all seven astronauts.

    An investigative panel found that superheated air almost certainly seeped through a breach in space shuttle Columbia’s left wing and possibly its wheel compartment during the craft’s fiery descent, resulting in the deaths of all seven astronauts.

  • NASA launched the largest-diameter infrared telescope ever in space, the Spitzer Space Telescope.

  • NASA’s Galileo mission ended a 14-year exploration of the solar system’s largest planet and its moons with the spacecraft crashing by design into Jupiter at 108,000 mph.

  • President Bush proposed a new space program that would send humans back to the moon by 2015 and establish a base to Mars and beyond.

  • The Cassini spacecraft sent back photographs of Saturn’s shimmering rings.

  • A NASA spacecraft collided with a comet half the size of Manhattan, creating a brilliant cosmic smashup designed to help scientists study the building blocks of life on earth.

  • Space Shuttle Discovery was launched with seven astronauts aboard; this was America’s first manned space shot since the 2003 Columbia disaster.

  • NASA spacecraft Stardust returned safely to Earth in a desert near Salt Lake City with the first dust ever collected from a comet.

  • NASA launched its Phoenix Mars Lander.

  • Space Shuttle Endeavour and a crew of seven blasted off with teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan aboard as a crewmember. Morgan was the first teacher in space since the Challenger disaster in 1986.

  • The NASA space probe Messenger skimmed 124 miles above Mercury.

  • NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander landed safely and began sending images home after a 10-month, 422 million-mile journey. Scientists later reported that Phoenix discovered chunks of ice.

  • The NASA spacecraft Kepler was launched. Its mission is to search for planets outside our solar system, in a distant area of the Milky Way.

  • NASA launched the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, also known as LCROSS. The mission is to confirm the presence or absence of ice on the moon.

    NASA launched the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, also known as LCROSS. The mission is to confirm the presence or absence of ice on the moon. On November 13, 2009, NASA scientists announced the discovery of a "significant amount" of ice in a crater near the moon’s South Pole.

  • Virgin Galactic, a private company, announced the successful first manned glide flight of the VSS Enterprise. This vehicle is a suborbital plane designed to take private citizens on suborbital space flights.

  • President Barack Obama signed legislation focusing NASA’s efforts on exploring Mars and the asteroids.

  • A private company named SpaceX launched a spacecraft into orbit and returned it to earth safely. It was the first non-government organization to accomplish this.

  • The space shuttle Atlantis became the last American space shuttle to be launched into space. Mission STS-135 and its 4-member crew brought much-needed supplies and equipment to the International Space Station (ISS).

  • NASA's Dawn spacecraft became the first man made craft to orbit an asteroid.

  • NASA launched Curiosity, the biggest, best equipped robot ever sent to explore another planet. It will reach Mars in 2012.

  • NASAs Voyager 1 probe, launched in 1977, entered interstellar space.

  • SpaceX, a commercial space company, launched its Dragon C2+ mission to resupply the International Space Station (ISS).

  • NASA's Curiosity rover successfully landed on Mars. As large as a car, it carried an array of advanced new instruments and experiments.

  • NASA launched the unmanned LADEE spacecraft from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. It was the U.S. space agency's third lunar probe in five years.

  • NASA astronauts wrapped up successful repairs at the International Space Station after a rare Christmas Eve spacewalk to fix an equipment cooling system.