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In 1543, Copernicus published: On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies, a letter to the pope, explaining that he thought that Earth orbits the sun and the moon orbits Earth. Later Galileo would prove this theory. Photo:
http://www.windows2universe.org/people/ren_epoch/copernicus.html Title Photo;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_cluster -
In 1610 Galileo Galilei published a book telling about his discovery. This discovery proved Nicholas Copernicus's hypothesis that not all bodies in the solar system orbit the sun. Photo:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_(moon) -
On October 4, 1957, the USSR started the Space Race with the first artificial satellite, Sputnik. This satellite was only about 84 kilograms and the size of a beach ball. Photo:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_1#/media/File:Sputnik_asm.jpg -
On November 3, 1957, Laika,was the first dog to ever be sent into space. It died during the trip due to the lack of safety in the capsule.
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On January 1, 1958, Explorer 1, the first American satellite was launched. It only sent NASA data for about 100 days before its batteries died.
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On April 12, 1961, the USSR sent Yuri Gagarin into space as the first man in space. His spacecraft was know as the Vostok-1. Photo:
http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars/2011/04/yuri-gagarin-first-human-in-space-was-a-devout-christian-says-his-close-friend.html -
Alan Shepard was the first American to enter space when he flew his spacecraft Mercury on May 5, 1961. He flew 116 miles into the air then turned around, on a fifteen and a half minute space flight. Photo:
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/nasa-knows/who-was-alan-shepard-k4.html -
On August 14, 1966, Lunar Orbiter 1 became the first American spacecraft to orbit the moon. The Soviets first orbited the moon in April 1966 with Luna 10.
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On January 27, 1967, Apollo 1 caught on fire killing three astronauts during a test. This happened about two and a half years before the first moon land.
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On June 20, 1969, the US successfully landed a spacecraft on the moon. Neil Armstrong was the first person of the moon followed by Buzz Aldrin twenty minutes later. Photo:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/apollo11.html -
On April 24, 1970, China launched Dongfanghong I, their first artificial satellite. It was used for satellite tests.
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On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space aboard a space shuttle. Her job was to work the robotic arm to launch satellites. Photo:
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/nasa-knows/who-was-sally-ride-k4.html -
On January 28, 1986, the Challenger space shuttle was launched and blew up seventy-two seconds after takeoff. It was the first NASA shuttle mission carrying five crew members instead of seven. Photo:
http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/challenger-shuttle-disaster/ -
On February 20, 1986, the USSR launched the space station Mir. It was in orbit for about fifteen years before crashed into the South Pacific Ocean on March 23, 2001. Astronaut Anatoly Solovyev lived on the station for 651 days managing Americans.
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On October 31, 1992, Pope John Paul II, officially admitted that Earth orbits around the sun, and Galileo was pardoned. Galileo was put in prison for believing this almost 400 years ago. Photo:
http://pics-about-space.com/galileo-solar-system-model?p=3 -
On November 20, 1998, Zarya, the first International Space Station module was set into orbit. Later, Zarya, would become one small part of what we now call the International Space Station and would be simply used as storage. Photo:
Public Domain -
On December 4, 1998, Unity was added to the International Space Station. It was the first American module, since Zarya, was Russian.
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On February 1, 2003, while entering Earth's atmosphere, the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated killing all seven crew members. This event was caused by insulation breaking off and the shuttle becoming overheated.
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On August 6, 2012, Curiosity, a car sized unmanned rover, landed on Mars. Currently it has been on Mars for 1373 days picking up samples to take back to NASA. Photo:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiosity_(rover) -
On August 6, 2014, unmanned spacecraft Rosetta, lands on Comet: 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. In order to land on this comet it took Rosetta seven hours to make its descent. Photo:
http://www.dailydot.com/geek/esl-rosetta-comet-landing-cometlanding-livestream-hashtag/ -
In December 2017, NASA plans to launch its Orion spacecraft on a trip around the Moon. This will test NASA's new Space Launch System.
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In January, 2018, NASA plans to launch Inspiration Mars. This would be a 501 days flight with a flyby of Mars and two astronauts.
