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The first telescope was created when Hans Lipperhey, a Dutch eyeglass maker combined two lenses.
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Galileo Galilee built the first astronomical telescope.
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Issac Newton built the first successful reflecting telescope. It was a prototype for a design that later came to be called a Newtonian telescope.
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The german-born astronomer William Herschel discovered the planet by using a mirror telescope that he had constructed.
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U.S. rocket scientist Robert H. Goddard launches the first liquid fueled rocket from his Aunt Effie's farm in Auburn, Massachusetts.
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Germany sent the first rocket to reach 100km above earth's surface. The rocket was designed by Wernher Von Braun.
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The United States launches its first American-designed rocket, known as the Wac Corporal.
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Fruit flies become the first animals in space as a V-2 rocket is launched from the White Sands Proving Ground.
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The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into a elliptical low orbit.
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The Soviet Union sent the first animal in orbit. They sent a stray dog named Laika in Sputnik 2.
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The photo shows the first NASA headquarters at he Dolley Madison house, it also shows the new seal of NASA.
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Luna 1 was the first spacecraft to reach the moon.
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Tiros 1, the first successful weather satellite, is launched by the United States. Two television cameras in the satellite returned views of clouds above the Earth.
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Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin became the first human to venture into space. The Vostok 1 spacecraft made one complete orbit around Earth in 108 minutes, and reached altitudes of 112 to 203 miles. The flight lasted only one hour and 48 minutes.
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During a routine test of the Apollo 1 spacecraft on the launch pad, a spark caused a fire to start in the crew compartment of the command module.
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Apollo 11 makes the first successful soft landing on the Moon. Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, Jr. become the first human beings to set foot on another world.
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The Soviet Venera 7 is the first probe to soft-land on Venus
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The Salyut 1 space station is launched by the Soviet Union and become the first space station in orbit.
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American space probe Mariner 9 is launched May 30, 1971. Six months later it arrives at the planet Mars and becomes the first spacecraft to orbit another planet.
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Astronomers designate Cignus X-1 as the first probable black hole This binary star system emits strong bursts as X-rays as matter is crushed out of existence by the black hole.
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The United States launches Skylab, the first U.S. space station.
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American Apollo and Soviet Soyuz spacecraft dock in what is the first international spacecraft rendezvous. Known as the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, this important mission proved that U.S. and Russian crews could work together successfully in space.
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The first pictures of the surface of Mars are sent back to Earth by Viking 1, the first U.S. spacecraft to successfully land a on another planet. The pictures reveal a rocky, desolate landscape that shows no signs of life.
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Following the success of Viking 1, the Viking 2 spacecraft lands on Mars on the Plain of Utopia. It discovers and photographs water frost and sends back stunning images of the Martian surface.
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Following the success of Viking 1, the Viking 2 spacecraft lands on Mars on the Plain of Utopia. It discovers and photographs water frost and sends back stunning images of the Martian surface.
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The U.S. space probe Pioneer 11 reaches Saturn, flying within 13,000 miles and taking the first close-up photographs of the planet.
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The first manned mission of the Space Transportation System (STS-1), Columbia, is launched. This mission, as well as the next three, will be a test flight to try out the spacecraft's systems.
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Astronaut Sally K. Ride becomes the first American woman to travel into space on Space Shuttle Challenger mission STS-7.
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Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off for mission STS-31, carrying the Edwin P. Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The telescope is successfully deployed, but is found to contain a seriously flawed primary mirror resulting in fuzzy images
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Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off for mission STS-31, carrying the Edwin P. Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The telescope is successfully deployed, but is found to contain a seriously flawed primary mirror resulting in fuzzy images.
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The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft is successfully landed on the surface of the asteroid Eros. NEAR sends back unprecedented images of the asteroid's surface during its hour-long descent.
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The sister rover to Spirit, Opportunity lands on the opposite side of the planet Mars in a location known as Meridiani Planum. After a mission extension of several years, Opportunity and its companion, Spirit, send back extraordinary images of the Martian surface and perform chemical experiments on rock samples. Many new discoveries include layered rock formations that could have been formed in water and tornado-like dust devils moving across the surface.
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After descending by parachute for 2 hours and 28 minutes, the Huygens probe lands on Saturn's largest moon, Titan.The images show a surface that is flat and littered with small rocks. Dark areas on some images could indicate the presence of liquid methane.
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After a journey of nearly seven years and 2.9 billion miles (4.6 billion kilometers), NASA's Stardust mission successfully comes to a conclusion in the desert salt flats of the Utah Test and Training Range. The capsule safely parachutes to the ground after collecting dust and particle samples from comet Wild 2. The samples are collected by the probe in the comet's coma within 147 miles (236 kilometers) of the comet’s nucleus.
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NASA's Messenger spacecraft becomes the first man made craft to orbit the closest planet to the Sun.
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Russia launches the Spektr-R which becomes largest space telescope to be placed into orbit. Spektr-R is a radio telescope designed to study astronomical objects with an angular resolution up to a few millionths of an arcsecond.
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NASA's New Horizons spacecraft arrives at Pluto after a journey of more than 9 years and 4.6 billion miles.New data shows that Pluto is about 50 miles (80 km) larger than previously thought and that it has a nitrogen atmosphere extending tens of thousands of miles out into space.
