HISTORY OF SPACE EXPLORATION

Humans have dreamed about spaceflight since antiquity.

The Chinese used rockets for ceremonial and military purposes.
20th century rockets were developed that are powerful enough to overcome force of
gravity to reach orbital velocities open space for human exploration
20th century made a practical work on rocket engines
Countries

Key scientist

Russia

KonstantinTsiolkovski

US

Robert Goddard

Germany

Hermann Oberth

1930 1940 Nazi Germany used long distance rockets as weapons

WW II London was attacked by 200 mile range V-2 missiles
After WW II Us and the Soviet Union created their own missile programs
October 4, 1957 Soviets launched the first artificial satellite Sputnik I into space
April 12, 1961 Russian Lt. Yuri Gagarin first human to orbit the earth VOSTOK I
108 minutes altitude of 327 km.
January 31, 1958 first US satellite Explorer I went to orbit
1961 Alan Shepard 1st American to fly into space
February 20,1962 John Glenn historic flight first American to orbit earth
Pres. John F. Kennedy set a national goal 1961 landing a man on the moon and
returning safely to earth within a decade.
July 20, 1969 Astronaut Neil Armstrong took a giant step for mankind stepped
onto the moon.

6 Apollo missions 1969 to 1972 were made to explore the moon

1960s umanned spacecraft photographed and probed the moon before humans did
Early 1970s orbiting communication and navigation satellites were in every day use
Mariner spacecraft orbit and map the surface of Mars.
Voyager sent detailed images of Jupiter and Saturn rings and moons.
Skylab US first space station human spaceflight of the 70-s
Apollo Soyuz Test project worlds first international crewed ( American and Russian)
space mission.
1980s satellite communications expanded to carry television programs - signals were
picked up on their home dish antennas.
Satellites discovered an ozone hole over the Antarctica.
Astronomical satellites found new stars gave a view of the center of the galaxy.

SPACE SHUTTLE PROGRAMS

April 12 1981 launch space shuttle Columbia reusable shuttle for most civilian and
military space missions
Continue to set high marks of achievement and endurance for 30 years
Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, Endeavor the orbiters
The final space shuttle mission STS135 ended July 21,2011
Jan 1986 Challenger space shuttle exploded killing 7 of its crew
Gulf War proved the value of satellites allied forces were able to use their control
of the high ground space
Space systems will continue to become more and more integral to homeland and
defense, weather, surveillance, communication, navigation, imaging and remote sensing
for chemical fires and other disasters.
International Space Station a research lab in low earth orbit
Competitors now working together contributing to its design and construction
High flying lab a symbol of cooperation in space exploration
Launch in Nov. 20, 1998