The History of Space Exploration

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The History of Space Exploration
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The first living things in space

• were fruit flies. In 1946, they were sent to
  high altitude to study the effects of radiation.

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1951

• All animals sent to high altitude died until
  1951. The second test that year resulted in the
  first successful launch and recovery of animals.
  The launch held a monkey and 11 mice.

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Laika inside USSRs (Soviet) Sputnik 2 in 1957.
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Project Mercury (1958 1963)

• Goals/Objectives
• Place a manned spacecraft in orbital flight
  around the earth.
• Investigate man's performance capabilities and
  his ability to function in the environment of
  space.
• Recover the man and the spacecraft safely.

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Rhesus monkey suited up for Little Joe launch of
Mercury capsule December 1959
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1963 - Cats in Spacesuits
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Mercury Astronauts
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1961
Yuri Gagarin from the Soviet Union was the first
human being in space.
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1961- one month later
Alan Shepherd became the first American in space.
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1962

• John Glenn was the first person to orbit Earth.
  He went around the Earth three times. (In 1998,
  he spent 9 days on the shuttle Discovery, making
  him the oldest person to go to space. He was 77
  years old.)

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Project Gemini (1965-1966)

• Consisted of 10 manned space flights
• To subject man and equipment to space flight for
  up to two weeks
• To perfect methods of entering the atmosphere and
  landing at a preselected point on land.

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Return to Earth
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The History of Space Travel

• "I believe this nation should commit itself to
  achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of
  landing a man on the Moon and returning him
  safely to Earth. No single space project in this
  period will be more impressive to mankind, or
  more important in the long-range exploration of
  space and none will be so difficult or
  expensive to accomplish."
• John F. KennedySpecial Joint Session of
  CongressMay 25, 1961

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Apollo Program
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1961-1972

• The Apollo program included a large number of
  uncrewed test missions and 11 crewed missions.
  The 11 crewed missions include two Earth orbiting
  missions, two lunar orbiting missions, a lunar
  swingby and six Moon landing missions.
• The Apollo program was designed to land humans on
  the Moon and bring them safely back to Earth. Six
  of the Apollo missions -- 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and
  17 -- achieved this goal.
• Experiments on the surface of the moon took place.

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Apollo Missions returned to the sea, not onto
land.
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1973 Skylab

• America's first experimental space station was
  launched into orbit in 1973. The program
  objectives were to prove that humans could live
  and work in space for extended periods, and to
  expand our knowledge of solar astronomy.

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1973

• The Skylab crew carried a student experiment
  with Arabella, the orb weaving garden spider for
  59.5 days. The spider, was able to weave in the
  near-zero-gravity environment but only with
  practice. Over 300 experiments were carried out
  on Skylab over 171 days.

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1979

• Skylab was abandoned in 1974 and it fell from
  orbit in 1979. The empty spacecraft scattered
  debris over the Indian Ocean and the sparsely
  settled region of Western Australia.

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1981

• USA begins Space Shuttle Program.
• Officially called the Space Transportation System
  or STS.
• A reusable spacecraft with wings for controlled
  descent in the atmosphere, designed to transport
  astronauts between Earth and an orbiting space
  station

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Each shuttle is supposed to last for 10 years and
be launched 100 times. The shuttles are
Enterprise, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery,
Atlantis and Endeavor. The Challenger was lost in
1986 and Columbia was lost in 2003.
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1998

• The first two modules of the International Space
  Station were launched and joined together in
  orbit, 200 miles above Earth.
• Other modules soon followed and the first crew
  arrived in 2000.
• The space station travels at a speed of 5 miles
  per second!

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International space station
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March 12, 2008. Endeavor docks with the
International Space Station
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End of the Shuttle program

• The final mission was July 8, 2011
• Space Shuttle Atlantis was launched