By: Will Humphrey

*Space Exploration Timeline

*Rocket Dynamics

*1900-Konstantine E. Tsiolkovsky used mathematics and physics to study the way rockets worked. This was called rocket dynamics.

*The Beginning of Rockets

*July 7,1914-Dr. Robert Goddard got two patents that involved rockets one was a rocket liquid fuel, the other one was for a two or three staged rocket fuel.

*Rocket Launch

*March 16,1926-Goddard tested and successfully launched the first rocket using liquid fuel which was a big accomplishment.

*V-2

*1933 – During World War 2, Germany launched the V-2 missals at London. The V-2 missals were created by Wernher Von Braun, who was an engineer.

*Sputnik

*Octber 4, 1957 – The Sputnik marked the space race. While this marked a new space age, Sputnik only weighed 183 pounds and it was the size of a beach ball.

*First Man in Space

*April 12, 1961 – On this day a huge breakthrough happened. Russian astronaut, Yuri Gagann entered space and became the first man to ever enter space.

*Redstone Rocket

*May 5, 1961 – Astronauts, John Glenn, Virgil Grissom and Alan Sheppard Jr. flew this craft. It resulted in six flights.

*Lunar Orbitor 4

*May 4, 1967 – The Lunar Orbitors were all launched so we can understand the moon’s surface better.

*Neil Armstrong Lands on the Moon

*July 20, 1969 – Neil Armstrong was the commander of Apollo II which was the first attempt to land a manned vehicle on the moon. He was the first person to touch the surface of the moon.

*Salyut 1

*April 19, 1971 – At launch it was announced that the purpose of the Salyut was to test systems of the space station and do experiments and research.

*Mariner 9

*May 8, 1971 – Mariner 9 was supposed to have a partner, Mariner 8, but that broke down. Mariner 9 weighted more than Mariner 6 and 7 combined. It got to Mars on November 14, 1971. By the end of 349 days of space travel, Mariner 9 had taken 7,329 pictures.

*Apollo 16

*April 16, 1972 – Apollo 16 was supposed to do the same thing that Apollo 15 did. It was supposed to gather more information about the moon’s surface. Apollo 16 also took pictures of the Earth with impressive cameras.

*Skylab launch

*May 14, 1973 – The skylab was an engineering laboratory and was launched by the Saturn V rocket. Three men went on this mission lasting 28, 59 and 84 days.

*Viking I

*July 20, 1976 – Their equipment examined the surface, soil and weather patterns of Mars.

*1979-Skylab shoes images of the suns corona.

*OV-102

*April 12, 1981 – A Columbia vessel flew into the sky as the nation’s first reusable space shuttle.

*The Challenger

*April 4, 1983 – This was the first launch of nine. It took pictures in space and ended our nine years of not walking in space. The shuttle eventually fell apart during take off on it’s tenth launch, which killed all the astronauts on board, January 28, 1986.

*Mir Space Station

*February 20, 1986 – Was a huge breakthrough and was one of Russia’s biggest accomplishments in space. It was in space for fifteen years. This was three times longer than originally planned.

*Viking

*September 9, 1995 – Viking was launched to support the IGY effort. It eventually got 159 miles above the Earth.

*Galileo

*December 7, 1995 – Galileo was really launched in 1989. It delivered a probe that went into Jupiter’s atmospehere.

*Mars Pathfinder

*July 4, 1997 – The Mars Pathfinder was designed to land the rover on Mars but did more than that. When they looked at it when it landed back on Earth, on September 27, 1997, it was discovered that 2.3 billion bits of information was gathered by the Pathfinder.

*Hubble Telescope

*April 24, 1998 - The first major opitcal telescope to be launched in space and has done it’s job for over twenty years.

*International Space Station

*November 20, 1998 – International space station got two modules launched and they joined together in orbit.

*Sources

*http://www.nasa.gov/

*http://www.seasky.org/spacexp/sky5d1.html