2. Space Discoveries of the 1950’s-1960’s Russians launch the worlds first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth (Sputnik 1 (1957)). Explorer 1 the first satellite created by the US. to orbit the Earth is launched (1958) US. Launches series of satellites called the Pioneer missions Pioneer launches 0, 1, and 2 fail (all three shuttle launched in 1958) With the help of the US. Military NASA launches Pioneers 3, and 4, successfully becoming the first two satellites for a lunar mission (Pioneer 3 launched in 1958, and Pioneer 4 was launched a year after) Pioneer 5 was used to provide the first map to the interplanetary magnetic field (1960)
3. SpaceDiscoveriesof the 1960- 1970’s 1972, Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to travel through the Asteroid belt, and the first spacecraft to make direct observations and obtain close-up images of Jupiter. Famed as the most remote object ever made by man through most of its mission, Pioneer 10 is now over 8 billion miles away 1973, Pioneer 11 followed its sister ship to Jupiter, made the first direct observations of Saturn (1979) and studied energetic particles in space. The Pioneer 11 Mission ended in 1995, when the last transmission from the spacecraft was received. There have been no communications with Pioneer 11 since. The Earth's motion has carried it out of the view of the spacecraft antenna. The spacecraft cannot be maneuvered to point back at the Earth. It is not known whether the spacecraft is still transmitting a signal. No further tracks of Pioneer 11 are scheduled. The spacecraft is headed toward the constellation of Aquila (The Eagle), Northwest of the constellation of Sagittarius. Pioneer 11 will pass near one of the stars in the constellation in about 4 million years.
4. SpaceDiscoveriesof the 1980’s-2000’s Sky Labs 2, 3 and 4 were home to US astronauts for long periods of time (from 28 days to 84 days respectively) yet they were never 'permanent' space stations - after they had been used they were left to burn up on re-entry in Earth's atmosphere. Russia was forging ahead its own Salyut series of space stations - Russian cosmonauts by far had the most expertise in endurance spaceflight, regularly staying in space for long periods. The crew of Soyuz 35 spent 184 days in space on Salyut 6. The Challenger disaster in 1986, when the spacecraft exploded during launch and killed all passengers. 1993 The Hubble Space Telescope launched 1995 Galileo launched to Jupiter 1999 The U.S. Mars Polar Lander launched from Cape Canaveral 2003 Columbia space shuttle exploded and killed 7 astronauts 2004 The Spirit rover landed on Mars 2004 The Opportunity landed on Mars
