Space Exploration Timeline
Info.
THIS POWERPOINT GOES STEP-BYSTEP THROUGH THE NOTES
SHEET YOU GOT TITLED “Notes—
The History of Space Travel”
Event: First Artificial Satellite
October 4, 1957
The Soviet Union ushers in a new era—the space age—with the launch of Sputnik 1. A
technological feat, the beach ball-size satellite weighs 184 pounds (84 kilograms) and
takes 98 minutes to orbit Earth. The launch grabs the world's attention—and catches the
U.S. off-guard. The first successful American satellite doesn't get off the ground until
January 31, 1958.
Event: First Animal in Orbit
November 3, 1957
Having stunned the world with the first orbital space launch, Sputnik 1, less than a
month before, the Soviet Union tries for a second coup by launching a dog named Laika
on a one-way journey on a hastily completed follow-up mission, Sputnik 2. The dog
survives the launch, but Soviet secrecy masks her ultimate fate for many years. It now
appears that even though she had a week's supply of food, Laika died within hours,
possibly due to a life-support failure that caused her canister to overheat.
Event: First Successful American Satellite
January 31, 1958
Launched less than two months after Vanguard 1A, the first American attempt to
compete with Sputnik, blows up on the launchpad, Explorer 1 (officially called Satellite
1958 Alpha) achieves an orbit extending an astonishing 1,560 miles (2,500 kilometers)
above the Earth. This leads to the first great scientific discovery of the space age,
when instruments designed by Iowa physicist James Van Allen find the radiation belts
now named in his honor. The 31-pound (14-kilogram) satellite transmits until May 23,
when its batteries die, but it remains aloft for more than 12 years.
Event: NASA Signed into Law
July 29, 1958
Fearful that Soviet successes in space mean the U.S. is losing the Cold War,
congressional leaders, including future President Lyndon B. Johnson, quickly write the
National Aeronautics and Space Act. The act creates a civilian agency, the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to assume many of the duties (and 8,000
employees) of the pre-existing National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics. The new
agency, which will come to symbolize the U.S. side of the space race, begins operation
on October 1.
President Eisenhower gets a lesson on space.
Event #6
Wow, Russia has really been winning the “space race” so far. This is a big blow to the
American scientists—Russia sends the first man into outer space…a guy named Yuri
Gregarin. On April 12, 1961, Vostok 1 blasts off and Yuri returns nearly 2 hours later
after completing one orbit and parachuting from a few miles off the ground. Dang!
Event #7
Required for your project!
America strikes back, sending its first astronaut, Alan Shepard, into space. The
mission is called Mercury Freedom 7. It lasted only 16 minutes and didn’t actually go
in complete orbit around Earth.  Shepard was still hailed as a hero, and he later
became the 5th person to walk on the moon. It stung American scientists, though, that
they lost the race to send a person into space by less than one month. Boo.
Shepard on the navy ship that rescued
him after his ocean splashdown.
Event #8
Vostok 6 blasted off in Russia on June 16, 1963. On board was the first woman in
space, so the Russians beat us again. Her name was Valentia Tereshkova, and she
recorded data about the atmosphere for 3 days before returning safely to Earth.
Event #9
Here go the Russians again. Not happy with just going into space, on the mission
Voskhod 2, they actually let one of their cosmonauts leave the space ship! Alexei
Leonov left the spaceship (attached to it by a tether cord) and stayed out in space for
around 12 minutes. Cool. Except that his space suit inflated (due to outer space being
a vacuum) and he almost wasn’t able to make it back inside the ship. Brave Alexei.
Event #10 Required for your project!
President Kennedy issued the challenge in 1962 that America NEEDED to go to the
moon because it would be so hard to do so. And less than a decade later, we did.
Nobody else has managed this feat. America just jumped way ahead of Russia in the
space race. On July 20, 1969, the Apollo 11 mission lands on the moon, and Neil
Armstrong utters the famous words, “one small step for a man, one giant leap for
mankind.” USA! USA! USA!
This is awesome.
Event #11
If you’ve seen the movie Apollo 13 starring Tom Hanks and Kevin Bacon, you know
that it’s a story of American brainpower and creativity overcoming horrible odds. After
an oxygen tank explodes on the way to the Moon, the crew of Apollo 13 and NASA
scientists in Houston are forced to abandon the plan to land on the Moon and instead
just get the men home without killing them. Through days of hard work, they succeed.
NASA scientists working frantically.
The crew safe, at last.
Event #12
The next Apollo mission, Apollo 14, lands on January 31, 1971 in the exact spot that
Apollo 13 was supposed to explore. Alan Shepard leads this expedition, where millions
of viewers watched on television as the astronauts played golf and threw javelins on the
moon. Faith in NASA is restored.
Event #13
NASA scientists had envisioned a permanent space station, and in 1973, Skylab began
a 12-year experiment to see how practical the idea was. Skylab used large solar
panels to provide electricity for itself, and allowed other spacecraft to float near it and
“dock.” This allowed crew members to enter Skylab and leave when they needed to.
Three such dockings occurred. The Skylab experiment ended, but provided valuable
information about the realism of life in space.
A docking pod, where crew from
another space flight could enter
Skylab.
Event #14
July 1975 – The final Apollo mission was a good one. After nearly 20 years of outdoing
each other, America and Russia agree to do a mission together. The Space Race is
pretty much done at this point—we can be friends now. Apollo 18 and the Soviet ship
Soyuz 19 fly into space and dock with each other—allowing the American and Russian
crew members to meet in space. Cool.
Event #15
Finally, a space craft you recognize easily. On August 12, 1978, the Enterprise is the
first space shuttle to be tested. Carried on the back of a much larger plane, the
Enterprise “let go” and glided to a safe landing. Now NASA was confident that the
shuttles could do missions on their own and perform a rolling landing.
Event #16
It was just a matter of time (a few years later) when NASA would actually send one of
the new space shuttles into space for a real mission. In 1981, the Columbia blasted off
with the help of booster rockets, then landed on an Air Force base in California after 2
days in space.
Event #17
Yet another space shuttle, the Challenger, blasts off on April 4, 1983. Part of the 5-day
mission involved a four hour spacewalk where 2 of the crew members performed repairs
of the shuttle. Nice work, gentlemen.
80s haircuts. Cool.
Event #18
About a billion years after the Soviet Union sent Valentia Tereshkova as the first woman
in space, America finally sends its own female astronaut. Her name is Sally Ride, and
she performs numerous missions afterward and becomes a hero to many!
Event #19
August 30, 1984…the space shuttle Discovery successfully carries 3 communications
satellites into space, a first for a shuttle mission. NASA keeps trying new techniques
to address old problems with great success. Americans are cocky at this point, as it
seems like NASA can achieve any goal it wants.
Whoa. 80s hair is out of control in zero gravity.
Event #20
There were 4 space shuttles in service—Discovery, Challenger, Columbia, Enterprise,
and Atlantis. On October 3, 1985, Atlantis joins the squad as the fifth (and final) shuttle
to be launched into space. Atlantis carries some secret defense satellites into space
(maybe to spy on our old friends, the Soviet Union?)
Event #21
Whoa. Hold the phone. Tap the brakes. What just happened? Was that supposed to
happen? On January 28, 1986, the shuttle Challenger lifted off, as planned. Kids all
over America were gathered around televisions to watch the event live as it happened,
and teachers were ready to do a space lesson right afterward. It all changed as 73
seconds later, the shuttle blew up in mid-air, killing the crew and shocking the world. 
Stunned
silence
just a
minute
later
Clapping and cheering here…
Event #22
In 1992, a new space shuttle, Endeavour, was launched into space. It was built as a
better replacement to Challenger, which exploded 6 years prior. After its July 5 launch,
three crewmen space walked to grab a satellite that wasn’t responding to commands
properly. After the longest space walk ever, the satellite was repaired and sent back
into orbit. Endeavour is scheduled to be retired in 2010 after performing one last space
mission.
Event #23
Oh no, not again. On February 1, 2003, people in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area felt a thud
slam through their neighborhoods. The shuttle Columbia, returning from a long,
successful space flight, was cruising through the atmosphere preparing to land in
Florida. Days before, during the launch of the shuttle, a piece of foam damaged the
heat shield on one wing of the shuttle. It didn’t become a problem until the shuttle
entered our atmosphere going around twenty times the speed of sound. The heat from
friction with the air burst through the weak wing, and debris from the shuttle flying apart
was found in several states! All 7 crew members died.
Event #24
NASA had two MAJOR incidents that shook America’s confidence in the space program.
The explosions of Challenger and Columbia slowed down how often we went into space.
Fortunately, one of the big achievements that happened after the Columbia disaster was
the successful launching of the Hubble Space Telescope by the shuttle Discovery in
1990.This telescope has given us incredible images of events and objects far distant in
1991.the universe. Good job, Discovery.
One of the thousands of awesome images taken
by the H.S.T.
Event #25 Required for your project!
Another crowning achievement for modern scientists is a project worked on mainly by
five nations—a space station appropriately named the International Space Station.
Construction began in 1998 and is scheduled to be finished sometime in 2011. Shuttles
fly crew and equipment to the space station frequently, where scientists stay for weeks
at a time doing experiments in outer space. The I.S.S. is big enough to see without a
telescope if you catch it at the right time of year at night. Pretty neat that it’s up there.
Cool.