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Novelguide.com is the premier free source for literary analysis on the web. We provide an
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Human Achievements in Space
The road to space has been neither steady nor easy, but the journey has cast humans into a new role in history. Here are some of the milestones and achievements.
| Oct. 4, 1957 |
The Soviet Union launches the first artificial satellite, a 184-pound spacecraft named Sputnik. |
| Nov. 3, 1957 |
The Soviets continue pushing the space frontier with the launch of a dog named Laika into orbit aboard Sputnik 2. The dog lives for seven days, an indication that perhaps people may also be able to survive in space. |
| Jan. 31, 1958 |
The United States launches Explorer 1, the first U.S. satellite, and discovers that Earth is surrounded by radiation belts. James Van Allen, who instrumented the satellite, is credited with the discovery. |
| Apr. 12, 1961 |
Yuri Gagarin becomes the first person in space. He is launched by the Soviet Union aboard a Vostok rocket for a two-hour orbital flight around the planet. |
| May 5, 1961 |
Astronaut Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space. Shepard demonstrates that individuals can control a vehicle during weightlessness and high gravitational forces. During his 15-minute suborbital flight, Shepard reaches speeds of 5,100 mph. |
| May 24, 1961 |
Stung by the series of Soviet firsts in space, President John F. Kennedy announces a bold plan to land men on the Moon and bring them safely back to Earth before the end of the decade. |
| Feb. 20, 1962 |
John Glenn becomes the first American in orbit. He flies around the planet for nearly five hours in his Mercury capsule, Friendship 7. |
| June 16, 1963 |
The Soviets launch the first woman, Valentina Tereshkova, into space. She circles Earth in her Vostok spacecraft for three days. |
| Nov. 28, 1964 |
NASA launches Mariner 4 spacecraft for a flyby of Mars. |
| Mar. 18, 1965 |
Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov performs the world's first space walk outside his Voskhod 2 spacecraft. The outing lasts 10 minutes. |
| Mar. 23, 1965 |
Astronauts Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom and John Young blast off on the first Gemini mission and demonstrate for the first time how to maneuver from one orbit to another. |
| June 3, 1965 |
Astronaut Edward White becomes the first American to walk in space during a 21-minute outing outside his Gemini spacecraft. |
| Mar. 16, 1966 |
Gemini astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott dock their spacecraft with an unmanned target vehicle to complete the first joining of two spacecraft in orbit. A stuck thruster forces an early end to the experiment, and the crew makes America's first emergency landing from space. |
| Jan. 27, 1967 |
The Apollo 1 crew is killed when a fire breaks out in their command module during a prelaunch test. The fatalities devastate the American space community, but a subsequent spacecraft redesign helps the United States achieve its goal of sending men to the Moon. |
| Apr. 24, 1967 |
Tragedy also strikes the Soviet space program, with the death of cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov. His new Soyuz spacecraft gets tangled with parachute lines during reentry and crashes to Earth. |
| Dec. 21, 1968 |
Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the Moon, blasts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders orbit the Moon ten times, coming to within 70 miles of the lunar surface. |
| July 20, 1969 |
Humans walk on another world for the first time when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin climb out of their spaceship and set foot on the Moon. |
| Apr. 13, 1970 |
The Apollo 13 mission to the Moon is aborted when an oxygen tank explosion cripples the spacecraft. NASA's most serious inflight emergency ends four days later when the astronauts, ill and freezing, splash down in the Pacific Ocean. |
| June 6, 1971 |
Cosmonauts blast off for the first mission in the world's first space station, the Soviet Union's Salyut 1. The crew spends twenty-two days aboard the outpost. During reentry, however, a faulty valve leaks air from the Soyuz capsule, and the crew is killed. |
| Jan. 5, 1972 |
President Nixon announces plans to build "an entirely new type of space transportation system," pumping life into NASA's dream to build a reusable, multi-purpose space shuttle. |
| Dec. 7, 1972 |
The seventh and final mission to the Moon is launched, as public interest and political support for the Apollo program dims. |
| May 14, 1973 |
NASA launches the first U.S. space station, Skylab 1, into orbit. Three crews live on the station between May 1973 and February 1974. NASA hopes to have the shuttle flying |
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in time to reboost and resupply Skylab, but the outpost falls from orbit on July 11, 1979. |
| July 17, 1975 |
In a momentary break from Cold War tensions, the United States and Soviet Union conduct the first linking of American and Russian spaceships in orbit. The Apollo-Soyuz mission is a harbinger of the cooperative space programs that develop between the world's two space powers twenty years later. |
| Apr. 12, 1981 |
Space shuttle Columbia blasts off with a two-man crew for the first test-flight of NASA's new reusable spaceship. After two days in orbit, the shuttle lands at Edwards Air Force Base in California. |
| June 18, 1983 |
For the first time, a space shuttle crew includes a woman. Astronaut Sally Ride becomes America's first woman in orbit. |
| Oct. 30, 1983 |
NASA's increasingly diverse astronaut corps includes an African-American for the first time. Guion Bluford, an aerospace engineer, is one of the five crewmen assigned to the STS-8 mission. |
| Nov. 28, 1983 |
NASA flies its first Spacelab mission and its first European astronaut, Ulf Merbold. |
| Feb. 7, 1984 |
Shuttle astronauts Bruce McCandless and Robert Stewart take the first untethered space walks, using a jet backpack to fly up to 320 feet from the orbiter. |
| Apr. 9-11, 1984 |
First retrieval and repair of an orbital satellite. |
| Jan. 28, 1986 |
Space shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after launch, killing its seven-member crew. Aboard the shuttle was Teacher-in-Space finalist Christa McAuliffe, who was to conduct lessons from orbit. NASA grounds the shuttle fleet for two and a half years. |
| Feb. 20. 1986 |
The Soviets launch the core module of their new space station, Mir, into orbit. Mir is the first outpost designed as a module system to be expanded in orbit. Expected life-time of the station is five years. |
| May 15, 1987 |
Soviets launch a new heavy-lift booster from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. |
| Oct. 1, 1987 |
Mir cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko breaks the record for the longest space mission, surpassing the 236-day flight by Salyut cosmonauts set in 1984. |
| Sept. 29, 1988 |
NASA launches the space shuttle Discovery on the first crewed U.S. mission since the 1986 Challenger explosion. The shuttle carries a replacement communications satellite for the one lost onboard Challenger. |
| May 4, 1989 |
Astronauts dispatch a planetary probe from the shuttle for the first time. The Magellan radar mapper is bound for Venus. |
| Nov. 15, 1989 |
The Soviets launch their space shuttle Buran, which means snowstorm, on its debut flight. There is no crew onboard, and unlike the U.S. shuttle, no engines to help place it into orbit. Lofted into orbit by twin Energia heavy-lift boosters, Buran circles Earth twice and lands. Buran never flies again. |
| Apr. 24, 1990 |
NASA launches the long-awaited Hubble Space Telescope, the cornerstone of the agency's "Great Observatory" program, aboard space shuttle Discovery. Shortly after placing the telescope in orbit, astronomers discover that the telescope's prime mirror is misshapen. |
| Dec. 2, 1993 |
Space shuttle Endeavour takes off for one of NASA's most critical shuttle missions: repairing the Hubble Space Telescope. During an unprecedented five space walks, astronauts install corrective optics. The mission is a complete success. |
| Feb. 3, 1994 |
A Russian cosmonaut, Sergei Krikalev, flies aboard a U.S. spaceship for the first time. |
| Mar. 16, 1995 |
NASA astronaut Norman Thagard begins a three and a half month mission on Mir—the first American to train and fly on a Russian spaceship. He is the first of seven Americans to live on Mir. |
| Mar. 22, 1995 |
Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov sets a new space endurance record of 437 days, 18 hours. |
| June 29, 1995 |
Space shuttle Atlantis docks for the first time at the Russian space station Mir. |
| Mar. 24, 1996 |
Shannon Lucid begins her stay aboard space aboard Mir, which lasts 188 days—a U.S. record for spaceflight endurance at that time. |
| Feb. 24, 1997 |
An oxygen canister on Mir bursts into flames, cutting off the route to the station's emergency escape vehicles. Six crewmembers are onboard, including U.S. astronaut Jerry Linenger. |
| June 27, 1997 |
During a practice of a new docking technique, Mir commander Vasily Tsibliyev loses control of an unpiloted cargo ship and it plows into the station. The Spektr module is punctured, The crew hurriedly seals off the compartment to save the ship. |
| Oct. 29, 1998 |
Senator John Glenn, one of the original Mercury astronauts, returns to space aboard the shuttle. |
| Nov. 20, 1998 |
A Russian Proton rocket hurls the first piece of the International Space Station into orbit. |
| Aug. 27, 1999 |
Cosmonauts Viktor Afanasyev, Sergei Avdeyev, and Jean-Pierre Haignere leave Mir. The station is unoccupied for the first time in almost a decade. |
| Oct. 31, 2000 |
The first joint American-Russian crew is launched to the International Space Station. Commander Bill Shepherd requests the radio call sign "Alpha" for the station and the name sticks. |
| Mar. 23, 2001 |
The Mir space station drops out of orbit and burns up in Earth's atmosphere. |
| Apr. 28, 2001 |
Russia launches the world's first space tourist for a week-long stay at the International Space Station. NASA objects to the flight, but is powerless to stop it. |
Human Achievements in Space
Copyright © 2002 by Macmillan Reference USA, an imprint of the Gale Group
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