The Space Exploration Timeline That Reflects The History Of Space Exploration
The need to explore and understand the universe and also the space above was very strong and was felt to be a necessity. The space which was intriguing and yet very wild seemed to beckoning researchers and scientists to come and understand the very nature of its existence. And that’s why the urge was so strong that man developed objects that could be sent to the space to explore and start and new milestone in the life of man and also in the space exploration timeline.
It was in last quarter of 1957 that man first send spaceship to orbit the earth. The project was carried out by the USS. In fact both the Sputnik I and 2 were sent into space, the latter one carrying the dog Laika. It stayed in orbit for about 7days. Both these space ships were in orbit till the beginning of 1958which paved the way for the space exploration timeline to begin in a big way.
It is in 1958 that USA launched it first satellite into orbit. And a very successful year it was as far as the space exploration timeline is considered. About 5 satellites were launched in the same year, 1958, of which one, Sputnik was launched by USSR and the other four, Explorer 1 and the unsuccessful Explorer 2 by USA. It was in this year that the NASA was founded on October 1, 1958. The third by USA, the Vanguard 1 was a successful mission and the satellite continued it orbit for three years.
The second half of the 1900s saw a lot of activity in the space exploration timeline of both the countries USA and the USSR launching a number of space crafts into the space but what really stood out was the launch of the man-made satellite that was sent to orbit the moon. The Luna 1, Luna 2 and Luna 3 were all ‘destination moon’ missions which were very successful in making a landing on the moon as well as taking photographs of it. An achievement in the history of USA was in this very year when the Pioneer 4 was launched and which fell on the orbit of the sun making it the first Sun mission from USA, a first in the space exploration timeline of the country.
The beginning of 1960s was a quiet year in space exploration timeline as there were only two launches. Both by USA, one was a weather satellite called Tiros 1 and the other a Corona spy which had a camera attached to it. Again in the 1961, that USSR launched a manned space craft Vostok 1. Yuri A Gargarin became the first man in the history of space exploration to be launched into space, orbiting the Earth once. The entire 1960s saw a large number of cosmonauts on board the space flights and all were sent with a particular mission to be fulfilled. Equaling the 60s were the 70s too in which more countries joined in their space exploration mission and almost all the countries who had tried are today very efficient in space technology.
