Space Explorations

By kwokchiho1

  • Germany launched first rocket into space, the V2 missle.

    The first rocket which could fly high enough to get into space was the V2 missile which was first launched by Germany in 1942.

  • R-7ICBM rocket launched the first man-made satellite Sputnik.

    The first rocket which actually launched something into space was used to launch Sputnik, the first satellite, on October 4, 1957. The rocket that launched Sputnik was a R-7 ICBM rocket.

  • Soviet spacecraft Luna 2 crashed into Moon

    The Soviet spacecraft Luna 2 (Lunik 2) was the first human-made object to reach another world when it crashed into Moon on September 14, 1959.

  • Spacecraft in Venus

    On December 15, 1970 an unmanned Soviet spacecraft, Venera 7, became the first spacecraft to land on another planet. It measured the temperature of the atmosphere on Venus.

  • Viking landers were the first spacecraft to land on Mars.

    The Viking landers were the first spacecraft to land on Mars in the 1970s. Viking 1 and Viking 2 each had both an orbiter and a lander. On July 20, 1976 the Viking 1 Lander separated from the Orbiter and touched down on the surface of Mars. Less than two months later, on September 3, 1976, the Viking 2 lander touched down on Mars. These two landers took images of the Martian surface, studied soil samples, and studied the atmosphere of Mars.

  • First spacecraft on asteroid

    On February 12, 2001 flight controllers landed NASA's NEAR spacecraft on an asteroid called Eros. NEAR was the first spacecraft to orbit and touchdown on the surface of an asteroid. NEAR began orbiting Eros a year earlier, on February 14, 2000. The spacecraft collected close up photographs and measured the size and shape of Eros before landing. Eros is the largest of the asteroids whose orbits cross the orbit of the Earth.