Space Travel Time Line 1957 to 2012
1957 The USSR launches the satellite “Sputnik 1” The USSR Launches “Sputnik 2” with Laika the dog inside
1958 The USA creates NASA – A government agency to oversee all space missions. – NASA stands for National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
1961 The USSR puts First human in orbit, Yuri A. Gagarin. - Alan Sheppard the first American in space soon after.
1968 Apollo 8 is the first manned voyage to orbit the moon (10 times)
1961 Continued President Kennedy challenges the American people to place a person on the moon by the end of the decade. -Called it Project Apollo. ?v=g25G1M4EXrQ
1969 Apollo 11 lands on the Moon Neil Armstrong takes the 1 st steps on the Moon mT4 mT4
1977 Voyager 1 Space Probe – The first vehicle to leave our solar system. It was sent to study Jupiter/Saturn.
1981 The Shuttle Columbia is launched, it is the 1 st reusable vehicle Wmno-X8 Wmno-X8
1990 Space Shuttle Discovery launches the Hubble Telescope E E
1998 Work begins on the ISS – International Space Station. – Still in orbit today, doing research and experiments to learn more about space.
2011 President Obama cancelled the shuttle mission. Private companies would be the only ones carrying humans into space.
The Future New Horizons will reach Pluto to study its surface in NASA is working with private companies like SpaceX to build Orion MPCV which will send humans farther into space than they have ever been.