Space Exploration Timeline By: Alex Jones

1900-Russia 1903 Publication of Principia Russian rocket scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky publishes The Exploration of Cosmic Space by Means of Reaction Devices. This is the first serious work to be published that shows space exploration to be theoretically possible. He did not make space travel possible but encouraged all around the world and his country. The country responsible for this is Russia.

1914-Germany Robert Goddard patented the first rocket in 1914. Dr. Robert Hutchings Goddard is considered the father of modern rocket propulsion. A physicist of great insight, Goddard also had a unique genius for invention. It is in memory of the brilliant scientist that NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland was established on May 1, 1959.

1926-U.S. By 1926 march 16th Goddard had constructed and successfully tested the first rocket using liquid fuel. Primitive in their day as the achievement of the Wrights, Goddard’s rockets made little impression on government officials. Only through modest subsidies from the Smithsonian Institution and the Daniel Guggenheim Foundation, as well as the leaves of absence granted him by the Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Clark University, was Goddard able to sustain his lifetime of devoted research and testing

1930-U.S. Werner Van Braun made the V-2 space craft. The A-4, later called the V-2, was a single-stage rocket fueled by alcohol and liquid oxygen. It stood 46.1 feet high and had a thrust of 56,000 pounds. The A-4 had a payload capacity of 2,200 pounds and could reach a velocity of 3,500 miles per hour.  On October 3, 1942 the A-4 was first launched from Peenemunde. Breaking the sound barrier, it reached an altitude of sixty miles. It was the world's first launch of a ballistic missile and the first rocket ever to go into the fringes of space. In the early 1930's, rocket clubs sprang up all over Germany. One of these clubs, the Verein fur Raumschiffarht (Rocket Society), had the young engineer Wernher von Braun as a member.

1944-Germany The V-2 left the earths atmosphere. The V-2 sounding rocket is the beginning of sounding rocket research for a number of countries including the United States Of America(USA). The end of World War 2(WWII) provided an opportunity to bring a number of German ballistic rocket weapons such as the V-2 to several countries for sounding rocket research.

1954-Germany The Viking spacecraft reached 159 miles above earth. The Viking spacecraft reached 159 miles above earth. The Viking project consisted of launches of two separate spacecraft to Mars, Viking 1, launched The Viking project consisted of launches of two separate spacecraft to Mars, Viking 1, launched on 20 August 1975, and Viking 2, launched on 9 September 1975. Each spacecraft consisted of an orbiter and a lander. After orbiting Mars and returning images used for landing site selection, the orbiter and Lander detached and the Lander entered the Martian atmosphere and soft-landed at the selected site. The orbiters continued imaging and other scientific operations from orbit while the Landers deployed instruments on the surface. The Viking spacecraft reached 159 miles above earth.

1957-U.S. Soviet satellite , sputnik , became the first man made object to orbit earth. History changed on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The world's first artificial satellite was about the size of a beach ball (58 cm.or 22.8 inches in diameter), weighed only 83.6 kg. or 183.9 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path. That launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments. While the Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the space age and the U.S.-U.S.S.R space race.  The story begins in 1952, when the International Council of Scientific Unions decided to establish July 1, 1957, to December 31, 1958, as the international geophysical year because the scientists knew that the cycles of solar activity would be at a high point then. In October 1954, the council adopted a resolution calling for artificial satellites to be launched during the IGY to map the Earth's surface. 

1961-Russia Soviet Yuri Gagarin became the first space traveler .March 27, 1968. Yuri joined the Soviet Air Force in 1955. By 1959, he was training to become a cosmonaut. On April 12, 1961 Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth! The name of his spacecraft was Vostok 1. Vostok 1 had two sections. One section was for Yuri. The second section was for supplies needed for Gagarin to live such as oxygen and water. Vostok 1 circled Earth at a speed of 27,400 kilometers per hour. The flight lasted 108 minutes. Vostok's reentry was controlled by a computer. Yuri Gagarin did not land inside of Vostok 1. He ejected from the spacecraft and landed by parachute. Yuri Gagarin was killed in a plane crash before he could travel in space a second time.

1961-U.S. The Redstone rocket lifted. Redstone Arsenal is among 22 Army installations that have been chosen as a pilot site for enhanced delivery of services provided by Army Community Service that will make it easier and faster for Soldiers and their family members to get the help they are seeking.

1967-U.S. Photograph of the moon taken by lunar orbiter. Five Lunar Orbiter missions were launched in 1966 through 1967 with the purpose of mapping the lunar surface before the Apollo landings. All five missions were successful, and 99% of the Moon was photographed with a resolution of 60 m or better. The first three missions were dedicated to imaging 20 potential lunar landing sites, selected based on Earth-based observations. These were flown at low inclination orbits. The fourth and fifth missions were devoted to broader scientific objectives and were flown in high altitude polar orbits. Lunar Orbiter 4 photographed the entire nearside and 95% of the farside, and Lunar Orbiter 5 completed the farside coverage and acquired medium (20 m) and high (2 m) resolution images of 36 pre-selected areas. The images at the top of the page show the Lunar Orbiter spacecraft with the high and medium resolution cameras at the center, and an image of the crater Tycho taken with the Lunar Orbiter 5 medium resolution camera.

1969-U.S. Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon It was July 20, 1969 when Neil Armstrong spoke what must be considered the most famous words of the 20th century, "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind". This, of course, was the day that men from Earth first set foot on the moon. It was the culmination of years of research and development, success and failure, and bitter competition from our feared rivals. And it was the words of a 38 year old Neil Armstrong that echo in the annals of history.

1971-U.S. First space station, Salyut 1 (ends orbit 1973) Russian manned space station. 2 launches, 1971.04.19 (Salyut 1) and 1972.07.29 (Zarya s/n 122). Salyut 1 was the first DOS long duration orbital station. The 'civilian' DOS station was built on basis of the military Almaz stations with the mission of beating the American Skylab in the space station race and to determine the usefulness of manned observation of the earth by 1974. DOS-1 was launched as Salyut 1 on 19 April 1971. The triumph turned to tragedy when the Soyuz-11 crew died due to de-pressurization of their re-entry capsule during return to the earth. DOS was started only when the Soviet moon project failed, in order to beat the American Skylab to orbit. It was created using spaceframes from the Almaz military station program. Almaz was converted to the DOS configuration by :