1. · ________________ Sputnik, the first satellite was launched by the USSR on this date. It was the size of a basketball and weighed 83 pounds.
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   July 29, 1958. Congress passed the National Aeronautics and Space Act which created this organization _______________________.
   
   
   
   
   
2. · October 4, 1959. Luna 3, a Russian satellite was launched and accomplished the feat of _________________________________.
   
   
   
   
3. · April 12, 1961. This person, ____________________________, became the first human in space. The flight of Vostok I lasted 1 hour and 48 minutes.
   
   
   
   
4. · On May 5, 1961. Alan Shepard became the first person from this country _______________ to be launched into space in the space ship Freedom 7.
   · February 20, 1962. _______________________ became the first American to orbit the earth in Friendship 7.
   
   
   
   
   
5. · February 3, 1966. ____________________ became the first spacecraft to land on the moon. The mission demonstrated that the surface was strong enough to support the weight of a large spacecraft.
   
   
   
   
6. · January 27, 1967. An accident on the launch pad where Apollo 1 was being tested resulted in the deaths of three American astronauts ________________________, _______________________________, and ___________________________.
   
   
   
   
7. · October 18, 1967. The Soviet probe Venera 4 sent a descent capsule into the atmosphere of the planet __________________________ returning the first data about its composition.
   · December 15, 1970. Soviet Venera 7 is the 1st space probe to soft-land on ___________________, transmitting for 23 minutes and was the first man-made object to send back data from another planet.
   
   
   
   
   
8. · October 11, 1968. Apollo __________________ is the first manned Apollo mission. It orbited the earth 163 times and spent 10 days in space.
   · December 21, 1968. Apollo 8 was the first manned spacecraft to orbit _______________.
   · ________________. On this date, Apollo 11 became the 1st manned landing on the moon.
   · July 30, 1971. Apollo 15 astronauts drove the first _________________________ to explore the moon’s surface.
   
   
   
   
   
9. · November 13, 1971. American space probe _____________________________ is the first spacecraft to orbit another planet. Over the next year it maps 100% of the Martian surface.
   · June, 1973. Pioneer 10 became the first space probe to travel past the orbit of ___________________.
   · July 20, 1976. Pictures of the Martian surface are taken by _________________, the 1st US attempt to soft-land a spacecraft on another planet.
   · August-September 1977. The historic _____________________missions were launched to study Jupiter in 1979 and Saturn in 1980.
   · August 8, 1989. Voyager 2 arrives at ___________________________ giving us the first close-up of this planet and its moons.
   · July 4, 1997. _______________________ probe lands on the surface of Mars. A small robotic rover examines the nearby terrain, sending back amazing images of the planets surface.
   · February 14, 2000. The NEAR ___________________________________ spacecraft arrives at the asteroid Eros for the first detailed study of an asteroid.
   
   
   
   
   
10. · April 12, 1981. The first manned mission of the Space Transportation System (STS-1) or space shuttle _____________________ is launched.
    · June 19, 1983. The first American woman _____________________________is launched into space on Challenger mission STS-7.
    · January 28, 1986. The space shuttle STS-51L __________________________ explodes shortly after liftoff resulting in the loss of the spacecraft and her crew of 7 astronauts.
    · April 24, 1990. Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-31 lifts off carrying ________________________________________ as its primary payload.
    · February 1, 2003. The space shuttle STS-107, _____________________explodes and 7 astronauts are killed in the shuttle disaster.
    
    
    
    
    
11. · May 14, 1973. The US launches ______________________________ the first US space station.
    
    
    
    
12. · June 10, 2003. Launch of the Mars rover Spirit to land on Mars followed by the launch of Opportunity on July 7, 2003. They landed on Mars on January 3 and January 25, 2003. Their primary mission was to look for ___________________ on Mars.
    
    
    
    

• The Beginning of the Space Race
• Soviet Lunar Probes
• Beginnings of Soviet Space Program
• The Mercury Program
• Soviet Lunar Program
• The Apollo Program - race to the moon
• Soviet Space Probes
• The Apollo Program
• Planetary Science Spacecraft
• Space Shuttle Program
• Skylab
• Mars Exploration Rovers

What are some of our successes and some of our failures in the exloration of space?

Has it been worth it?

What do you think will be our next step into the cosmos?

Content by Susan DiSalvo, sdisalvo@mail.mcps.org http://www.kn.att.com/wired/fil/pages/huntspaceexsd.html Last revised Tue Feb 6 11:33:21 US/Pacific 2007