1957 -
First Earth orbiter, Soviet
Sputnik 1, 370 mile high orbit, 184-lb.
- October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union stunned the world by placing the first satellite, Sputnik, into space.
The Russian spacecraft orbited around the earth in great, amorphous loops. Americans reacted to the Russian Sputnik with amazement and awe. Many doubted that it was really in space, some top minds reported it as unimportant and useless. Some saw it as an object to blown out of the sky, in truth it was nothing more than a dummy space ship.
Sputnik 2 was launched on November 3 with the dog, Laika, the first animal in space.
Unsuccessful Vanguard satellite firing in the USA.
1958 -
First successful American satellite: USAF 31-lb
Explorer. First successful Vanguard launching. Discovery of the Van Allen Zone Tests with Pioneer rockets (pre- lunar probes). US Congress Space Act established
NASA (National Aeronautical Space Agency).
1959 -
Russians launch Luna 1 the first probe to go near the Moon. 358-lb. Soviet Luna 2 made first crash-landing on the Moon. Far side of the Moon photographed with the 614lb Soviet Luna 3 probe.
1960 -
First television weather satellite Tiros 1. First communications satellite 124-lb Echo 1.
Two dogs (Strelka and Belka) in Sputnik 5 became the first animals to be successfully returned to Earth in August.
1961 -
First Venus probe launched by the Russians Venera 1, but contact soon lost. First manned space-flight by Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin for 60 min in Vostok 1, USSR. Gherman Titov spends more than a day in space (25 hours) in the second Vostok manned flight in August. First manned American
space flight by astronaut Shepard, on a sub-orbital path.
1962 -
First American orbital flight by NASA, John Glenn for 5-hrs in
Mercury 6.
- First British-built satellite (Ariel) launched from the USA .
- NASA 730 - lb. Ranger 4 got TV close-up pictures of the Moon.
- Transatlantic television programs relayed by the 171 - lb.
Telstar satellite.
- First active geodetic satellite (Anna 1 B).
- Russians launch the first Mars probe, but contact lost.
- Venus probe Mariner 2 sends back close-range information about Venus.
1963 -
First maneuverable satellite (Polyot 1, USSR).
- NASA 80 - lb. Syncom II, geosynchronous communications satellite.
- Two spacecraft in orbit at the same time (Nikolayev and Popovich, USSR).
- First space-woman (Valentina Tereshkova-Nikolayeva, USSR).
- Arthur C Clarke proposes the concept of the geo-stationary orbit for global communications in an article in the October issue of Wireless World.
1964 -
ESRO established in Europe with 10 member nations - Close-range photographs of the Moon obtained from 806-lb Ranger 7 before impact (USA).
- NASA 830-lb Nimbus 1 in polar orbit got complete world cloud cover each day.
- NASA 575-lb Mariner 4 got TV pictures of Mars on 6100-mi fly-by.
- First three-crew space-craft in Voskhod 1, USSR.
1965 -
First 'space-walk' by Cosmonaut Leonov, USSR.
- First American 'space-walk' by astronaut White.
- NASA launched first commercial communications satellite, 87-lb Intelsat 1, in geosynchronous orbit over 27' W longitude.
- First cosmic-ray measurements outside the atmosphere by Soviet 25,000-lb Proton 1.
- First impact on Venus' surface by Soviet 2ioo-11)Venera 3.
- Close-range photographs of Mars obtained from Mariner 4 (USA).
- Improved photographs of the Moon's far side obtained from Zond 3 (USSR).
- Successful space-docking operation (Gemini 6 and 7, USA).
1966 -
First soft landing on the Moon, by Luna 9 (USSR).
- Russian probe Venus 3 lands on Venus, though contact had been lost.
- First circum-lunar probe, 3600-lb Lunar 10 (USSR).
- First American soft-landing on the Moon (Surveyor 1) Improved close-range photographs of the Moon from 846-lb Orbiter 1 NASA.
