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Research satellite designed to explore Earth's ionosphere December 16 US: Pioneer 6: Delta E: Sun Success: A series of solar-orbiting, spin-stabilized, solar-cell and battery-powered satellites designed to obtain measurements on a continuing basis of interplanetary phenomena from widely separated points in space. [10] 1966 January 31 Soviet ...
first probe to cross the asteroid belt; first Jupiter probe; first man-made object on an interstellar trajectory; now in the outer regions of the Solar System but no longer contactable 1972-012A: Pioneer 11: NASA: 4 December 1974 flyby success went on to visit Saturn 1973-019A: Voyager 1: NASA: 5 March 1979 flyby success went on to visit Saturn ...
Mission: investigating Jupiter and Saturn, and the moons of these planets. Its continuing data feed offered the first direct measurements of the heliosheath and the heliopause. It is currently the furthest man-made object from Earth, as well as the first object to leave the heliosphere and cross into interstellar space.
Mission name Ref(s). 4 October 1957: First artificial satellite. First human-made signals from space. USSR Sputnik 1: 3 November 1957: First mammal in orbit, the dog Laika. USSR Sputnik 2: 31 January 1958: Confirmed existence of the Van Allen radiation belt. USA Explorer 1: 17 March 1958: First use of solar power in space.
The timeline of discovery of Solar System planets and their natural satellites charts the progress of the discovery of new bodies over history. Each object is listed in chronological order of its discovery (multiple dates occur when the moments of imaging, observation, and publication differ), identified through its various designations (including temporary and permanent schemes), and the ...
Mission name Launch date Description Ref(s) Sputnik 1: 4 October 1957 First Earth orbiter [1] [2] Sputnik 2: 3 November 1957 Earth orbiter, first animal in orbit, a dog named Laika [2] [3] [4] Explorer 1: 1 February 1958 Earth orbiter; discovered Van Allen radiation belts [5] Vanguard 1: 17 March 1958 Earth orbiter; oldest spacecraft still in ...
Italian polymath Galileo Galilei was an early user and made prolific discoveries, including the phases of Venus, which definitively disproved the arrangement of spheres in the Ptolemaic system. Galileo also discovered that the Moon was cratered, that the Sun was marked with sunspots, and that Jupiter had four satellites in orbit around it. [13]
The gravitational assist trajectories at Jupiter were successfully carried out by both Voyagers, and the two spacecraft went on to visit Saturn and its system of moons and rings. Voyager 1 encountered Saturn in November 1980, with the closest approach on November 12, 1980, when the space probe came within 124,000 kilometres (77,000 mi) of ...