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Galileo [9] [10] discovered the Galilean moons. These satellites were the first celestial objects that were confirmed to orbit an object other than the Sun or Earth. Galileo saw Io and Europa as a single point of light on 7 January 1610; they were seen as separate bodies the following night. [11] Callisto: Jupiter IV o: 8 January 1610 p: 13 ...
First animals in space (fruit flies). United States V-2 [4] [6] 24 February 1949: First two-stage liquid-fueled rocket, that sets a record altitude of 244 miles (393 km) (WAC Corporal missile mounted onto a V-2 rocket). United States Bumper-5: 14 June 1949: First mammal in space (Albert II, a rhesus monkey). First primate in space. United ...
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 Earth orbit [6] Luna 1: 2 January 1959
The first artificial object sent into space was the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1, launched on 4 October 1957, which successfully orbited Earth until 4 January the following year. [65] The American probe Explorer 6, launched in 1959, was the first satellite to image Earth from space.
The first photo from space was taken from a V-2 launched by US scientists on 24 October 1946. 1930 – Seth Nicholson and Edison Pettit measure the surface temperature of the Moon. [167] 1932 – Karl Guthe Jansky recognizes received radio signals coming from outer space as extrasolar, coming mainly from Sagittarius.
The Soviet space program achieved many of the first milestones, including the first living being in orbit in 1957, the first human spaceflight (Yuri Gagarin aboard Vostok 1) in 1961, the first spacewalk (by Alexei Leonov) on 18 March 1965, the first automatic landing on another celestial body in 1966, and the launch of the first space station ...
The Hubble Space Telescope, the first large optical telescope in orbit, is launched using the Space Shuttle, but astronomers soon discovered that it is crippled by a problem with its mirror. A complex repair mission in 1993 allows the telescope to start producing spectacular images of distant stars, nebulae, and galaxies.
The term outward space existed in a poem from 1842 by the English poet Lady Emmeline Stuart-Wortley called "The Maiden of Moscow", [13] but in astronomy the term outer space found its application for the first time in 1845 by Alexander von Humboldt. [14] The term was eventually popularized through the writings of H. G. Wells after 1901. [15]