Space Exploration

For years humans have looked to the stars for answers, but only recently we have been able to explore them. Find out more about this fascinating subject below!

 

On October 4,1957, the Soviets launched the first ever satellite called Sputnik. After, the first ever satellite was launched, four years later the first human, Yuri Gagarin, became the first human to orbit the Earth. Following this, came the first planetary flyby's and vehicular activity. Once the Soviets launched the first satellite, space exploration was born. Without these first innovations, who knows where we would be today.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Space exploration played a key part in the Cold War where the space exploration competition was given the name of "The Space Race". After 20 years of space exploration,  focus shifted from all the one-off flights to more renewable hardware, and also from competitions to cooperation. This change can be attributed to the budget cuts imposed on the space program after the Cold War.

​

As an overview, from the 1600s to the 1960s, the first rockets were being developed and researched. From 1961 to the 1970s the first manned missions took place, with the first moon landing happening on 1969. From 1971 to the 1980s, the first orbiting space stations and space probes were sent to explore depths of our Solar System. From 1981 to the 1990s, were the beginnings of the Space Shuttle Program and when a lot of our major discoveries in our solar system were made. From 1991 to 2000s, the Space Shuttle Program continued with many more missions to explore our galaxy. In the last decade, the Space Shuttle Program saw many tragedies leading to its retirement, now commercial companies dominate space travel for the United States.