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Space Exploration
By Mrs. Blackmer
Early Space Exploration
People have been observing the night sky for
thousands of years. Their observations have
been recorded in cave paintings and rock art.
These early observations were made without the
use of telescopes or any other devices. They
were able to see the phases of the moon, some
of the larger features of the moon, some planets,
and many stars. Basically they were able to see
what you are able to see with your own eyes in
the night sky.
Early Space Exploration
The Early Mayans in Central America had
built many observatories to study the night
sky. There is one in Chichén Itzá, in Mexico,
that was built about 900 A.D.
The Telescope
When the telescope was
invented about 400 years ago, it
changed the way people saw
objects in space. It allowed
people to more details of the
objects in space.
The first possible person to
use a telescope to observe the
sky was an Italian scientist by the
name of Galileo. He first used his
telescope in 1609. He used his
telescope to observe the moon,
sun, and planets. It had two
curved pieces of glass, or lenses.
There was one lens at each end
of a long tube.
The Telescope
Then about fifty
years later in 1668,
an English scientist
by the name of Sir
Isaac Newton
invented a telescope
that produced sharper
images of the objects
in space. His
telescope had two
mirrors and one lens.
The Telescope
The first radio
telescope was built
in 1936 by Grote
Reber of Wheaton,
Ill., U.S. It was
built to detect radio
waves coming from
objects in space.
Space Race
The modern age of
space exploration, the
Space Age, began on
October 4, 1957 when the
Soviet Union launched
Sputnik 1. Sputnik 1 was
an artificial satellite that
was about twice the size of
a soccer ball. It carried
instruments to measure the
density and temperature of
Earth’s upper atmosphere.
It orbited Earth for 92 days.
Space Race
Three months later the
United States sent Explorer
1 to orbit the Earth. The
space exploration race was
now on. In October 1959
the Soviet Moon probe,
Luna 3, sent back the first
pictures of the dark side of
the Moon.
In 1961 Soviet
cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin
was the first man to leave
the Earth’s atmosphere
and orbit our planet. Also
in 1961 the United States
Mercury program sent the
first Americans into space.
Space Race
The race continues…
An unmanned landing on the moon
was accomplished in 1966 with the
Soviet craft Luna 9. The US Apollo
8 carried men around the moon in
1968 and Apollo 11 carried the first
men to walk on the surface of the
moon in 1969. Manned flights have
not gone farther than the Moon, but
many unmanned probes have been
sent close to planets like Saturn,
Uranus, and Neptune.
First Astronauts
The first astronauts and
cosmonauts (Russian astronauts)
were neither men nor women. They
were animals! Scientists were not
sure what affect space travel would
have on humans. In 1948 the
United States began to send
monkeys up in rockets to see what
happened as they left and returned
to Earth’s atmosphere. The Soviet
craft, Sputnik 2, was launched in
November 1957 with a dog named
Laika aboard. For the next several
years dogs and monkeys were the
first “astronauts” in space. Besides
animals, most of the first astronauts
were men selected from the military.
The first women were selected for
the space shuttle programs,
although Russia used women much
earlier in their programs.
Early Astronauts
Yuri Gagarin was the first human
being to orbit the Earth. He was aboard
Sputnik 2, a Soviet spacecraft. Alan
Shepard became the first United States
astronaut in 1961. He traveled in space
only 15 minutes before he splashed
down into the ocean. John Glenn (U.S.)
orbited the Earth in 1962. Scientists
watched him carefully as he ate a meal
to see how food was affected in space.
Valentina Tereshkova, a Soviet
cosmonaut, became the first woman in
space when she flew Vostok 6 around
the Earth 48 times in June 1963. In
1969 Neil Armstrong (U.S.) became the
first man to walk on the surface of the
Moon. As his foot touched the Moon he
said, “That’s one small step for man, one
giant leap for mankind.”
Beyond the Moon
In 1977 the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2
space probes were launched. These
space probes have sent back pictures of
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
They are still traveling through space
beyond the solar system.
Beyond the Moon
Other early space probes include Viking I and Viking II.
They landed on Mars in 1976. They photographed their landing
sites and sent back data about the planet’s soil and atmosphere.
Since 1981, space shuttles have been used to lift heavy
cargoes into orbit and as labs for carrying out scientific research
in space. They also provide a place to launch, bring back, and
repair satellites.
Beyond the Moon
The Hubble Space Telescope was
launched in 1990. It takes photographs of
space. Its images are five times as sharp
as those from any telescope on Earth.
Beyond the Moon
The launch of the first modules of the International Space
Station in 1998 marked the beginning of a new era in space
exploration. As many as seven scientists at a time will be able to
live and work in space. When finished, the station will be nearly 80
m (about 260 ft) long and have a mass of more than 455,000 kg.
In the future, larger stations could have enough room for a
thousand people or more.