| Date |
Event |
| Apr.13, 1981 |
The first Space Shuttle launch
of the Columbia was essentially a test flight without having
anything stored in the Shuttle’s payload bay. The first operational
space shuttle mission was in 1982 when Columbia deployed two commercial
communications satellites. |
| May, 1984 |
The 13 member European space
agency began its own space launch programme from a space centre at
Kourou in French Guiana on the Atlantic coast of South America. |
| 1985 |
A European satellite called
SPOT was launched which could transmit images of Earth with greater
detail even than that of the US Landsats. This satellite
(including the Landsats) can measure the pollution, salinity,
insect infestation of crops, forest fires plus more on the surface,
which is of great value to governments trying to manage their
environments. |
| Jun. 1985 |
While en route to Halley’s
comet; Soviet probes Vegas 1 and 2 released four probes
into the Venusian atmosphere. |
| 1986 |
The European space agency sent
the probe Giotto to fly past Halley’s comet. It came within 600km
of the comet and sent back pictures of its nucleus. |
| Jan.28, 1986 |
The Space Shuttle Challenger
was destroyed about a minute after launch due to the failure of one of
its sealant rings on its boosters. All seven astronauts were killed in
the blast, including Christa McAuliffe who was supposed to be the first
teacher in space; a civilian representative of the Space shuttle
program. This halted the space shuttle programme until systems could be
analysed and redesigned to be as safe as possible. |
| Feb.19, 1986 |
The USSR launches its Mir
space station, which could accommodate two crew and possessed six
docking ports. In 1887 Colonel Yuri Spent a record of 326 days on Mir
and in 1988 Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov set another new record of
spending 366 days in space. During the next year, the Soviets sent up
the astrophysics module called the Kvant which contained four
X-ray telescopes to observe exploding supernovas. It successfully docked
with Mir. |
| 1988 |
The Soviet attempt to send two
probes to the Martian moon of Phobos called Phobos 1 and 2
ended in failure when the first was lost through human error and the
second dropped out of radio contact. |
| 1988 |
American President Ronald
Reagan gave approval for the new Space Station called ?i>Freedom?
to built in conjunction with several members of the ESA and several
other nations including Russia. It was designed to be the largest
structure yet put into space; being assembled in space from separately
launched components. It was later named the International Space
Station (ISS). |
| May. 1989 |
The most recent US probe to
Venus; Magellan was launched to Venus in May, 1989 from the Space
Shuttle Atlantis and transmitted radar images of the planet’s surface. |
| Oct. 1989 |
The US probe, Galileo
reached Jupiter in 1995 and went into orbit around the planet after
releasing a probe into the planet’s atmosphere. It used the ‘sling shot?
method in order to get to Jupiter, which consists of using the gravity
of other planets to fling it to it’s destination; involving one flyby of
Venus and two of the Earth. Due to the energy lost to Galileo with these
flybys, in one billion years Venus will by 4cm behind where it would
have been if it weren’t for Galileo and Earth would be 13.2cm
behind. Now, Galileo will continue to use gravity assist to adjust its
course around Jupiter but this time from Jupiter’s moons, |
| 1990 |
An Anglo-American project begun in 1983 has
probed the depths of our galaxy, returning pictures that have never been
seen before and providing a vast wealth of information to humans. This
marvel is called the Hubble Space telescope costing around $1.5 billion.
The Space Shuttle Discovery brought the telescope to space, where it is
unhindered by the heat ripples, clouds or dust of the atmosphere and
thus able to take pictures of greater clarity and accuracy. |
