|
1608 |
Hans Lippershy invents the refracting telescope |
|
1609 |
Galileo uses the refracting telescope to study the planets and stars |
|
1663 |
James Gregory designs the reflecting telescope |
|
1688 |
Sir Isaac Newton builds the Newtonian reflecting telescope |
|
1903 |
Orville and Wilbur Wright invent the airplane |
|
1917 |
The mirror of the Mount Wilson telescope is put into use |
|
1923 |
Edwin Hubble discovers that spiral nebulas are galaxies outside of the
Milky Way |
|
1926 |
Goddard invents the liquid-fuel rocket |
|
1929 |
Hubble suggests the Universe is expanding |
|
1930 |
Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto |
|
1931 |
The first radio waves observed by Karl Jansky |
|
1944 |
German scientists invent the V-2 (rocket propelled bomb) |
|
1957 |
The Soviets launch the first satellite, Sputnik, to begin space
exploration |
|
1958 |
U.S. government invents a communication satellite |
|
1959 |
The Soviet probe, Luna 3, takes the first pictures of the moon |
|
1961 |
Success of Sputnik leads to the first human in space, Cosmonaut Yuri
Gagarin. He becomes the first human to orbit Earth. |
|
1962 |
Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman to go into
space. The U.S. probe Mariner 2 flies past Venus |
|
1967 |
V. Kamarov is the first human victim of a space flight |
|
1969 |
Astronaut Neal Armstrong becomes the first human to set foot on the
surface of the moon |
|
1973 |
U.S. government scientists invent Skylab orbiting space laboratory |
|
1976 |
Viking probes 1 and 2 land on Mars |
|
1977 |
First test flight of the shuttle orbiter. Discovery of Uranus’ rings |
|
1978 |
Charon, Pluto’s moon, discovered |
|
1979 |
U.S. probes Voyager 1 and 2 launched |
|
1980-1981 |
Voyager 1 and 2 give the first detailed study of Saturn and its rings |
|
1981 |
NASA engineers invent space shuttle. Voyager 2 flies by Saturn |
|
1986 |
Voyager 2 flies by Uranus. Space Shuttle Challenger destroyed |
|
1989 |
Voyager 2 flies by Neptune. Magellan probe launched toward Venus.
Galileo probe launched toward Jupiter. |
|
1990 |
The Hubble Space Telescope launched into space. Magellan maps Venus |
|
1993 |
The repair of the Hubble Space Telescope |
|
1994 |
Comet Shoemaker- Levy collides with Jupiter |
|
1994-1995 |
Russian Cosmonaut Valeriy Polykov sets the record for the most
consecutive days in space when he spent 438 days on the Mir Space Station |
|
1996 |
Astronaut Shannon Lucrid sets the record for a U.S. astronaut of 188
consecutive days in space |
|
1998 |
Astronaut John Glenn, at the age of 77, becomes the oldest person in
space. Voyager 1 becomes the most distant human made object from Earth.
Construction of the International Space Station begins |
