SPACECRAFTS

1) SPUTNIK 1

DATE
October 4, 1957. On
this date, the Soviet
Union launched
Sputnik I, the first
artificial satellite to
orbit the Earth.
According to many
space historians, the
Space Age began on
this date.

MISSION
Sputnik 1,
humanity's first
artificial satellite.
The pressurized
sphere made of
aluminum alloy had
five primary
scientific objectives:
Test the method of
placing an artificial
satellite into Earth
orbit; provide
information on the
density of the
atmosphere by
calculating its
lifetime in orbit; test
radio and optical
methods of orbital
tracking; determine
the effects of radio
wave propagation
though the
atmosphere; and,
check principles of
pressurization used
on the satellites.

PERSON
INVOLVED
Mikhail
klavdievich, Sergei
pavlovich, Mstislav
vsevolodovich,
Dmitry fedorovich,
Nikita sergeyevich.

SPACECRAFTS
2) Sputnik 2

DATE
On November 3,
1957, the USSR
stunned the world
with a new space
sensation -- the
launch of Sputnik-2
carrying a dog
onboard.

MISSION
The launch vehicle
carrying the second
Soviet satellite with
dog Laika onboard
lifted off at dawn on
Nov. 3, 1957. As
telemetry later
revealed Laika's
heart was beating
260 cycles per
minute, or three
times higher than
normal during the
ride to orbit.
Frequency of her
breath also rose 4-5
times above usual.
Overall, however,
the dog survived the
launch unscathed.
Russian sources
revealed that
although probably
terrified Laika
survived in orbit for
four days and then
died when the cabin
overheated.
According to other

PERSON
INVOLVED
Sputnik's success
led to the Soviet
leadership, Nikita
Khruschev in
particular,
demanding more.

SPACECRAFTS
3) Explorer 1

DATE
Explorer 1 was the
first satellite
launched by the
United States when it
was sent into space
on January 31, 1958.
Following the launch
of the Soviet Union's
Sputnik 1 on October
4, 1957, the U.S.
Army Ballistic Missile
Agency was directed
to launch a satellite
using its Jupiter C
rocket developed
under the direction of
Dr. Wernher von
Braun. The Jet
Propulsion Laboratory
received the
assignment to design,
build and operate the
artificial satellite that
would serve as the
rocket's payload. JPL
completed this job in
less than three
months.

MISSION
to detect the Van
Allen radiation belt,
[2] returning data
until its batteries
were exhausted after
nearly four months.
It remained in orbit
until 1970, and has
been followed by
more than 90
scientific spacecraft
in the Explorer
series.

PERSON
INVOLVED
the U.S. Army
Ballistic Missile
Agency was
directed to launch
a satellite using its
Jupiter C rocket
developed under
the direction of Dr.
Wernher von
Braun. The Jet
Propulsion
Laboratory
received the
assignment to
design, build and
operate the
artificial satellite
that would serve
as the rocket's
payload. JPL
completed this job
in less than three
months.

SPACECRAFTS
4) Vostok 1

DATE
On Baikonur
Cosmodrome on the
morning of April 11,
1961, the Vostok-K
rocket, together with the
attached Vostok 3KA
space capsule, were
transported several
kilometers to the launch
pad, in a horizontal
position. Once they
arrived at the launch pad,
a quick examination of
the booster was
conducted by technicians
to make sure everything
was in order. When no
visible problems were
found, the booster was
erected on LC-1. At 10:00
(Moscow Time), Gagarin
and Titov were given a
final review of the flight
plan.They were informed
that launch was
scheduled to occur the
following day, at 09:07
Moscow Time. This time
was chosen so that when
the capsule started to fly
over Africa, which was
when the retrorockets
would need to fire for
reentry, the solar

MISSION
At 05:30 Moscow time, on the
morning of April 12, 1961,
both Gagarin and his backup
Titov were woken.They were
given breakfast, assisted into
their spacesuits, and then
were transported to the
launch pad.Gagarin entered
the Vostok 1 spacecraft, and
at 07:10 local time (04:10
UTC), the radio
communication system was
turned on.Once Gagarin was
in the spacecraft, his picture
appeared on television
screens in the launch control
room from an onboard
camera. Launch would not
occur for another two hours,
and during the time Gagarin
chatted with the mission's
main CapCom, as well as
Chief Designer Sergei
Korolev, Nikolai Kamanin, and
a few others.Following a
series of tests and checks,
about forty minutes after
Gagarin entered the
spacecraft, its hatch was
closed. Gagarin, however,
reported that the hatch was
not sealed properly, and
technicians spent nearly an
hour removing all the screws
and sealing the hatch
again.According to a recent
obituary, Vostok's chief
designer, Oleg Ivanovsky,
personally helped rebolt the
hatch.There is some

PERSON
INVOLVED
Vostok 1 was the
first spacecraft to
carry a human,
Yuri A. Gargarin,
into space,
occurring 25 days
prior to the first
U.S. suborbital
flight. Because of
concerns of
adverse reactions
to due to
experiencing
weightlessness,
the manual
controls on the
spacecraft were
locked prior to
launch and the
entire flight was
under the control
of ground
personnel.

SPACECRAFTS
5) Vostok 6

DATE
The spacecraft was
launched on June 16,
1963. While Vostok 5 had
been delayed by
technical problems,
Vostok 6's launch
proceeded perfectly with
no difficulties at all. Data
was collected on the
female body's reaction to
spaceflight. Like other
cosmonauts on Vostok
missions, she maintained
a flight log, took
photographs, and
manually oriented the
spacecraft. Her
photographs of the
horizon from space were
later used to identify
aerosol layers within the
atmosphere. The mission,
a joint flight with Vostok
5, was originally
conceived as being a
joint mission with two
Vostoks each carrying a
female cosmonaut, but
this changed as the
Vostok program
experienced cutbacks as
a precursor to the
retooling of the program
into the Voskhod

MISSION
On June 17, at 10 a.m.,
Kamanin started his shift
at the communication
post in Tyuratam. He
learned that both
cosmonauts had a good
sleep lasting eight hours
and Bykovsky had a
pulse of 48-56, while
Tereshkova recorded 6472.
Bykovsky reported that
he had had great
communications not
only with the ground,
but also with Tereshkova
onboard Vostok-6. "She
is singing me songs," he
said. However he later
reported that despite all
his efforts he could not
find Tereshkova's ship in
the sky. In turn,
Tereshkova did say that
she had established
contact with Bykovsky
on the night side of the
Earth and at one point
saw a star three times
brighter than Vega,
which she thought could
be Vostok-5.
According to official
Soviet sources, the two

PERSON
INVOLVED
Tereshkova. Joint
flight with Vostok
5. First woman in
space. Tereshkova
did not reply
during several
communications
sessions. To this
day it is not known
if she was
paralysed with
fear, or if there
was an equipment
failure. Backup
crew: Solovyova,
Ponomaryova.

SPACECRAFTS
6) Voskhod 2

DATE
Voskhod 2 was a
Soviet manned space
mission in March
1965. The Vostokbased Voskhod 3KD
spacecraft with two
crew members on
board, Pavel Belyayev
and Alexey Leonov,
was equipped with an
inflatable airlock. It
established another
milestone in space
exploration when
Alexey Leonov
became the first
person to leave the
spacecraft in a
specialized spacesuit
to conduct a 12
minute "spacewalk.

MISSION
This mission was the original
raison d'etre of the Voskhod
series, with the original name
'Advance'. It almost ended in
disaster when Leonov was
unable to reenter the airlock due
to stiffness of the inflated
spacesuit. He had to bleed air
from the suit in order to get into
the airlock. After Leonov finally
managed to get back into the
spacecraft cabin, the primary
hatch would not seal completely.
The environmental control
system compensated by flooding
the cabin with oxygen, creating
a serious fire hazard in a craft
only qualified for sea level
nitrogen-oxygen gas mixes
(Cosmonaut Bondarenko had
burned to death in a ground
accident in such circumstances,
preceding the Apollo 204
disaster by many years). On reentry the primary retrorockets
failed. A manually controlled
retrofire was accomplished one
orbit later (perhaps with the
backup solid rocket retropack on
the nose of spacecraft - which
did not exist on Vostok). The
service module failed to
separate completely, leading to
wild gyrations of the joined
reentry sphere - service module
before connecting wires burned
through. Vostok 2 finally landed
near Perm in the Ural mountains
in heavy forest at 59:34 N 55:28
E on March 19, 1965 9:02 GMT.
The crew spent the night in the
woods, surrounded by wolves,
before being located. Recovery
crew had to chop down trees to
clear a landing zone for

PERSON
INVOLVED
Belyayev, Leonov.
First space walk.
Speed and altitude
records. A
disaster: astronaut
unable to reenter
airlock due to
spacesuit stiffness;
cabin flooded with
oxygen; manual
reentry, landed in
mountains, crew
not recovered until
next day. Further
Voskhod flights
cancelled. Backup
crew: Gorbatko,
Khrunov, Zaikin.

SPACECRAFTS
Gemini 4

DATE
Gemini 4 was the
second manned
space flight in NASA's
Project Gemini,
occurring in June
1965. It was the tenth
manned American
spaceflight (including
two X-15 flights at
altitudes exceeding
100 kilometers (54
nmi)).

MISSION
The highlight of the
mission was the first
space walk by an
American, during
which White floated
free outside the
spacecraft, tethered
to it, for
approximately 20
minutes. Both of
these
accomplishments
helped the United
States overcome the
Soviet Union's early
lead in the Space
Race.

PERSON
INVOLVED
Astronauts James
McDivitt and
Edward H. White, II
circled the Earth
66 times in four
days, making it
the first US flight
to approach the
five-day flight of
the Soviet Vostok
5.

SPACECRAFTS
8) Apollo 11

DATE
Apollo 11 launched
from Cape Kennedy
on July 16, 1969

MISSION
The primary
objective of Apollo
11 was to complete
a national goal set
by President John F.
Kennedy on May 25,
1961: perform a
crewed lunar landing
and return to Earth.

PERSON
INVOLVED
carrying
Commander Neil
Armstrong,
Command Module
Pilot Michael
Collins and Lunar
Module Pilot Edwin
"Buzz" Aldrin into
an initial Earthorbit of 114 by 116
miles. An
estimated 530
million people
watched
Armstrong's
televised image
and heard his
voice describe the
event as he took
"...one small step
for a man, one
giant leap for
mankind" on July
20, 1969.

SPACECRAFTS
9) Space Probe

DATE
The first dedicated
missions to a comet;
in this case, to
Halley's Comet during
its 198586 journey
through the inner
Solar System. It was
also the first massive
international
coordination of space
probes on an
interplanetary
mission, with probes
specifically launched
by the Soviet (now
Russian) Space
Agency, European
Space Agency, and
Japan's ISAS (now
integrated with
NASDA to JAXA).

MISSION
Once a probe has left
the vicinity of Earth, its
trajectory will likely take
it along an orbit around
the Sun similar to the
Earth's orbit. To reach
another planet, the
simplest practical
method is a Hohmann
transfer orbit. More
complex techniques,
such as gravitational
slingshots, can be more
fuel-efficient, though
they may require the
probe to spend more
time in transit. Some
high Delta-V missions
(such as those with high
inclination changes) can
only be performed,
within the limits of
modern propulsion,
using gravitational
slingshots. A technique
using very little
propulsion, but requiring
a considerable amount
of time, is to follow a
trajectory on the
Interplanetary Transport
Network

PERSON
INVOLVED
Space probes are made
to conduct science
experiments. They do
not have people on
them.

SPACECRAFTS
10) Pioneer

DATE
Pioneer 6 (Pioneer A)
launched December
1965
Pioneer 7 (Pioneer B)
launched August
1966
Pioneer 8 (Pioneer C)
launched December
1967
Pioneer 9 (Pioneer D)
launched November
1968 (defunct since
1983)
Pioneer E lost in
launcher failure
August 1969

MISSION
The earliest missions
were attempts to
achieve Earth's
escape velocity,
simply to show it
was feasible and
study the Moon. This
included the first
launch by NASA
which was formed
from the old NACA.
These missions were
carried out by the US
Air Force and Army.

PERSON
INVOLVED
Credit for naming the
first probe has been
attributed to Stephen A.
Saliga, who had been
assigned to the Air Force
Orientation Group,
Wright-Patterson AFB, as
chief designer of Air
Force exhibits. While he
was at a briefing, the
spacecraft was described
to him as a "lunarorbiting vehicle with an
infrared scanning
device." Saliga thought
the title too long and
lacked theme for an
exhibit design. He
suggested "Pioneer" as
the name of the probe
since "the Army had
already launched and
orbited the Explorer
satellite and their Public
Information Office was
identifying the Army as
'Pioneers in Space,'" and
by adopting the name
the Air Force would
"make a 'quantum jump'
as to who really [were]
the 'Pioneers in space.'"