On November 9, 1971, NASA’s Mariner 9 spacecraft entered Mars orbit and became the first spacecraft to maintain an orbit around another planet than Earth. Mariner 9 beat Soviet Union’s Mars 2 by 13 days despite being launched 11 days later than its Soviet counterpart. In about 11 months, the orbiter mapped 85% of the …
Category Archives: Space Exploration
The first photo of Earth from space [October 24, 1946]
The first photo of Earth from space was taken by a captured German V-2 rocket (V2 #13) on October 24, 1946. The rocket was launched from the White Sands Missile Range carrying a 35mm motion picture camera onboard. The camera also recorded the first footage of Earth from space, snapping an image every second and …
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Venera 9 landed on Venus and took the first photos from the surface of another planet on October 22, 1975
On October 22, 1975, Soviet Union’s Venera 9 spacecraft landed on Venus and took the first photos from the surface of another planet.
Galileo spacecraft was launched on October 18, 1989
NASA’s Galileo spacecraft was launched on October 18, 1989, with the mission of studying Jupiter and its moons. It orbited Jupiter for almost eight years and made close passes by all its major moons. By doing so, it became the first spacecraft to orbit an outer planet in our solar system. Galileo also studied two …
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Salary of an astronaut: how much does a NASA astronaut earn [yearly]?
Being an astronaut is a dream job for many (including me). But, how much does a NASA astronaut earn yearly? What is the salary of an astronaut?
Voskhod 1 became the first multi-person spacecraft in space on October 12, 1964
Voskhod 1, the seventh crewed Soviet spacecraft was launched on October 12, 1964. Three cosmonauts, Vladimir Komarov (16 March 1927 – 24 April 1967), Konstantin Feoktistov (7 February 1926 – 21 November 2009), and Boris Yegorov (26 November 1937 – 12 September 1994) were aboard, so Voskhod 1 became the first multi-person spacecraft in space. …
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Apollo 7 was launched on October 11, 1968
Apollo 7, the first crewed flight in NASA’s Apollo program was launched on October 11, 1968, exactly ten years after the space agency’s first launch. The mission successfully demonstrated the crewed performance of the Command and Service Modules and featured the first American live broadcast from space.
NASA’s first launch: Pioneer 1 [October 11, 1958]
On October 11, 1958, the newly-established space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched Pioneer 1 (also known as Able 2), a lunar probe intended to orbit the Moon. It was the first launch of NASA, which was formed on July 29, 1958.
The first photo of the far side of the Moon was taken by Luna 3 on October 7, 1959
On October 7, 1959, Soviet Union’s Luna 3 spacecraft photographed the far side of the moon for the first time ever. These photographs, despite being of poor quality, caused excitement when they were published because the humanity had never saw the far side of the moon before.
11 Tallest Rockets Ever Launched [2022 Artemis Update]
To be able to reach space, we need rockets. Rocket engines work by action and reaction (“To every action, there is always opposed an equal reaction”, see notes 1) and push rockets forward simply by expelling their exhaust in the opposite direction at high speed and can, therefore, work in the vacuum of space. Space rockets …
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