Curated category
Spaceflight
- Earth orbit rendezvousEarth orbit rendezvous is a method for conducting round trip human flights to the Moon. It involves using space rendezvous to assemble and possibly fuel…
- Interplanetary contaminationForward contamination describes the transfer of life from Earth to another celestial body. Back contamination covers the introduction of extraterrestrial…
- Exploration of MarsOn the 14th of July 1965, the Mariner 4 spacecraft flew past Mars at a distance of about 9,800 kilometers. It returned the first close-up photographs of…
- Human spaceflightOn the 12th of April 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth aboard Vostok 1. This single flight ignited a geopolitical…
- SpaceflightScottish astronomer William Leitch published an essay titled A Journey Through Space in 1861. This document contained the first theoretical proposal for…
- Space explorationThe first human-made object to reach outer space was a German V-2 rocket test launch designated MW 18014. It took place on the 20th of June 1944 at the…
- Space advocacyIn the 1920s, a group of thinkers from Russia, America, Britain, and Germany began forming the first advocacy groups for space flight.
- Space AgeOn the 20th of June 1944, a German V-2 rocket became the first manmade object to enter space. This brief flight occurred during World War II and remained…
- Mission control centerA staff of flight controllers and other support personnel monitor all aspects of the mission using telemetry. They send commands to the vehicle using ground…
- Exploration of the MoonThe Exploration of the Moon began not with a rocket, but with a rock carving. At Knowth in Ireland, a stone face dated to around 3,000 BCE bears what…
- NASA Space Science Data Coordinated ArchiveIn 1966, the National Space Science Data Center opened its doors at Goddard Space Flight Center. The facility began as a physical repository for raw data…
- Religion in spaceOn Christmas Eve, 1968 astronauts Bill Anders, Jim Lovell, and Frank Borman read from the Book of Genesis as Apollo 8 orbited the Moon.
- Space architectureJules Verne published From the Earth to the Moon in 1865, embedding details that eerily foreshadowed the Apollo Moon landings of over a century later.