Beyond the sky

 

Important incidents for space science and astronomy

• Dec17,1903	Orville and Wilbur Wright achieve the first powered and sustained human flight.
  1912	A balloon flight discovers evidence of cosmic rays.
  Mar 16,1926	Robert Goddard launched the first liquid-fueled rocket, which reaches an altitude of 41 feet.
  Oct 3, 1942	Germany's first successful V-2 rocket reaches the edge of space.
  Oct 4,1957	The USSR launches Sputnik 1.
  Nov 3,1957	Sputnik 2 launches, carrying Laika, the first animal in orbit.
  Jan 31,1958	Launching of explorer 1, the first US satellite.
  Oct 1,1958	NASA is founded during the Eisenhower administration.
  Apr 12,1961	Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin makes one orbit of Earth.
  Feb 20,1962	John H. Glen Jr. is the first American in orbit.
  June16,1963	Valentina V. Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space.
  Mar18,1965	Alexei Leonov climbs out of the airlock of Voshod 2 to conduct the first spacewalk.
  July14,1965	Mariner 4 flies by Mars and takes pictures of the surface.
  1966	"Star Trek" debt on NBC. TV's first psychodrama in orbit.
  Dec 24,1968	Christmas Eve broadcast from Apollo 8 astonauts in Moon orbit.
  July 20,1970	Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin M. Jr. land on the Moon.
  Dec 15,1970	Venera 7 landes on Venus and transmits the data for 23 mins.
  Apr 19,1971	The USSR launches Salyut 1, the first space station.
  Nov 13,1971	Mariner 9 enters orbit around Mars.
  Dec 2,1971	Mars 3 lander lands on Mars and returns 20 seconds of video.
  May 14,1973	Launching of Skylab, the first US space station.
  Dec 3,1973	Pioneer launched in 1972 and passes Jupiter.
  July 20,1976	Viking 1 touches down on Mars.
  1977	"Star Wars" premier.
  1979	Voyeger 1 passes by Jupiter and spot volcanoes erupting on its moon Io.
  April12,1981	NASA launches space shuttle 'Columbia' .
  June 18,1983	Sally K. Ride becomes the first American woman in space.
  1985	Nimbus 7 satellite comfirms that the Ozon layer is disappearing over Antarctica.
  June 28,1986	Space shuttle Challenger disintegrate 73 seconds after launching.
  Feb 20,1986	Space station Mir, meaning 'Peace' is launched by USSR.
  1986	The Vega and Giotto space craft photograph the nucleus of Halley's comet.
  Apr24,1990	Launching of the Hubble space telescope.
  1992	The Cobe satellite measures the microwave after glow of the Big Bang.
  Dec 9,1993	Astronauts restore full vision to the Hubble telescope.
  July 4,1997	Pathfinder delivers the Sojoumer rover to Mars.
  Nov 20,1998	Zarya, the first component of the International Space Station is launched.
  Feb 12,2001	The NEAR Shoemaker space craft lands on Eros.
  Apr 28,2001	Dennis A. Tito pays a reported $20 million to become the first tourist in space.
  Feb 1, 2003	The shuttle Columbia breaks up on re-entry.
  Oct 15,2003	China launches Yang Liwei into orbit.
  Jan 2004	Two NASA rovers find evidence of past oceans to Mars.
  Jan 14,2004	President Bush announces a plane for the moon and Mars.
  June21,2004	Space ship 1 is the first privately developed, polited craft to reach space.
  Dec 16,2004	Voyeger 1 crosses into the outer layer of the solar system.
  Jan 14,2005	The Huygens probe lands on Titen, Saturn's largest moon.
  Jan 15,2006	The Stardust mission returns the first comet samples to Earth.
  April 28,2008	ISRO launched 10 satellites by PSLV from Shriharikota.
  May 25,2008	Space ship 'Phoenix' landed on the surface of Mars successfuly.

Astronomers weigh the coldest brown dwarfs with astronomy's sharpest eyes

NASA targets GLAST launch for no earlier than June 11

NASA has set June 11 as the new no-earlier-than target launch date for the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, or GLAST, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.