On the 50th anniversary of Skylab, the nation’s first space station launching into orbit, SPACE : 50 Years of Cosmic Exploration takes a look back at the “race to space.” Learn about the origins of the space program and how the Cold War motivated and challenged the top scientists, mathematicians and pilots in the country to explore space and its celestial bodies. Orbiting the Earth for the first time, landing on the moon, creating Skylab and then later the International Space Station—these were some of the successes in the decades-long effort in which great achievements were accompanied by failure, tragedy and, above all, resilience. Today, there is renewed interest in space exploration and the desire to reach higher and farther than ever before.
SPACE 50 Years of Cosmic Exploration
Introduction • Humans have observed the sky for thousands of years. In ancient Greek mythology, gods of the sun and moon were revered. Constellations told the stories of the gods, and many names in astronomy today stem from these tales. In 1609, Galileo famously became the first person to observe the sky using a telescope. His discoveries helped him identify features on the moon and four moons orbiting the planet Jupiter. His study of Venus led him to the groundbreaking discovery that the planets orbited the sun. As other famous astronomers and physicists followed, our understanding of what lay beyond Earth’s atmosphere became clearer.
BREAKING GROUND
REACHING THE SPACE BARRIER • Just after the end of World War II, when many European countries were recovering from the damages of war, the United States turned its focus skyward. Threats from long-distance rockets and satellites that could spy on a country became a real danger to the United States.
THE RACE TO SPACE
EXPLORER I
The Significance of Satellites • The first satellites sent information back to Earth using shortwave radio frequencies; tracking on the ground confirmed the success of the satellite and could follow its progress around the planet.
ANIMALS IN SPACE • NASA used animals as the first passengers aboard spacecraft in hopes that humans could someday also cross into the “final frontier.” Fruit flies were chosen first because they weighed very little and didn’t take up much space. At that time scientists didn’t know what would happen with organic matter outside of Earth’s atmosphere.
THE RACE CONTINUES • Despite a few American successes, the Soviet Union continued to outpace the United States by launching cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into space on April 12, 1961. After a test run using a prototype, the Soviets determined the vessel Vostok was fit to carry a human safely.
REACHING NEW HORIZONS
FRUSTRATION AND TRAGEDY • Still leading the Americans in the space race, the Soviets had developed a series of spacecraft called Luna. In 1959, Luna 3 successfully completed a flyby of the moon. This flight captured the first photos of the moon’s far side, which had never been seen by humans before.
APOLLO MISSIONS • The next Apollo missions launched with a renewed commitment to safety and enthusiasm to land a man on the moon. Apollo 7, launched on October 11, 1968, carried three astronauts in orbit around Earth 163 times, for a total of 11 days in space. Two months later, Apollo 8 carried three other astronauts around the moon and safely back to Earth. Apollo 9, which launched on March 3, 1969, orbited Earth and practiced docking procedures between two modules, one that housed the astronauts, called the service module, and one that would land on the moon, called the lunar module. Before a successful moon landing could occur, this procedure needed to be perfected.
Souvenirs • During their time on the moon, Aldrin and Armstrong collected nearly 50 pounds of lunar surface material and observed differences in...