Our knowledge and achievement in Space Travel and Aeronautical Physics is a series of events that occurred rhythmically in the past. WW II started it, the Cold War fueled it and our thirst for knowledge made us ascertain for further study. It was during WWII when experiments were conducted and rockets were designed as weapons.
The first pioneer in the field was Russia (more proper Soviet Union) who launched Sputnik I as test satellite in Oct 1957. Later in November that year, they launched a dog named Laika, the first dog to be sent into space.
She is also the first living creature in space. America’s first satellite was Explorer I launched in January 1958. The first space probe was Luna I. The Luna Programme by Russia were aimed at studying Moon. Luna 9 made the first landing on Moon. Russia even set a record by sending the first man to be sent into space and orbit the earth, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. The Mariner and Venera series were missions to Mars by America and Russia respectively launched hand in hand parallel in retort showing signs of Cold War.
Now its time for an upgrade, the manned mission started. Apollo 8 orbited Moon with three astronauts. A year later Mankind took a big leap. On 21st July 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the Moon along with his crewmate Edwin Aldrin. Keeping in cope with the competition and need China launched its first satellite Dong Fang Hong and Japan its Osumi in the same year 1970.
ISRO had set foot in the path as India launched its first satellite Aryabhatta on 19 April 1975 through Russia. Russians launched its first Space Station Salyut I and America its Skylab.
The 1980s has new heroes Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. Both set to explore beyond boundaries of our Solar System. They have a Golden Record which contains information about life on earth in such language that it is supposed to be pellucid to intelligent life. Voyager 1 also holds the world record for the farthest sent and the fastest human-made object till date. It travels at a speed of 17km/s which is a result of the gravitational slingshot it got from Jupiter and Saturn to facile high speed. The first of his name it became the first earthly body to cross heliopause and enter the interstellar. Both of them are true legends. Challenger started in 1983 and Discovery spacecraft series in 1984.
The most famous telescope The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in the space shuttle Discovery in April 1990. Also in 1990, Ulysses was set to study Sun. In 1995 Galileo set into orbit around Jupiter. In 1992 Roscosmos was established as the space agency of Russia. Cassini reached Saturn in 2004. Cassini’s grand finale was recently on 15 September 2017, when the satellite became vulnerable and no battery left to support it was commanded to crash by the support team to return closer pictures of Saturn while falling. Rosetta Mission, one the most famous mission of European Space Agency, along with Philae rover was set to study a comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The New Horizon probe was supposed to reach Pluto in 2015, it did. Parker Solar probe launched on 12 August 2018 will be humanity’s closest visit to a star, our Sun. Till date, seven rovers have been sent to Mars out of which only four functioned Soujourner, Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity.
Several theoretical physics papers on Einstein’s Gravitational Waves and Relativity, space-time, and time dilation, the curvature of space and black holes has helped us a lot. Featuring in the newspaper nowadays Falcon rocks designed by Space X are popular for its reusability. ISRO caught its attention by sending Marsh Orbiter Mission, also called Mangalyan, at just 400cr INR. Conspicuous for its tiny fraction of NASA’s budget it has made a world record of sending 104 satellite in one launch. Any exalt of ISRO is too low to cherish by words.
Luna Program Was Aimed at Studying the Moon. (2021, Dec 31). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/luna-program-was-aimed-at-studying-the-moon/