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East to Read Overview about Space Travel/Tourism

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East to Read Overview about Space Travel/Tourism

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Includes some videos

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Virgin Galactic rocket ship reached the edge of space

Travelling to space has traditionally been reserved for trained astronauts.

But that could change as early as next year.

That's according to Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic.

Since 2004, his company has been working to develop a spaceship that can take tourists to space.

On Thursday morning, he got one step closer to that dream.

Richard Branson celebrates the successful test flight with pilots Rick (CJ) Sturckow, left, and Mark (Forger) Stucky, right. (John Antczak/Associated Press)

How high is space?

A test flight flew 82 kilometres in the air before beginning its descent.

The company considers 80 kilometres to be the edge of space.

As a comparison, most planes fly as high as about 10 kilometres in the air.

But some organizations in the world believe space starts at 100 kilometres from the Earth.

Not your average rocket ship

The spaceship is called the Virgin Space Ship Unity and was flown by two test pilots.

It was transported about 13 kilometres in the air on a special jet before being released.

That's when the spaceshift ignited its rocket engine and quickly hurtled upward.

At that point, it was out of the sight from viewers on the ground.

A jet carrying Virgin Galactic's tourism spaceship took off from Mojave Air and Space Port on Thursday in Mojave, California. (Matt Hartman/Associated Press)

What it costs to fly to space

Branson said he expects commercial flights to start next year.

"I believe that sometime in the second half of next year ... we will start being able to put regular people up into space," he said.

But it comes at a cost: $250,000 US.

The ride will include several minutes of weightlessness and a view of the Earth.

More than 600 people have agreed to spend the money for the trip once it's available.

Virgin Galactic's tourism spaceship sits on the runway after landing on a runway just minutes after reaching the edge of space. (John Antczak/Associated Press)

With files from The Associated Press

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One step closer to space tourism | CBC Kids News

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Travelling to space has traditionally been reserved for trained astronauts. But that could change as early as next year. That's according to Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic. Since 2004, his company has been working to develop a spaceship that can take tourists to space.

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By DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP, Associated Press

KENT, Wash. (AP) - Private space travel company Blue Origin expects its first test flights with people in 2017, company founder Jeff Bezos said Tuesday during a tour of the venture's research and development site outside Seattle.

And Bezos said thousands of people have expressed interest in eventually paying for a trip on a suborbital craft.

For now, the man who founded Amazon.com is spending some of the billions earned from the Seattle-based online retailer on high tech equipment and about 600 employees working in a former Boeing airplane parts facility. Bezos said he's convinced the company - a vision of his childhood dreams_will eventually be profitable.

The company isn't taking deposits yet, so it's unclear whether thousands of interested space travelers will translate into sales.

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Blue Origin, founded in 2000, has launched a ship twice, and it landed safely. The company plans to keep testing until its usefulness is done then switch to other ships being built to test human flight.

The real money will be made selling rocket engines to others planning to launch satellites and spaceships, Bezos said. United Launch Alliance has asked Blue Origin to build the engine for its new launch vehicle so it can stop relying on Russian-made engines.

Bezos, who still has his day job at Amazon, said he's deeply involved at Blue Origin and spends time in the Kent facility, about 17 miles south of Seattle. He enthusiastically shared technical details and explanations during a media tour and one engineer said he was as knowledgeable about the technology as anyone in the building.

"I only pursue things that I am passionate about," Bezos said. He spoke of dreaming of space travel and building rockets since he was 5.

He said he wasn't ready to share exactly how much he has invested in the space venture, saying just that all the high tech equipment and about 600 employees have added up to "a very significant number."

The media-shy company said welcoming the press to their development floor was a first step toward more openness, but all but a few photographs of the facility were prohibited.

Bezos said he wasn't concerned about his competition to build the next generation of rocket engines because society will need lots of help moving industry and people off the planet.

A handful of other U.S. companies are currently competing in the private space business, including SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, which are also at the testing stage.

Bezos doesn't care about being the first private company to offer space tourism to the masses. The real goal is to perfect their equipment by flying as many as 100 suborbital flights a year. Bezos said safety is the No. 1 goal.

The company also wants to eventually decrease the cost of space launches by enough to put projects like building a colony on Mars within reach. The key is making spaceships reusable, which is Blue Origin's goal, Bezos said.

"What I know you cannot afford is throwing the hardware away," he said.

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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KENT, Wash. (AP) - Private space company Blue Origin expects it will launch its first human test flights into space in 2017.

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''We encourage people to come out and bring their children, so their children can tell their children that they were there,'' he said.

Mr. Allen, 51, says he has spent more than $20 million to fulfill fantasies that were fueled by science fiction and the real-life space program. ''As a child, I read everything I could about space travel,'' he said. In 1981, he attended the first shuttle launching, that of the Columbia.

''When any of us were growing up, that is some kind of underlying dream -- to pursue these things when we're older and have a chance to be involved,'' Mr. Allen said.

For Mr. Rutan, 60, it is an opportunity to show again that he is one of the world's most innovative aerospace engineers. His most famous plane, Voyager, flew around the world without refueling in 1986.

The flight next week is a two-step process. An aircraft, the White Knight, will carry SpaceShipOne from the runway to 50,000 feet, where it will be released. SpaceShipOne will then glide until the pilot fires the rocket motor for about 80 seconds and the craft accelerates to three times the speed of sound.

The pilot, whose name will be announced the day before the flight, will then cut the motor and feel three minutes of weightlessness as the ship reaches the top of its climb in the black sky of space. Then it will fall back toward the earth, and the pilot will glide it back to the runway.

In a sense, the flight is old news: humans have been blasted into space for more than 40 years. But those efforts have been financed by governments. Mr. Rutan, who heads his own aircraft design company, Scaled Composites, says his goal with SpaceShipOne is to show that space is no longer a territory reachable only through the resources of empires, just as the Wright brothers proved that the skies were not just for birds and balloonists.

''The whole world realized that, for crying out loud, these are just bicycle shop guys,'' he said of the Wright brothers. In the same way, he said, if he succeeds, ''people around the world might say, 'Wait a minute -- I can do this!'''

But that might not happen any time soon. For one thing, legislation that would allow commercial spaceports for human travel is stalled in Congress. ''Without timely legislation, the flight might be a mere passing stunt instead of the herald of a new era,'' said Charles Lurio, an independent space consultant.

Although some of the other teams competing for the X Prize are operating secretly, none are believed to be as far along as the Rutan-Allen group.

The rivals say they are cheering Mr. Rutan and Mr. Allen on. ''Ultimately, we are all on the same team,'' said Geoff Sheerin, who heads Canadian Arrow, a team with a sleek spacecraft design that evokes Buck Rogers. But he added, ''You don't have a prize until you have a prize.''

The suborbital flight is less punishing than what NASA puts space shuttles through; the speed required to reach orbit is a blistering 25 times the speed of sound, and the risks of heating and damage from re-entering the atmosphere are enormous. ''It's a safe first step,'' said Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, the chairman of the X Prize Foundation. ''Or, I should say, a safer first step.''

The flight of SpaceShipOne will not be risk-free. Atmospheric stress will be high, and unforeseen problems could emerge.

''That's part of being a test pilot,'' Mr. Allen said. ''The people that undertake these things know the risks and do everything possible to minimize the risks. But they are still there, and they are still real.'' As for his own desire to reach space, he said, ''I'm going to wait until there's quite a few more test flights down the road.''

Mr. Allen knows that spending more than $20 million to win a $10 million prize may look like a poor return on investment. He said there might be opportunities to recoup his money in the licensing rights for some of the technologies that have been developed.

But that is hardly the point.

''In terms of sheer coolness,'' he said, ''few things beat rocketry.''

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Private Space Travel? Dreamers Hope a Catalyst Will Rise From the Mojave Desert

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Burt Rutan, designer of innovative aircraft, and his billionaire sponsor, Paul G Allen, plan to launch aircraft that will try to reach 62 miles above earth in bid to usher in age of privately financed space travel; aircraft will be released from another aircraft at 50,000 feet; flight would also be milestone on way to winning $10 million Ansari X Prize, competition designed to spur private space race; aircraft would have to travel up to 62 miles twice in two weeks with three people aboard to win prize; Rutan says those flights will be tried later; Allen comments; photo (M)

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Could we survive prolonged space travel? - Lisa Nip

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Prolonged space travel plays a severe toll on the human body: microgravity impairs muscle and bone growth, and high doses of radiation cause irreversible mutations. As we seriously consider the human species becoming space-faring, a big question stands: even if we do break free f…

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What Are The Benefits Of Space Exploration?

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Why explore space? It’s an expensive arena to play in, between the fuel costs and the technological challenge of operating in a hostile environment. For humans, a small mistake can quickly become fatal — something that we have seen several times in space history. And for NASA’s budget, there are pro…

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Space travel has given us a wealth of knowledge which has in turn helped us create inventions and technologies that have made human life easier and helped us learn more and explore further into the universe.

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20 Inventions We Wouldn't Have Without Space Travel

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Space travel has given us a wealth of knowledge which has in turn helped us create inventions and technologies that have made human life easier and helped us learn more and explore further into the universe.

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Then check out our amazing interactive infographic.

To celebrate our second anniversary, we've created an interactive version of a previous infographic, which is so big, it's too big for this page.

This time round you get to pilot a rocket through the Solar System. There's even more information packed into this graphic: you'll see how close comets have come to our planet; what is the farthest travelled by a human being; how long the trip will take if you were on the Starship Enterprise... as well as a few surprises too.

So buckle up and scroll (and scroll... and scroll) through our interactive infographic of space to explore our cosmic neighbourhood.
If you would like to comment on this, or anything else you have seen on Future, head over to our or page, or message us on .

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Then check out our amazing interactive infographic. To celebrate our second anniversary, we've created an interactive version of a previous infographic, which is so big, it's too big for this page. This time round you get to pilot a rocket through the Solar System.

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As of Monday, October 24, content that was on TweenTribune.com will now be available here on our new educational resources page and on our learning pages. While much of the content that you enjoyed will still exist, educators will unfortunately no longer be able to assign content to students. Tween Tribune has been a valued educational brand of Smithsonian magazine, and we appreciate your continued support.

Though the Girl Scouts of the USA initially declared itself a space for all girls, the reality was different for girls of color

Erin Blakemore

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As of Monday, October 24, content that was on TweenTribune.com will now be available here on our new educational resources page and on our learning pages. While much of the content that you enjoyed will still exist, educators will unfortunately no longer be able to assign content to students.

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Astronomy is the study of space. If you were an astronomer, you might focus on galaxies, stars, planets, or traveling objects such as comets and asteroids. Don't get astronomy confused with astrology. Astrology is a form of mystical prediction based on the stars and the time of year. Horoscopes are based on astrology. Astronomy is grounded in science. Astronomy uses math and science to study and predict the actions of the universe.

To be a good astronomer, you need to understand its history of scientific discoveries. Over thousands of years, humans have developed and proved many ideas about space. Proving the fact that the Earth revolved around the Sun was one of the first major accomplishments of modern astronomy. As you learn more, you will find out that ancient societies understood the movement of the Earth long before it was accepted by ruling powers. We are now using orbiting telescopes to photograph possible black holes (Hubble, Chandra). There are still thousands of unanswered questions. This science will depend on a long future of exploration.

Humans rarely visit other planets. Humans do take pictures of other universal bodies. From those pictures we study the colors, movement, and composition of other objects in the universe. Astronomers need to understand the sciences of Earth because this is the only place we can study firsthand. Astronomers work with chemistry when studying the atmospheres on other planets. Astronomers need to understand geology to explain the structure of planets and stars. Astronomers also need to know physics to explain how objects move through the universe.

The countries of the world are currently building a space station that orbits the Earth. This is the first step in our efforts to colonize and study the Solar System. One day (maybe in your lifetime), there may be groups of scientists working on the Moon and Mars. As time passes, Earth will also send more probes into deep space to study the outer planets and the interstellar region outside of our system. Even though the study of space has been going on for thousands of years, we have only been able to study the universe firsthand for about 40 years.

In 2006, NASA announced that its new exploration vehicle would be called Orion. The Constellation Program will develop the new spacecraft and its launching technology (Ares rockets). The new manned capsule will have the latest technology and be the foundation for missions to the Moon and Mars.

Encyclopedia.com (Space Program):
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Space_Program.aspx
Wikipedia (Space Exploration):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration
Encyclopædia Britannica:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/557348/space-exploration

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Cosmos4Kids.com! This astronomy tutorial introduces space exploration. Other sections include the Universe, galaxies, stars, and the Solar System.

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For centuries, people dreamed about leaving Earth and travelling to other worlds. Then, in 1957, the Soviet Union made the first small step into space by launching a small satellite, called Sputnik. The Space Age had begun.

Early space activities were dominated by the United States and the Soviet Union. However, as time went by, Europe and Japan also learned how to build their own satellites and rockets. Today, countries such as China, India, South Korea, Israel and Brazil are developing their own space industries.

During the last 60 years, unmanned probes have been sent towards all of the planets in the Solar System, as well as many satellites, asteroids and comets. Spacecraft have soft-landed on half a dozen worlds, while rovers have driven over the surfaces of the Moon and Mars. The Sun has also been explored in great detail by a fleet of spacecraft.

Many space observatories, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, have been launched to look at the distant Universe. They have sent back some amazing pictures taken in visible light. But they can also observe stars and galaxies at wavelengths that are invisible to human eyes - radio, infrared, ultraviolet, X-rays and gamma rays. The flood of discoveries has changed the way we look at the Universe.

More than 500 people have also flown in space since Yuri Gagarin paved the way in 1961. 20 people have travelled to the Moon and 12 of them have walked on the Moon. Space stations have been built, and astronauts have learned to live and work in space for many months, or even years.

Last modified 26 January 2011

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For centuries, people dreamed about leaving Earth and travelling to other worlds. Then, in 1957, the Soviet Union made the first small step into space by launching a small satellite, called Sputnik. The Space Age had begun.

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The first earthling to orbit our planet was just two years old, plucked from the streets of Moscow barely more than a week before her historic launch. Her name was Laika. She was a terrier mutt and by all accounts a good dog. Her 1957 flight paved the way for space exploration back when scientists didn't know if spaceflight was lethal for living things.

Humans are explorers. Since before the dawn of civilization, we've been lured over the horizon to find food or more space, to make a profit, or just to see what's beyond those trees or mountains or oceans. Our ability to explore reached new heights-literally-in the last hundred years. Airplanes shortened distances, simplified travel, and showed us Earth from a new perspective. By the middle of the last century, we aimed even higher.

Our first steps into space began as a race between the United States and the former Soviet Union, rivals in a global struggle for power. Laika was followed into orbit four years later by the first human, Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri A. Gagarin. With Earth orbit achieved, we turned our sights on the moon. The United States landed two astronauts on its stark surface in 1969, and five more manned missions followed. The U.S.'s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched probes to study the solar system. Manned space stations began glittering in the sky. NASA developed reusable spacecraft-space shuttle orbiters-to ferry astronauts and satellites to orbit. Space-travel technology had advanced light-years in just three decades. Gagarin had to parachute from his spaceship after reentry from orbit. The space shuttle leaves orbit at 16,465 miles an hour (26,498 kilometers an hour) and glides to a stop on a runway without using an engine.

Space travel is nothing like in the movies. Getting from A to B requires complex calculations involving inertia and gravity-literally, rocket science-to "slingshot" from planet to planet (or moon) across the solar system. The Voyager mission of the 1970s took advantage of a rare alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune to shave off nearly 20 years of travel time. Space is also dangerous. More than 20 astronauts have died doing their job.

That hasn't stopped people from signing up and blasting off. NASA's shuttle program has ended, but private companies are readying their own space programs. A company called Planetary Resources plans to send robot astronauts to the Asteroid Belt to mine for precious metals. Another company named SpaceX is hoping to land civilian astronauts on Mars-the next human step into the solar system-in 20 years. NASA and other civilian companies are planning their own Mars missions. Maybe you'll be a member of one? Don't forget to bring your dog.

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The first earthling to orbit our planet was just two years old, plucked from the streets of Moscow barely more than a week before her historic launch. Her name was Laika. She was a terrier mutt and by all accounts a good dog.

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Astronaut Ed White floats in zero gravity of space off the coast of California during the Gemini IV mission.

Credit: NASA

On Oct. 4, 2007, the Space Age celebrated the 50th anniversary of the historic launch of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, by the former Soviet Union.

The space shot also launched the Space Race to the moon between the United States and the Soviet Union. But despite that turbulent beginning, the initial launch has led to five decades of triumphs and tragedies in space science and exploration.

Below is a timeline by Space News and SPACE.com chronicling the first 50 years of spaceflight. You are invited to walk through the half century of space exploration and click related links for more in depth information:

Sometime in the 11th century: China combines sulfur, charcoal and saltpeter (potassium nitrate) to make gunpowder, the first fuel used to propel early rockets in Chinese warfare.

July 4, 1054: Chinese astronomers observe the supernova in Taurus that formed the Crab Nebula.

Mid-1700s: Hyder Ali, the Sultan of Mysome in India, begins manufacturing rockets sheathed in iron, not cardboard or paper, to improve their range and stability.

March 16, 1926: Robert Goddard, sometimes referred to as the "Father of Modern Rocketry," launches the first successful liquid-fueled rocket.

July 17, 1929: Robert Goddard launches a rocket that carries with it the first set of scientific tools - a barometer and a camera - in Auburn, Mass. The launch was Goddard's fourth.

Feb. 18, 1930: The dwarf planet Pluto is discovered by American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz.

Oct. 3, 1942: Germany successfully test launches the first ballistic missile, the A4, more commonly known as the V-2, and later uses it near the end of European combat in World War II.

Sep. 29, 1945: Wernher von Braun arrives at Ft. Bliss, Texas, with six other German rocket specialists.

Oct. 14, 1947: American test pilot Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier for the first time in the X-1, also known as Glamorous Glennis.

Oct. 4, 1957: A modified R-7 two-stage ICBM launches the satellite Sputnik 1 from Tyuratam. The Space Race between the Soviet Union and the United States begins.

Nov. 3, 1957: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2 with the first living passenger, the dog Laika, aboard.

Dec. 6, 1957: A Vanguard TV-3 carrying a grapefruit-sized satellite explodes at launch; a failed response to the Sputnik launch by the United States.

Jan. 31, 1958: Explorer 1, the first satellite with an onboard telemetry system, is launched by the United States into orbit aboard a Juno rocket and returns data from space.

Oct. 7, 1958: NASA Administrator T. Keith Glennan publicly announces NASA's manned spaceflight program along with the formation of the Space Task Group, a panel of scientist and engineers from space-policy organizations absorbed by NASA. The announcement came just six days after NASA was founded.

Jan. 2, 1959: The U.S.S.R. launches Luna 1, which misses the moon but becomes the first artificial object to leave Earth orbit.

Jan. 12, 1959: NASA awards McDonnell Corp. the contract to manufacture the Mercury capsules.

Feb. 28, 1959: NASA launches Discover 1, the U.S. first spy satellite, but it is not until the Aug. 11, 1960, launch of Discover 13 that film is recovered successfully.

May 28, 1959: The United States launches the first primates in space, Able and Baker, on a suborbital flight.

Aug. 7, 1959: NASA's Explorer 6 launches and provides the first photographs of the Earth from space.

Sept. 12, 1959: The Soviet Union's Luna 2 is launched and two days later is intentionally crashed into the Moon.

Sept. 17, 1959: NASA's X-15 hypersonic research plane, capable of speeds to Mach 6.7, makes its first powered flight.

Oct. 24, 1960: To rush the launch of a Mars probe before the Nov. 7 anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, Field Marshall Mitrofan Nedelin ignored several safety protocols and 126 people are killed when the R-16 ICBM explodes at the Baikonur Cosmodrome during launch preparations.

Feb. 12, 1961: The Soviet Union launches Venera to Venus, but the probe stops responding after a week.

April 12, 1961: Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in space with a 108-minute flight on Vostok 1 in which he completed one orbit.

May 5, 1961: Mercury Freedom 7 launches on a Redstone rocket for a 15-minute suborbital flight, making Alan Shepard the first American in space.

May 25, 1961: In a speech before Congress, President John Kennedy announces that an American will land on the moon and be returned safely to Earth before the end of the decade.

Oct. 27, 1961: Saturn 1, the rocket for the initial Apollo missions, is tested for the first time.

Feb. 20, 1962: John Glenn makes the first U.S. manned orbital flight aboard Mercury 6.

June 7, 1962: Wernher von Braun backs the idea of a Lunar Orbit Rendezvous mission.

July 10, 1962: The United States launches Telstar 1, which enables the trans-Atlantic transmission of television signals.

June 14, 1962: Agreements are signed establishing the European Space Research Organisation and the European Launcher Development Organisation. Both eventually were dissolved.

July 28, 1962: The U.S.S.R launches its first successful spy satellite, designated Cosmos 7.

Aug. 27, 1962: Mariner 2 launches and eventually performs the first successful interplanetary flyby when it passes by Venus.

Sept. 29, 1962: Canada's Alouette 1 launches aboard a NASA Thor-Agena B rocket, becoming the first satellite from a country other than the United States or Soviet Union.

June 16, 1963: Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman to fly into space.

July 28, 1964: Ranger 7 launches and is the Ranger series' first success, taking photographs of the moon until it crashes into its surface four days later.

April 8, 1964: Gemini 1, a two-seat spacecraft system, launches in an unmanned flight.

Aug. 19, 1964: NASA's Syncom 3 launches aboard a Thor-Delta rocket, becoming the first geostationary telecommunications satellite.

Oct. 12, 1964: The Soviet Union launches Voskhod 1, a modified Vostok orbiter with a three-person crew.

March 18, 1965: Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov makes the first spacewalk from the Voskhod 2 orbiter.

March 23, 1965: Gemini 3, the first of the manned Gemini missions, launches with a two-person crew on a Titan 2 rocket, making astronaut Gus Grissom the first man to travel in space twice.

June 3, 1965: Ed White, during the Gemini 4 mission, becomes the first American to walk in space.

July 14, 1965: Mariner 4 executes the first successful Mars flyby.

Aug. 21, 1965: Gemini 5 launches on an eight-day mission.

Dec. 15, 1965: Gemini 6 launches and performs a rendezvous with Gemini 7.

Jan. 14, 1966: The Soviet Union's chief designer, Sergei Korolev, dies from complications stemming from routine surgery, leaving the Soviet space program without its most influential leader of the preceding 20 years.

Feb. 3, 1966: The unmanned Soviet spacecraft Luna 9 makes the first soft landing on the Moon.

March 1, 1966: The Soviet Union's Venera 3 probe becomes the first spacecraft to land on the planetVenus, but its communications system failed before data could be returned.

March 16, 1966: Gemini 8 launches on a Titan 2 rocket and later docks with a previously launched Agena rocket - the first docking between two orbiting spacecraft.

April 3, 1966: The Soviet Luna 10 space probe enters lunar orbit, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit the Moon.

June 2, 1966: Surveyor 1, a lunar lander, performs the first successful U.S. soft landing on the Moon.

Jan. 27, 1967: All three astronauts for NASA's Apollo 1 mission suffocate from smoke inhalationin a cabin fire during a launch pad test.

April 5, 1967: A review board delivers a damning report to NASA Administrator James Webb about problem areas in the Apollo spacecraft. The recommended modifications are completed by Oct. 9, 1968.

April 23, 1967: Soyuz 1 launches but myriad problems surface. The solar panels do not unfold, there are stability problems and the parachute fails to open on descent causing the death of Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov.

Oct. 11, 1968: Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, launches on a Saturn 1 for an 11-day mission in Earth orbit. The mission also featured the first live TV broadcast of humans in space.

Dec. 21, 1968: Apollo 8 launches on a Saturn V and becomes the first manned mission to orbit the moon.

Jan. 16, 1969: Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 rendezvous and dock and perform the first in-orbit crew transfer.

March 3, 1969: Apollo 9 launches. During the mission, tests of the lunar module are conducted in Earth orbit.

May 22, 1969: Apollo 10's Lunar Module Snoopy comes within 8.6 miles (14 kilometers) of the moon's surface.

July 20, 1969: Six years after U.S. President John F. Kennedy's assassination, the Apollo 11 crew lands on the Moon, fulfilling his promise to put an American there by the end of the decade and return him safely to Earth.

Nov. 26, 1965: France launches its first satellite, Astérix, on a Diamant A rocket, becoming the third nation to do so.

Feb. 11, 1970: Japan's Lambda 4 rocket launches a Japanese test satellite, Ohsumi into orbit.

April 13, 1970: An explosion ruptures thecommand module of Apollo 13, days after launch and within reach of the moon. Abandoning the mission to save their lives, the astronauts climb into the Lunar Module and slingshot around the Moon to speed their return back to Earth.

April 24, 1970: The People's Republic of China launches its first satellite, Dong Fang Hong-1, on a Long March 1 rocket, becoming the fifth nation capable of launching its own satellites into space.

Sept. 12: 1970: The Soviet Union launches Luna 16, the first successful automated lunar sample retrieval mission.

April 19, 1971: A Proton rocket launches thefirst space station, Salyut 1, from Baikonur.

June 6, 1971: Soyuz 11 launches successfully, docking with Salyut 1. The three cosmonauts are killed during re-entry from a pressure leak in the cabin.

July 26, 1971: Apollo 15 launches with a Boeing-built Lunar Roving Vehicle and better life-support equipment to explore the Moon.

Oct. 28, 1971: The United Kingdom successfully launches its Prospero satellite into orbit on a Black Arrow rocket, becoming the sixth nation capable of launching its own satellites into space.

Nov. 13, 1971: Mariner 9 becomes the first spacecraft to orbit Mars and provides the first complete map of the planet's surface.

Jan. 5, 1972: U.S. President Richard Nixon announces that NASA is developing a reusable launch vehicle, the space shuttle.

March 3, 1972: Pioneer 10, the first spacecraft to leave the solar system, launches from Cape Kennedy, Fla.

Dec. 19, 1972: Apollo 17, the last mission to the moon, returns to Earth.

May 14, 1973: A Saturn V rocket launches Skylab, the United States' first space station.

March 29, 1974: Mariner 10 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Mercury.

April 19, 1975: The Soviet Union launches India's first satellite, Aryabhata.

May 31, 1975: The European Space Agency is formed.

July 17 1975: Soyuz-19 and Apollo 18 dock.

Aug. 9, 1975: ESA launches its first satellite, Cos-B, aboard a Thor-Delta rocket.

Sept. 9, 1975: Viking 2, composed of a lander and an orbiter, launches for Mars.

July 20, 1976: The U.S. Viking 1 lands on Mars, becoming the first successful Mars lander.

Aug. 20, 1977: Voyager 2 is launched on a course toward Uranus and Neptune.

Sept. 5, 1977: Voyager 1 is launched to perform flybys of Jupiter and Saturn.

Sept. 29, 1977: Salyut 6 reaches orbit. It is the first space station equipped with docking stations on either end, which allow for two vehicles to dock at once, including the Progress supply ship.

Feb. 22, 1978: The first GPS satellite, Navstar 1, launches aboard an Atlas F rocket.

July 11, 1979: Skylab, the first American space station, crashes back to Earth in the sparsely populated grasslands of western Australia.

Sept. 1, 1979: Pioneer 11 becomes the first spacecraft to fly past Saturn.

Dec. 24, 1979: The French-built Ariane rocket, Europe's first launch vehicle, launches successfully.

July 18 1980: India launches its Rohini 1 satellite. By using its domestically developed SLV-3 rocket, India becomes the seventh nation capable of sending objects into space by itself.

April 12, 1981: Space Shuttle Columbia lifts off from Cape Canaveral, beginning the first space mission for NASA's new astronaut transportation system.

June 24, 1982: French air force test pilot Jean-Loup Chrétien launches to the Soviet Union's Salyut 7 aboard Soyuz T-6.

Nov. 11, 1982: Shuttle Columbia launches. During its mission, it deploys two commercial communications satellites.

June 18, 1983: Sally Ride aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger becomes the first American woman in space.

Feb. 7, 1984: Astronauts Bruce McCandless and Robert Stewart maneuver as many as 328 feet (100 meters) from the Space Shuttle Challenger using the Manned Maneuvering Unit, which contains small thrusters, in the first ever untethered spacewalks.

April 8, 1984: Challenger crew repairs the Solar Max satellite during a spacewalk.

Sept. 11: 1985: The International Cometary Explorer, launched by NASA in 1978, performs the first comet flyby.

Jan. 24, 1986: Voyager 2 completes the first and only spacecraft flyby of Uranus.

Jan. 28, 1986: Challenger explodes 73 seconds after launch, grounding the shuttle fleet for more than two years.

Feb. 20, 1986: The Soviet Union launches theMir space station.

March 13, 1986: A two-cosmonaut crew launches aboard Soyuz T-15 to power up the Mir space station. During their 18-month mission, they also revive the abandoned Salyut 7, and take parts that are later placed aboard Mir.

June 15, 1988: PanAmSat launches its first satellite, PanAmSat 1, on an Ariane 4 rocket, giving Intelsat its first taste of competition.

Sept. 19, 1988: Israel launches its first satellite, the Ofeq 1 reconnaissance probe, aboard an Israeli Shavit rocket.

Nov. 15, 1988: The Soviet Union launches its Buran space shuttle on its only flight, an unpiloted test.

May 4, 1989: The Space Shuttle Atlantis launches the Magellan space probe to use radar to map the surface of Venus.

Oct. 18, 1989: Shuttle Atlantis launches with Jupiter-bound Galileo space probe on board.

April 7, 1990: China launches the Asiasat-1 communications satellite, completing its first commercial contract.

April 25, 1990: The Space Shuttle Discovery releases the Hubble Space Telescope into Earth orbit.

Oct. 29, 1991: The U.S. Galileo spacecraft, on its way to Jupiter, successfully encounters the asteroid Gaspra, obtaining images and other data during its flyby.

April 23, 1992: The U.S. Cosmic Background Explorer spacecraft detects the first evidence of structure in the residual radiation left over from the Big Bang that created the Universe.

Dec. 28, 1992: Lockheed and Khrunichev Enterprise announce plans to form Lockheed-Khrunichev-Energia International, a new company to market Proton rockets.

June 21, 1993: Shuttle Endeavour launches carrying Spacehab, a privately owned laboratory that sits in the shuttle cargo bay.

Dec. 2, 1993: Endeavour launches on a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.

Dec. 17, 1993: DirecTV launches its first satellite, DirecTV 1, aboard an Ariane 4 rocket.

Feb. 7, 1994: The first Milstar secure communications satellite launches. The geosynchronous satellites are used by battlefield commanders and for strategic communications.

Oct. 15, 1994: India launches its four-stage PolarSatellite Launch Vehicle for the first time.

Jan. 26, 1995: A Chinese Long March rocket carrying the Hughes-built Apstar-1 rocket fails. The accident investigation, along with the probe of a subsequent Long March failure that destroyed an Intelsat satellite, leads to technology-transfer allegations that ultimately result in the U.S. government barring launches of American-built satellites on Chinese rockets.

Feb. 3, 1995: The Space Shuttle Discovery launches anddocks with the Mir space station.

March 15, 1995: Aerospace giants Lockheed Corp. and Martin Marietta Corp. merge.

July 13, 1995: Galileo releases its space probe, which is bound for Jupiter and its moons.

Aug. 7, 1996: NASA and Stanford University researchers announce a paper contending that a 4-billion-year-old Martian meteorite, called ALH 84001, found in Antarctica in 1984, contains fossilized traces of carbonate materials that suggest primitive life might once have existed on Mars. That contention remains controversial.

May 5, 1997: Satellite mobile phone company Iridium launches its first five satellites on a Delta 2 rocket.

June 25 1997: An unmanned Russian Progress supply spacecraft collides with the Mir space station.

July 4, 1997: The Mars Pathfinder lander and its accompanying Sojourner rover touch down on the surface of Mars.

Aug. 1, 1997: The Boeing Co. and the McDonnell Douglas Corp. merge, keeping Boeing's name.

Feb. 14, 1998: Globalstar, a satellite mobile telephone company, launches its first four satellites on a Delta 2 rocket.

Sept. 9, 1998: A Russian Zenit 2 rocket launches and subsequently crashes, destroying all 12 Loral-built Globalstar satellites aboard. The payload had an estimated value of about $180 million.

Nov. 20, 1998: Russia's Zarya control module, the first segment of the International Space Station, launches into space and unfurls its solar arrays.

March 27, 1999: Sea Launch Co. launches a demonstration satellite, successfully completing its first launch.

July 23, 1999: The Chandra X-ray observatory, NASA's flagship mission for X-ray astronomy, launches aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia.

Aug. 13, 1999: Iridium files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, after being unable to pay its creditors. Iridium Satellite LLC later acquired the original Iridium's assets from bankruptcy.

Nov. 19, 1999: China successfully test launches the unmanned Shenzhou 1.

July 10, 2000: Europe's largest aerospace company, European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., EADS, forms with the consolidation of DaimlerChrysler Aerospace AG of Munich, Aerospatiale Matra S.A. of Paris, and Construcciones Aeronáuticas S.A. of Madrid.

March 18, 2001: After launch delays with XM-1, XM Satellite Radio's XM-2 satellite becomes the company's first satellite in orbit when it is launched by Sea Launch Co.

March 23, 2001: After being mothballed in 1999, Mir descends into the Earth's atmosphere and breaks up over the Pacific Ocean.

May 6, 2001: U.S. entrepreneur Dennis Tito returns to Earth aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to become the world's first paying tourist to visit the International Space Station.

Aug. 29, 2001: Japan's workhorse launch system, the two-stage H-2A rocket, launches for the first time.

Feb. 15, 2002: After having trouble selling its satellite mobile phone service, Globalstar voluntarily files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from escalating creditor debt. The company emerged from bankruptcy April 14, 2004.

Feb. 1, 2003: The Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates as it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere, killing the crew. Damage from insulating foam hitting the orbiter's leading wing on liftoff is later cited as the cause of the accident.

Aug 22, 2003: The VLS-V03, a Brazilian prototype rocket, explodes on the launch pad at Alcántara killing 21 people.

Aug. 25, 2003: NASA launches the Spitzer Space Telescope aboard a Delta rocket.

Oct. 1, 2003: Japan's two space agencies, the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science and the National Space Development Agency of Japan, merge into the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

Oct. 15, 2003: Yang Liwei becomes China's first taikonaut, having launched aboard Shenzhou 5.

Jan. 4, 2004: The first Mars Exploration Rover, Spirit, lands on Mars. Its twin, Opportunity lands Jan. 25.

Jan. 14, 2004: President George W. Bush advocates space exploration missions to the moon and Mars for NASA in his Vision for Space Exploration speech.

Sept. 20, 2004: India launches its three-stage Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle for the first time.

Oct. 4, 2004: Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne piloted craft wins the X Prize by flying over 100 kilometers above Earth twice within two weeks.

July 26, 2005: Discovery becomes the first shuttle to launch since the Columbia disaster more than two years before. While the crew returned safely, the loss of several pieces of foam debris prompted further investigation, which delayed future shuttle missions.

Oct. 12, 2005: A two-taikonaut crew launches aboard the Chinese Shenzhou 6.

Oct 19, 2005: The last of the Martin Marietta-built Titan 4 heavy-lift rockets launches.

Jan. 19, 2006: New Horizons, NASA's first-ever mission to the dwarf planet Pluto and its moons, launches atop an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Flies past Jupiter one year later in what is billed as NASA's fastest mission to date.

July 3, 2006: Intelsat acquires fellow fixed satellite service provider PanAmSat for $6.4 billion.

July 4, 2006: NASA's second post-Columbia accident test flight, STS-121 aboard Discovery, begins a successful space station-bound mission, returning the U.S. orbiter fleet to flight status.

Sept. 9., 2006: NASA resumes construction of the International Space Station with the launch of the shuttle Atlantis on STS-115 after two successful return to flight test missions. Atlantis' launch occurs after nearly four years without a station construction flight.

Oct. 11, 2006: Lockheed Martin completes the sale of its majority share in International Launch Services to Space Transport Inc. for $60 million.

Jan. 11, 2007: China downs one of its weather satellites, Fengyun-1C, with a ground launched missile. In doing so, China joins Russia and the United States as the only nations to have successfully tested anti-satellite weapons.

April 6, 2007: The European Commission approves the acquisition of French-Italian Alcatel Alenia by Paris-based Thales, thus creating satellite manufacturer Thales Alenia Space.?

Aug. 8, 2007: NASA's Space Shuttle Endeavour launches toward the International Space Station on the STS-118 construction mission. The shuttle crew includes teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan, NASA's first educator spaceflyer, who originally served backup for the first Teacher-in-Space Christa McAuliffe who was lost with six crewmates during the 1986 Challenger accident.

Sept. 27, 2007: Dawn, the first ion-powered probe to visit two celestial bodies in one go, launches on an eight-year mission to the asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres, the two largest space rocks in the solar system.

Oct. 1, 2007: NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, the first female commander of the International Space Station, prepares for an Oct. 10 launch with her Expedition 16 crewmate Yuri Malenchenko and Malaysia's first astronaut Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor. Whitson, and NASA's second female shuttle commander Pamela Melroy, will command a joint space station construction mission in late October.

Oct. 4, 2007: The Space Age turns 50, five decades after the historic launch of Sputnik 1.

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On Oct. 4, 2007, the Space Age celebrated the 50th anniversary of the historic launch of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, by the former Soviet Union. The space shot also launched the Space Race to the moon between the United States and the Soviet Union.

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Men Walk On Moon
Astronauts Land On Plain; Collect Rocks, Plant Flag A Powdery Surface Is Closely Explored
By John Noble Wilford

Special to The New York Times

Houston, Monday, July 21--Men have landed and walked on the moon.

Two Americans, astronauts of Apollo 11, steered their fragile four-legged lunar module safely and smoothly to the historic landing yesterday at 4:17:40 P.M., Eastern daylight time.

Neil A. Armstrong, the 38-year-old civilian commander, radioed to earth and the mission control room here:

"Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."

The first men to reach the moon--Mr. Armstrong and his co-pilot, Col. Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. of the Air Force--brought their ship to rest on a level, rock-strewn plain near the southwestern shore of the arid Sea of Tranquility.

About six and a half hours later, Mr. Armstrong opened the landing craft's hatch, stepped slowly down the ladder and declared as he planted the first human footprint on the lunar crust:

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

His first step on the moon came at 10:56:20 P.M., as a television camera outside the craft transmitted his every move to an awed and excited audience of hundreds of millions of people on earth.
Tentative Steps Test Soil
Mr. Armstrong's initial steps were tentative tests of the lunar soil's firmness and of his ability to move about easily in his bulky white spacesuit and backpacks and under the influence of lunar gravity, which is one-sixth that of the earth.

"The surface is fine and powdery," the astronaut reported. "I can pick it up loosely with my toe. It does adhere in fine layers like powdered charcoal to the sole and sides of my boots. I only go in a small fraction of an inch, maybe an eighth of an inch. But I can see the footprints of my boots in the treads in the fine sandy particles.

After 19 minutes of Mr. Armstrong's testing, Colonel Aldrin joined him outside the craft.

The two men got busy setting up another television camera out from the lunar module, planting an American flag into the ground, scooping up soil and rock samples, deploying scientific experiments and hopping and loping about in a demonstration of their lunar agility.

They found walking and working on the moon less taxing than had been forecast. Mr. Armstrong once reported he was "very comfortable."

And people back on earth found the black-and-white television pictures of the bug- shaped lunar module and the men tramping about it so sharp and clear as to seem unreal, more like a toy and toy-like figures than human beings on the most daring and far- reaching expedition thus far undertaken.
Nixon Telephones Congratulations
During one break in the astronauts' work, President Nixon congratulated them from the White House in what, he said, "certainly has to be the most historic telephone call ever made."

"Because of what you have done," the President told the astronauts, "the heavens have become a part of man's world. And as you talk to us from the Sea of Tranquility it required us to redouble our efforts to bring peace and tranquility to earth.

"For one priceless moment in the whole history of man all the people on this earth are truly one--one in their pride in what you have done and one in our prayers that you will return safely to earth."

Mr. Armstrong replied:

"Thank you Mr. President. It's a great honor and privilege for us to be here representing not only the United States but men of peace of all nations, men with interests and a curiosity and men with a vision for the future."

Mr. Armstrong and Colonel Aldrin returned to their landing craft and closed the hatch at 1:12 A.M., 2 hours 21 minutes after opening the hatch on the moon. While the third member of the crew, Lieut. Col. Michael Collins of the Air Force, kept his orbital vigil overhead in the command ship, the two moon explorers settled down to sleep.

Outside their vehicle the astronauts had found a bleak world. It was just before dawn, with the sun low over the eastern horizon behind them and the chill of the long lunar nights still clinging to the boulders, small craters and hills before them.

Colonel Aldrin said that he could see "literally thousands of small craters" and a low hill out in the distance. But most of all he was impressed initially by the "variety of shapes, angularities, granularities" of the rocks and soil where the landing craft, code-named Eagle had set down.

The landing was made four miles west of the aiming point, but well within the designated area. An apparent error in some data fed into the craft's guidance computer from the earth was said to have accounted for the discrepancy.

Suddenly the astronauts were startled to see that the computer was guiding them toward a possibly disastrous touchdown in a boulder-filled crater about the size of a football field.

Mr. Armstrong grabbed manual control of the vehicle and guided it safely over the crater to a smoother spot, the rocket engine stirring a cloud of moon dust during the final seconds of descent.

Soon after the landing, upon checking and finding the spacecraft in good condition, Mr. Armstrong and Colonel Aldrin made their decision to open the hatch and get out earlier than originally scheduled. The flight plan had called for the moon walk to begin at 2:12 A.M.

Flight controllers here said that the early moon walk would not mean that the astronauts would also leave the moon earlier. The lift-off is scheduled to come at about 1:55 P.M. today.

Their departure from the landing craft out onto the surface was delayed for a time when they had trouble depressurizing the cabin so that they could open the hatch. All the oxygen in the cabin had to be vented.

Once the pressure gauge finally dropped to zero, they opened the hatch and Mr. Armstrong stepped out on the small porch at the top of the nine-step ladder.

"O.K., Houston, I'm on the porch," he reported, as he descended.

On the second step from the top, he pulled a lanyard that released a fold-down equipment compartment on the side of the lunar module. This deployed the television camera that transmitted the dramatic pictures of man's first steps on the moon.
Ancient Dream Fulfilled
It was man's first landing on another world, the realization of centuries of dreams, the fulfillment of a decade of striving, a triumph of modern technology and personal courage, the most dramatic demonstration of what man can do if he applies his mind and resources with single-minded determination.

The moon, long the symbol of the impossible and the inaccessible, was now within man's reach, the first port of call in this new age of spacefaring.

Immediately after the landing, Dr. Thomas O. Paine, administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, telephoned President Nixon in Washington to report:

"Mr. President, it is my honor on behalf of the entire NASA team to report to you that the Eagle has landed on the Sea of Tranquility and our astronauts are safe and looking forward to starting the exploration of the moon."

The landing craft from the Apollo 11 spaceship was scheduled to remain on the moon about 22 hours, while Colonel Collins of the Air Force, the third member of the Apollo 11 crew, piloted the command ship, Columbia, in orbit overhead.

"You're looking good in every respect," Mission Control told the two men of Eagle after examining data indicating that the module should be able to remain on the moon the full 22 hours.

Mr. Armstrong and Colonel Aldrin planned to sleep after the moon walk and then make their preparations for the lift-off for the return to a rendezvous with Colonel Collins in the command ship.

Apollo 11's journey into history began last Wednesday from launching pad 39-A at Cape Kennedy, Fla. After an almost flawless three-day flight, the joined command ship and lunar module swept into an orbit of the moon yesterday afternoon.

The three men were awake for their big day at 7 A.M. when their spacecraft emerged from behind the moon on its 10th revolution, moving from east to west across the face of the moon along its equator.

Their orbit was 73.6 miles by 64 miles in altitude, their speed 3,660 miles an hour. At that altitude and speed, it took about two hours to complete a full orbit of the moon.

The sun was rising over their landing site on the Sea of Tranquility.

"We can pick out almost all of the features we've identified previously," Mr. Armstrong reported.

After breakfast, on their 11th revolution Colonel Aldrin and then Mr. Armstrong, both dressed in their white pressurized suits, crawled through the connecting tunnel into the lunar module.

They turned on the electrical power, checked all the switch settings on the cockpit panel and checked communications with the command ship and the ground controllers. Everything was "nominal," as the spacemen say.
LM Ready for Descent
The lunar module was ready. Its four legs with yard-wide footpads were extended so that the height of the 16-ton vehicle now measured 22 feet and 11 inches and its width 31 feet.

Mr. Armstrong stood at the left side of the cockpit, and Colonel Aldrin at the right. Both were loosely restrained by harnesses. They had closed the hatch to the connecting tunnel.

The walls of their craft were finely milled aluminum foil. If anything happened so that it could not return to the command ship, the lunar module would be too delicate to withstand a plunge through earth's atmosphere, even if it had the rocket power.

Nearly three-fourths of the vehicle's weight was in propellants for the descent and ascent rockets--Aerozine 50 and nitrogen oxide, which substituted for the oxygen, making combustion possible.

It was an ungainly craft that creaked and groaned in flight. But years of development and testing had determined that it was the lightest and most practical way to get two men to the moon's surface.

Before Apollo 11 disappeared behind the moon near the end of its 12th orbit, mission control gave the astronauts their "go" for undocking--the separation of Eagle from Columbia.

Colonel Collins had already released 12 of the latches holding the two ships together at the connecting tunnel. He did this when he closed the hatch at the command ship's nose. While behind the moon, he was to flip a switch on the control panel to release the three remaining latches by a spring action.

At 1:50 P.M., when communications signals were reacquired, Mission Control asked: "How does it look?"

"Eagle has wings," Mr. Armstrong replied.

The two ships were then only a few feet apart. But at 2:12 P.M., Colonel Collins fired the command ship's maneuvering rockets to move about two miles away and in a slightly different orbit from the lunar module.

"It looks like you've got a fine-looking flying machine there, Eagle, despite the fact you're upside down," Colonel Collins commented, watching the spidery lunar module receding in the distance.

"Somebody's upside down," Mr. Armstrong replied.

What is "up" and what is "down" is never quite clear in the absence of landmarks and the sensation of gravity's pull.

As Mr. Armstrong and Colonel Aldrin rode the lunar module back around to the moon's far side, the rocket engine in the vehicle's lower stage was pointed toward the line of flight. The two pilots were leaning toward the cockpit controls, riding backwards and facing downward.

"Everything is 'go,'" they were assured by Mission Control.

Their on-board guidance and navigation computer was instructed to trigger a 29.8-second firing of the descent rocket, the 9,870-pound-thrust throttable engine that would slow down the lunar module and send it toward the moon on a long, curving trajectory.

The firing was set to take place at 3:08 P.M., when the craft would be behind the moon and once again out of touch with the ground.

Suspense built up in the control room here. Flight controllers stood silently at their consoles. Among those waiting for word of the rocket firing were Dr. Thomas O. Paine, the space agency's administrator, most of the Apollo project officials and several astronauts.

At 3:46 P.M., contact was established with the command ship.

Colonel Collins reported, "Listen, baby, things are going just swimmingly, just beautiful."

There was still no word from the lunar module for two minutes. Then came a weak signal, some static and whistling, and finally the calm voice of Mr. Armstrong.

"The burn was on time," the Apollo 11 commander declared.

When he read out data on the beginning of the descent, Mission Control concluded that it "look great." The lunar module had already descended from an altitude of 65.5 miles to 21 miles and was coasting steadily downward.

Eugene F. Kranz, the flight director, turned to his associates and said, "We're off to a good start. Play it cool."

Colonel Aldrin reported some oscillations in the vehicle's antenna, but nothing serious. Several times the astronauts were told to turn the vehicle slightly to move the antenna into a better position for communications over the 230,000 miles.

"You're 'go' for PDI," radioed Mission Control, referring to the powered descent initiation--the beginning of the nearly 13-minute final blast of the rocket to the soft touchdown.

When the two men reached an altitude of 50,000 feet, which was approximately the lowest point reached by Apollo 10 in May, green lights on the computer display keyboard in the cockpit blinked the number 99.

This signaled Mr. Armstrong that he had five seconds to decide whether to go ahead for the landing or continue on its orbital path back to the command ship. He pressed the "proceed" button.

The throttleable engine built up thrust gradually, firing continuously as the lunar module descended along the steadily steepening trajectory to the landing site about 250 miles away:

"Looking good," Mission Control radioed the men.

Four minutes after the firing the lunar module was down to 40,000 feet. After five and a half minutes, it was 33,500 feet. At six minutes, 27,000 feet.

"Better than the simulator," said Colonel Aldrin, referring to their practice landings at the spacecraft center.

Seven minutes after the firing, the men were 21,000 feet above the surface and still moving forward toward the landing site. The guidance computer was driving the rocket engine.

The lunar module was slowing down. At an altitude of about 7,200 feet, with the landing site still about five miles ahead, the computer commanded control jets to fire and tilt the bug-shaped craft almost upright so that its triangular windows pointed forward.

Mr. Armstrong and Colonel Aldrin then got their first close-up view of the plain they were aiming for. It was then about three and a half minutes to touchdown.

The brownish-gray panorama rushed below them--myriad craters hills and ridges, deep cracks and ancient rubble on the moon, which Dr. Robert Jastrow, the space agency scientist, called the "Rosetta Stone of life."

"You're 'go' for landing," Mission Control informed the two men.

The Eagle closed in, dropping about 20 feet a second, until it was hovering almost directly over the landing area at an altitude of 500 feet.

Its floor was littered with boulders.

It was when the craft reached an altitude of 300 feet that Mr. Armstrong took over semimanual control for the rest of the way. The computer continued to have control of the rocket firing, but the astronaut could adjust the craft's hovering position.

He was expected to take over such control anyway, but the sight of a crater looming ahead at the touchdown point made it imperative.

As Mr. Armstrong said later, "The auto-targeting was taking us right into a football field- sized crater, with a large number of big boulders and rocks."

For about 90 seconds, he peered through the window in search of a clear touchdown point. Using the lever at his right hand, he tilted the vehicle forward to redirect the firing of the maneuvering jets and thus shift its hovering position.

Finally, Mr. Armstrong found the spot he liked, and the blue light on the cockpit flashed to indicate that five-foot-long probes, like curb feelers, on three of the four legs had touched the surface.

"Contact light," Mr. Armstrong radioed.

He pressed a button marked "Stop" and reported, "okay, engine stop."

There were a few more cryptic messages of functions performed.

Then Maj. Charles M. Duke, the capsule communicator in the control room, radioed to the two astronauts:

"We copy you down, Eagle."

"Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."

"Roger, Tranquility," Major Duke replied. "We copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We are breathing again. Thanks a lot."

Colonel Aldrin assured Mission Control it was a "very smooth touchdown."

The Eagle came to rest at an angle of only about four and a half degrees. The angle could have been more than 30 degrees without threatening to tip the vehicle over.

The landing site, about 120 miles southwest of the crater Maskelyne, is on the right side of the moon as seen from earth. The position: Lat. 0.799 degrees N., Long. 23.46 degrees E.

Although Mr. Armstrong is known as a man of few words, his heartbeats told of his excitement upon leading man's first landing on the moon.

At the time of the descent rocket ignition, his heartbeat rate registered 110 a minute--77 is normal for him--and it shot up to 156 at touchdown.

At the time of the landing, Colonel Collins was riding the command ship Columbia about 65 miles overhead.

Mission control informed the colonel, "Eagle is at Tranquility.

"Yea, I heard the whole thing," Colonel Collins, the man who went so far but not all the way, replied. "Fantastic."

When the Apollo astronauts landed on the Sea of Tranquility, the temperature at their touchdown site was about zero degrees Fahrenheit in the sunlight, even colder in the shade.

During a lunar night, which lasts 14 earth days, temperatures plunge as low as 280 degrees below zero. Unlike earth, the moon, having no atmosphere to act as a blanket, is unable to retain any of the day's warmth during the night.

During the equally long lunar day, temperatures rise as high as 280 degrees. By the time of Eagle's departure from the moon, with the sun higher in the sky, the temperatures there will have risen to about 90 degrees.

This particular landing site was one of five selected by Apollo project officials after analysis of pictures returned by the five Lunar Orbiter unmanned spacecraft.

All five sites are situated across the lunar equator on the side of the moon always facing earth. Being on the equator reduces the maneuvering for the astronauts to get there. Being on the near side of the moon, of course, makes it possible to communicate with the explorers.

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Astronauts Land On Plain; Collect Rocks, Plant Flag A Powdery Surface Is Closely Explored By John Noble Wilford Special to The New York Times Houston, Monday, July 21--Men have landed and walked on the moon. Two Americans, astronauts of Apollo 11, steered their fragile four-legged lunar module safely and smoothly to the historic landing yesterday at 4:17:40 P.M., Eastern daylight time.

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"One giant leap for mankind," thanks to the Apollo program.

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A little more than 40 years ago, an American astronaut climbed down the ladder of his lunar landing module - the Eagle - and became the first human to touch the moon's surface. As he steadied himself, he said: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." Around the globe, an estimated 530 million people watched on their televisions as Neil Armstrong uttered those now-famous words. On August 25, this American hero died at age 82.

Armstrong and fellow moon walker Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin briefly became the first ambassadors to another world on July 20, 1969. Setting foot on another celestial body was a massive and breathtaking achievement. And Armstrong's words brought the human scale of that accomplishment to households around the world.

"Neil was among the greatest of American heroes - not just of his time, but of all time," said President Barack Obama. "When [Armstrong] and his fellow crew members lifted off aboard Apollo 11 in 1969, they carried with them the aspirations of an entire nation." These men showed the world "that with enough drive and ingenuity, anything is possible," the president added. And these brave individuals "delivered a moment of human achievement that will never be forgotten."

Preparing for a life of exploration

Armstrong fell in love with flying at a young age. By 15 he was already taking lessons. He picked up odd jobs around his hometown to pay for flight time in a small airplane. He got his student's flying permit, at 16, before he got his driver's license.

In college, he trained as an aeronautical and aerospace engineer. In this field, people learn how to design and control not only aircraft but also jets and other propulsion systems.

But before he could finish college, Armstrong was called up for military service. He signed on to become a Navy fighter pilot. He flew 78 combat missions in Korea. During one, his plane was hit and he had to parachute out. It was an event that could have killed him. But it didn't frighten him off of flying. Instead, he went back to school and finished his studies. Then he joined a federal agency that would become the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA.

There, for 17 years, Neil Armstrong held a number of different jobs. He started as a test pilot for many pioneering aircraft. These included the X-15, an experimental vehicle that could zoom through the atmosphere at more than 4,000 miles per hour! He made seven flights on that space plane, at one point reaching an altitude of 63,198 meters (207,500 feet). That's about six times higher than today's standard jumbo jets. And he didn't just pilot the X-15. He also worked closely with the aircraft's engineers and designers to improve the plane's flight controls. In all, Armstrong flew more than 200 different models of aircraft, including jets, helicopters and gliders.

That all changed in 1962 when Armstrong joined NASA's astronaut corps. Suddenly, his focus became rocketry and space exploration. Within four years, he was given the command of the Gemini 8 spacecraft, from which he controlled the first successful docking, or linkup, of two vehicles in space.

But the highlight of his career was Apollo 11, that famous mission to the moon. And almost 1 in 5 people alive at the time shared in the excitement, watching as blurry television images showed Armstrong descending to the lunar surface.

His team's landing module had set down in a region known as the Sea of Tranquility. Within 20 minutes, Aldrin joined him. There, the two took photos, collected moon rocks and set up some science experiments.

They also left mementos for future space travelers. These included a patch carrying the names of Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee - Apollo 1 crew members who died in a launchpad fire. Armstrong and Aldrin also left medals inscribed with the names of Vladimir Komarov and Yuri Gagarin, two Russian astronauts (called cosmonauts) who died during space flights in 1967 and 1968. Finally, they left a small silicon disc that carried a miniature goodwill message from 73 world leaders (its message is so small that you would need a microscope to see the words).
Neil Armstrong walking on the moon for the first time.
Aldrin returned to the Eagle after 93 minutes on the moon's surface. Armstrong, the mission's commander, stayed 40 minutes longer. He savored the last bits of this huge adventure. Then the pair rejoined Michael Collins aboard the Apollo 11 space capsule for their return trip home. In all, the team spent more than eight days in space and traveled 953,054 miles (more than 1.5 million kilometers).

And still their trip wasn't really over. The men couldn't step out of their space suits and rush to hug their families for another three weeks. Once back on Earth, the men had to remain in quarantine. It was a precautionary measure to make sure no one had picked up a dangerous germ during their lunar trek and carried it home.

After his Apollo 11 trip to the moon, Armstrong stayed on at NASA and eventually rose to become its deputy associate administrator, in Washington, D.C. Later, he became a college professor, teaching aerospace engineering. He then worked for several aerospace companies. It seems the man never could get enough of the idea of cruising through - and occasionally outside of - Earth's atmosphere.

After his death, Armstrong's family issued a statement. They said, in part: "While we mourn the loss of a very good man, we also celebrate his remarkable life and hope that it serves as an example to young people around the world to work hard to make their dreams come true, to be willing to explore and push the limits, and to selflessly serve a cause greater than themselves."

Observes NASA Administrator Charles Bolden: "As long as there are history books, Neil Armstrong will be included in them, remembered for taking humankind's first small step on a world beyond our own."

As a mark of respect for Armstrong and what his achievements represented, President Obama ordered that flags throughout the country and at U.S. embassies abroad be lowered to half-staff on the day Armstrong is buried.

aerospace A research field devoted to the study of Earth's atmosphere and the space beyond or to aircraft that travel in the atmosphere and space.

astronautics A research field specializing in the design and construction of aircraft - including those created for space travel.

Apollo missions NASA's third human spaceflight program. It sought to develop the technologies needed for long-distance space travel. It got a big kick-start after President John F. Kennedy proposed in 1961 creating the national goal of "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth."

astronaut People trained to travel into space for research and exploration.

celestial body Any naturally formed objects of substantial size in space. Examples include comets, asteroids, planets, moons, stars and galaxies.

cosmonaut Russian term for astronaut.

docking The act of bringing together and inserting one thing into another.

engineer An individual who applies science to practical purposes, such as the design or development of machines, structures or systems.

lander A special, small vehicle designed to ferry humans between a spacecraft and the celestial body they will explore.

lunar Relating to Earth's moon.

propulsion The act or process of driving something forward, using a force. For instance, jet engines are one type of propulsion for keeping airplanes aloft.

Janet Raloff is the Editor, Digital of Science News Explores. Prior to this, she was an environmental reporter for Science News, specializing in toxicology. To her never-ending surprise, her daughter became a toxicologist.

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Forty-five years ago, an American astronaut climbed down the ladder of his lunar landing module - the Eagle - and became the first human to touch the moon's surface.

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SpaceX Launches Rocket Carrying Space Station Cargo (Published 2017)

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The rocket lifted off from a launchpad used for the Apollo moon missions. It was the first launch from Kennedy Space Center in more than five years.

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Aboard the Soviet's Sputnik 2, Laika, a dog, became the very first living creature to enter orbit on November 3, 1957. However, since the Soviets did not create a re-entry plan, Laika died in space. Laika's death sparked debates about animal rights around the world.

Three Weeks to Build a Rocket

The Cold War was only a decade old when the space race between the Soviet Union and the United States began. On October 4, 1957, the Soviets were the first to successfully launch a rocket into space with their launch of Sputnik 1, a basketball-sized satellite.

Approximately a week after Sputnik 1's successful launch, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev suggested that another rocket should be launched into space to mark the 40th anniversary of the Russian Revolution on November 7, 1957. That left Soviet engineers only three weeks to fully design and build a new rocket.

Choosing a Dog

The Soviets, in ruthless competition with the United States, wanted to make another "first;" so they decided to send the first living creature into orbit. While Soviet engineers hurriedly worked on the design, three stray dogs (Albina, Mushka, and Laika) were extensively tested and trained for the flight.

The dogs were confined in small places, subjected to extremely loud noises and vibrations, and made to wear a newly created space suit. All of these tests were to condition the dogs to the experiences they would likely have during the flight. Though all three did well, it was Laika who was chosen to board Sputnik 2.

Into the Module

Laika, which means "barker" in Russian, was a three-year-old, stray mutt that weighed 13 pounds and had a calm demeanor. She was placed in her restrictive module several days in advance.

Right before launch, Laika was covered in an alcohol solution and painted with iodine in several spots so that sensors could be placed on her. The sensors were to monitor her heartbeat, blood pressure, and other bodily functions to understand any physical changes that might occur in space.

Although Laika's module was restrictive, it was padded and had just enough room for her to lay down or stand as she wished. She also had access to special, gelatinous, space food made for her.

Laika's Launch

On November 3, 1957, Sputnik 2 launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome (now located in Kazakhstan near the Aral Sea). The rocket successfully reached space and the spacecraft, with Laika inside, began to orbit the Earth. The spacecraft circled the Earth every hour and 42 minutes, traveling approximately 18,000 miles per hour.

As the world watched and waited for news of Laika's condition, the Soviet Union announced that a recovery plan had not been established for Laika. With only three weeks to create the new spacecraft, they did not have time to create a way for Laika to make it home. The de facto plan was for Laika to die in space.

Laika Dies in Space

Although all agree that Laika made it into orbit, there had long been a question as to how long she lived after that.

Some said that the plan was for her to live for several days and that her last food allotment was poisoned. Others said she died four days into the trip when there was an electrical burnout and the interior temperatures rose dramatically. And still, others said she died five to seven hours into the flight from stress and heat.

The true story of when Laika died was not revealed until 2002, when Soviet scientist Dimitri Malashenkov addressed the World Space Congress in Houston, Texas. Malashenkov ended four decades of speculation when he admitted that Laika had died from overheating just hours after the launch.

Long after Laika's death, the spacecraft continued to orbit the Earth with all its systems off until it reentered Earth's atmosphere five months later, on April 14, 1958, and burned up on reentry.

A Canine Hero

Laika proved that it was possible for a living being to enter space. Her death also sparked animal rights debates across the planet. In the Soviet Union, Laika and all the other animals that made space flight possible are remembered as heroes.

In 2008, a statue of Laika was unveiled near a military research facility in Moscow.

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How Did Laika the Dog Wind Up Being the First Animal in Space?

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Laika the dog became the very first living creature to enter orbit after being launched on board the Soviet's Sputnik 2 on November 3, 1957.

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ISS Astronauts Begin Testing BEAM — The World's First Inflatable Space Habitat

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ISS Astronauts Begin Testing BEAM — The World's First Inflatable Space Habitat

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Photo Credit: By NASA [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

On May 26, NASA astronaut Jeff Williams spent seven hours inflating the first expandable room at the International Space Station. Called Bigelow Expandable Activity Module or BEAM, the balloon-like structure that measures 10-feet by 13-feet, (about the size of an average bedroom), when fully inflated, is the first prototype of what NASA experts hope will be the space habitat of the future. The compressed module arrived at the ISS aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on April 8 and was put in place outside the Tranquility module by ISS's robotic arm, Canadarm2.

Though the ISS astronauts will not be residing in this new room, they will spend many hours there, collecting data to help them assess if it is habitable. The astronauts will also monitor the module's ability to withstand the harsh external conditions, such as solar radiation, space debris, and extreme temperature fluctuations. At the end of the two-year mission, BEAM will be released from the space station and allowed to float back to Earth. NASA expects the inflatable habitat to burn up as it re-enters the atmosphere.

BEAM at the ISS (Photo Credit: By SpaceX Photos (BEAM) [CC0 or CC0], via Wikimedia Commons)

Building an inflatable and lightweight home like BEAM is essential for astronauts aspiring to live on far-off planets like Mars. That's because sending supplies to enable human settlement is going to be an expensive proposition. Creating a light-weight habitat that can be compressed to a small size will help save both cargo space and fuel, and significantly cut down the mission cost.

But as you can imagine creating such habitat is not an easy task. Engineers have been trying to perfect the inflatable spacecraft for over 60 years. While the first few versions that were launched in the 1960's worked well for the Project Echo communications satellites that they housed, they were unsuitable for humans. Around the same time Barron Hilton, of the Hilton hotels, partnered with the Goodyear Company to build large rubber donut-shaped space stations for NASA. Unfortunately, the rubber proved to be unsafe for humans, and the project was soon abandoned.

Compressed BEAM being loaded onto the Space X Dragon (Photo Credit: By SpaceX Photos (BEAM) [CC0 or CC0], via Wikimedia Commons)

It wasn't until the 1990's that the idea was revisited by the introduction of the Space Exploration Initiative, a government initiative that commissioned NASA to pursue a mission to Mars. Using new high-tech materials like Kevlar and Nextel, NASA engineers embarked on creating the Trans Habitat -a modern version of the inflatable space habitat. Unfortunately, the timing coincided with the construction of the International Space Station, which was both behind schedule and over budget, causing Congress to withdraw its funding for the Trans Habitat in 2000.

Las Vegas-based Bigelow Aerospace took advantage of the opportunity and purchased the designs from NASA to try to develop the modules privately. In 2006 and 2007, the company successfully launched two inflatable spacecraft, Genesis I and Genesis II, to low Earth orbit. In 2013, NASA, who was still seeking a solution for a suitable space home, decided to partner with Bigelow Aerospace to develop BEAM and the rest, as they say, is history.

Mockup of BEAM's interior (Photo Credit: NASA [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)

If the BEAM mission goes well, Bigelow Aerospace plans to build even larger modules, which they hope to use not just to house astronauts, but also space tourists! We for one, cannot wait for that day to arrive!

Resources: NASA.gov, wikipedia.org, wired.com, space.com

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ISS Astronauts Begin Testing BEAM - The World's First Inflatable Space Habitat

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On May 26, NASA astronaut Jeff Williams spent seven hours inflating the first expandable room at the International Space Station. Called Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM, the balloon-like structure that measures 10-feet by 13-feet, (about the size of an average bedroom) when fully inflated, is the first prototype of what NASA experts hope will be the space habitat of the future.

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What Is Space Exploration Doing For You?

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It's wheels down for the newest robot to inhabit Mars. Just before 4 p.m. eastern time, the hulking, multibillion-dollar NASA rover Perseverance landed safely on the red planet after a 300-million-mile journey and a nerve-racking plunge to the Martian surface.

"Touchdown confirmed. Perseverance is safely on the surface of Mars," said Swati Mohan, an engineer on the Perseverance team.

The one-ton, nuclear-powered Perseverance made a swift, acrobatic descent through the thin Martian atmosphere that, if all went well, has been captured on video for the first time. The rover autonomously timed its movements so that it would alight within a roughly four-mile-wide landing ellipse in Mars's Jezero Crater, which once hosted a deep and potentially long-lived lake.

Perseverance then confirmed its safe arrival with a signal relayed to Earth via the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter-and it sent its first photos from its perch on the surface, sparking socially distanced celebrations at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. In JPL's mission control, matching face masks muffled shouts of excitement, but the team's relief and jubilation was still very evident.

"These missions are hard-there are a lot of things that have to go right," says JPL's Jennifer Trosper, Perseverance's deputy project manager. "There are no guarantees. That's what makes it exciting."

The rover's mission is ambitious: to seek signs of ancient life on the red planet. It will be the first of NASA's five rovers to sniff around for traces of long-dead Martians-inhabitants of a world that, for its first billion years or so, was warmer and wetter than the dusty planet we see today.

To help scientists search for clues that Mars might have been a living planet, Perseverance will stuff its pockets with rock samples that will eventually be returned to Earth for detailed scrutiny. The answer to whether life ever existed on Mars could be locked inside those interplanetary souvenirs. Or, if scientists get really lucky, the rover could find answers as it aims its suite of instruments at Jezero's formerly watery terrain.

"Our journey has been from following the water to seeing whether this planet was habitable, and finding complex chemicals," NASA associate administrator Thomas Zurbuchen said during a call with reporters earlier this week. "And now we're at the advent of an entirely new phase."

Now that the rover is safely on Mars, mission teams are shifting to the first phases of surface operations.

300 million miles to another world

Perseverance set sail for Mars on July 30, 2020. For seven months, it cruised through space tucked up inside its spacecraft like a bug inside its protective shell. The rover's six wheels were pulled inward, its mast and robotic arm folded, and a small helicopter named Ingenuity was snuggled beneath its belly. Teams at JPL periodically woke the rover during the flight, testing its onboard systems and grabbing a brief audio clip via its onboard microphones.

"I was, I think, the first person to receive the audio files when we turned on the microphone during cruise," says JPL's Adam Nelessen. "And to hear kind of a mechanical whirring sound, to experience [spaceflight] in that other sense, is really visceral and thrilling."

But on February 18, the most crucial portion of the rover's journey began-a do-or-die sequence of events known as entry, descent, and landing, or EDL.

"There's no partial credit in EDL," says team member Gregory Villar. "There are thousands of little things, and large things, that can go wrong."

During the end of its cruise phase, Perseverance was zooming toward Mars at a blazing 12,100 miles an hour-much too fast to land safely. Once it hit the Martian atmosphere, the drag on the spacecraft slowed its descent to less than 1,000 miles an hour, and then a parachute slowed it to about 200 miles an hour.

But that planet's air is too thin for a parachute alone to safely deposit such a heavy machine, so it then initiated a sequence of carefully choreographed maneuvers to further slow its descent. After deploying its chute, ditching its heat shield, and finding a safe spot to land, Perseverance completed the last leg with the help of a somewhat improbable-sounding device called a sky crane.

Essentially a rocket-powered jetpack that lowers the rover on tethers, a sky crane was used once before to safely set the Curiosity rover in Mars's Gale Crater in 2012. Previous landings have solely relied on parachutes and on-board retrorockets, or a cocoon of 24 airbags. But those methods would not work with a robot as hefty as Perseverance.

"Some of the greatest ideas seem crazy at the start, right?" Nelessen says. "People think it's wild when you break from the norm, but you kind of have to do that to take it to the next level."

After separating from the parachute, the sky crane's retrorockets slowed the rover's descent to roughly 17 miles an hour. About 70 feet above the ground, it then gingerly lowered Perseverance to the ground using three nylon cables. Once the tethers were severed, the sky crane flew off and faceplanted far enough away to avoid complicating the rover's surface operations.

Only NASA animations could show how the process unfolded for Curiosity. But this time, the space agency set out to capture the action on video. If everything went to plan, six cameras should have caught the complex EDL acrobatics, three staring at the unfurling parachute and the rest watching the rover and the sky crane. Engineers also attached a microphone to the rover, and over the coming weeks, as the data are downloaded and processed, NASA will release the sights and sounds of a rover plunging to an alien surface.

"I can't say enough how thrilling I think it'll be to have the video and the sound, to feel like you're there, riding along," says Nelessen, who's on the JPL team responsible for the footage.

Getting the rover's bearings

Now in Jezero Crater, the rover's work begins in earnest. During its primary mission, Perseverance will read the geologic history of Jezero and look for any clues about past alien inhabitants. It will also select and cache rock samples that a future rover will fetch and return to Earth sometime within the next decade.

After an intense competition among landing sites, scientists selected Jezero from four final contenders because of clear evidence that it was once filled with water, and because a massive river delta near the western crater rim is rich in sediments that could preserve biological material.

But Jezero, with its boulders, cliff edges, and potentially problematic sand traps, wasn't the safest place to send a rover-and Perseverance wouldn't have been able to make it there without some upgrades to previous landing technologies.

"We basically told the scientists, you can go to any site you want," Villar says. "And that was never really a thing in the past."

For one, automated software helped the rover guide itself to a hazard-free landing zone during its descent. Yet even with that extra precision, the team could not be sure where Perseverance would first set wheels on Mars. Over the next day or so, using data from spacecraft in Mars orbit and from the rover itself, scientists will pinpoint the rover's exact landing location and orientation-which is essential for planning its first surface journeys and for communicating with Earth.

"Over the history of Mars exploration, scientists have compromised on where they want to land, and the questions they can answer based on the landing technology we have," says Robin Fergason of the U.S. Geological Survey, whose team helped Perseverance navigate to Jezero. "For the first time we can have far more hazards in our landing ellipse than we've ever had before. We're able to go to far more scientifically interesting and exciting locations."

Stretching its wheels

During the rover's early days in Jezero, teams will be focusing on checking out the onboard systems and making sure everything is working properly.

"The very first day we don't do much, because we land in the afternoon, and Earth is already set," Trosper says, referring to the fact that our home world will have sunk below the Martian horizon from the rover's perspective. That means any communication with the rover will rely on orbiting spacecraft, which will be flying overhead every several hours or so. Onboard software will start switching over to surface operations mode, and the team will unlock some of the rover's appendages that were stowed during flight and descent.

Perseverance will snap some images from its perch on the surface, and those should be relayed back to Earth via one of the orbiters. And then the rover will go to sleep to recharge its batteries, waking only if an orbiter is near.

Over the next few Martian days, Perseverance will deploy its high-gain antenna and try to find Earth while making sure it can keep its batteries charged and onboard instruments warm. Once the team is satisfied that the rover is on stable ground, it will deploy its remote sensing mast, where multiple cameras are located, and take a series of 360-degree panoramas. The rover will continue slowly transitioning from its landing software to surface software, a process that Trosper says will take about a week.

"It's a dance, a lot of steps, and it's on Mars, and if it goes bad ... it's hard," Trosper says. "This is my fifth rover, and I've been part of every rover anomaly we've ever had, and you just really don't want to get into these situations."

Once the software checks are complete, about a week or two into the mission, the rover will move its robotic arm and go for a short spin. It'll continue to test onboard instruments, and likely in a few months, the Ingenuity helicopter will make its first attempt at powered flight on another planet.

Then the mission will begin in earnest as the six-wheeled rover sets out to answer one of the most profound questions humankind can ask: Are we alone? For more than a century, we've thought that answer could lie on Mars, a planet that has perpetually seduced us with various promises of life, whether intelligent or single-celled.

The arid landscapes we see today are in all likelihood uninhabited, but billions of years ago, water pooled and flowed over the Martian surface. Life, if it could take hold, had a chance to thrive. And now, finally, after dreaming about finding life among the stars, and imagining what it might look like on Mars -we could find out if aliens once resided on the red planet.

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NASA's Perseverance rover has just landed on Mars

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It's wheels down for the newest robot to inhabit Mars. Just before 4 p.m. eastern time, the hulking, multibillion-dollar NASA rover Perseverance landed safely on the red planet after a 300-million-mile journey and a nerve-racking plunge to the Martian surface. "Touchdown confirmed.

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All About Mars ... and our obsession with it!

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All About Mars ... and our obsession with it!

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Human interest in Mars is ageless. The dusty red planet has fascinated us for centuries. And even as we learn more, its mysteries keep us in suspense.

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NASA explores the unknown in air and space, innovates for the benefit of humanity, and inspires the world through discovery.

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A Chinese Long March rocket boosted two astronauts, or "taikonauts," into orbit Sunday evening for a planned month-long stay aboard the Tiangong-2 -- "Heavenly Palace" -- space station module, China's sixth and longest piloted space flight to date.

The Long March 2F booster lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China's Gobi Desert at 7:30 p.m. EDT (GMT-4; 7:30 a.m. Monday local time), roughly the moment Earth's rotation carried the pad into the plane of Tiangong-2's 240-mile-high orbit.

Video from on-board cameras showed mission commander Jing Haipeng, making his third spaceflight, and flight engineer Chen Dong, making his first, calmly monitoring cockpit displays as the Shenzhou-11 spacecraft streaked toward orbit.

Nine minutes after liftoff, Shenzhou-11 separated from the rocket's upper stage, unfolded its solar arrays and set off after Tiangong-2. If all goes well, the crew will monitor an automated docking on Tuesday, kicking off a month-long stay in orbit.

"The rocket is flying according to its original plan and the Shenzhou spacecraft has entered into its preliminary orbit," Gen. Zhang Youxia, chief commander of China's human space program, said through an interpreter. "The solar panel has been unfolded and the crew is in great condition. Hereby I announce the launch of Shenzhou-11 is a complete success."

Chinese President Xi Jinping sent congratulations to the launch team, saying the Shenzhou-11 mission with Tiangong-2 "marks a new milestone in our manned space flight mission in China."

Tiangong-2 is China's second experimental space station module, an upgraded habitat with improved life support systems, power, communications and research equipment.

The goal of the mission is to carry out a variety of experiments while testing the module's critical systems to pave the way toward construction of a large multi-module space station around the end of the decade.

Mission commander Jing spent 15-and-a-half days in space during the Shenzhou-7 and Shenzhou-9 missions in 2008 and 2012.

"The Olympic games are held every four years," he said through an interpreter at a pre-launch news conference. "I conducted my first space mission in 2008. Then again, my second in 2012. Now, another four years has just passed. I think I need to learn from (the) Chinese Olympic shooter who has participated in nine Olympic games. I still have a long way to go!"

Flight engineer Chen is a veteran fighter pilot making his first space flight.

"My current focus is on how to complete the mission perfectly," he said before launch. "I'm feeling relatively calm. But I was very excited when I was chosen. I felt so, so lucky. ... I didn't know much about aerospace, so I needed to spend extra time and energy to study basic theories. There was quite a tight schedule. We felt much pressure at that time."

Like Russia's Soyuz ferry craft, the Shenzhou spacecraft can carry three crew members. But to pull off a month-long mission aboard the prototype station module, China opted to launch just two crew members and to carry additional supplies instead.

"After entering Tiangong-2, the taikonauts will carry out many experiments, which show the roles, effects and value of humans in many space activities," said Wu Ping, a spokeswoman for China's Manned Space Engineering Office.

The crew members will carry out materials science experiments, medical research, three student experiments, plant growth studies and test orbital repair techniques.

At the conclusion of their mission, Jing and Chen will undock and return to Earth in the Shenzhou spacecraft's central descent module, landing under parachutes, Soyuz fashion, in Inner Mongolia.

The Shenzhou-11 flight is the latest in a series of incremental steps leading to assembly of an operational, Mir-class space station, an orbital laboratory that will reach maturity around the time the much larger International Space Station is being retired.

Taking a step-by-step approach, China became the third nation, after the United States and the Soviet Union/Russia, to launch a piloted spacecraft in October 2003 when Yang Liwei blasted off aboard the Shenzhou-5 spacecraft.

Shenzhou-6, carrying two crew members, was successfully launched in October 2005 and Shenzhou-7, carrying Jing, Zhai Zhigang and Liu Boming, flew in September 2008.

Tiangong-1, China's first prototype station module, was launched in September 2011 to serve as a target for rendezvous and docking missions. One month after launch, the unmanned Shenzhou-8 spacecraft carried out an automated rendezvous and televised docking with the research module.

China followed that flight by launching Jing, Liu Wang and Liu Yang on the Shenzhou 9 mission in June 2012. They carried out the program's first piloted rendezvous and docking.

Tiangong-2 will host astronauts "for up to 30 days whereas in the past it was short visits only," said Joan Johnson-Freese, a professor at the Naval War College and a noted expert on China's space program. "Life support systems was one of the areas that China really had no experience in whatsoever, so they've been taking it very slow and cautiously."

If all goes well, China will launch the unpiloted Tianzhou-1 cargo ship next spring to autonomously dock with Tiangong-2. Like Russian Progress space freighters, Tianzhou 1 will be capable of automatically transferring propellants, a crucial requirement for space station assembly and maintenance.

"That will further their docking capabilities needed for the larger space station," Johnson-Freese said. "Tiangong-2 is supposed to be able to stay in orbit for two years or longer, so that's taking them really close to 2019 or so. I think this will be their last big technology test phase before going to their large space station."

Tiangong-1, launched in September 2011, gave the Chinese experience with autonomous dockings. It was visited by two crews, including China's first two female astronauts, with stays lasting up to 15 days or so.

Like Tiangong-1, Tiangong-2 measuring 34 feet long and 11 feet across at its widest. But Tiangong-2 is a much more advanced spacecraft, with enhanced life support equipment, refueling systems, more than 40 experiments and accommodations to support two astronauts for a month at a time.

"The astronauts can now have a better dining and sleeping environment in the spacelab, and they have also physical exercises for experiments and recreation facilities," Wu Ping said in translated remarks last month. "These changes will make the 30-day life for the astronaut in space more comfortable, convenient and more colorful."

The Shenzhou spacecraft and the two Tiangong spacelab modules are critical elements of China's Project 921, which is aimed at perfecting low-Earth orbit space transportation, rendezvous and docking technology, in-orbit maintenance before the eventual construction of a large 65-ton space station.

For comparison, the International Space Station operated by the United States, Russia, Europe, Canada and Japan, is the size of a football field, weighs more than 450 tons and has a multi-module pressurized volume comparable to a 747 jumbo jet. It has been staffed with rotating crews of up to six astronauts and cosmonauts for the past 16 years.

William Harwood

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China launches two-man crew to station module

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Two Chinese astronauts, or "taikonauts," launched on a two-day flight to a space station module for a month-long stay

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As of Monday, October 24, content that was on TweenTribune.com will now be available here on our new educational resources page and on our learning pages. While much of the content that you enjoyed will still exist, educators will unfortunately no longer be able to assign content to students. Tween Tribune has been a valued educational brand of Smithsonian magazine, and we appreciate your continued support.

Though the Girl Scouts of the USA initially declared itself a space for all girls, the reality was different for girls of color

Erin Blakemore

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As of Monday, October 24, content that was on TweenTribune.com will now be available here on our new educational resources page and on our learning pages. While much of the content that you enjoyed will still exist, educators will unfortunately no longer be able to assign content to students.

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Podcast excerpt about the "collection of clutter" in space

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On Monday 2 July, the CryoSat-2 spacecraft was orbiting as usual, just over 700 kilometres above Earth's surface. But that day, mission controllers at the European Space Agency (ESA) realized they had a problem: a piece of space debris was hurtling uncontrollably towards the €140-million (US$162-million) satellite, which monitors ice on the planet.

As engineers tracked the paths of both objects, the chances of a collision slowly increased - forcing mission controllers to take action. On 9 July, ESA fired the thrusters on CryoSat-2 to boost it into a higher orbit. Just 50 minutes later, the debris rocketed past at 4.1 kilometres a second.

This kind of manoeuvre is becoming much more common each year, as space around Earth grows increasingly congested. In 2017, commercial companies, military and civil departments and amateurs lofted more than 400 satellites into orbit, over 4 times the yearly average for 2000-2010. Numbers could rise even more sharply if companies such as Boeing, OneWeb and SpaceX follow through on plans to deploy hundreds to thousands of communications satellites into space in the next few years. If all these proposed 'megaconstellations' go up, they will roughly equal the number of satellites that humanity has launched in the history of spaceflight.

All that traffic can lead to disaster. In 2009, a US commercial Iridium satellite smashed into an inactive Russian communications satellite called Cosmos-2251, creating thousands of new pieces of space shrapnel that now threaten other satellites in low Earth orbit - the zone stretching up to 2,000 kilometres in altitude. Altogether, there are roughly 20,000 human-made objects in orbit, from working satellites to small shards of solar panels and rocket pieces. And satellite operators can't steer away from all potential collisions, because each move consumes time and fuel that could otherwise be used for the spacecraft's main job.

Concern about space junk goes back to the beginning of the satellite era, but the number of objects in orbit is rising so rapidly that researchers are investigating new ways of attacking the problem. Several teams are trying to improve methods for assessing what is in orbit, so that satellite operators can work more efficiently in ever-more-crowded space. Some researchers are now starting to compile a massive data set that includes the best possible information on where everything is in orbit. Others are developing taxonomies of space junk - working out how to measure properties such as the shape and size of an object, so that satellite operators know how much to worry about what's coming their way. And several investigators are identifying special orbits that satellites could be moved into after they finish their missions so they burn up in the atmosphere quickly, helping to clean up space.

The alternative, many say, is unthinkable. Just a few uncontrolled space crashes could generate enough debris to set off a runaway cascade of fragments, rendering near-Earth space unusable. "If we go on like this, we will reach a point of no return," says Carolin Frueh, an astrodynamical researcher at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Dirtying orbits

Astronomers and others have worried about space junk since the 1960s, when they argued against a US military project that would send millions of small copper needles into orbit. The needles were meant to enable radio communications if high-altitude nuclear testing were to wipe out the ionosphere, the atmospheric layer that reflects radio waves over long distances. The Air Force sent the needles into orbit in 1963, where they successfully formed a reflective belt. Most of the needles fell naturally out of orbit over the next three years, but concern over 'dirtying' space nevertheless helped to end the project.

It was one of the first examples of the public viewing space as a landscape that should be kept clean, says Lisa Ruth Rand, a historian of science in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and a fellow with the American Historical Association and NASA.

Since the Soviet Union launched the first satellite, Sputnik, in 1957, the number of objects in space has surged, reaching roughly 2,000 in 1970, about 7,500 in 2000 and about 20,000 known items today. The two biggest spikes in orbital debris came in 2007, when the Chinese government blew up one of its satellites in a missile test, and in the 2009 Iridium-Cosmos collision. Both events generated thousands of fresh fragments, and they account for about half of the 20-plus satellite maneouvres that ESA conducts each year, says Holger Krag, head of ESA's space-debris office in Darmstadt, Germany.

Each day, the US military issues an average of 21 warnings of potential space collisions. Those numbers are likely to rise dramatically next year, when the Air Force switches on a powerful new radar facility on Kwajalein in the Pacific Ocean. That facility will allow the US military to detect objects smaller than today's 10-centimetre limit for low Earth orbit, and this could increase the number of tracked objects by a factor of five.

Even as our ability to monitor space objects increases, so too does the total number of items in orbit. That means companies, governments and other players in space are having to collaborate in new ways to avoid a shared threat. Since the 2000s, international groups such as the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee have developed guidelines for achieving space sustainability. Those include inactivating satellites at the end of their useful lifetimes by venting leftover fuel or other pressurized materials that could lead to explosions. The intergovernmental groups also recommend lowering satellites deep enough into the atmosphere that they will burn up or disintegrate within 25 years.

But so far, only about half of all missions have abided by this 25-year guideline, says Krag. Operators of the planned megaconstellations say they will be responsible stewards of space, but Krag worries that the problem could increase, despite their best intentions. "What happens to those that fail or go bankrupt?" he asks. "They are probably not going to spend money to remove their satellites from space."

Traffic cops for space

In theory, satellite operators should have plenty of room for all these missions to fly safely without ever nearing another object. So some scientists are tackling the problem of space junk by trying to understand where all the debris is to a high degree of precision. That would alleviate the need for many unnecessary manoeuvres that today are used to avoid potential collisions. "If you knew exactly where everything was, you would almost never have a problem," says Marlon Sorge, a space-debris specialist at the Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, California.

The field is called space-traffic management, because it's analogous to managing traffic on the roads or in the air. Think about a busy day at an airport, says Moriba Jah, an astrodynamicist at the University of Texas at Austin: planes line up in the sky like a string of pearls, landing and taking off close to one another in a carefully choreographed routine. Air-traffic controllers know the location of the planes down to 1 metre in accuracy.

The same can't be said for space debris. Not all objects in orbit are known, and even those included in databases are tracked to varying levels of precision. On top of that, there is no authoritative catalogue that accurately lists the orbits of all known space debris.

Jah illustrates this with a web-based database that he developed, called ASTRIAGraph. It draws on several sources, such as catalogues maintained by the US and Russian goverments, to visualize the locations of objects in space. When he types in an identifier for a particular space object, ASTRIAGraph draws a purple line to designate its orbit.

Only this doesn't quite work for a number of objects, such as a Russian rocket body launched in 2007 and designated in the database as object number 32280. When Jah enters that number, ASTRIAGraph draws two purple lines: the US and Russian sources contain two completely different orbits for the same object. Jah says that it is almost impossible to tell which is correct, unless a third source of information could help to cross-correlate the correct location.

ASTRIAGraph currently contains some, but not all, of the major sources of information about tracking space objects. The US military catalogue - the largest such database publicly available - almost certainly omits information on classified satellites. The Russian government similarly holds many of its data close. Several commercial space-tracking databases have sprung up in the past few years, and most of those do not share openly.

Jah describes himself as a space environmentalist: "I want to make space a place that is safe to operate, that is free and useful for future generations." Until that happens, he argues, the space community will continue devolving into a tragedy of the commons, in which all spaceflight operators are polluting a common resource.

He and other space environmentalists are starting to make headway, at least when it comes to US space policy. Jah testified on space-traffic management in front of Congress last year, at the invitation of Ted Cruz, a Republican senator from Texas who co-introduced a space-regulations bill this July. In June, President Donald Trump also signed a directive on space policy that, among other things, would shift responsibility for the US public space-debris catalogue from the military to a civilian agency - probably the Department of Commerce, which regulates business.

The space-policy directive is a rare opportunity to discuss space junk at the highest levels of the US government. "This is the first time we're really having this conversation in a serious fashion," says Mike Gold, vice-president for regulatory, policy and government contracts at Maxar Technologies of Westminster, Colorado, which owns and operates a number of satellites.

The orbiting dead

The space around Earth is filled with zombies: some 95% of all objects in orbit are dead satellites or pieces of inactive ones. When someone operating an active satellite gets an alert about an object on a collision course, it would be helpful to know how dangerous that incoming debris is. "With more and more objects, and the uncertainties we currently have, you just get collision warnings no end," says Frueh. (Micrometeorites represent a separate threat and can't be tracked at all.)

To assess the risk of an impending collision, satellite operators need to know what the object is, but tracking catalogues have little information about many items. In those cases, the military and other space trackers use telescopes to gather clues in the short period before a potential collision.

Working with the Air Force, Frueh and her colleagues are developing methods to rapidly decipher details of orbiting objects even when very little is known about them. By studying how an object reflects sunlight as it passes overhead, for instance, she can deduce whether it is tumbling or stable - a clue to whether or not it is operational. Her team is also experimenting with a machine-learning algorithm that could speed up the process of characterizing items, work she will describe on 14 September at a space-tracking meeting in Maui, Hawaii.

Once researchers know what an orbiting object is made of, they have a number of potential ways to reduce its threat. Some sci-fi-tinged proposals involve using magnets to sweep up space junk, or lasers to obliterate or deflect debris in orbit. In the coming weeks, researchers at the University of Surrey in Guildford, UK, will experiment with a net to ensnare a test satellite. The project, called RemoveDEBRIS, will then redirect the satellite into an orbit that will re-enter the atmosphere.

But such active approaches to cleaning up space junk aren't likely to be practical over the long term, given the huge number of objects in orbit. So some other experts consider the best way of mitigating space junk to be a passive approach. This takes advantage of the gravitational pulls of the Sun and the Moon, known as resonances, that can put the satellites on a path to destruction. At the University of Arizona in Tucson, astrodynamicist Aaron Rosengren is developing ways to do so.

Rosengren first came across the idea when studying the fates of satellites in medium Earth orbit (MEO). These travel at altitudes anywhere between about 2,000 kilometres up, where low Earth orbit ends, and 35,000 kilometres up, where geostationary orbits begin.

Satellites in low Earth orbit can be disposed of by forcing them to re-enter the atmosphere, and most satellites in the less heavily trafficked geostationary region can be safely placed in 'graveyard' orbits that never interact with other objects. But in MEO, satellite trajectories can be unstable over the long term because of gravitational resonances.

An early hint that spacecraft operators could harness this phenomenon came from ESA's INTEGRAL γ-ray space tele-scope, which launched in 2002. INTEGRAL travels in a stretched-out orbit that spans all the way from low Earth orbit, through MEO, and into geostationary orbit. It would normally have remained in space for more than a century, but in 2015, ESA decided to tweak its orbit. With a few small thruster burns, mission controllers placed it on a path to interact with gravitational resonances. It will now re-enter the atmosphere in 2029, rather than decades later.

In 2016, Rosengren and his colleagues in France and Italy showed that there is a dense web of orbital resonances that dictates how objects behave in MEO ( J. Daquin et al. Celest. Mech. Dyn. Astr. 124, 335-366; 2016). Rosengren thinks this might offer a potential solution. There are paths in this web of resonances that lead not to MEO, but directly into the atmosphere, and operators could take advantage of them to send satellites straight to their doom. "We call it passive disposal through resonances and instabilities," says Rosengren. "Yeah, we need a new name."

Other researchers have explored the concept before, but Rosengren is trying to push it into the mainstream. "It's one of the newer things in space debris," he says.

These disposal highways in the sky could be easy to access. At a space conference in July in Pasadena, California, Rosengren and his colleagues reported on their analysis of US Orbiting Geophysical Observatory satellites from the 1960s. The scientists found that changing the launch date or time by as little as 15 minutes could lead to huge differences in how long a satellite remains in orbit. Such information could be used to help calculate the best times to depart the launch pad.

Being proactive now could head off a lot of trouble down the road, as operators of satellites such as CryoSat-2 have found. When ESA decided to take evasive action in early July, its engineers had to scramble and work through the weekend to get ready for the manoeuvre. Once the space junk had safely flown by, CryoSat-2 took a few days to get back into its normal orbit, says Vitali Braun, a space-debris engineer with ESA.

But the alerts didn't stop coming. In the weeks that followed, mission controllers had to shift various satellites at least six times to dodge debris. And on 23 August, they nudged the Sentinel-3B satellite out of the way of space junk for the first time. It had been in orbit for only four months.

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The quest to conquer Earth's space junk problem

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Zombie satellites, rocket shards and collision debris are creating major traffic risks in orbits around the planet. Researchers are working to reduce the threats posed by more than 20,000 objects in space. Zombie satellites, rocket shards and collision debris are creating major traffic risks in orbits around the planet.

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Don't let the name fool you; despite their small size, dwarf planets are worlds that are just as compelling as their larger siblings. Dwarf planets are defined by astronomers as bodies massive enough to be shaped by gravity into a round or nearly round shape, but they don't have enough of their own gravitational muscle to clear their path of other objects as they orbit the Sun. In our solar system, dwarf planets are mostly found in the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune; Pluto is the best-known example. But the largest object in the asteroid belt is the dwarf planet Ceres. Like Pluto, Ceres shows signs of active geology, including ice volcanoes.

Besides Pluto, some of the mysterious worlds of the Kuiper Belt include dwarf planets Makemake, Haumea, and Eris. Like asteroids and comets, Kuiper Belt objects are time capsules, perhaps kept even more pristine in their icy realm.

OSIRIS-REx - Now heading home to Earth from asteroid Bennu where it retrieved a sample.

New Horizons - On Jan. 1, 2019, the spacecraft flew by the small Kuiper Belt object officially known as Arrokoth - or by its original designation (486958) 2014 MU69 - the most distant and most primitive object ever explored by a spacecraft. Images showed a double-lobed object that looked like a partially flattened snowman.

Psyche - The spacecraft will explore a metallic asteroid of the same name, which may be the ejected core of a baby planet that was destroyed long ago.

Lucy - Lucy was launched on Oct 16, 2021, on the first space mission to explore a population of small bodies known as the Trojans. The Trojans are outer solar system asteroids that orbit the Sun "in front of" and "behind" the gas giant Jupiter, at the same distance from the Sun as Jupiter.

Dawn - Dawn launched in 2007 and visited two-time capsules of the solar system - asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres, the largest bodies of the main asteroid belt.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)'s Hayabusa2 - The spacecraft studied asteroid Ryugu, collected samples, and brought them to Earth for analysis. The spacecraft is on an extended mission to asteroid 1998 KY26.

The European Space Agency (ESA)'s Rosetta - Orbited the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and dispatched a lander to its surface.

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10 Things: What's That Space Rock? - NASA Science

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The path through the solar system is a rocky road. Asteroids, comets, Kuiper Belt Objects-all kinds of small bodies of rock, metal and ice are in constant motion as they orbit the Sun. But what's the difference between them? Why do these miniature worlds fascinate space explorers so much?

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Overview of animals that have traveled into space

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Overview of animals that have traveled into space

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Animals were the early pioneers of space flight, often losing their lives. But what animals have been in space, and how many animals have died in space?

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(Image: © Karl Tate, SPACE.com Infographics Artist)

Since the 18th century, animals have been used for tests aboard balloons and aircraft. In 1783, a sheep, duck and rooster were sent up in the newly invented hot-air balloon. The balloon flew for 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) and landed safely.

The first animals in outer space were fruit flies launched in a captured Nazi V-2 rocket on Feb. 20, 1947. The flies reached an altitude of 68 miles (108 km) and were recovered alive by parachute.

Albert II became the first monkey in space on June 4, 1949. He reached an altitude of 83 miles (134 km), but died on impact when the parachute failed. A previous monkey, Albert I, died when the V-2 rocket failed before reaching peak altitude. Two other monkeys, Albert III and IV, also died when their rockets failed.

A mouse launched on Aug. 15, 1950, attained an altitude of 85 miles (137 km), but died when the rocket disintegrated due to parachute failure. Several other mice were launched during the 1950s.

A total of 32 monkeys have flown in space, including (from left): rhesus macaques, cynomolgus monkeys, squirrel monkeys and pig-tailed monkeys. Chimpanzees have also flown.

In the 1950s, the Soviet Union launched a total of 12 dogs on various suborbital flights. Stray dogs were used since they were thought to be capable of handling extreme cold.

Laika became the first living being to orbit the Earth on Sputnik 2, Nov. 3, 1957. She died several hours into the flight from stress and heat.

On May 28, 1959, rhesus monkey Able and squirrel monkey Baker became the first to successfully return to Earth after space flight. The monkeys survived 32 times the pull of Earth's gravity and were weightless for 9 minutes out of their 16-minute flight.

A July 2, 1959, Soviet launch carried two dogs and the first rabbit into space.

The Soviet Sputnik 5 (Aug. 19, 1960) was the first to return animals alive from orbit. The passengers were the dogs Belka and Strelka, plus a gray rabbit, 42 mice, two rats and fruit flies.

On Jan. 31, 1961, Ham the Chimpanzee flew a Mercury capsule on a sub-orbital trajectory, three months before Alan Shepard's flight. Enos became the first chimp to orbit a Mercury spacecraft on Nov. 29, 1961. Both chimps survived their flights.

The French launched the first cat into space on Oct. 18, 1963. Félicette had electrodes implanted in her skin to transmit her condition. She reached an altitude of 100 miles (160 km) and landed safely.

China launched mice, rats and dogs between 1964 and 1966.

Russian space dogs Veterok and Ugolyok orbited a record 22 days before landing safely on March 16, 1966. Their record for longest space flight by dogs still stands.

In 1968, the Soviet Zond 5 became the first spacecraft to circle the moon, carrying a payload of two Russian tortoises, wine flies, mealworms, plants, seeds and bacteria. Zond 6 flew a similar trajectory later that year, but the biological specimens were killed by a malfunction on the return trip.

In the late 1960s, NASA launched a series of Biosatellites carrying insects, frog eggs, microorganisms and plants. The third and final Biosatellite carried a pig-tailed monkey. It died hours after landing from a heart attack.

After humans landed on the moon in 1969, animals in space no longer made the headlines, but spacecraft still carried biological payloads, including rabbits, turtles, insects, spiders, fish, jellyfish, amoebae and algae. In 1973, two female European garden spiders named Arabella and Anita spun webs aboard the NASA space station Skylab for 59 days. Biological payloads have also flown on NASA's Space Shuttle and the space stations of both Russia and America.

From 1966 to 1996, Russia launched a series of 11 Bion satellites. Research partners have included Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, China, the Commonwealth of Independent States, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, the European Space Agency, France, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Ukraine and the United States.

The Bion series resumes in 2013 with Bion-M1. Rodents on the spacecraft will spend a month experiencing spaceflight conditions. [ See photos of the Bion-M1 space animals mission]

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Cosmic Menagerie: A History of Animals in Space (Infographic)

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(Image: © Karl Tate, SPACE.com Infographics Artist) Since the 18th century, animals have been used for tests aboard balloons and aircraft. In 1783, a sheep, duck and rooster were sent up in the newly invented hot-air balloon. The balloon flew for 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) and landed safely.

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Up to four tourists could launch into a super-high space orbit by the end of next year.

Ticket prices have not yet been announced but are expected to be in the millions of dollars.

SpaceX is working with tourism company Space Adventures Inc. for the flight. Both are private companies rather than part of NASA or other government space agencies.

Space Adventures has already helped put tourists into orbit with trips to the International Space Station, working with the Russian space program.

For this trip, paying customers will skip the space station - which orbits about 400km above the Earth - and orbit two to three times higher, or roughly 800km to 1200km above Earth.

Gemini 11′s Pete Conrad and Dick Gordon set the record for their 1370km-high orbit in 1966.

SpaceX will use the same kind of Dragon capsule that will launch NASA astronauts to the space station, possibly in another few months. The capsule has flown only once in space so far, a successful test flight last year without a crew.

The tourist flight "will forge* a path to making spaceflight possible for all people who dream of it," SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said in a statement.

Space Adventures spokeswoman Stacey Tearne said the tourist flight could occur in the last quarter of 2021. The company is in discussions with "several potential* clients."

No professional pilot or astronaut will be required, Ms Tearne said, because the Dragon is autonomous*. Passengers will be able to control the spacecraft if required, she said in an email.

Elon Musk's California-based SpaceX has already signed up Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa to fly to the moon in three or so years. Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic also plan tourist trips to space, but these will be brief up-and-downs, not orbital*.

The cost of the SpaceX-Space Adventures flight will be in line with previous tourist flights, Ms Tearne said.

Canadian billionaire Guy Laliberte, founder of Cirque du Soleil, paid more than $52 million for a one-and-a-half week space station flight in 2009. He said from orbit that it was "worth every penny and more."

Like all previous space tourists, he launched on a Russian rocket from Kazakhstan.

This private Dragon flight from Cape Canaveral, US, will be shorter, lasting up to five days, according to Ms Tearne.

Space Adventures helped arrange the flight of the world's first space tourist, US businessman Dennis Tito. He flew to the space station on a Russian capsule in 2001, a trip not supported by top NASA officials, who opposed space tourism at the time.

The company has arranged eight space missions, with one tourist going twice.

NASA has since softened its stance* on space tourists, and is opening the station doors to paying customers once commercial crew flights by SpaceX and Boeing have been established.

GLOSSARY

forge: create something successful

potential: possible

autonomous: drives itself

orbital: relating to being in orbit

stance: position or stated opinion

EXTRA READING Ticket sold for moon orbit NASA welcomes holiday-makers to space Billionaire reveals space cities to house a trillion people Space race to return to the moon is heating up QUICK QUIZ

1. How much will a ticket cost?

2. What are the details of the record for the highest human space flight?

3. Who will pilot the Dragon capsule?

4. Who founded Cirque du Soleil and what does he have to do with space?

5. Why is Dennis Tito in this story?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Write the Captions
What could you do on a five-day space flight? Create a program of activities that the space tourists could do during their trip in the Dragon capsule. Remember that you want the tourists to stay fit, healthy and have an amazing time.

Time: allow 15 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Health and Physical Education

2. Extension
What's your ultimate dream holiday? If you could spend as much money as you want, and could go anywhere you wanted, what would you do and why? Write down your ideas. Then, create a poster advertising your ultimate dream holiday.

Time: allow at least 20 minutes to complete this activity.
Curriculum Links: English, Visual Communication Design, Critical and Creative Thinking

VCOP ACTIVITY
An advertisement is similar to a persuasive text, convincing the audience they need to do or buy something.

Write a script that will become a 30-second radio ad for SpaceX's tourism space adventure.

You will need to try and convince people to not only want to go with your words but also with your tone as well, so include the writer's voice.

HAVE YOUR SAY: If you had the money for a ticket on this space flight, what would you spend it on?
No one-word answers. Use full sentences to explain your thinking. No comments will be published until approved by editors.

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Space tourists to go into super-high orbit in 2021

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Up to four tourists could launch into a super-high space orbit by the end of next year. Ticket prices have not yet been announced but are expected to be in the millions of dollars. SpaceX is working with tourism company Space Adventures Inc. for the flight.

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VSS Unity makes its second test run to space with a passenger on board (Credit: Virgin Galactic/MarsScientific.com & Trumbull Studios)

Virgin Galactic's founder, Sir Richard Branson, has been hoping to make space tourism a reality since 2008. While it has taken a little longer than the 18 months he had originally estimated, the company is getting increasingly closer to accomplishing its mission. On December 13, 2018, Virgin Galactic's suborbital spaceliner, VSS Unity, made history with the longest rocket-powered flight when it soared to the edge of space, 51.4 miles (82 km) above sea level. On February 22, 2019, the aircraft repeated the feat, this time with its first passenger - the company's astronaut trainer Beth Moses - on board.

VSS Unity makes the initial ascent attached to aircraft carrier WhiteKnightTwo (Credit: Virgin Galactic)

VSS Unity made the initial 8.5-mile ascent, to the edge of Earth's atmosphere, attached to aircraft carrier WhiteKnightTwo. The spacecraft, designed to carry six passengers and two pilots, was then released and expertly flown to an altitude of 55.87 miles (89.9 km) at a mind-boggling 2255 mph (3,629 km/hr), or three times the speed of sound, by Dave Mackay and Michael "Sooch" Masucci. Once there, the crew members spent a few minutes taking in the incredible "out of this world" views of Earth before gliding down and landing flawlessly at California's Mojave Airport, where a cheering crowd awaited them.

"The planned 42-second rocket burn took pilots and [the] spaceship through the Stratosphere and, at an apogee of 170,800 ft [52,000 m], into the Mesosphere for the first time," Virgin Galactic representatives said in the statement released following the successful flight.

The view from VSS Unity (Credit: Virgin Galactic.com)

Though the short, hour-long jaunt to space was thrilling for the entire crew, it was Moses - the world's first woman to fly on a private spacecraft - who had the most fun. Charged with the "difficult" task of evaluating customer experience, the astronaut trainer and microgravity expert was allowed to go untethered at apogee for a few minutes, while the pilots prepared to return to Earth. Moses began her assignment with a quick float to the window to admire the view below. After returning briefly to her seat to ensure the seat belt still worked, the former NASA employee drifted across the cabin and then back over to the windows, which have been designed to provide passengers with optimal views of our planet. Her final tests involved hovering along the ceiling, or what she describes as "flying like Spider-Man," and gliding over to the aircraft's rear.

Virgin Galactic's first "tourist," Beth Moses (Credit: Virgin Galactic)

"It was so clear!" Moses says. "It was crystal, crystal clear - just super, super, super high def[inition]. And interestingly, you could sort of see ice crystals right out the window, and then the beautiful curvature of the Earth. It was so black in space and so clear and bright, especially with snow in the mountains. You could see the Pacific Ocean, see the southwestern United States. I felt like I was infinitely high. It was just beautiful. It was the most amazing thing."

The flight to space lasted just about an hour (Credit: Virgin Atlantic)

Though the date of Virgin Galactic's commercial flight to space has yet to be announced, the company has already received deposits from more than 600 space tourists, each willing to pay the astronomical sum of $250,000 for this once-in-a-lifetime experience. Among them is Mr. Branson, who has announced he intends to make the journey on July 24, 2019, the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. The entrepreneur says, "The moon landing is what inspired me to wish to go to space. I saw it on a black-and-white television set when I was very young, and this year is the 50th anniversary, so it's a very great year to celebrate."

Resources: Virginatlantic.com, Space.com, Vox.com

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Virgin Galactic Carries Its First "Tourist" To Space

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Virgin Galactic's founder, Sir Richard Branson, has been hoping to make space tourism a reality since 2008. While it has taken a little longer than the 18 months he had originally estimated, the company is getting increasingly closer to accomplishing its mission.

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NASA is forging ahead with its Artemis program to land humans on the moon by 2024, but the agency has also just offered its first plan for what a U.S. lunar presence may look like after that milestone.

The new plan comes from a 13-page report submitted on April 2 to the National Space Council, an advisory group to President Donald Trump chaired by Vice President Mike Pence. Much of the report, titled "NASA's Plan for Sustained Lunar Exploration and Development," summarizes the vision has laid out for justifying and accomplishing the 2024 moon landing. But the report also looks farther out to focus on what a long-term presence on the moon and in lunar orbit would permit the U.S. to accomplish.

"After 20 years of continuously living in low-Earth orbit, we're now ready for the next great challenge of space exploration - the development of a sustained presence on and around the moon," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement released with the . "For years to come, Artemis will serve as our North Star as we continue to work toward even greater exploration of the moon, where we will demonstrate key elements needed for the first human mission to Mars."
Related: NASA's Artemis moon program just photobombed a spacewalk (photo)
Artemis Base Camp

The star of the report is what NASA has dubbed Artemis Base Camp, meant to be a long-term foothold for lunar exploration, perhaps in Shackleton Crater at the moon's south pole. According to the document, Artemis Base Camp itself would be a lunar foundation surface habitat that could host four astronauts at the south pole for visits of perhaps a week.

(Image credit: NASA)

In the long term, the facility would also require infrastructure for power, waste disposal and communications, as well as radiation shielding and a landing pad. The base could also be a site for testing new techniques for dealing with pesky and the long, cold lunar nights, turning local materials into resources like water, and developing new power and construction technologies.

Artemis Base Camp would be accompanied and supported by two mobility systems: a lunar terrain vehicle to facilitate astronaut movement across the surface and a habitable mobility platform that could support trips away from base for up to 45 days. (NASA is currently envisioning Mars surface missions as lasting just 30 to 45 days to reduce risks, according to the same document.)

"Mobility is a major part of the Artemis Base Camp," the report reads. "Robust mobility systems will be needed to explore and develop the moon. The same is true for Mars, making the habitable mobility platform a particularly important element as we will need a similar type of vehicle to explore the Red Planet."

Gateway to Mars

The report also outlines a plan to use the moon-orbiting waystation dubbed the as a site for Mars analog missions. These practice missions could play out as a team of four astronauts living on the Gateway for several months, to mimic the duration of a journey to Mars, then a landing crew of two visiting the moon's surface, then another long orbital stay to fill out the mission's timeline.

"These missions will be by far the longest duration human deep-space missions in history," the report states. "They will be the first operational tests of the readiness of our long-duration deep space systems, and of the split crew operations that are vital to our approach for the first human Mars mission."

But the long-term vision for Artemis includes plenty of moon-specific science as well as preparing for Mars exploration.
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"In time, Artemis Base Camp might also include a hopper that could deliver science and technology payloads all over the moon and which could be operated by crew at Artemis Base Camp and refueled using locally sourced propellant," the report reads. "A lunar far-side radio telescope could also be remotely emplaced and operated from Artemis Base Camp - a sort of backyard radio-telescope at our first encampment on the moon."

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NASA unveils plan for Artemis 'base camp' on the moon beyond 2024

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NASA is forging ahead with its Artemis program to land humans on the moon by 2024, but the agency has also just offered its first plan for what a U.S. lunar presence may look like after that milestone.

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An artist's illustration of an asteroid flyby (Credit: NASA)

On March 21, 2021, Earth will have its closest encounter with 2001 FO32 - the largest and fastest-known asteroid scheduled to fly past our planet this year. The space rock, estimated to be between 2,526 feet ( 0.47 miles) and 5,577 feet (1.05 miles) in diameter, will zip past Earth at a staggering speed of 76,980 miles per hour (123,887 km/h). To put it in perspective, that is about 100 times faster than the speed of sound!

FO32 is among the thousands of "near-Earth objects," or NEOs, that orbit the sun in our cosmic neighborhood. It was first spotted by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) program telescopes in New Mexico on March 23, 2001. The space rock's highly elliptical orbit around the Sun - which takes 810 days, or just over two years - brings it close to Earth every thirty to fifty years. While FO32 will revisit our planet on March 22, 2052, the 2021 flyby will be its closest one in the next 200 years!

The asteroid and Earth are seen on the left of this orbital map on the 'blue' Earth orbit line - the orbit of the asteroid is visible through the tall white lines (Credit: NASA)

NASA researchers have tagged the asteroid as a "potentially hazardous object." The classification refers to all space rocks that can make close approaches to Earth and are large enough - over 450 feet (140 meters) in diameter - to cause significant damage in the event of impact. Fortunately,FO32, which will be 1.3 million miles away - or about five times the distance between the Earth and the Moon - at its closest approach at 11:03 a.m. EST (1603 GMT) on March 21, 2021, poses no such risk during this, or any future, encounters.

Stargazers hoping to catch a glimpse of flyby asteroids usually have to wait patiently for at least 5 to 10 minutes until their backyard telescopes can detect the space rocks which appear like slow-moving "stars." However, since FO32 is moving at such rapid speeds, observers with an 8 inch or larger telescope will be able to watch the space rock soar by in real-time during its closest approach. While FO32 will be visible worldwide, due to its position in the southern sky, the best views will be reserved for Southern Hemisphere residents.

Resources: Earthsky.org, BGR.com, livescience.com

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This Year's Largest And Fastest Asteroid Is About To Zoom Past Earth

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On March 21, 2021, Earth will have its closest encounter with 2001 FO32 - the largest and fastest-known asteroid scheduled to fly past our planet this year. The space rock, estimated to be between 2,526 feet ( 0.47 miles) and 5,577 feet (1.05 miles) in diameter, will zip past Earth at a staggering speed of 76,980 miles per hour (123,887 km/h).

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As part of Project Mercury, NASA prepared to send a chimpanzee, Ham, into space to test the effects of space on a living creature.

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On January 31, 1961 Ham became the first chimpanzee in space. Save the Chimps honors Ham, his courage, and his unwilling sacrifice. The Space Chimps, or "Astrochimps," hold a special place in the hearts of everyone at Save the Chimps. It was the plight of the Air Force chimps, the chimpanzees used in the early days of space research, and their descendants, that inspired our late founder Dr. Carole Noon to establish Save the Chimps.

Ham's story spans the globe and into the reaches of space. Born in Cameroon in approximately 1957, Ham was captured and brought to a facility in Florida called the Miami Rare Bird Farm. In July 1959, Ham was transferred to Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, NM, to be trained for space flight as part of Project Mercury. Ham at the time was known as Chang, or #65, and was renamed at the time of his spaceflight after the acronym for "Holloman Aero Medical." Ham and other young chimpanzees, including Minnie (the mother of two STC residents, Rebel and Li'l Mini) and Enos (who would become the first and only chimpanzee to orbit the Earth), were habituated to long periods of confinement in a chair, and trained to operate levers in response to light cues. After 18 months of training, Ham was selected as the chimpanzee whose life would be risked to test the safety of space flight on the ape body. On January 31, 1961, after several hours of waiting on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, FL, 3 ½ year old Ham was propelled into space, strapped into a container called a "couch."

Ham's flight lasted approximately 16 ½ minutes. He travelled at a speed of approximately 5800 mph, to a height of 157 miles above the earth. He experienced about 6 ½ minutes of weightlessness. Incredibly, despite the intense speed, g-forces, and weightlessness, Ham performed his tasks correctly. After the flight, Ham's capsule splashed down 130 miles from its target, and began taking on water. It took several hours for a recovery ship to reach Ham, but miraculously he was alive and relatively calm considering his ordeal. When he was finally released from the "couch" however, his face bore an enormous grin. Although interpreted as a happy smile by many people, Ham's expression was one of extreme fear and anxiety. That fear was demonstrated again sometime later through an act of defiance. Photographers wanted another shot of Ham in his "couch." Ham refused to go back into it, and multiple adult men were unable to force him to do so.

Unlike the rest of the space chimps, Ham was spared decades of biomedical research, but he did have a lonely existence for many years. He was transferred to The National Zoo in 1963, where he lived alone for 17 years, before finally being sent to the North Carolina Zoo where he could live with other chimps. He died 22 years after his historic flight into space, on January 18, 1983, at the estimated age of 26.

Ham's flight is remarkable for many reasons. Ham not only survived the flight, but performed his tasks correctly, despite the rigors of space flight and the fear he must have experienced. His courage and heroism paved the way for Alan Shepard, Jr., the first American in space. But perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this story is often lost in all of the writings about Ham: he was a baby. If Ham had not been kidnapped and his mother killed, he still would have been nursing at age 3 ½, dependent on his mother for survival. Humans are often considered more intelligent than chimpanzees, yet it is hard to imagine a human toddler performing as well as Ham in this challenging task. It speaks to Ham's character, intelligence, and bravery.

We honor and remember Ham and all of the young chimpanzees who suffered through the tragic deaths of their mothers and the transatlantic journey to the United States to become test subjects for space flight. Although Ham had no children, Save the Chimps is proud to have provided a peaceful retirement for other survivors and descendants of the space chimp program.
As Dr. Carole Noon once said, "They have bravely served their country. They are heroes and veterans."
To support one of the former Air Force chimps living in permanent sanctuary at Save the Chimps visit our Meet the Air Force Chimps page.

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On January 31, 1961 Ham became the first chimpanzee in space. Save the Chimps honors Ham, his courage, and his unwilling sacrifice. The Space Chimps, or "Astrochimps," hold a special place in the hearts of everyone at Save the Chimps.

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In 1957, a dog named Laika became the first Earthling to orbit her home planet. The furry cosmonaut looped around the Earth in the Sputnik 2 space capsule, preceding the first human space traveler by nearly four years.

When Laika made her historic trip, it was still unclear whether humans could survive in space, even for a few hours. She was, almost literally, a canary in a coal mine.

"We didn't even know if humans would be able to digest their food [in space]," Julie Robinson, NASA's chief scientist for the International Space Station, said of those early days of human spaceflight. "We were concerned ... that humans might suffocate on the contents of [their] own stomachs if it all went floating up," she told Space.com. [ Photos of Pioneering Animals in Space]

Laika died during her historic flight, but she and the other animals sent to space in those very early tests helped scientists begin to answer the question, what happens to the human body in space? Broadly speaking, scientists are still trying to answer that question - albeit at a much more nuanced level than they were in 1957.

Sending animals to space began as a way to make sure that human astronauts could survive in space at all. As spaceflight programs began to evolve in the 1960s and 1970s, space offered scientists the opportunity to "turn off" gravity, a variable they could never fully eliminate on Earth. By the 1980s, people were using space to conduct experiments that would directly impact the health of human beings on the ground - an application that the scientists conducting those first animal tests in the 1940s might never have anticipated.

Today, animal tests are helping scientists prepare for the hazards that humans will face if they ever want to visit Mars or live on the surface of the moon for prolonged periods of time.

The first space travelers

(Image credit: NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center)

Laika the dog may be the most famous animal that ever traveled to space, although the American space traveler Ham the chimpanzee experienced a fair amount of celebrity in 1961, when he safely returned to Earth after a short trip to space. Three months later, NASA astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American human to cross that boundary.

"People didn't know what would happen to humans in space, or what would happen to life in space," Brad Carpenter, chief scientist for NASA's Space Life and Physical Sciences Research and Applications Division, told Space.com.

The first living beings ever sent to space were fruit flies, launched in 1947 - and they made it back to Earth alive. Between 1948 and 1951, NASA conducted flight tests with six rhesus monkeys, all given the name Albert followed by a Roman numeral. Albert II became the first primate to reach space, but Albert VI (who was also called Yorick) was the only one who survived long enough to be rescued from his space capsule. He died shortly afterward, possibly due to the heat and stress of being trapped inside it. All told, in the 1950s, the Soviet and American space programs sent mice, rats, dogs, monkeys and a rabbit into space. [ Photos: Pioneering Animals in Space]

(Image credit: Karl Tate, SPACE.com Infographics Artist)

After humans ventured into orbit in the early 1960s and Americans made it all the way to the moon in 1969, the frequency of animal space flights decreased, according to Carpenter and the NASA history website. The focus of animal flights after that point began to change as well; by the late 1960s, both the Soviet Union and the U.S. were sending a much wider variety of life-forms to space, including jellyfish, tortoises, frog eggs, microorganisms, spiders, amoebae and algae. Scientists were asking not only if life could survive in space, but how different kinds of life-forms might thrive and develop there.

In 1973, NASA put two cross spiders into orbit aboard Skylab, where they spun webs in the weightless environment for 59 days. (The webs were sloppy at first as the spiders adjusted to their environment but eventually came to look identical to webs spun by spiders on the ground. A similar experiment was conducted aboard the International Space Station in 2008.) In 1988, NASA sent frog eggs into space and found that even in the absence of gravity, they successfully hatched into tadpoles. Modeling physiological development is extremely difficult, Carpenter said, so it would have been essentially impossible to predict, without a physical experiment, what would happen to these systems in the absence of gravity.

And not all animals develop normally in weightlessness. In 1998, the Neurolab mission sent more than 2,000 living creatures on a 16-day flight aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia, to help scientists learn how microgravity affects balance, sensory integration, sleep, blood pressure control and nervous system development. The shuttle crewmembers were part of the experiments, along with rats, mice, crickets, snails and two kinds of fish.

The experiments showed that, in the absence of gravity, crickets don't develop organs that help them balance (sort of like the inner ear in humans) the way they do on Earth.

Many key ground-based experiments that involved a physiological process affected by gravity have since been repeated in orbit, Robinson said. Removing gravity from those same experiments can reveal new information. Those results, in turn, feed into a larger body of knowledge that can be applied to solving human and animal health issues on the ground.

In the human crewmembers, Neurolab looked at how a person's sense of balance changes in the absence of gravity. (Astronauts have noted a drastic loss of balance, but not necessarily dizziness, immediately after returning from space.)

The study also looked at astronaut sleep patterns. To learn about the human nervous system, the experiments looked at the way nerves respond to anticipated stimuli. For example, when a ball comes flying toward a person on Earth, the body anticipates its arrival, and that person's muscles automatically clench. In space, the ball doesn't accelerate (because there is no gravity), so it won't travel as fast as it does on Earth; but a person's muscles still clench in anticipation. That suggests the brain has an internal sense of how gravity should work.

Each of the species included in the Neurolab experiment was selected because it provided the best means of answering a specific question. In the crickets, it was possible to watch the development of an organ over a short period of time. The snails possessed very large neurons that were ideal for studying nervous system development, Robinson said.

"We're always going to be looking for the simplest organism we can fly that answers a scientific question," Carpenter said. "We have an ethical obligation, and we have policy and regulation that require us to do that. We can't inappropriately use a vertebrate organism for research."

There are regulations for animal testing that apply to agencies or universities that accept federal funding, and that includes NASA, Robinson said. Those regulations require clear justification for using animals in experiments, as opposed to some alternative. In addition, there is "a [NASA] committee that reviews [the experiment] to make sure that you've had the minimum impact, that you've minimized distress on the organism and so forth."

According to an article on NASA's own website from 2004, "Animal housing rules are more extensive than the requirements for human children day care centers. NASA facilities that house animals for research are accredited by an organization that requires proof that animals are cared for in a facility that meets those standards."

Staying healthy in space

Today, spaceflight scientists are focusing their research on a human trip to Mars.

One of the greatest threats to humans traveling to distant locations such as the moon or Mars is space radiation. Without the protective layers of the Earth's atmosphere and its magnetic field, the powerful particles coming from space are free to wreak havoc on human cells. It's also possible that the human body might respond differently to radiation in weightlessness, Robinson said. [ Mice of Mars: Rodents Pave Way to Red Planet]

To get a better understanding of the severity of that threat, scientists are studying Drosophila, better known as fruit flies.

According to Robinson, about 15 percent of the National Institutes of Health's research is done on Drosophila. "They have a surprising number of genes in common with us," she said. "There are versions of Drosophila that, when exposed to a little bit of extra radiation, are more likely to develop a tumor. And so they were used as a model organism for a study of the interaction between radiation and microgravity."

This type of experiment is an example of how space-based animal testing has evolved to the point where it is essentially an extension of animal testing on Earth.

"We use animals for biomedical research in space for the same reason that we use [them] for biomedical research here on Earth," Robinson said. "It's a way of having a large sample size to study processes that you couldn't study in a human or that would take too long to study in a human."

Scientists are doing what they can to use Earth-based experiments to study the effects of space radiation on the human body (and how to protect them from it). But Robinson said most of those experiments can't replicate the long-term radiation exposure absorbed by most astronauts. It's also impossible to perfectly replicate on Earth the kind of radiation that comes from space (also called the "spectrum" of radiation), and even the International Space Station is in a more protected location than the empty space between Earth and Mars. Therefore, it's possible that before humans go to Mars, scientists might send animals into an orbit around the moon, for example, Robinson said. But there would have to be a compelling and specific reason for sending animals to the moon, to Mars ahead of humans or with the human mission to the Red Planet, she said.

But in the future, when scientists can expand their laboratories beyond the International Space Station, animal testing may take place in deep space, where it could help reveal more secrets about animal and human physiology, said the researchers said.

Recently, a group of researchers at NASA's Langley Research Center came up with an idea for a mouse habitat that would orbit the moon and rotate in such a way as to create artificial gravity (this spinning method of creating artificial gravity has been explored science fiction, including in "2001: A Space Odyssey" and " Interstellar."). In addition, the mice would be able to live on the habitat long enough to reproduce, so scientists could see how the environment would affect the mice over multiple generations. However, the researchers proposed the idea as part of an internal award that encourages Langley employees to come up with big, futuristic ideas - so there are currently no plans to make the habitat a reality.

Currently, on the International Space Station, NASA has a rodent habitat system and is in the process of developing a fruit fly system. The Japanese space agency, JAXA, operates an aquarium on the station, and both JAXA and the Italian Space Agency operate rodent habitats.

"So all of those, I think, are a sign of stepping up to use model organisms to answer some of the key questions for going to Mars," Robinson said.

Not just scientists

The weightless environment of space might seem like a healthy place to live; after all, it's impossible to fall and break a limb, and a person might find relief from the lower back pain and aching joints that follow a long day of standing up.

But the human body needs gravity; without it, muscles atrophy and bones weaken. Animal studies, particularly those in rodents, have been critical to helping astronauts avoid some of those harmful effects.

The type of weakening seen in space is very similar to what happens to people naturally as they grow old, and to people with degenerative muscle and bone diseases.

The silver lining of these negative effects is that space can be used to treatments that target those symptoms. For example, during the construction of the International Space Station, NASA conducted a mouse experiment in collaboration with the pharmaceutical company Amgen, Robinson said. The study looked at a drug that is now used to treat bone loss in chemotherapy patients and people with osteoporosis. More recently, the same company used a second round of space testing to investigate another osteoporosis drug.

"If you want to study osteoporosis on Earth in a rodent model, you have to do something to the mice so that they have bone loss that matches the bone loss in women who have osteoporosis," Robinson said. "So there are different techniques that are used, each of which have some limitations."

Spaceflight appears to be the quickest and most accurate way to replicate the symptoms that these pharmaceutical companies are trying to treat. (Mice obviously aren't perfect analogues for humans, but in biomedical research, they are "a step along the way" to finding out how a drug or treatment will work in people, Robinson said).

Pharmaceutical companies that want to run tests on the space station typically cover the costs of their experiments. Commercial research on the ISS is managed by the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS). The station is identified as a national laboratory that is managed by CASIS, and it is available to researchers all over the world who want to apply to conduct research there. Nonprofit scientific groups can also apply directly to NASA to send experiments to the space station.

Even when those experiments aren't directly aimed at, for example, developing a new osteoporosis drug, there can still be benefits for humans on the ground. Studying physiology in the absence of gravity contributes to a larger understanding of physiology in general. For example, Neurolab's investigation into impaired balance in astronauts offered insight into why that symptom appears in people with certain neurological diseases.

Bringing private companies into low Earth orbit is beneficial for NASA's long-term plans; agency officials have said multiple times that they would like to share the responsibility of maintaining a human presence in low Earth orbit with private companies. That way, NASA can invest its money in more ambitious projects, like a human mission to Mars.

Animals have been a part of humanity's journey beyond Earth from the very beginning. As human spaceflight programs have evolved, so have the reasons for sending animals to space. As humanity pushes farther into space, and commercial companies (not just countries) take advantage of the resources there, the role of animals will likely evolve as well, helping humans answer questions they otherwise could not.
Follow Calla Cofield @callacofield. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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In 1957, a dog named Laika became the first Earthling to orbit her home planet. The furry cosmonaut looped around the Earth in the Sputnik 2 space capsule, preceding the first human space traveler by nearly four years. When Laika made her historic trip, it was still unclear whether humans could survive in space, even for a few hours.

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STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. - The second time was a charm for NASA's massive new moon rocket.

The core stage of the Space Launch System (SLS), the rocket that NASA is developing to take astronauts to the moon, Mars and other distant destinations, fired up for a critical preflight test on Thursday (March 18).

Smoke and flames billowed from the four RS-25 engines that power the SLS core booster as it roared to life while perched atop a test stand here at NASA's Stennis Space Center. Ignition occurred at 4:37 p.m. EDT (2037 GMT), when 700,000 gallons (2.6 million liters) of cryogenic fuel began flowing through the engines.
Video: Hot fire! NASA SLS megarocket's core stage tested for over 8 minutes
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(Image credit: NASA TV)

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(Image credit: NASA TV)

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(Image credit: NASA TV)

The "hot fire" test ran for just under 500 seconds, a duration that NASA had planned and hoped for. The trial was a repeat of an identical test that occurred on Jan. 16. But that earlier engine test ended much earlier than expected, with the engines shutting down just over one minute after roaring to life.

The briefness of the January burn was attributed to the hydraulic system associated with one of the engines; that system apparently exceeded conservatively preset limits in one parameter, triggering a shutdown, investigators determined. NASA evaluated data collected from the first test and decided to go ahead and redo the test to make sure the core stage was functioning as expected before being shipped to the launch site, NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida.

"What a great day, and a great test," NASA Acting Administrator Steve Jurczyk said during a post-test news conference Thursday evening.

"This is a major milestone advancing our goals for Artemis," he added. "I'm almost speechless at how well things went today."

Artemis is NASA's program of crewed lunar exploration, which aims to send astronauts to the moon's surface as early as 2024 and establish a long-term, sustainable human presence on and around Earth's nearest neighbor by the end of the decade.

NASA's big new moon rocket

SLS is a crucial part of Artemis. The program's initial flight, Artemis 1, will use an SLS rocket to send NASA's Orion spacecraft on an uncrewed trip around the moon.

Artemis 1 is currently scheduled to launch by the end of the year, although it's unclear if that will actually happen. Following the first SLS core hot fire test, then-NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said it was too early to tell if the vehicle could still make its debut by the end of the year.

The agency is expected to make a decision on when SLS will get off the ground after this test.

(Image credit: NASA TV)

Prior to the Jan. 16 hot fire, John Shannon, vice president and program manager for SLS at Boeing, the prime contractor for the rocket's core stage, said that the engines need to run for about 250 seconds to get the data needed to proceed with shipping the core stage to KSC. The initial test stopped well short of 250 seconds, and before the teams were able to gimbal (or move) the engines, which is a key testing maneuver. So the team decided a second test was needed.

Hot fire test, take two

All systems were "go" on Thursday as the teams progressed through the countdown that started early that morning. The vehicle was loaded with super-chilled liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen before its engines lit at approximately 4:37 p.m. EDT (2037 GMT).

The hot fire is a key test that puts the SLS core booster components - the four RS-25 main engines, fuel tanks and the rocket's computers and avionics - through their paces. The test simulated a launch while holding the rocket firmly in place, affixed to a test stand.

The same test stand at Stennis was used to test the engines on both NASA's Saturn V rocket and space shuttle orbiters. Both the SLS core stage and the test stand have instrumentation that recorded data during the test.

"The test stand is just as important as the vehicle is today," said Chandler Scheuermann, an SLS program manager at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.

NASA was hoping for the quartet of engines to fire longer than the 67 seconds they did during the first test, and that wish came true as the test ran for 499.6 seconds.

"Yeah, so they clearly got the full duration that they were after, which is really great news," said a commentator on NASA's live hot fire webcast. "I think you heard the applause."

"We needed four minutes, and we did twice as good as we needed," Julie Bassler, SLS stages manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, said during Thursday evening's news conference. "So, big thanks to the team."

(Image credit: NASA)

SLS coming together

First conceived in 2011, the SLS is finally coming together for an uncrewed trip around the moon sometime later this year.

Each SLS rocket employs four RS-25 engines to launch its 212-foot-tall (65 meters) core stage. It also relies on two solid rocket boosters strapped to the core's sides and an upper stage to propel NASA's Orion crew capsule beyond low Earth orbit.

(Image credit: NASA)

The Orion spacecraft planned for that first SLS launch is now complete and is being processed for flight at KSC. The boosters are now fully stacked and positioned in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at KSC, waiting on the core stage.

The agency salvaged 16 RS-25 engines that were originally used in the space shuttle program. The engines even flew on key missions, including one to service NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and one that helped launch the final shuttle flight in 2011.

The 16 engines in stock will be used on the first four SLS launches, for Artemis missions 1 through 4. (NASA contracted Aerojet Rocketdyne to build 24 more RS-25 engines for flights beyond that.)

Since the engines on the first few missions are shuttle leftovers, the agency had to add new computer controllers as well as other upgrades to ensure the engines can handle the higher performance demands of an SLS launch.

The solid rocket booster segments are also recycled from the shuttle program. After they were refurbished, each segment was stacked on top of one another and assembled in the VAB.
Space Launch System: NASA's rocket for Artemis moon missions explained
The stacked SLS-Orion combo will also feature a launch-abort system that's designed to pull the capsule away from the rocket if something goes wrong during a launch.

Road to the test pad

NASA has been systematically testing the various components of the SLS over the past few years.

The agency tested each of the main engines separately to ensure they fired up as expected. And to ensure the flight hardware meets design expectations, NASA began what it calls a " green run," a lengthy series of trials that tested the vehicle's avionics, countdown and launch timeline, fueling procedures and more.

The testing went smoothly but was complicated by a global pandemic as well as an unusual number of tropical storms and hurricanes impacting the test sites. This caused more delays for the launcher's testing.

The firing of the four RS-25 engines on Thursday closed out the green run, which began with stress tests on the physical structure of the rocket.

The goal of the hot fire test was to run through launch day procedures and ignite the four engines, allowing them to burn for just over eight minutes - roughly the duration that they will burn during an actual flight.

As expected, the engines roared to life, producing 1.6 million pounds of thrust as they burned for 499.6 seconds. The full-duration test will provide engineers with massive amounts of data on how the core stage performed.

"That was epic," NASA astronaut Zena Cardman told Space.com following the test. "I can't wait to see the data they collected."

(Image credit: Jude Guidry/NASA)

"It was an amazing test," said NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, who was also at Stennis for Thursday's test. "Congratulations to the whole NASA team."

It will take the teams several days to review the data before clearing the core stage for its next task: refurbishment and eventual transportation to KSC.

Terabytes of data were collected, and according to Bassler, if all goes as planned, the core stage could ship to Florida in mid-April.

Once it arrives, the booster will be integrated with the rest of the vehicle that is already onsite. This includes its two solid rocket boosters, which are currently being stacked in the VAB at KSC.
This story was updated at 7:50 p.m. EDT on March 18 with details and quotes from the post-test news conference. Follow Amy Thompson on Twitter @astrogingersnap. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
The solid rocket boosters were previously tested before being shipped in segments to Florida. Each booster consists of five segments that are stacked on top of one another. Those segments are complete and ready to be integrated with the core stage.

The Orion spacecraft is also complete and nearly ready to be affixed to the top of the SLS once the rocket is fully assembled.

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NASA fires up its 1st SLS megarocket for moon flights in a critical engine test

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STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. - The second time was a charm for NASA's massive new moon rocket. The core stage of the Space Launch System (SLS), the rocket that NASA is developing to take astronauts to the moon, Mars and other distant destinations, fired up for a critical preflight test on Thursday (March 18).

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NASA this week revealed details about its forthcoming Artemis missions to the Moon.
NASA

NASA yesterday revealed that its forthcoming Artemis missions to the Moon-including crewed landings on the lunar surface- will cost around $28 billion.

Think that's a lot of money for a NASA moon mission? Shouldn't that money be spent on something else? Why is it so expensive?

"Pushing the boundaries of space exploration, science and technology once again, America is on the verge of exploring more of the Moon than ever before," said Jim Bridenstine, NASA administrator, in a new NASA document on the Artemis missions published this week. "This new era of lunar exploration is called Artemis. Named after the twin sister of Apollo, she is the Goddess of the Moon, and we are the Artemis Generation."

"NASA is delivering more missions, more science, and more innovation at a better value for the American taxpayer than at any point in the agency's history and with half the buying power than 1964, when Apollo development was at its peak."

Expenditure on space exploration regularly comes under scrutiny, so here are 8 reasons why that $28 billion is bargain of the century:

1. $28 billion is a tenth the cost of Apollo missions

NASA spent the same $28 billion on the Apollo program in the 1960s and 1970. However, adjusted for inflation that calculates to about $283 billion. So Artemis will cost a tenth of Apollo. "The $28 billion represents the costs associated for the next four years in the Artemis programme to land on the Moon," said Bridenstine, quoted on the BBC this week. The main costs are development of NASA's Lockheed Martin-made Orion spacecraft, Orion's European Service Module (ESM), and its Boeing-led Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, though there are others. "SLS funding, Orion funding, the human landing system and of course the spacesuits-all of those things that are part of the Artemis programme are included."

However, it's worth noting that the $28 billion doesn't include the development costs for SLS and Orion.

2. 'Artemis fever' will begin sooner than you think

After a tumultuous 2020 the world is going to need some space. The first flight in the Artemis schedule-Artemis I-is scheduled to take place in November 2021. The mission will see the debut spaceflight for two of NASA's biggest projects; its Orion capsule and its giant SLS (Space Launch System) rocket.

There's also a plan to send various rovers and technology demonstrations to the Moon twice each year, starting in 2021.

3. It's actually FOUR Moon landings (and a solar eclipse)

Although the highlight will be the crewed mission to the Moon in 2024, there's a lot more to the Artemis program that that. Here's NASA's tentative Artemis schedule:

November 2021: Artemis-I - the trail-blazer

An 25-day uncrewed flight of Orion and SLS to test all the hardware, Artemis I will launch from Launch Complex 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center and orbit the Earth, then Orion and the ESM will travel to the Moon to an orbit that takes it from 62 miles above its surface to 40,000 miles beyond the Moon. It will splashdown off Baja, California after a critical test of the the heat shield.

2023: Artemis-II - the first crewed lunar flyby of the 21st century

This is the Artemis program's "Apollo 8 moment " as astronauts loop around the Moon for the fist time since 1972. A repeat of Artemis-I, this time with four astronauts on board, Artemis-II will take a slightly different trajectory.

Essentially it's another test of SLS and Orion, and the first test of Orion's life support systems. The 10-day mission will begin with launch and two orbits of the Earth before it moves into a highly elliptical orbit. A translunar injection comes 24 hours later. The crew will experience a brief eclipse of the Sun as the Moon passes between them before traveling 4,600 miles beyond the far side of the Moon. After a free trajectory return to Earth they will splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

October 2024: Artemis-III - the Moon landing

A 30 day mission will see Orion-with four astronauts inside-rendezvous with an embryonic Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (see below), before one female astronaut and one male astronaut descend to the lunar surface on a commercially developed lander. Cue four spacewalks over 6.5 days. The landing zone will be close to Shackleton Crater at the Moon's South Pole.

Further Artemis missions each year through 2030 will help build the Lunar Gateway's habitation module and descend a further three times to the surface of the Moon (Artemis V, VI and either VII or VIII).

That's a total of FOUR crewed missions to land on the lunar surface.

Planned missions of NASA's Artemis program.
NASA

4. It will all help birth a new era of private spaceflight

Over half the cost-$16 billion-will be paid to a private company to develop the actual lunar lander. That means Blue Origin (CEO Jeff Bezos), SpaceX (CEO Elon Musk) or Dynetics.

This isn't just about giving cash to a nascent private space industry; right now NASA is using commercial space flights to test sensors, cameras, algorithms and spaceflight computers for precision landing on the lunar surface that also have applications in self-driving cars. Blue Origin will test some of those components this week.

5. The first female astronaut will set foot on the Moon in 2024

The landing of Artemis III will also put the first woman on the Moon, and the next man, on the lunar surface. It will be the first landing with humans since 1972's Apollo 17 mission.

Bridenstine has already said that the female astronaut will be someone already in the astronaut corps who will have already visited the International Space Station (ISS). The astronauts for Artemis III will be selected in 2022.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the surface of the moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. Mission ... [+]
NASA

6. The plans also involve an orbiting Moon Station and a Moon Base

The late 2020s could see an Artemis Base Camp on the Moon complete with a lunar rover that astronauts can drive, but way before that the Artemis program will see the establishment of a Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway.

The plan is for the latter-a space station in lunar orbit with a habitat module and a port for Orion to dock-to be assembled over five uncrewed flights from commercial space companies in advance of 2024.

7. Finding water at the Moon's South Pole could open-up the Solar System

In 2024, if all goes according to plan, NASA's two astronauts will touchdown at the Moon's South Pole, where there is believed to be ice-water. Water would make a crewed Moon base possible, but since it consists of hydrogen and oxygen, which can be refined into high-efficiency rocket fuel. Cue space fuel depots on the Moon that would allow spacecraft to travel much farther into space.

Rockets wouldn't have to use fuel just to get the fuel for their entire trip off the surface of the Earth. Launch costs would plummet; a "lunar economy" could be created and space mining could become possible-a resources boom could follow.

MORE FROM FORBES 50 Million People May Gather For The 'Greater American Eclipse,' The Most Watched Event Ever

8. The 21st century's first lunar landing will make for a super-exciting 2024

2024 promises to be an exciting year for space fans, particularly in North America. As well as the landing on the lunar surface of two astronauts for the first time in 52 years, April 8, 2024 will also see a super-long total solar eclipse rip across Mexico, the US and Canada. Totality will be observable from Sinaloa, Durango, and Coahuila (Mexico), Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine (US) and Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland (Canada).

About 32 million people will be able to experience totality, some for as long as 4 minutes 28 seconds-the longest total solar eclipse duration over land for 15 years (and over twice as long as in 2017's "Great American Eclipse").

That's two era-defining, unforgettable and priceless space events in the same year. One is free, the other costs $28 billion. Both are priceless.
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
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8 Reasons Why NASA's $28 Billion Moon Return Is The Bargain Of The Century

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NASA yesterday revealed that its forthcoming Artemis missions to the Moon-including crewed landings on the lunar surface- will cost around $28 billion. Think that's a lot of money for a NASA moon mission? Shouldn't that money be spent on something else? Why is it so expensive?