The Voyager Planetary MissionThe twin spacecraft Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched by NASA in separate months in the summer of 1977 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. As originally designed, the Voyagers were to conduct closeup studies of Jupiter and Saturn, Saturn's rings, and the larger moons of the two planets

The crew was scheduled to deploy a communications satellite and study Halley's Comet while they were in orbit, in addition to taking schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe into space under the Teacher In Space program

The cause of the disaster was the failure of the primary and secondary redundant O-ring seals in a joint in the shuttle's right solid rocket booster (SRB). The record-low temperatures on the morning of the launch had stiffened the rubber O-rings, reducing their ability to seal the joints

On April 19, 1971, the Soviet Union launched the world's first space station, Salyut (“Salute”). Six improved Salyuts were launched during the next ten years. The Salyuts were designed to make human presence in space routine and continuous

While testing out the nitrogen-propelled, hand-controlled back-pack device called the manned maneuvering unit (MMU) for the first time, McCandless’s fellow crewmembers aboard the reusable vehicle photographed him. The MMU allowed crews to move outside of the cargo bay and perform activities away from the safety of the spacecraft.

August 4

The small robot astronaut Kirobo, which was built by Japanese scientists, spoke its first orbital words while floating aboard the International Space Station. The robot launched to the space station in August aboard an unmanned Japanese cargo ship to help scientists study robot-human interaction.

Kirobo, whose name was created bymashing together the Japaneseword for hope, "kibo," with the word"robot," will be able to use voice-recognition technology, natural-language processing, and facialrecognition to speak with bothastronauts in space and researchersback on Earth.

Mars missions have been launching from Earth with regularity since the 1960s, bent on exploring our planetary neighbor. it's a difficult journey, and only about half of all Mars missions successfully make it to the Red Planet, according to NASA. several space agencies have successfully made it to Mars. NASA, the former Soviet Union space program, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Indian Space Research Organization each met with earlier successes.

Mariner 4 was released towards Mars on November 28, 1964, and was a first successful mission to Mars. It was the first to return the pictures of the surface of the planet Mars. Mariner 4 also captured the image of another planet which transformed the scientific view of the existence of life in Mars.

Marina 6 was launched on February 25, 1969, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station while Mariner 7 was launched on March 27, 1969, at Cape Kennedy. The craft analyzed the atmosphere and surface over the equator and South Polar regions using a remote sensor while recording and transmitting pictures. The goal of the mission was to study the surface and the atmosphere of Mars to establish the basis for further investigations relevant to search for life in the planet

Mariner 9 was released towards Mars on May 30, 1971, and landed there on November 14, 1971. It was the first spacecraft to go around another planet. Mariner 9 was developed to complete the explorations initiated by Mariner 6 and 7 and to study any of the temporal changes in the Martians’ atmosphere and surface. Mariner 9 also analyzed the two Mars’ moons. The Mariner 9 met and exceeded its objectives.

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man to fly in space, as seen in 1968 before his death in a jet crash.

Well, the first woman to break this glass ceiling was Valentina Tereshkova, a Soviet Cosmonaut who has the distinction of being the first woman ever to go into space as part of the Vostok 6 mission.

Twenty-five years ago on July 4, 1997, NASA landed its first rover on Mars and beamed back a photo from the planet’s surface. In doing so, the agency set up its first on-the-go, vehicular science lab on another world, able to visit more than one place in the course of its mission.

The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith

NASA’s Perseverance rover touched down safely in Jezero Crater on Mars on 18 February, kicking off a new era of exploration on the red planet in which rocks will be collected and returned to Earth for the first time.

The project, which began as an American effort, was long delayed by funding and technical problems. Originally called Freedom in the 1980s by U.S. Pres. Ronald Reagan, who authorized the National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA) to build it within 10 years, it was redesigned in the 1990s to reduce costs and expand international involvement, at which time it was renamed. In 1993 the United States and Russia agreed to merge their separate space station plans into a single facility, integrating their respective modules and incorporating contributions from the European Space Agency(ESA) and Japan.

Much of the early research work by ISS astronauts was to focus on long-term life-sciences and material-sciences investigations in the weightless environment. After the breakup of the space shuttle orbiter Columbia in February 2003, the shuttle fleet was grounded, which effectively halted expansion of the station. Meanwhile, the crew was reduced from three to two, and their role was restricted mainly to caretaker status, limiting the amount of science that could be done. Crews flew up to and returned from the ISS in Soyuz spacecraft, and the station was serviced by automated Progress ferries

A Japanese biz wants to remove debris from Earth orbit by using a satellite-mounted laser to decelerate an object such as a defunct satellite so it gradually descends towards the atmosphere and burns up.

TOKYO -- A media and space business corporation based in Japan's capital announced on Jan. 30 that its newly established space junk removal venture is developing world-first satellites with debris-zapping lasers to remedy the growing issue of space junk surrounding the Earth's atmosphere.

Tokyo-based space industry startup Astroscale Japan Inc. announced Monday that it successfully launched a satellite designed to approach and observe space debris. The company plans to utilize the satellite’s observations to develop the technology with the aim of commercializing space debris removal.