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Timeline Of Artificial Satellites And Space Probes
This Timeline of artificial satellites and Space probe A space probe is an artificial satellite that travels through space to collect scientific data. A space probe may orbit Earth; approach the Moon; travel through interplanetary space; flyby, orbit, or land or fly on other planetary bodies; or ent ...s includes uncrewed Spacecraft including technology demonstrators, observatories, lunar probes, and interplanetary probes. First satellites from each country are included. Not included are most Earth science satellites, commercial satellites or crewed missions. Timeline 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s References External links Current and Upcoming Launches [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Satellite
A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs). Most satellites also have a method of communication to ground stations, called Transponder (satellite communications), transponders. Many satellites use a Satellite bus, standardized bus to save cost and work, the most popular of which is small CubeSats. Similar satellites can work together as a group, forming Satellite constellation, constellations. Because of the high launch cost to space, satellites are designed to be as lightweight and robust as possible. Most communication satellites are radio Broadcast relay station, relay stations in orbit and carry dozens of transponders, each with a bandwidth of tens of megahertz. Satellites are placed from the surface to orbit by launch vehicles, high enough to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vanguard (rocket)
The Vanguard rocket was intended to be the first launch vehicle the United States would use to place a satellite into orbit. Instead, the Sputnik crisis caused by the surprise launch of Sputnik 1 led the U.S., after the failure of Vanguard TV-3, to quickly orbit the Explorer 1 satellite using a Juno I rocket, making Vanguard 1 the second successful U.S. orbital launch. Vanguard rockets were used by Project Vanguard from 1957 to 1959. Of the eleven Vanguard rockets which the project attempted to launch, three successfully placed satellites into orbit. Vanguard rockets were an important part of the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union. Overview In 1955, the United States announced plans to put a scientific satellite in orbit for the International Geophysical Year (IGY) in 1957–1958. The goal was to track the satellite as it performed experiments. At that time, there were three candidates for the launch vehicle: The Air Force's SM-65 Atlas, a derivative ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pioneer 2
Pioneer 2 (also known as Able 3) was the last of the three project Able space probes designed to probe lunar and cislunar space. The launch took place at 07:30:21 GMT on 8 November 1958. After Pioneer 1 had failed due to guidance system deficiencies, the guidance system was modified with a Doppler command system to ensure more accurate commands and minimize trajectory errors. Once again, the first and second stage portion of the flight was uneventful, but the third stage of the launch vehicle failed to ignite, making it impossible for Pioneer 2 to achieve orbital velocity. An attempt to fire the vernier engines on the probe was unsuccessful and the spacecraft attained a maximum altitude of before reentering Earth's atmosphere at 28.7° N, 1.9° E over NW Africa. A small amount of data was obtained during the short flight, including evidence that the equatorial region around Earth has higher flux and higher energy radiation than previously considered and that the micrometeorite d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jupiter-C
The Jupiter-C was an American research and development vehicle developed from the Jupiter-A. Jupiter-C was used for three unmanned sub-orbital spaceflights in 1956 and 1957 to test re-entry nosecones that were later to be deployed on the more advanced PGM-19 Jupiter mobile missile. The recovered nosecone was displayed in the Oval Office as part of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's televised speech on November 7, 1957. A member of the Redstone rocket family, Jupiter-C was designed by the U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA), under the direction of Wernher von Braun. Three Jupiter-C flights were made followed by three satellite launches (Juno I). All were launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Description Each vehicle consisted of a modified Redstone ballistic missile with two solid-propellant upper stages. The tanks of the Redstone were lengthened by 8 ft (2.4 m) to provide additional propellant. The instrument compartment was also smaller and lighter than the Reds ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Project Beacon
Beacon was one of America's first satellite programs. A balloon satellite, its objective was to study atmospheric density at its orbital altitude and to be the first United States satellite visible to the naked eye. Booster problems caused both orbital attempts to end in failure. Background Beacon was an International Geophysical Year (IGY) satellite program developed by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics Space Vehicle Group at Langley under aeronautical engineer William James O'Sullivan, Jr. O'Sullivan held the belief that measuring the air density at orbital altitudes would be of critical importance to a space agency and that a simple balloon satellite, several meters in diameter, would be well suited to the task as their relatively large size and low mass make them especially sensitive to air drag effects. After the Soviets launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, on October 4, 1957, a high priority was placed on orbiting an American satellite th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pioneer 1
Pioneer 1 (also known as Able 2) was an American space probe, the first under the auspices of NASA, which was launched by a Thor-Able rocket on 11 October 1958. It was intended to orbit the Moon and make scientific measurements, but due to a guidance error failed to achieve lunar orbit and was ultimately destroyed upon reentering Earth's atmosphere. The flight, which lasted 43 hours and reached an apogee of 113,800 km (70,700 miles), was the second and most successful of the three Thor-Able space probes. Spacecraft design Pioneer 1 was fabricated by Space Technology Laboratories, a division of Ramo-Wooldridge Corp (later TRW Inc.), and consisted of a thin cylindrical midsection with a squat truncated cone on each side. The cylinder was in diameter and the height from the top of one cone to the top of the opposite cone was . Along the axis of the spacecraft and protruding from the end of the lower cone was an solid propellant injection rocket and rocket case, which for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Explorer 5
Explorer 5 was a United States satellite with a mass of . It was the last of the original series of Explorer satellites built, designed, and operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Background Explorer 5 was similar in all respects to Explorer 4 and was designed with the same basic science objectives, to make the first detailed measurements of charged particles (protons and electrons) trapped in the terrestrial radiation belts and to observe the effects of the Project Argus A-bomb detonations. Spacecraft and subsystems Explorer 5 was a long, diameter cylinder and nosecone that comprised the fourth stage of the Jupiter-C launch vehicle. The on-orbit mass (after fuel burnout) was . The spacecraft body was made of stainless AISI-410 steel, thick. The surface was sandblasted, no aluminum oxide striping was used as on earlier Explorer satellites. The base of the cylinder held the Sergeant solid-fuel rocket motor. The Mallory mercury batteries for the low power transmi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thor-Able
The Thor-Able was an American expendable launch system and sounding rocket used for a series of re-entry vehicle tests and satellite launches between 1958 and 1960. It was a two-stage rocket, consisting of a Thor IRBM as a first stage and a Vanguard-derived Able second stage. On some flights, an Altair solid rocket motor was added as a third stage. It was a member of the Thor family and an early predecessor of the Delta. Launches Sixteen Thor-Able were launched, nine on sub-orbital re-entry vehicle test flights and seven on orbital satellite launch attempts. Six launches resulted in failures, in which three of those failures were the result of an Altair upper stage added to the rocket to allow it to launch the spacecraft onto a trans-lunar trajectory. All sixteen launches occurred from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 17A. Airframes The Thor-Able vehicle had a stronger airframe than the standard Thor IRBM and had the inertial guidance system replaced by a rad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pioneer 0
Pioneer 0 (also known as Able 1) was a failed United States space probe that was designed to go into orbit around the Moon, carrying a television camera, a micrometeorite detector and a magnetometer, as part of the first International Geophysical Year (IGY) science payload. It was designed and operated by the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division as the first spacecraft in the Pioneer program and was the first attempted launch beyond Earth orbit by any country, but the rocket failed shortly after launch. The probe was intended to be called Pioneer (or Pioneer 1), but the launch failure precluded that name. Spacecraft design The spacecraft consisted of a thin cylindrical midsection with a squat truncated cone frustum of high on each side. The cylinder was in diameter and the height from the top of one cone to the top of the opposite cone was 76 cm. Along the axis of the spacecraft and protruding from the end of the lower cone was an solid propellant injection rocket and roc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Explorer 4
Explorer 4 was an American satellite launched on 26 July 1958. It was instrumented by Dr. James van Allen's group. The Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) had initially planned two satellites for the purposes of studying the Van Allen radiation belts and the effects of nuclear explosions upon these belts (and the Earth's magnetosphere in general), however Explorer 4 was the only such satellite launched as the other, Explorer 5, suffered launch failure. Explorer 4 was a cylindrically shaped satellite instrumented to make the first detailed measurements of charged particles (protons and electrons) trapped in the terrestrial radiation belts. Juno I launch vehicle The launch vehicle was a Juno I, a variant of the three-stage Jupiter-C with an added fourth propulsive stage, which in this case was the Explorer 4. The first stage was an upgraded Redstone liquid-fueled rocket. The second stage comprised a cluster of eleven Sergeant solid-fuel rocket mot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vanguard SLV-1
Vanguard SLV-1, also called Vanguard Satellite Launch Vehicle-1 was hoped to be the second successful flight of the American Vanguard rocket following the successful launch of the Vanguard 1 satellite on rocket Vanguard TV-4 in March 1958. Background Vanguard Satellite Launch Vehicle-1 (SLV-1) was launched on 27 May 1958. Due to a malfunction in the second stage, the vehicle failed to enter Earth orbit as planned and crashed 12,000 km downrange. The planned program objectives of the satellite were to develop the capability to launch satellites into accurate Earth orbits, to confirm the feasibility of the Vanguard concept, and to study solar Lyman-alpha radiation and the space environment. The purpose of the International Geophysical Year (IGY) Vanguard satellite program, managed by the U.S. Navy, was to launch one or more satellites into Earth orbit during the International Geophysical Year (IGY). Launch vehicle Vanguard was the designation used for both the launch vehic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sputnik 3
Sputnik 3 (russian: Спутник-3, Satellite 3) was a Soviet satellite launched on 15 May 1958 from Baikonur Cosmodrome by a modified R-7/SS-6 ICBM. The scientific satellite carried a large array of instruments for geophysical research of the upper atmosphere and near space. Sputnik 3 was the only Soviet satellite launched in 1958. Like its American counterpart, Vanguard 1, Sputnik 3 reached orbit during the International Geophysical Year.Green, Constance McLaughlin, and Lomax, Milton.. ''Vanguard a History'', Washington D.C., National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1970, p. 219. NASA SP-4202 History In July 1956, the Soviet Union's OKB-1 completed the preliminary design for the first Earth satellite, designated ISZ (Artificial Earth Satellite). ISZ was nicknamed "Object D", as it would be the fifth variety of payload built for the R-7 missile to carry.Siddiqi, Asif A.. ''Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge'', Gainesville, Florida. The University of Florida P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
