
lifts off on a crewed mission to space.]]
The Space Age is a period encompassing the activities related to the
Space Race,
space exploration,
space technology, and the cultural developments influenced by these events. The Space Age is generally considered to have begun with
Sputnik 1 in 1957,
continuing to the present day.
Beginning
The Space Age began with the development of several technologies that converged with the October 4, 1957 launch of
Sputnik 1 by the
Soviet Union. This was the world's first
artificial satellite, orbiting the Earth in 98.1 minutes and weighing . The launch of Sputnik 1 ushered in a new era of political, scientific and technological achievements that became known as the Space Age,
by the rapid development of new technology and a race for achievement, mostly between the
United States and the Soviet Union.
Rapid advances were made in
rocketry,
materials science, and other areas. Much of the technology originally developed for space applications has been
spun off and found additional uses. One such example is
memory foam.
The Space Age reached its peak with the
Apollo program that captured the imagination of much of the world's population. The landing of
Apollo 11 was watched by over 500 million people around the world and is widely recognized as one of the defining moments of the 20th century. Since then, public attention has largely moved to other areas.
In the United States, the
Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' disaster in 1986 marked a significant decline in crewed
Shuttle launches. Following the disaster, NASA grounded all Shuttles for safety concerns until 1988. During the 1990s funding for space-related programs fell sharply as the remaining structures of the now-dissolved Soviet Union disintegrated and
NASA no longer had any direct competition.
Since then, participation in space launches has increasingly widened to include more governments and commercial interests. Since the 1990s, the public perception of space exploration and space-related technologies has been that such endeavors are increasingly commonplace.
NASA permanently grounded all U.S. Space Shuttles in 2011. NASA has since relied on
Russia and
SpaceX to take American astronauts to and from the
International Space Station.
Present period
In the early 21st century, the
Ansari X Prize competition was set up to help jump-start
private spaceflight.
The winner,
Space Ship One in 2004, became the first spaceship not funded by a government agency.
Several countries now have space programs; from related technology ventures to full-fledged space programs with launch facilities. There are many scientific and commercial satellites in use today, with thousands of satellites in orbit, and several countries have plans to send humans into space. Some of the countries joining this new race are
France,
India,
China,
Israel and the
United Kingdom, all of which have employed surveillance satellites. There are several other countries with less extensive space programs, including
Brazil,
Germany,
Ukraine, and
Spain.
As for the United States space program, NASA is currently constructing a deep-space crew capsule named the
Orion. NASA's goal with this new space capsule is to carry humans to
Mars. The Orion spacecraft is due to be completed in the early 2020s. NASA is hoping that this mission will “usher in a new era of space exploration.”
Another major factor affecting the current Space Age is the
privatization of space flight. There are two major companies,
Boeing and
SpaceX, that are taking a large part in research and innovation.
Elon Musk, the owner of SpaceX, has stated the ultimate goal of putting a colony of 1 million people on
Mars and in 2018, it launched its largest
rocket, bringing this goal closer to reality.
Blue Origin, a private company funded by
Amazon.com founder
Jeff Bezos, is developing rockets for use in
space tourism, commercial satellite launches, and eventual missions to the Moon and beyond.
Richard Branson's company
Virgin Galactic is concentrating on launch vehicles for space tourism.
Chronology
Earlier spaceflights
The Space Age might also be considered to have begun much earlier than October 4, 1957, because in June 1944, a German
V-2 rocket became the first manmade object to enter
space, albeit only briefly. Some even consider March 1926 as the beginning of the Space Age, when American rocket pioneer
Robert H. Goddard launched the world's first liquid fuel rocket, though his rocket did not reach outer space.
Since the V-2 rocket flight was undertaken in secrecy, it was not public knowledge for many years afterward. Further, the German launches, as well as the subsequent
sounding rocket tests performed in both the United States and the Soviet Union during the late 1940s and early 1950s, were not considered significant enough to start a new age because they did not reach orbit. Having a rocket powerful enough to reach orbit meant that a nation could place a payload anywhere on the planet, or to use another term, possessed an
intercontinental ballistic missile. The fact that after such a development nowhere on Earth was safe from a nuclear warhead is why the orbital standard is commonly used to define when the space age began.
Arts and architecture
thumb|TWA Moonliner II replica atop the restored TWA Corporate Headquarters building in Kansas City, MO, 2007
The Space Age is considered to have influenced:
*
Automotive design
*
Googie architecture
*
Amusement park attraction including
TWA Moonliner and
Mission: Space.
*
Cold War playground equipment
Music
The Space Age also inspired musical genres:
*
Space age pop
*
Space music
*
Space rock
*
Space-themed music
See also
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Space exploration
*
Space Race
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Spacecraft
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Human spaceflight
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SEDS
*
Space probe
*
Information Age
*
Jet Age
*
Atomic Age
*
Googie architecture (space age design movement)
*
Space tourism
References
External links
*
Interactive media
* .
{{Spaceflight
Category:Spaceflight
Category:Historical eras
Category:20th century
Category:1957 introductions
Category:1957 in spaceflight