DEVELOPMENT OF SPACE TECHNOLOGIES

FROM ANCIENT TIMES UP TO THE PRESENT

ANCIENT TIMES-1955

March 16,1926

Robert H. Goddard launches world's first liquid fuel rocket. (USA)

The first man to give hope to dreams of space travel is American Robert H. Goddard, who successfully launches the world's first liquid-fueled rocket at Auburn, Massachusetts, on March 16, 1926. The rocket traveled for 2.5 seconds at a speed of about 60 mph, reaching an altitude of 41 feet and landing 184 feet away. The rocket was 10 feet tall, constructed out of thin pipes, and was fueled by liquid oxygen and gasoline.

Robert Goddard

Johannes Winkler launches liquid oxygen/liquid methane rocket. Believed, at that time, by German Society for Space Travel to be world's first liquid fuel rocket. (GER)

February 21,1931

Johannes Winkler was a German rocket pioneer who founded the first German rocket society and launched the first successful liquid-fuelled rocket in Europe.

Following a year of development, his tiny HW-1 rocket lifted off from a field near Dessau on 14 March 1931, becoming the first liquid fuel rocket in Europe to be successfully launched. Winkler used the still-futuristic propellant combination of liquid oxygen and liquid methane.

Auguste Piccard and Paul Kipfer make first balloon flight into the stratosphere using a sealed capsule from Augsburg, Germany; altitude 51,777 feet.

May 27,1931

Auguste Piccard (right) and his assistant Paul Kipfer show off their natty headgear

Launch of GIRD-X, first all-liquid propellant rocket flown in Soviet Union. (USSR)

November 25,1933

Russian balloon "Osaviakhim" reached 73,000 feet, but crew died when gondola fell free; crewed by Paul F. Fedoseyenko, Andrei B. Wasienko (or, Vasenko), and Ilya Usyskin. (USSR)

January 30,1934

"Explorer I" balloon launched from Stratobowl near Rapid City, South Dakota; balloon failed at 60,613 feet; pilots Major William E. Kepner, Captain Orvil A. Anderson, and Captain Albert W. Stevens bailed out during descent. (USA)

July 28,1934

First successful flight of German A-4 (V-2) rocket; first man-made object to leave the atmosphere. (GER)

October 3,1942

Launch of Bumper 8; first rocket launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida. (USA)

July 24,1950

The RTV-G-4 Bumper was a type of rocket built by the United States. It was conceived in July 1946 by Colonel Holger N. Toftoy[1] as a combination of the V-2 rocket and WAC Corporal sounding rocket. The missile program was inaugurated on June 20, 1947 to:investigate launching techniques for a two-stage missile and separation of the two stages at high velocity,conduct limited investigation of high-speed high-altitude phenomena, andattain velocities and altitudes higher than ever reached.

October 4,1954

It was on this day that the soviet Union successfully launched the Sputnik 1, the world’s first artificial satellite.

The small satellite, about the size of a beach ball, stunned the world when it was launched into the earth’s orbit. The satellite traveled at 18,000 mph (29,000 km/h) and transmitted radio signals at 20,005 and 40.002.

1956-1961

Great Achievements in China's Space Technology

• Since its birth in 1956, China's space program has gone through several important stages of development -- arduous pioneering, overall development in all related fields, reform and revitalization, and international cooperation -- to reach a considerable scale and level, in the process forming a comprehensive system of research, design, production, and testing.

• Other achievements of the country's space program include: the putting-in-place of space centers capable of launching satellites of various types and manned spacecraft as well as a TT&C (Telemetry Tracking and Command) network consisting of ground stations across the country and tracking and telemetry ships; the establishment of a number of satellite application systems, which have yielded remarkable social and economic benefits; the setting-up of a space science research system of a fairly high level has been set up, with many innovative achievements having been made; and the emergence of a contingent of qualified space scientists and technicians.

October 04,1957

First artificial satelliteFirst signals from space

The Sputnik 1 spacecraft was the first artificial satellite successfully placed in orbit around the Earth and was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome at Tyuratam (370 km southwest of the small town of Baikonur) in Kazakhstan, then part of the former Soviet Union. The Russian word "Sputnik" means "companion" ("satellite" in the astronomical sense).

November 3, 1957

Sputnik 2, carrying the dog Laika for 7 days in orbit, is launched by the U.S.S.R., and remains in orbit until April 13, 1958.

January 31, 1958

Explorer 1, the first U.S. satellite in orbit, lifts off at Cape Canaveral using a modified ABMA-JPL Jupiter-C rocket. It carries a scientific experiment of James A. Van Allen, and discovers the Earth's radiation belt.

March 5, 1958

Explorer 2 is launched by a Jupiter-C rocket, and fails to reach orbit.

March 17, 1958

Vanguard 1 satellite is launched into orbit, and continues to transmit for 3 years.

January 2, 1959

Luna 1, first man-made satellite to orbit the moon, is launched by the U.S.S.R.

March 3, 1959

Pioneer 4, fourth U.S.-IGY space probe was launched by a Juno II rocket, and achieved an earth-moon trajectory, passing within 37,000 miles of the moon. It then fell into a solar orbit, becoming the first U.S. sun orbiter.

7 August 1959

First photograph of Earth from orbit

First view of Earth from the Moon and oblique view of the lunar surface

Lunar Orbiter 1 new of the Moon and crescent Earth. This is the first good image of the Earth taken from the vicinity of the Moon, 380,000 km away.

April 1, 1960

Tiros 1, the first successful weather satellite, is launched by the U.S.

August 18, 1960 -

Discoverer XIV launches the first U.S. camera-equipped Corona spy satellite.

April 12, 1961

Vostok 1 is launched by the U.S.S.R., carrying Cosmonaut Yuri A. Gargarin, the first man in space. He orbits the Earth once.

May 5, 1961

Mercury Freedom 7 carries Alan B. Shepard,Jr., the first U.S. Astronaut into space, in a suborbital flight.

(1962-1967)

Mission of the Friendship 7 spacecraft, astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth. As a part of the Mercury program, the success of this flight gave the United States a boost on its ongoing ‘space race’ with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

1962

Britain launched the first astronomical satellite, Ariel 1 in 1962 to study cosmic rays and ultraviolet and x-ray radiation from the sun.

The first successful planetary probe was the USA’s Mariner 2 which flew past Venus in 1962.

1963

Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova became the first woman in space, onboard Vostok 6, bounded in 1963. The spaceship made 18 orbits of the earth and the flight lasted for 3 days. Tereshkova was honoured with the title ‘Hero of the Soviet Union’ upon the completion of this historic mission.

1964

Soviet engineer Konstantin Feoktistov became one of the first two civilians in space when she served as technical scientist on the one-day flight of the Voskhod 1.

the Soviet Voskhod space program included the first spacewalk and the first three-person mission. The Voskhod 2 capsule had room for two cosmonauts and included an inflatable fabric airlock. The airlock allowed one of the cosmonauts to leave the spacecraft in a spacesuit.

1965

The piloted Gemini spacecraft were launched between March 1965 and November 1966. Unlike earlier American spacecraft, Gemini capsules were designed to carry two astronauts. Before returning to the earth, the crew jettisoned the resources compartment and the deorbiting system. The reentry module floated to a watery splashdown on earth using a parachute.

On June 3,1965, astronaut Edward White II became the first American to make an Extravehicular Activity (EVA) or spacewalk. White was tethered to the Gemini 4 space capsule by lifeline that by compressed gas to help him maneuver in space.

1966

The first moon landing was the unmanned Soviet Probe Lunar 9 which touched down the Moon’s surface in 1966.

1967

ESSA-5The ESSA-5 satellite replaced ESSA-3 and provided cloud-cover photography to the US's National Meteorological Center for the purpose of preparing weather analyses and forecasts. 

Launch Date:  April 20, 1967Operational Period:   738 days until deactivated by NASA on February 20, 1970Launch Vehicle:   Thrust Augmented Three-Stage DeltaLaunch Site:   Vandenberg Air Force Base, CAType:  Weather Satellite

ESSA-5

(1974 – 1979)

May 17, 1974-NASA Launches the first SYNCHRONOUS METEOLOGICAL SATELLITE, SMS-1

June 24,1974-SOLVIET SALYUT 3, their first military space station is launched. It remains in orbit until January 1978

December 26-Soviet Salyut 4 civilian space station is launched.

July 1975- American Apollo 18 and soviet Soyuz 19 dock, the first international spaceCraft rendezvouz.

June 22,1976- Soviet Military space station Salyut 5 is launched

September 3, 1976- Viking 2 lands on Mars on the places of Utopia

August- September 1977- Voyagers 1 and 2 leave earth to meet with Jupiter in 1979 and Saturn in 1980

December 1978- Two Pioneer spacecraft reach Venus. One drops four probes into the Atmosphere, while the other maps the surface.

September 1, 1979- Pioneer 2 reaches Saturn, flying to within 13,000 miles and taking the first close-up photographs.

Space Technologies(1980-1985)

Solar Maximum Mission Satellite

A scientific satellite designed to study solar radiation. Launched in early 1980, the craft failed later. It was repaired and relaunched by the space shuttle in 1984, collecting information until 1989, when it was destroyed by a solar flare.

Information collected by the satellite indicated that the corona displays an unexpectedly high amount of violent activity related to sunspot cycling.

The Solar Maximum Mission (SMM or SolarMax)

First Space Shuttle

The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, was launched in 1981. it completed 37 full orbits of the earth, flying 1 074 567 miles in 2 days, 6 hours, 20 minutes, and 53 seconds before returning to earth.

Space Shuttle Columbia

Ariane rocket

On June 19, 1981, the European Space Agency launches its third Ariane rocket.December 20,

1981 - The ESA launches a fourth Ariane rocket.

April 19, 1982 - Soviet Salyut 7 space station is launched. the Soviet Space Station Salyut 7 was played by electrical and propulsion problems. Despite these problems cosmonauts stayed aboard the space station for as long as eight months at a time. In 1991 Salyut 7 fell back to the earth. May 13, 1982 - Soviet Cosmonauts Anatoly N. Berezovoi and Valentin V. Lebedev are launched in Soyuz-T 5 to rendezvous with Salyut 7, the first team to inhabit the space station. They return to Earth in Soyuz-T 7, setting a (then) duration record of 211 days.

Soviet Salyut 7 space station

August, 1982 - Voyager 2 completes its flyby of Saturn.

November 11, 1982 - The space shuttle Columbia's fifth mission, its first operational one, begins, deploying two satellites. Crew: Vance Brand, Robert Overmyer, Joseph Allen, and William Lenoir.

Voyager 2

April 4, 1983 - The space shuttle Challenger lifts off for its first mission (STS-6) and has the first American space walk in nine years. Crew: Paul Weitz, Karol Bobko, Donald Peterson, and Story Musgrave.

June 19, 1983 - Sally K. Ride is the first U.S. woman to travel in space, on Challenger mission STS-7.

space shuttle Challenger

November 28, 1983 - The space shuttle Columbia carries the ESA Spacelab-1 into orbit (STS-9). Its crew includes Ulf Merbold, A German and first ESA member in space..

January-November, 1983 - The Infrared Astronomical Satellite finds new comets, asteroids, galaxies, and a dust ring around the star Vega that may be new planets.

ESA Spacelab-1 on orbit

July 17, 1984 - launch of Soyuz-T 12 carrying Svetlana Savitskaya, who becomes the first woman to walk in space. 

Savitskaya on Soyuz T-12, and her spacewalk

August 30, 1984 - The third space shuttle, Discovery, lifts off on it's maiden voyage (STS-41D). Crew: Henry W. Hartsfield, Michael L. Coats, Richard Mullane, Steven Hawley, Judith A. Resnik, and Charles D. Walker.

Space Shuttle Discovery

The first black Astronaut in the United States, Guion Bluford served as a mission specialist aboard the space shuttle Challenger in 1983.

October, 1984 - Salyut 7's cosmonauts L. D. Kizim, V. A. Solovyov, and O. Y. Atkov set a (then) 237-day record in space. They arrive atSalyut 7 in Soyuz-T 10 and depart in Soyuz-T 11

October 5, 1984 - launch of space shuttle Challenger mission STS-41G carrying the first crew with two women aboard - Sally Ride and Katherine Sullivan. Sullivan becomes the first American woman to walk in space. 

Atkov Vladimir Solovyov

Sally Ride Katherine Sullivan

December, 1984 - Soviet/International Vega 1 & 2 are launched, dropping probes into Venus' atmosphere before continuing to Halley's Comet.

Vega Mission

January 8, 1985 - The Sakigake probe is launched by Japan's Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science, becoming the first interplanetary probe as it rendezvous with Halley's Comet.

Sakigake probe

April 29, 1985 - The Challenger carries the ESA Spacelab-3 into orbit (STS-51B).

July 2, 1985 - The European Space Agency launches the Giotto spacecraft from an Ariane rocket. It encounters Halley's Comet in 1986, and Comet P/Grigg-Skjellerup in 1992.

American Astronaut and solar physicist Loren Acton performed astronomy experiments and operated a solar telescope on the space shuttle Challenger during a mission that began on July 29, 1985.

October 3, 1985 - The fourth space shuttle Atlantis takes off on its first mission (STS-51J). Crew: Karol J. Bobko, Ronald J. Grabe, Robert A. Stewart, David C. Hilmers, and William A. Pailes.

October 1985 - Spacelab D1, the first joint German/ESA mission, is flown. Its crew consists of two German DARA astronauts, and Danish Wubbo Ockels of the ESA.

Between 30 October and 6 November 1985, three European astronauts served as payload specialists (science astronauts) on the first spaceflight with a crew of eight (STS-61A still holds the record for the largest crew aboard any single spacecraft for the entire period from launch to landing).

1986- 1991 January, 1986: American Astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz became the 1st Hispanic-American in space when he flew on the space shuttle Colombia.Jan. 1986: Voyager 2 flew by Uranus. Ten unknown moons around the plant was found.Jan. 28 1986: space shuttle CHALLENGER exploded shortly 73 seconds after launched which killed seven crew. Russian MIR was launched.

Space Shuttle Challenger

Russian MIR

Voyager 2 orbit in Uranus

Soviet MIR

Feb. 19,1986; longest serving station soviet MIR was launched, it made more than 76,000 orbits of the Earth.

May 4, 1989: Magellan mapped Venus's surface and collected data on planet’s gravity field.Aug. 24, 1989: Voyager 2 flew by Neptune; six moons and three rings around Neptune was found. 1989: Galileo was launched and reached Jupiter in 1995. evidence of liquid salt water of three large moons was found.1989: Magellan probe become the first interplanetary spacecraft to be launched from the space shuttle.

Voyager 2 orbit in Neptune

Galileo Space Probe

Hubble Space Telescope Ulysses Space Shuttle

Edwin Hubble

1990: shuttle crews worked with cosmonauts aboard MIR, helping them prepare for the next major Space Station Project.

Late 1990’s: NASA introduced the next generation of space probes that would carry out agency’s “ new millennium” missions. One of this was Deep Space 1 launched in 1998.

Deep Space 1

Gamma Ray Telescope-launched by Atlantis

1991: Galileo Space Probe took close-up pictures of the asteroids Ida and Gaspra.

1991: Astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis launched the huge Gamma Ray Telescope(GRO) into orbit.

1992- 1997

The launch of Atlantis

1995

The US Shuttle Atlantis docks to MIR

•NASA and the Russian space agency kicked off a new era in international space cooperation in June of 1995, when the Space Shuttle Atlantis docked with the Russian space station Mir for the first time.

Atlantis' mission, STS-71, launched on June 27 and marked the 100th U.S. human space launch. Together, Atlantis and Mir became the largest combined spacecraft ever in orbit, totaling almost a half a million pounds.

Space Shuttle Atlantis docked to MIRFor the docking, Shuttle Commander Hoot Gibson positioned Atlantis directly

below Mir, so that the Earth's gravity naturally braked the orbiter's approach "up" to Mir. The final approach rate of about an inch per minute ended 216 nautical miles above Russia's Lake Baykal region, with a nearly perfect docking, off by less than one inch and one half a degree.

The Shuttle-Mir program included 11 Space Shuttle flights

1993On 2 December 1993, the NASA space shuttle Endeavour was launched from Kennedy Space Center on "STS-61", the 59th shuttle mission

The goal of the mission was to repair the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), which had been placed into orbit by Discovery / STS-31. After checkout, the Hubble turned out to have defective optics, a revelation that proved very embarrassing to NASA.

 Today, at about 5:00 pm EST, this 750 pound probe from NASA's robot spacecraft Galileo will plummet into Jupiter becoming the first probe to fly through the atmosphere of a gas giant planet. Released by the Galileo orbiter in July of this year, it has been coasting toward its rendezvous with the Solar System's largest planet. The probe will smack Jupiter's atmosphere at over 100,000 mph slowing to less than 1,000 mph in a matter of minutes, experiencing a deceleration of about 230 times the Earth's surface gravity. If all goes well, it will then deploy a parachute and descend, using sophisticated instruments to profile Jupiter's dense outer layers of hydrogen and helium gas.

December 7, 1995The Galileo spacecraft arrives at Jupiter

The first was the Sojourner rover that landed in 1997 as part of the Mars Pathfinder mission. Pathfinder was a proof-of-concept project to show that its unique airbag landing system, rover design, and autonomous control system were practical. The rover and its lander base were only expected to last 7 to 30 Martian days but continued functioning for nearly three months until contact was lost.

The Mars Pathfinder rover Sojourner exploring the Martian surface

1997 US Rover Sojourner

The rover was still functioning well when the mission ended, but the battery used by the lander base station was only designed to recharge 40 times. After 40 Martian days, the battery could not maintain a full recharge making it unable to keep the lander warm during the bitterly cold nights. It is believed this factor probably resulted in a failure in the lander's electronics causing it to lose communication with Earth. Without the lander, the Sojourner rover was unable to continue operating on its own.

1997The double probe Cassini/Huygens is launched on 15 October 1997, aimed at Saturn. This is the most ambitious and complex unmanned planetary project ever attempted, costing more than $2.5 billion and involving 17 nations. Cassini-Huygens flight director Julie Webster reacts as the burn of the retrorockets to insert the spacecraft into the orbit of Saturn begins, 30 July 2004 at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, US. In its travels the international mission's spacecraft has passed through Saturn's rings to begin a four-year study of the planet and its rings. It has also landed on the surface of Titan, Saturn's largest moon.

1998- 2003

January 7, 1998 -  Lunar Prospector is the first NASA

mission to the Moon in 25 years, and the first dedicated to lunar research since Apollo 17 in 1972. The spacecraft is placed in lunar orbit to make a careful spectroscopic analysis of the entire lunar surface, including its North and South poles, and soon confirms what the Department of Defense Clementine mission had found in 1994 - that trapped within some of the craters at the Moon's two poles is about 6.6 trillion tons of permanently frozen water ice. 

January 22, 1998 -Space Shuttle Endeavour lifts off to

rendezvous with Mir, the eight U.S. docking with the Russian space station and the first by a shuttle other than Atlantis. 

February 14, 1998 The four satellites Global star 1, 2,

3, and 4 are the first in Globalstar's planned 44-satellite constellation of medium-Earth-orbit (~900 miles altitude) communications satellites for providing voice and data links worldwide from both remote and home telephones. This system is planned as a direct competitor to Iridium's cluster, which began launching in May of 1997. 

April 17, 1998 Space Shuttle Columbia lifts off

on a 16-day mission, its 25th. The mission is dedicated to the study of the effects of weightlessness on the human neurological system, with the astronauts serving as both researchers and experimental subjects. 

June 2, 1998 -Space

Shuttle Discovery lifts off on a 10-day mission, its 24th and the last shuttle docking with Mir.

July 3, 1998 -Japan launches

the Nozomi probe to Mars, the first planetary mission by a country other than the U.S. or the Soviet Union/Russia. Using a combination of lunar gravity, Earth gravity, and rocket burns, Nozomi is scheduled to arrive at Mars in December 2003. 

October 24, 1998 - NASA launches Deep Space 1, a technology test spacecraft which evaluates a dozen advanced spacecraft engineering designs, from mirror-enhanced solar panels to the first use of an ion engine to leave Earth orbit and rendezvous with the asteroid Braille. 

November 20, 1998 - the first component of the International Space Station, Zarya, is launched on a Russian rocket. This Russian built, U.S. financed module provides communications, electrical power, and attitude control for the station until the arrival of the third module (Zvezda, in July 2000). 

January 3, 1999 - Mars Polar Lander lifts off on its

ill-fated mission to Mars. This NASA probe is to land within about 600 miles of the Martian South Pole, along with dropping two surface-penetrating darts. Contact with the probe is lost on December 3, 1999 as it is descending through the Martian atmosphere and it is never heard from again, the first failure of a U.S. planetary soft landing in 30 years. 

February 7, 1999 -The NASA

satellite Stardust lifts off for a rendezvous with the Comet Wild-2 in January of 2004. 

February 20, 1999 -the Russian Soyuz

TM29 lifts off for the Mir space station. This is scheduled to be the final mission to Mir, and when the crew of TM29 departs Mir in August of 1999, they leave the space station empty for the first time in almost exactly 10 years. 

January 3, 2000 -the Galileo space

probe safely completes its encounter with Jupiter's ice moon, Europa, at an altitude of 343 km. Later in the year, on May 30, Galileo flies by Jupiter's largest moon Ganymede at an altitude of 808 km. 

May 19, 2000Space

Shuttle Atlantis lifts off for the International Space Station for maintenance on the crane and a faulty antenna, installation of a Russian boom arm, handrails and upgrades to the ventilation system, and delivery of new batteries, supplies and equipment. 

July 12, 2000 -the Zvezda service module for

the International Space Station (ISS) is launched from Russia on a Proton rocket. The automated docking of this unit with the first linked pair of modules already in orbit - Zarya and Unity - allows the U.S. to start a series of space shuttle launches to add American-built components, which will be followed by laboratory modules from Europe and Japan. Zvezda will act as the control center and living quarters for the initial space station crews. 

January 9, 2001 -the first launch of the

"true" millenium is Chinese, with the second test flight of the manned Shenshou spaceship, reported to be carrying a monkey, a dog, and a rabbit. 

April 7, 2001 -- the 2001 Mars

Odyssey probe is launched on a trajectory for Mars orbit to be achieved in October, with a mission similar to that of the Mars Climate Orbiter launched December 1998. Mars Odyssey successfully enters Mars orbit on October 24th. 

April 28, 2001  Soyuz spacecraft TM-

32 lifts off for the ISS with the first space tourist, business executive Dennis Tito, who pays the Russians $20 million for the ride. 

July 03,2002

The Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR) spacecraft is presumed lost after numerous attempts at contact. The spacecraft was scheduled to ignite its STAR 30 solid rocket engine on 15 August 2003 at 08:49 UT (4:49 a.m. EDT). This firing was to take CONTOUR out of Earth orbit and put it on a heliocentric trajectory. 

May 9, 2003The spacecraft was launched on

9 May 2003 at 04:29:25 UT (1:29 p.m. local time, 12:29 a.m. EDT) on an M-5 solid fuel booster from the Kagoshima launch center. Following launch, the name Muses-C was changed to Hayabusa (the Japanese word for falcon) and the spacecraft was put into a transfer orbit to bring it to asteroid 25143 Itokawa (1998 SF36), a 0.3 x 0.7 km near-Earth object.

June 03,2003 - Mars Express is a European Space

Agency (ESA) mission to Mars. It consists of an orbiter, the Mars Express Orbiter, and a lander, Beagle 2. The scientific objectives of the Mars Express Orbiter are to obtain global high-resolution photo-geology (10 m resolution), mineralogical mapping (100 m resolution) and mapping of the atmospheric composition, study the subsurface structure, the global atmospheric circulation, and the interaction between the atmosphere and the subsurface, and the atmosphere and the interplanetary medium. 

(2004-2009)

2004 Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic is a company within Richard Branson's Virgin Group which plans to provide sub-orbital spaceflights to space tourists,

Virgin Galactic hopes to offer orbital human spaceflights .

Virgin Galactic's spacecraft are launched from a large aeroplane, giving the spacecraft more initial speed and altitude than if it were launched from the ground.

September 8, 2004--After capturing particles from the sun, Genesis makes a dramatic crash landing in Utah when its parachute fails to deploy. Despite the landing, scientists still managed to recover and study the samples.

September 30, 2004—Space Ship One becomes the first privately built craft to reach outer space.

August 4, 2007--Phoenix lander launches on its way to explore the northern pole of Mars.

Phoenix was a robotic spacecraft on a space exploration mission on Mars under the Mars Scout Program Mission scientists used instruments aboard the lander to search for environments suitable for microbial life on Mars, and to research the history of water there.

2009

US Messenger Mission MESSENGER (an

acronym of MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) (also the name of the Roman god it is named after) is a robotic NASA spacecraft orbiting the planet Mercury, the first spacecraft ever to do so.

The instruments carried by MESSENGER were tested on a complex series of flybys – the spacecraft flew by Earth once, Venus twice, and Mercury itself three times, allowing it to decelerate relative to Mercury using minimal fuel.MESSENGER successfully entered Mercury's orbit on March 18, 2011.

Discovery of water ice at the planet's north pole.[9]

Space Technologies2010-2013

1. Solar Impulse HB-SIA

Tested in July 2010, Solar Impulse HB-SIA successfully flew 28,500 feet above the ground for 26 hours. Solar Impulse HB-SIA is 1 man crew light airship. It can fly overnight without any back up energy for more than 12 hours after the Lithium-ion batteries were charged by solar energy at the day light.

2. ESA CRYO-SAT 2

The Cryo-Sat 2 satellite is built to collect data on polar ice caps from miles beyond the earth. It is completed with sensor, antennas, and radar to snap ice burgs floating on those 2 regions.

3. Masten Space Systems Xombie

Masten Space Systems Xombie or also called XA-0.1B Xombie is a new Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) spacecraft from Masten Space Systems. This VTOL was qualified to follow Lunar Lander Challenge in October 2009 and it wont second rank

4. Atacama Large Millimeter Array ( ATMA)

Atacama Large Millimeter Array or Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array ( ATMA) is an international observatory between Europe, North America, East Asia plus. the Republic of Chile. It is designed to be the biggest ground-based telescope and the strongest radio-telescope array on earth. It is located at the Chajnantor plateau, 5000 meters above sea level, on the Atacama desert of northern Chile and it is designed to study gravitational collapse that marks the new born of stars include radiation emission from collapse stars 10 billions years ago

5. Spacex Falcon-9

Spacex Falcon-9 is a spaceflight launch system and it is used to send space crew to International Space Station (ISS). Falcon-9 is powered by SpaceX rocket engines and it will be employed to send Dragon spacecraft. On December 8, 2010, the rocket have passed the test and return to earth.

6. Eads Astrium Tandem-X Satellite

TanDEM-X is a Radar Imaging satellite or a German Earth observation satellite that uses SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar). It is similar with TerraSAR-X radar satellite and it can collects the data of Earth`s land surface in a stereoscopic images

7. Boeing X-37

Boeing X-37 is a new unmanned orbital test vehicle of the United States Air Force and NASA. It came from Boeing’s Phantom Works Division and it is manufactured to demonstrate reusable space air carrier. It has Two wings and Twin V vertical stabilizers to maintain the speed and balance. So far only 3 unit were built and the first test already completed in 22 April and 3 December 2010

8. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne/Boeing X-51A Waverider

The Boeing X-51 is a remote controlled scramjet aircraft that can move beyond hypersonic (Mach 6) flight.During the test , the jet flew above 70,000 feet. and the test alone was held on 26 May 2010. on that test day, beside the fastest, the jet also broke the record as the longest ever supersonic combustion ramjet-powered flight after running over the atmosphere for 3 ½ minute

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