Space Age

This article is about the era. For the fire protection company, see Space Age Electronics.
The launch of the Sputnik 1 satellite marked the start of the Space Age.[1]
The signals of Sputnik 1 continued for 22 days.
The Space Shuttle lifts off on a manned mission to space.

The Space Age is a time 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 (1957).

Beginning

The Space Age began with the development of several technologies that culminated on October 4, 1957, with the 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 83 kg (183 lb). The launch of Sputnik 1 ushered a new era of political, scientific and technological achievements that became known as the Space Age.[2]

The Space Age was characterized by rapid development of new technology in a close race mostly between the US and the Soviet Union. Rapid advances were made in rocketry, materials science, computers and other areas. Much of the technology originally developed for space applications has been spun off and found other uses.

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.[3]

During the 1990s funding for space related programs fell sharply as the remaining structures of the Soviet Union disintegrated and NASA no longer had any direct competition.

Since then participation in space launches has increasingly widened to more governments and commercial interests. Since the 1990s, space exploration and space-related technologies gained a perception by many people of being commonplace.

Current period

In the early 21st century, the Ansari X Prize competition was set up to help jump start private spaceflight, which was won by Space Ship One in 2004, becoming the first spaceship not funded by a government agency.[4]

Several countries now have space programs; from related technology ventures to full-fledged space programs with launch facilities.[5] There are many scientific and commercial satellites in use today, with thousands of satellites in orbit,[6] and several countries have plans to send humans into space.[7][8]

Chronology

Date First ... Mission Person(s) Country
February 20, 1947 Animals in space U.S.-launched V-2 rocket on 20 February 1947 from White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.[9][10][11][12] - fruit flies - United States
October 4, 1957 Artificial satellite Sputnik 1 – N/A Soviet Union
November 3, 1957 Animal in orbit Sputnik 2 Laika the dog Soviet Union
January 2, 1959 Lunar flyby, and first spacecraft to achieve a heliocentric orbit Luna 1 – N/A Soviet Union
September 12, 1959 Impacted on the Lunar surface; thereby becoming the first human object to reach another celestial body Luna 2 – N/A Soviet Union
October 7, 1959 Pictures of the far side of the Moon Luna 3 – N/A Soviet Union
April 12, 1961 Human in space Vostok 1 Yuri Gagarin Soviet Union
March 18, 1965 Spacewalk Voskhod 2 Alexey Leonov Soviet Union
December 15, 1965 Space rendezvous Gemini 6A & Gemini 7 Schirra, Stafford, Borman, Lovell United States
April 3, 1966 Artificial satellite of another celestial body (other than the Sun) Luna 10 – N/A Soviet Union
December 21–27, 1968 Humans to leave the Earth's influence, orbiting the Moon Apollo 8 Borman, Lovell, Anders United States
July 20, 1969 Humans land and walk on the Moon Apollo 11 Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin United States
April 19, 1971 Space station Salyut 1 – N/A Soviet Union
June 7, 1971 Resident crew Soyuz 11 (Salyut 1) Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, Viktor Patsayev Soviet Union
July 20, 1976 Pictures from the surface of Mars Viking 1 – N/A United States
April 12, 1981 Reusable orbital spaceship STS-1 Young, Crippen United States
February 19, 1986 Long-duration space station Mir – N/A Soviet Union

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 man-made object to enter space, albeit only briefly.[13] Some even considered that the Space Age started in March 1926, when American rocket pioneer Robert H. Goddard launched the world's first liquid fuel rocket, though his rocket did not reach the outer space.[14]

Since the aforementioned 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 had the ability to place a payload anywhere on the planet, or to use another term, possessed an inter-continental ballistic missile. The fact that after such a development nowhere on the planet was safe from a nuclear warhead is why the orbit standard is used to define when the space age started.[15]

Arts and architecture

Saturn V and Cadillac DeVille (1959)
TWA Moonliner II replica atop the restored TWA Corporate Headquarters building in Kansas City, MO, 2007.

The Space Age is considered to have influenced:

See also

References

  1. ↑ McDougall, Walter A (Winter 2010), "Shooting the Moon", American Heritage.
  2. ↑ Garber, Steve. "Sputnik and The Dawn of the Space Age". History. NASA. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
  3. ↑ "National Aeronautics and Space Administration". NASA. Retrieved 2015-11-20.
  4. ↑ "SpaceShipOne: The First Private Spacecraft | The Most Amazing Flying Machines Ever". Space.com. Retrieved 2015-11-27.
  5. ↑ "Global Space Programs | Space Foundation". www.spacefoundation.org. Retrieved 2015-11-27.
  6. ↑ "Satellites - Active Satellites in Earth's Orbit". satellites.findthedata.com. Retrieved 2015-11-27.
  7. ↑ "Japan Wants Space Plane or Capsule by 2022". Space.com. Retrieved 2015-11-27.
  8. ↑ "India takes giant step to manned space mission". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 2015-11-27.
  9. ↑
  10. ↑ UPPER AIR ROCKET SUMMARY V-2 NO. 20. postwarv2.com
  11. ↑ "The Beginnings of Research in Space Biology at the Air Force Missile Development Center, 1946–1952". History of Research in Space Biology and Biodynamics. NASA. Archived from the original on 25 January 2008. Retrieved 31 January 2008.
  12. ↑ "V-2 Firing Tables". White Sands Missile Range. Archived from the original on 25 January 2008. Retrieved 31 January 2008.
  13. ↑ Schefter, James (1999), The Race: The Uncensored Story of How America Beat Russia to the Moon, New York, New York: Doubleday, pp. 3–49, ISBN 0-385-49253-7
  14. ↑ "Goddard launches space age with historic first 85 years ago today". Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  15. ↑ Schefter, James (1999), The Race: The Uncensored Story of How America Beat Russia to the Moon, New York, New York: Doubleday, pp. 3–49, ISBN 0-385-49253-7
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