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, beginning with the launch of Sputnik 1 during 1957,[1][2] and continuing to the present.
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 96.17 minutes[3] and weighing 83 kg (183 lb). The launch of Sputnik 1 ushered in a new era of political, scientific and technological achievements that became known as the Space Age,[4] by the rapid development of new technology and a race for achievement, mostly between the United States and the Soviet Union.[4] 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.
Prior to human spaceflights being attempted, various animals were flown to space to identify potential detrimental effects of microgravity and radiation exposure at high altitudes.[5]
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.[6]
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.[7] 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.[8]
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.[8][9]
In the early 21st century, the Ansari X Prize competition was set up to help jump-start private spaceflight.[10] The winner, Space Ship One in 2004, became the first spaceship not funded by a government agency.[11]
Several countries now have space programs; from related technology ventures to full-fledged space programs with launch facilities.[12] 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.[13][14] 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.[15]
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.”[15]
Another major factor affecting the current Space Age is the privatization of space flight.[16] A significant private spaceflight company is SpaceX which became the proprietor of one of world's most capable operational launch vehicle when they launched their current largest rocket, the Falcon Heavy in 2018. Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX, has put forward the goal of establishing a colony of one million people on Mars and the company is developing its Starship launch vehicle to facilitate this. Since the Demo-2 mission for NASA in 2020 in which SpaceX launched astronauts for the first time to the International Space Station, the company has maintained an orbital human spaceflight capability. Blue Origin, a private company founded 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.[17] Richard Branson's company Virgin Galactic is concentrating on launch vehicles for space tourism.[18] A spinoff company, Virgin Orbit, air-launches small satellites with their LauncherOne rocket. Another small-satellite launcher, Rocket Lab, has developed the Electron rocket and the Photon satellite bus for sending spacecraft further into the Solar System.
History of technology |
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Date | First ... | Mission | Person(s) | Country | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
September 30, 1929 | Successful public flight of a manned rocket-powered aircraft (Opel RAK.1)[19] | Opel-RAK, world's first large-scale rocket program[20] | Julius Hatry (designer), Fritz von Opel (pilot and program head), Max Valier (program head) | Germany | |
June 20, 1944 | Artificial object in outer space, i.e. beyond the Kármán line | V-2 rocket, test flight[21] | – N/A | Germany | |
October 24, 1946 | Pictures from space (105 km)[22][23][24] | U.S.-launched V-2 rocket from White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. | – N/A | United States | |
February 20, 1947 | Animals in space | U.S.-launched V-2 rocket on 20 February 1947 from White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.[25][26][27] | - fruit flies | United States | |
October 4, 1957 | Artificial satellite | Sputnik 1[28] | – N/A | Soviet Union | |
November 3, 1957[29] | Animal in orbit | Sputnik 2[30] | Laika the dog | Soviet Union | |
January 2, 1959 | Lunar flyby, spacecraft to achieve a heliocentric orbit | Luna 1[31] | – N/A | Soviet Union | |
September 12, 1959 | Impact on the Lunar surface; thereby becoming the first human object to reach another celestial body | Luna 2[32] | – N/A | Soviet Union | |
October 7, 1959 | Pictures of the far side of the Moon | Luna 3[33] | – N/A | Soviet Union | |
January 31, 1961 | Hominidae in space | Mercury-Redstone 2 | Ham (chimpanzee) | United States | |
April 12, 1961 | Human in space | Vostok 1[34] | Yuri Gagarin | Soviet Union | |
May 5, 1961 | Manual orientation of crewed spacecraft, human space mission that landed with pilot still in spacecraft, thus the first complete human spaceflight by then FAI definitions[35][36] | Freedom 7[37] | Alan Shepard | United States | |
December 14, 1962 | Successful flyby of another planet (Venus closest approach 34,773 kilometers) | Mariner 2[38] | – N/A | United States | |
March 18, 1965 | Spacewalk | Voskhod 2[39][40] | Alexei Leonov | Soviet Union | |
December 15, 1965 | Space rendezvous | Gemini 6A[41] and Gemini 7[41] | Schirra, Stafford, Borman, Lovell | United States | |
February 3, 1966 | Soft landing on the Moon by a spacecraft | Luna 9[42][43] | – N/A | Soviet Union | |
March 1, 1966 | Human-made object to impact another planet | Venera 3[44][45] | – N/A | Soviet Union | |
March 16, 1966 | Orbital docking between two spacecraft | Gemini 8[46] & Agena Target Vehicle[47] | Neil Armstrong, David Scott | United States | |
April 3, 1966 | Artificial satellite of another celestial body (other than the Sun) | Luna 10[48] | – N/A | Soviet Union | |
October 18, 1967 | Spacecraft to perform transmit data from the atmosphere of another planet | Venera 4[49] | – N/A | Soviet Union | |
December 21–27, 1968 | Humans to enter the gravitational influence of another celestial body (the Moon) and orbit it | Apollo 8 | Borman, Lovell, Anders | United States | |
July 20, 1969 | Humans land and walk on another celestial body (Moon) | Apollo 11[50] | Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin | United States | |
December 15, 1970 | Telemetry from the surface of another planet | Venera 7[51] | – N/A | Soviet Union | |
April 19, 1971 | Operational space station | Salyut 1[52][53] | – 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[54] | – N/A | United States | |
April 12, 1981 | Reusable orbital spaceship | STS-1[55] | Young, Crippen | United States | |
February 19, 1986 | Long-duration space station | Mir[56] | – N/A | Soviet Union | |
February 14, 1990 | Photograph of the whole Solar System[57] | Voyager 1[58] | – N/A | United States | |
November 20, 1998 | Current space station | International Space Station[59] | – N/A | Russia | |
August 25, 2012 | Space probe in interstellar space | Voyager 1[60] | – N/A | United States | |
November 12, 2014 | Artificial probe to make a planned and soft landing on a comet (67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko)[61] | Rosetta[62] | – N/A | European Space Agency | |
July 14, 2015 | Nation to have its space probes to explore all of the nine major planets recognized in 1981[63] | New Horizons[64] | – N/A | United States | |
December 20, 2015 | Vertical landing of an orbital rocket booster on a ground pad.[65] | Falcon 9 flight 20[66] | – N/A | United States | |
April 8, 2016 | Vertical landing of an orbital rocket booster on a floating platform at sea.[67] | SpaceX CRS-8[68] | – N/A | United States | |
March 30, 2017 | Relaunch and second landing of a used orbital rocket booster.[69] | SES-10[70] | – N/A | United States | |
January 3, 2019 | Soft landing on the lunar far side by a spacecraft. | Chang'e 4[71][72] | – N/A | China | |
May 30, 2020 | Human orbital spaceflight launched by a private company | Crew Dragon Demo-2/Crew Demo-2/SpaceX Demo-2/Dragon Crew Demo-2[73] | Bob Behnken, Doug Hurley | United States | |
July 11, 2021 | Commercial space tourism flight | Virgin Galactic Unity 22[74] | David Mackay, Michael Masucci, Sirisha Bandla, Colin Bennet, Beth Moses, Richard Branson | United States | |
October 5, 2021 | Feature-length fiction film shot in space (The Challenge) | Soyuz MS-19[75] | Anton Shkaplerov, Klim Shipenko, Yulia Peresild | Russia |
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.[76] 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.[77] Also already in the 1920s the world's first large-scale experimental rocket program, Opel-RAK, was initiated under the leadership of Fritz von Opel and Max Valier. Speed records for ground and rail vehicles were achieved in 1928 and von Opel piloted the world's first public flight of a rocket plane, Opel RAK.1.[78] The Great Depression put an end to the Opel-RAK program but it nevertheless had a strong and long-lasting impact on later spaceflight pioneers, in particular on Wernher von Braun who would eventually head the Nazi era V2 program.[79]
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.[80]
The Space Age is considered to have influenced:
The Space Age also inspired musical genres:
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union opened the Space Age...[dead link]
In the earlier days of space exploration, nobody knew if people could survive a trip away from Earth, so using animals was the best way to find out. In 1948, a rhesus macaque monkey named Albert flew inside a V2 rocket. In 1957, Russians sent a dog named Laika into orbit. Both of these flights showed that humans could survive weightlessness and the effects of high gravitational forces.
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To space and back, in less than nine minutes? Hello, future.
His designs were very modern and architectural, much like those of Courreges and Cardin.
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