Space Probe 1959

The Soviet boost our knowledge of space

Space Probe:

     A Space probe is a satellite that leaves the grip of Earth's gravity and moves off to flyby, or orbit, another solar system body. The first target was the Moon. There were three U.S attempts in 1958 | Pioneer-1 | Pioneer-2 | Pioneer-3 | which all failed. The U.S.S.R had the first three success in January 1959 with the Luna-1 probe, which was launched with the objective of impacting the lunar surface. It flew by, missing by 5,590 km but at least it got three. The U.S's Pioneer 4 flew past at a miss distance of 60,000 km.

Successful Space Probes:

    The greatest early successes were Luna-2 in September 1959 and Luna-3 in October 1959, the first hitting the moon just east of the sea of Serenity and the second imaging the far side of the moon for the first time. The 1960s saw a host of lunar missions that was to culminate in the first moon landing.

First Successful Planetary Probe:

     The first successful planetary space probe reached Venus in 1962 and the USSR's Venera-7 probe soft landed there in 1970. In June and August 1976 the US's Viking-1 & Viking-2 probes achieved the first successful landings on Mars and returned images from the planet's surface. Voyager-1 & Voyager-2 have since become interstellar space probes and are on their way to the stars.

Quotes:

     "We have your satellite. If you want it back send twenty billion in Martian Money"

                                                                - Graffiti at NASA Laboratory, Pasadena, California.

Text Credit : Inventions that Changed the World

Science in History : Space Probe | Scramjet | Satellite Radio Communication

Tags : Voyager-1 | Voyager-2 | Luna-1 | Luna-2 | Luna-3 | Pioneer-1 | Pioneer-2 | Pioneer-3 |