T SIOLKOVSKY T IMELINE P OWER POINT By: Elizabeth Sanders

1900 Russian rocket scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky published Treatise on the Motion of Rockets. This work features the first exposition of rocket mechanics based on Newton’s third law of motion.

1914 U.S. rocket scientist Robert H. Goddard received two landmark patents for rockets. The first described a multi-stage rocket and the second described a rocket fueled with gasoline and liquid nitrous oxide. These two patents would become major milestones in the history of rocketry.

1926 March 16, 1926 U.S. rocket scientist Robert H. Goddard launched the first liquid fueled rocket from his Aunt Effie’s farm in Auburn, MA. The 4-foot high rocket dubbed “Nell” reached an altitude of 41 feet and a speed of about 60 miles per hour. The flight lasted only 2 ½ seconds, but paved the way for the U.S. rocket program.

1930 German Wernher Von Braun and his colleagues produced a number of experimental designs, the most famous of which was the A-4 rocket, which has gained distinction in history under another name -- the vengeance weapon number two -- V-2 for short. The V-2 was the first successful, long range ballistic missile, and von Braun is credited as its principal developer.

1944 September 8,1944 First German V-2 fired in combat exploded in Paris; the second struck London a few hours later.

1954 May 24, 1954 NRL Martin Viking #11 set an altitude record of 158 miles ( 834,240 ft) and attained a speed of 4,300 mph in a flight from White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico.

1957 The USSR beat the United States into space by launching Sputnik 1. At 184 pounds, it was the world's first artificial satellite. Sputnik transmitted radio signals back to Earth for only a short time, but it was a major accomplishment.

1961

April 12, First Man in Space Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin became the first human to go into space. The Vostok 1 spacecraft made one complete orbit around Earth in 108 minutes, and reached altitudes of 112 to 203 miles. The flight lasted only one hour and 48 minutes.

1967

1969 July 20, 1969 First Manned Moon Landing Apollo 11 makes the first successful soft landing on the Moon. Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, Jr. become the first people to set foot on another world.

1971 April 19, 1971 The Salyut 1 station is launched by the U.S.S.R. It remained in orbit until May 28, 1973.

1971 November 13, 1971 USA- American probe Mariner 9 took photos on Mars and was the first spacecraft to orbit another planet.

1972

1973 May 14, 1973 USA launches Skylab the first US space station. It is there for scientific experiments and was occupied by 3 crews.

1973 May 25, 1973 America launches first crew aboard the Skylab. The crew fixes damage by Skylab station during it’s launch.

1976 July 20, 1976 First Surface Images of Mars The first pictures of the surface of Mars and martian soil are sent back to Earth by Viking 1, the first U.S. spacecraft to successfully land a on another planet.

1979

1981 April 12,1981 The first manned mission from the Space Transportation System, Colombia is launched. It was the first re-usable shuttle.

1983 April 4, 1983 Maiden Voyage of Challenger America's second Space Shuttle, Challenger, embarks on its first mission into space. The mission includes America's first space walk in nine years.

1986 February 20, 1986 The first phase of the Mir Space Station has been successfully launched and put into Earth’s orbit.

1990 April 24, 1990 Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off for mission STS-31 carrying the Edwin P. Hubble Telescope with it.