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The Space Age is a contemporary period encompassing the activities related to the Space Race
Space Race

File:Space race1.jpgThe Space Race was a competition of space exploration between the Soviet Union and the United States, which lasted roughly from 1957 to 1975....
, space exploration
Space exploration

Space exploration is the use of astronomy and space technology to explore outer space. Physical exploration of space is conducted both by human spaceflights and by robotic spacecraft....
, space technology, and the cultural developments influenced by these events. The Space Age is generally considered to have begun with Sputnik (1957).

Space Age began with the development of several technologies that culminated on October 4, 1957, with the launch of Sputnik 1
Sputnik 1

Sputnik 1 was the world's first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite. It was launched into a low altitude elliptical orbit by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957, and was the first in a series of satellites collectively known as the Sputnik program....
 by the Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
.






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Space Shuttle Columbia Launching
The Space Age is a contemporary period encompassing the activities related to the Space Race
Space Race

File:Space race1.jpgThe Space Race was a competition of space exploration between the Soviet Union and the United States, which lasted roughly from 1957 to 1975....
, space exploration
Space exploration

Space exploration is the use of astronomy and space technology to explore outer space. Physical exploration of space is conducted both by human spaceflights and by robotic spacecraft....
, 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
Sputnik 1

Sputnik 1 was the world's first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite. It was launched into a low altitude elliptical orbit by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957, and was the first in a series of satellites collectively known as the Sputnik program....
 by the Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
. This was the world's first artificial satellite, orbiting the Earth in 98.1 minutes and weighing in at 83 kg. The launch of Sputnik 1 ushered a new era of political, scientific and technological achievements that became known as the Space Age.

The Space Age was characterized by rapid development of new technology in a close race mostly between the USA and the Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
. Rapid advances were made in rocket
Rocket

A rocket or rocket vehicle is a missile, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust by the Reaction of the rocket to the ejection of fast moving fluid exhaust from a rocket engine....
ry, materials science
Materials science

Materials science or materials engineering is an interdisciplinary field involving the properties of matter and its applications to various areas of science and engineering....
, computer
Computer

A computer is a machine that manipulates Data according to a list of Code .The first devices that resemble modern computers date to the mid-20th century , although the computer concept and various machines similar to computers existed earlier....
s and other areas. Much of the technology originally developed for space applications has been spun off
Spin-off

A spin-off is a new organization or entity formed by a split from a larger one, such as a television series based on a pre-existing one, or a new company formed from a university research group or business incubator....
 and found other uses.

The Space Age reached its peak with the Apollo program which captured the imagination of much of the world's population. The landing of Apollo 11
Apollo 11

The Apollo 11 mission was the first manned mission to land on the Moon. It was the fifth human spaceflight of Apollo program and the third human voyage to the Moon....
 was an event 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 and with the end of the space race due to the collapse of the Soviet Union, public attention has largely moved to other areas.

During the 1990s funding for space related programs fell sharply as the Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
 disintegrated and NASA
NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the Federal government of the United States, responsible for the nation's public list of space agencies....
 no longer had any direct competition. Also, public perception of the dangers and cost of space exploration in the USA was greatly affected by the Challenger disaster in 1986.

Since then participation in space launches have increasingly widened to more governments and commercial interests. Since the 1990s, the current period has more often been referred to as the Information Age
Information Age

The Information Age is an idea that the current age will be characterised by the ability of individuals to transfer information freely, and to have instant access to knowledge that would have previously have been difficult or impossible to find....
 rather than the Space Age, since space exploration and space-related technologies are no longer felt to be commonplace by significant portions of the public.

Current period

In the early 21st century, the Ansari X Prize
Ansari X Prize

The Ansari X PRIZE was a space competition in which the X PRIZE Foundation offered a United States dollar10,000,000 prize for the first Non-governmental organization to launch a reusable manned spaceflight into outer space twice within two weeks....
 competition was set up to help jump start private spaceflight
Private spaceflight

Private spaceflight is flight above Earth altitude conducted by and paid for by an entity other than a government. In the early decades of the Space Age, the government space agency of the Soviet Union and United States pioneered space technology in collaboration with affiliated design bureaus and private enterprises....
 which was won by Space Ship One in 2004, becoming the first spaceship not funded by a government agency.

Several countries now have space programs; from related technology ventures to full fledge space programs with launch facilities. There are many scientific and commercial satellites in use today, with a total of hundreds of satellite
Satellite

In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an Physical body which has been placed into orbit by human endeavor. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
s in orbit, and several countries have plans to send humans into space.

Chronology of the Space Age


  • October 4, 1957. Sputnik 1
    Sputnik 1

    Sputnik 1 was the world's first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite. It was launched into a low altitude elliptical orbit by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957, and was the first in a series of satellites collectively known as the Sputnik program....
    , the world's first artificial satellite is launched by the Soviet Union
    Soviet Union

    The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
    .
  • October 7, 1959. Luna 3
    Luna 3

    The Soviet space probe Luna 3 was the third spacecraft sent successfully to the Moon, and it was an early feat in the human exploration of outer space....
     takes the first pictures of the 'dark side of the moon' and transmits them back to Earth.
  • April 12, 1961. Yuri Gagarin
    Yuri Gagarin

    Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin , Hero of the Soviet Union, was a Soviet Union cosmonaut. On 12 April 1961, he became the first human in space and the first to orbit the Earth....
     becomes the first man in space
    Outer space

    Outer space comprises the relatively empty regions of the universe outside the atmospheres of celestial bodies. Outer space is used to distinguish it from airspace and terrestrial locations....
    .
  • March 18, 1965. Alexey Leonov makes the first 'spacewalk'
    Extra-vehicular activity

    Extra-vehicular activity is work done by an astronaut away from the Earth, and outside of a spacecraft. The term most commonly applies to an EVA made outside a craft orbiting Earth , but also applies to an EVA made on the surface of the Moon ....
      during the Voskhod 2
    Voskhod 2

    Voskhod 2 was a Soviet Union manned space mission in March 1965. It established another space milestone when one of the astronauts on board became the first person to "Extra-vehicular activity"....
     mission.
  • December 21-27, 1968. The crew of Apollo 8
    Apollo 8

    Apollo 8 was the first manned space voyage to achieve a velocity sufficient to allow escape from the gravitational field of planet Earth; the first to escape from the gravitational field of another celestial body; and the first manned voyage to return to planet Earth from another celestial body....
     becomes the first humans to leave the Earth's influence, and orbit another world, the Moon
    Moon

    The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the List of natural satellites by diameter satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is km, about thirty times the diameter of the Earth....
    . First spacecraft to perform a Trans Earth Injection
    Trans Earth Injection

    Trans-Earth injection is a term describing the propulsion maneuver used to set a spacecraft on a trajectory which will intersect the Earth.The spacecraft is usually in a parking orbit around the Moon at the time of TEI ....
     (TEI) maneuver.
  • July 20, 1969. Neil Armstrong
    Neil Armstrong

    Neil Alden Armstrong is a former American astronaut, test pilot, university professor, and United States Naval Aviator. He is List of Apollo astronauts#People who have walked on the Moon Moon....
    , commander of Apollo 11
    Apollo 11

    The Apollo 11 mission was the first manned mission to land on the Moon. It was the fifth human spaceflight of Apollo program and the third human voyage to the Moon....
    , becomes the first human being to walk on the Moon
    Moon

    The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the List of natural satellites by diameter satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is km, about thirty times the diameter of the Earth....
    .
  • April 19, 1971. Salyut 1
    Salyut 1

    Salyut 1 was the first space station of any kind, and the first Soviet space station. It was launched on April 19, 1971. Its first crew launched in Soyuz 10 but was unable to board it due to a failure in the docking mechanism; its second crew launched in Soyuz 11 and remained on board for 23 productive days....
     is launched, becoming the first space station
    Space station

    A space station is an artificial structure designed for humans to live in outer space. So far only low earth orbit stations are implemented, also known as orbital stations....
    .
  • December 3, 1973. Pioneer 10
    Pioneer 10

    was the first spacecraft to travel through the asteroid belt, which it entered on July 15, 1972, and to make direct observations of Jupiter , which it passed by on December 3, 1973....
      was the first spacecraft to make direct observations of Jupiter
    Jupiter

    Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the Solar system by size planet within the Solar System. It is two and a half times as massive as all of the other planets in our Solar System combined....
    , and was the first spacecraft to travel through the asteroid belt.
  • July 20, 1976. Viking 1
    Viking 1

    Viking 1 was the first of two spacecraft sent to Mars as part of NASA's Viking program, and holds the record for the longest Mars surface mission of 6 years and 116 days ....
     lands on Mars
    MARS

    In cryptography, MARS is a block cipher that was IBM's submission to the Advanced Encryption Standard process. MARS was selected as an AES finalist in August 1999, after the AES2 conference in March 1999, where it was voted as the fifth and last finalist algorithm....
     and transmits pictures from the surface.
  • April 12, 1981. The first reusable space ship, the Space Shuttle
    Space Shuttle

    NASA's Space Shuttle, officially called the Space Transportation System , is the spacecraft currently used by the United States government for its human spaceflight missions....
     is launched for the first time.
  • February 19, 1986. The first long duration space station
    Space station

    A space station is an artificial structure designed for humans to live in outer space. So far only low earth orbit stations are implemented, also known as orbital stations....
    , Mir
    Mir

    Mir was a Soviet Union orbital station. Mir was the world's first consistently inhabited long-term research station in space, and the first 'third generation' type space station, constructed over a number of years with a Space station#Modular....
    , is launched. Staying in orbit for over 15 years, occupants set several records in human space endurance.
  • February 14, 1990. Voyager 1
    Voyager 1

    The spacecraft is a 722-kilogram Robotic spacecraft space probe of the outer Solar System and beyond, launched September 5, 1977. It remains operational, currently pursuing its extended mission to locate and study the boundaries of the Solar System, including the Kuiper belt and beyond....
     takes the first photograph
    Photograph

    A photograph is an created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a Charge-coupled device or a Complementary metal?oxide?semiconductor chip....
     of the whole solar system
    Solar System

    The Solar System consists of the Sun and those Astronomical object bound to it by gravity: the eight planets and five dwarf planets, their 173 known Natural satellite, and billions of Small Solar System body....
    .
  • April 24, 1990. The first large space telescope, the Hubble Space Telescope
    Hubble Space Telescope

    The Hubble Space Telescope is a Space observatory that was carried into Low Earth orbit STS-31 in April 1990. It is named after the American astronomer Edwin Hubble....
     is launched into orbit.
  • November 2, 2000. The first resident crew
    Expedition 1

    Expedition 1 was the first expedition to the International Space Station....
     enters the International Space Station
    International Space Station

    The International Space Station is a research facility Assembly of the International Space Station in outer space. On-orbit construction of the station began in 1998, and is scheduled to be complete by 2011, with operations continuing until around 2015....
    , a large space station designed as a human
    Human

    A human being, also human or man, is a member of a species of bipedalism primates in the family Hominidae . Mitochondrial DNA evidence indicates that modern humans originated in east Africa about 200,000 years ago....
     habitat
    Habitat

    The term habitat has a number of meanings:* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows** Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play...
    .
  • September 2008. China performs their first space walk, three men total exiting their spacecraft.


Earlier spaceflights

The Space Age might also be considered to have begun much earlier than October 4, 1957, because on October 3, 1942, a German A4
Aggregate series

The Aggregate series was a set of rocket designs developed in 1933–1945 by a research program of Nazi Germany's army. Its greatest success was the A4, more commonly known as the V-2 rocket....
 rocket, a prototype version of the V-2 rocket
V-2 rocket

The V-2 rocket was the first ballistic missile and first man-made object to achieve sub-orbital spaceflight, the progenitor of all modern rockets....
 program reached space, therefore becoming the first man-made object to enter space
Outer space

Outer space comprises the relatively empty regions of the universe outside the atmospheres of celestial bodies. Outer space is used to distinguish it from airspace and terrestrial locations....
, albeit only briefly. Since this flight was undertaken in secrecy, it wasn't public knowledge for many years afterwards. As well, the German launch, and the subsequent sounding rocket
Sounding rocket

A sounding rocket, sometimes called a research rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital spaceflight flight....
 tests performed in both the USA and USSR during the late 1940s and early 1950s, were not considered significant enough for starting 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, possess an inter-continental ballistic missile. The fact that nowhere on the planet was safe from a nuclear warhead is why the orbit standard is used to define when the space age started.

See also

  • Space Exploration
    Space exploration

    Space exploration is the use of astronomy and space technology to explore outer space. Physical exploration of space is conducted both by human spaceflights and by robotic spacecraft....
  • Space Race
    Space Race

    File:Space race1.jpgThe Space Race was a competition of space exploration between the Soviet Union and the United States, which lasted roughly from 1957 to 1975....
  • Spacecraft
    Spacecraft

    A spacecraft is a Craft or machine designed for spaceflight. On a sub-orbital spaceflight, a spacecraft enters outer space then returns to the Earth....
  • Human spaceflight
    Human spaceflight

    A human spaceflight is a spaceflight with a Astronaut, and possibly passengers. This makes it unlike Robotic spacecraft space probes or remotely-controlled satellites....
  • Space probe
    Space probe

    A robotic spacecraft is a spacecraft with no humans on board, that is usually under telerobotic control. A robotic spacecraft designed to make scientific research measurements is often called a space probe....
  • Information Age
    Information Age

    The Information Age is an idea that the current age will be characterised by the ability of individuals to transfer information freely, and to have instant access to knowledge that would have previously have been difficult or impossible to find....
  • Atomic Age
    Atomic Age

    The Atomic Age, also known as the Atomic Era, is a phrase typically used to delineate the period of history following the detonation of the first nuclear bomb....
  • Populuxe (space age design movement)


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