A Brief History of Space Exploration

Humans have always looked up into the night sky and dreamed about space.

In the latter half of the 20th century, rockets were developed that were powerful enough to overcome the force of gravity to reach orbital velocities, paving the way for space exploration to become a reality.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Nazi Germany saw the possibilities of using long-distance rockets as weapons. Late in World War II, London was attacked by 200-mile-range V-2 missiles, which arched 60 miles high over the English Channel at more than 3,500 miles per hour. After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union created their own missile programs.

On Oct. 4, 1957, the Soviets launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, into space. Four years later on April 12, 1961, Russian Lt. Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth in Vostok 1. His flight lasted 108 minutes, and Gagarin reached an altitude of 327 kilometers (about 202 miles).

The first U.S. satellite, Explorer 1, went into orbit on Jan. 31, 1958. In 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American to fly into space. On Feb. 20, 1962, John Glenn’s historic flight made him the first American to orbit Earth.

Landing On The Moon

Landing on the moon: Apollo 12 launches for second moon landing Nov. 14, 1969.

“Landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth within a decade” was a national goal set by President John F. Kennedy in 1961. On July 20, 1969, astronaut Neil Armstrong took “one giant leap for mankind” as he stepped onto the moon. Six Apollo missions were made to explore the moon between 1969 and 1972.

During the 1960s, unmanned spacecraft photographed and probed the moon before astronauts ever landed. By the early 1970s, orbiting communications and navigation satellites were in everyday use, and the Mariner spacecraft was orbiting and mapping the surface of Mars. By the end of the decade, the Voyager spacecraft had sent back detailed images of Jupiter and Saturn, their rings, and their moons.

Skylab, America’s first space station, was a human-spaceflight highlight of the 1970s, as was the Apollo Soyuz Test Project, the world’s first internationally crewed (American and Russian) space mission.

In the 1980s, satellite communications expanded to carry television programs, and people were able to pick up the satellite signals on their home dish antennas. Satellites discovered an ozone hole over Antarctica, pinpointed forest fires, and gave us photographs of the nuclear power plant disaster at Chernobyl in 1986. Astronomical satellites found new stars and gave us a new view of the center of our galaxy.

Space Shuttle

In April 1981, the launch of the space shuttle Columbia ushered in a period of reliance on the reusable shuttle for most civilian and military space missions. Twenty-four successful shuttle launches fulfilled many scientific and military requirements until Jan. 28,1986, when just 73 seconds after liftoff, the space shuttle Challenger exploded. The crew of seven was killed, including Christa McAuliffe, a teacher from New Hampshire who would have been the first civilian in space.

The Space Shuttle was the first reusable spacecraft to carry people into orbit; launch, recover, and repair satellites; conduct cutting-edge research; and help build the International Space Station.

The Columbia disaster was the second shuttle tragedy. On Feb. 1, 2003, the shuttle broke apart while reentering the Earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven crew members. The disaster occurred over Texas, and only minutes before it was scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Center. An investigation determined the catastrophe was caused by a piece of foam insulation that broke off the shuttle’s propellant tank and damaged the edge of the shuttle’s left wing. It was the second loss of a shuttle in 113 shuttle flights. After each of the disasters, space shuttle flight operations were suspended for more than two years.

Discovery was the first of the three active space shuttles to be retired, completing its final mission on March 9, 2011; Endeavour did so on June 1. The final shuttle mission was completed with the landing of Atlantis on July 21, 2011, closing the 30-year space shuttle program.

The Gulf War proved the value of satellites in modern conflicts. During this war, allied forces were able to use their control of the “high ground” of space to achieve a decisive advantage. Satellites were used to provide information on enemy troop formations and movements, early warning of enemy missile attacks, and precise navigation in the featureless desert terrain. The advantages of satellites allowed the coalition forces to quickly bring the war to a conclusion, saving many lives.

Space systems continue to become more and more integral to homeland defense, weather surveillance, communication, navigation, imaging, and remote sensing for chemicals, fires, and other disasters.

International Space Station

The International Space Station is a research laboratory in low Earth orbit. With many different partners contributing to its design and construction, this high-flying laboratory has become a symbol of cooperation in space exploration, with former competitors now working together.

The station has been continuously occupied since the arrival of Expedition 1 in November of 2000. The station is serviced by a variety of visiting spacecraft: the Russian Soyuz and Progress; the American Dragon and Cygnus; the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle; and formerly the Space Shuttle and the European Automated Transfer Vehicle. It has been visited by astronauts, cosmonauts, and space tourists from 17 different nations.

Space launch systems have been designed to reduce costs and improve dependability, safety, and reliability. Most U.S. military and scientific satellites are launched into orbit by a family of expendable launch vehicles designed for a variety of missions. Other nations have their own launch systems, and there is strong competition in the commercial launch market to develop the next generation of launch systems.

The Future Of Space Exploration

Modern space exploration is reaching areas once only dreamed about. Mars is focal point of modern space exploration, and manned Mars exploration is a long-term goal of the

United States. NASA is on a journey to Mars, with a goal of sending humans to the Red Planet in the 2030s.

NASA and its partners have sent orbiters, landers, and rovers, increasing our knowledge about the planet. The Curiosity Rover has gathered radiation data to protect astronauts, and the MARS 2020 Rover will study the availability of oxygen and other Martian resources.

Early Manned Spaceflight

NASA’s first human spaceflight program was Project Mercury. This ambitious undertaking was launched in 1958—about a year after the U.S.S.R. had signified the start of the Space Age with the successful launch of the satellite Sputnik 1.

The Mercury missions began the space race in earnest and drew upon the vast resources of the U.S. government and private sector—an estimated two million Americans contributed.

Testing the limits of the human body in space was an important objective of both space programs. To this end robots and animals were blasted aloft—most notably Mercury’s Ham the chimpanzee and the Soviet dog Laika. Though Ham returned to Earth and a comfortable retirement at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., Laika died aboard Sputnik 2 in 1957.

First Humans in Space

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space when he orbited the Earth in a Vostok spacecraft on April 12, 1961.

About a month later Alan Shepard, Jr. became the first American in space on May 5, 1961, when he was launched aboard Mercury-Redstone 3. His 15-minute flight, dubbed “Freedom 7,” was watched by some 45 million television viewers.

Between 1961 and 1963, six manned spacecraft flew as part of the Mercury project. Mercury pilots rode in wingless capsules, which detached from their launch rocket and fell back to Earth. The small craft were designed to withstand the tremendous temperatures of reentering the planet’s atmosphere and also survive a dramatic splashdown in the ocean.

Just a few weeks after Shepard’s flight, President John F. Kennedy announced his intent to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. The challenge signaled the birth of NASA’s Gemini and Apollo missions.

Yet Mercury had more to accomplish. In February 1962 John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth on the Friendship 7 mission.

NASA’s Gemini program was designed to refine spacecraft so that they could perform rendezvous, docking, and other advanced maneuvers that would be necessary to land an astronaut on the moon and return to Earth.

As the missions of this era grew longer, astronauts became more adept at living within their spacecraft and even venturing outside it. Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov became the first person to exit an orbiting spacecraft in March 1965.

Moon Landing

The launch of the Apollo missions precipitated an American triumph in the space race and was a major first in space exploration.

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin became the first people to reach the moon when they touched their lunar lander down in the Sea of Tranquility. Before the Apollo project ended in 1972, five other missions visited the moon.

The Apollo spacecraft included a command/service module, which could orbit the moon, and a lunar module that astronauts could detach, land on the moon, and then blast off to rejoin the orbiting command module for the return trip to Earth.

Later missions carried a lunar rover that could be driven across the satellite’s surface and saw astronauts spend as long as three days on the moon.

The Apollo missions achieved tremendous successes, but they came with a terrible cost. Astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee were killed in a launchpad fire during training before the first Apollo flight.

When the Apollo missions ended in 1972, the first era of human space exploration closed.

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon delivered to Cape Canaveral for first flight with astronauts

EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated Feb. 15 after NASA modified original statement to remove words saying SpaceX will be the first commercial crew provider to fly astronauts.

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft that will deliver astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station has arrived at Cape Canaveral for launch preparations. Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX’s next Crew Dragon capsule was delivered to Cape Canaveral this week from a California factory for a liftoff as soon as this spring with veteran NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on a test flight to the International Space Station, officials announced Friday.

The human-rated spaceship arrived at a test and processing facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Thursday following a cross-country trip from SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California.

SpaceX tweeted a photo of the crew capsule Friday, showing ground teams wearing lab coats and hair nets rolling the capsule into position on a wheeled trolley soon after arriving on Florida’s Space Coast.

“The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft for its first crew launch from American soil has arrived at the launch site,” NASA said in a statement. “NASA and SpaceX are preparing for the company’s first flight test with astronauts to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.”

In a previous version of the statement Friday, NASA said the Crew Dragon will be the first spacecraft to launch astronauts from U.S. soil since 2011, when the space shuttle was retired.

But the space agency updated the statement without explanation, and deleted a tweet from the commercial crew program’s Twitter account that said SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft will be the first to fly astronauts into orbit from U.S. soil since 2011.

In 2014, NASA tapped Boeing and SpaceX with contracts valued at $4.2 billion and $2.6 billion, respectively, to develop, test and fly commercial human-rated spacecraft designed to ferry astronauts to and from the space station.

Barring a major setback, SpaceX is widely expected to be ready to fly astronauts before Boeing.

The Crew Dragon spacecraft will lift off on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, the same departure point as the Apollo 11 moon landing mission, and the first and last space shuttle flights.

Hurley, a pilot on two space shuttle missions, will serve as vehicle commander on the Crew Dragon test flight, known as Demo-2. Behnken, also a veteran of two shuttle flights, will be the vehicle pilot.

NASA officials are considering launch dates in May for the Demo-2 mission, but the schedule could shift as SpaceX steps through launch preparations. The space station’s busy schedule of visiting crew and cargo vehicles could also change, forcing a shift in the Demo-2 launch date.

Another factor that could drive the Demo-2 launch schedule is additional training for Hurley and Behnken in case NASA extends their stay on the space station.

The first piloted missions aboard the Crew Dragon and Boeing Starliner spacecraft were originally designed as shorter-duration test flights lasting days or weeks. After the test flights, NASA intended to certify the two spacecraft for longer-duration missions lasting up to 210 days for regular crew rotation flights to the space station.

But delays in the readiness of the new commercial crew spaceships forced NASA to consider extending the duration of the test flights. NASA has purchased seats on Russian Soyuz capsules flying to the station, which have provided the only ride to the orbiting research complex for U.S. astronauts since 2011.

The last Soyuz mission with a seat currently under NASA’s control launches April 9 and returns to Earth in October. With reduced demand from NASA expected after the start of SpaceX and Boeing crew services, Russia slowed the manufacturing of new Soyuz vehicles.

But the Crew Dragon and Starliner spacecraft were not ready when NASA expected. The space station typically has a crew of six, but with the slower rate of Soyuz launches, the research lab will operate with a crew of three for most of 2020, at least until a U.S. vehicle arrives with reinforcements.

The space agency has approved an extension of the first crewed Starliner mission to last up to six months. NASA may also approve a months-long extension of the Crew Dragon’s Demo-2 mission to ensure the space station is staffed with more than three crew members.

That gives station managers more flexibility in planning repairs and scientific research.

Hurley and Behnken are training to live and work aboard the station in case NASA authorizes the astronauts to stay in orbit longer than initially planned. Hurley is training as a robotic arm operator, and Behnken is receiving refreshed training on spacewalks.

A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft completed a successful six-day automated test flight to the space station in March 2019, but the capsule exploded in a ground test last April just before ignition of the ship’s SuperDraco launch abort engines on a test stand at Cape Canaveral.

The spaceship was destroyed in the accident, and SpaceX determined nitrogen tetroxide propellant leaked into the abort propulsion system’s high-pressure helium lines before the test-firing. The activation of the abort system during the ground test forced the nitrogen tetroxide back into a titanium valve at high energy, leading to ignition and an explosion.

SpaceX changed the design of the pressurization system by replacing the reusable valve with a single-use “burst disk,” which is designed to separate different sides of the fluid lines, then rupture before ignition.

The redesigned abort propulsion system aced a high-altitude launch abort test Jan. 19, when SpaceX demonstrated the Crew Dragon’s ability to escape an in-flight rocket failure. The capsule — with two instrumented test dummies on-board — separated from the top of its Falcon 9 launcher in the upper atmosphere and parachuted to a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean.

The in-flight abort demonstration last month was the last major Crew Dragon test flight before NASA approves SpaceX to launch astronauts. Lower-level testing continues, including several upcoming drop tests of a Crew Dragon mock-up to gather additional data on parachute performance.

Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule flew its first unpiloted test flight in orbit in December, but the mission encountered multiple in-flight malfunctions, primarily caused by software problems. The Starliner capsule returned to Earth for a successful landing, but could not dock with the space station as intended.

Engineers have identified at least two software errors that occurred during the abbreviated mission.

One of the errors was disclosed soon after the Starliner’s launch Dec. 20 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket. The spacecraft’s mission elapsed timer had a wrong setting, causing the capsule to miss a planned orbit insertion burn before ground controllers could intervene to manually command the maneuver.

The error caused the spacecraft to burn too much fuel to reach the space station, and Boeing and NASA officials decided to bring the Starliner back to Earth two days later at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.

But engineers found a second software defect as they reviewed the spacecraft’s code following the mission timing malfunction on launch.

Boeing teams discovered an error in the software controlling the Starliner service module’s separation sequence before re-entry. The mis-configured software could have led the service module to drive back into the Starliner’s crew module on the unpiloted test flight, possibly damaging the capsule, or worse.

The second software error was not disclosed by Boeing or NASA until last week.

Boeing is reviewing all of the crew capsule’s software code to look for other potential defects after investigators discovered “numerous process escapes in the software design, development and test cycle for Starliner,” said Doug Loverro, head of NASA’s human spaceflight division, in a media teleconference last week.

NASA and Boeing officials have not determined whether another the Starliner spacecraft needs to fly another test flight without astronauts before proceeding with a crew mission.

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.

First space flight

View of the moon from Apollo 8.

[ 97 ] NASA’s first four manned spaceflight projects were Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Skylab. As the first U.S. manned spaceflight project, Project Mercury-which included two manned suborbital flights and four orbital flights-“fostered Project Apollo and fathered Project Gemini.” 1 The second manned spaceflight project initiated was the Apollo manned lunar exploration program. The national goal of a manned lunar landing in the 1960s was set forth by President John F. Kennedy 25 May 1961:

. . . I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goals, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish. But in a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon-if we make this judgment affirmatively, it will be an entire nation. 2

The interim Project Gemini, completed in 1966, was conducted to provide spaceflight experience, techniques, and training in preparation for the complexities of Apollo lunar-landing missions. Project Skylab was originality conceived as a program to use hardware developed for Project Apollo in related manned spaceflight missions; it evolved into the Orbital Workshop program with three record-breaking missions in 1973-1974 to man the laboratory in earth orbit, producing new data on the sun, earth resources, materials technology, and effects of space on man.

The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project was an icebreaking effort in international cooperation. The United States and the U.S.S.R. were to fly a joint mission in 1975 to test new systems that permitted their spacecraft to dock with each other in orbit, for space rescue or joint research.

As technology and experience broadened man’s ability to explore and use space, post-Apollo planning called for ways to make access to space more practical, more economical, nearer to routine. Early advanced studies grew into the Space Shuttle program. Development of the reusable space transportation system, to be used for most of the Nation’s manned and unmanned missions in the 1980s, became the major focus of NASA’s program for the 1970s. European nations cooperated by undertaking development of Spacelab, a pressurized, reusable laboratory to be flown in the Shuttle.

Apollo 11 command and service module being readied for transport to the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center, in left photo. Apollo 11 Astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., below, setting up an experiment on the moon next to the lunar module. Opposite: the Greek god Apollo (courtesy of George Washington University).

[ 99 ] APOLLO . In July 1960 NASA was preparing to implement its long-range plan beyond Project Mercury and to introduce a manned circumlunar mission project-then unnamed-at the NASA/Industry Program Plans Conference in Washington. Abe Silverstein, Director of Space Flight Development, proposed the name “Apollo” because it was the name of a god in ancient Greek mythology with attractive connotations and the precedent for naming manned spaceflight projects for mythological gods and heroes had been set with Mercury. 1 Apollo was god of archery, prophecy, poetry, and music, and most significantly he was god of the sun. In his horse-drawn golden chariot, Apollo pulled the sun in its course across the sky each day. 2 NASA approved the name and publicly announced “Project Apollo” at the July 28-29 conference. 3

Project Apollo took new form when the goal of a manned lunar landing was proposed to the Congress by President John F. Kennedy 25 May 1961 and was subsequently approved by the Congress. It was a program of three-man flights, leading to the landing of men on the moon. Rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit of Apollo spacecraft components were vital techniques for the intricate flight to and return from the moon.

The Apollo spacecraft consisted of the command module, serving as the crew’s quarters and flight control section; the service module, containing propulsion and spacecraft support systems; and the lunar module, carrying [ 100 ] two crewmen to the lunar surface, supporting them on the moon, and returning them to the command and service module in lunar orbit. Module designations came into use in 1962, when NASA made basic decisions on the flight mode (lunar orbit rendezvous), the boosters, and the spacecraft for Project Apollo. From that time until June 1966, the lunar module was called “lunar excursion module (LEM).” It was renamed by the NASA Project Designation Committee because the word “excursion” implied mobility on the moon and this vehicle did not have that capability. 4 The later Apollo flights, beginning with Apollo 15, carried the lunar roving vehicle (LRV), or “Rover,” to provide greater mobility for the astronauts while on the surface of the moon.

Beginning with the flight of Apollo 9, code names for both the command and service module (CSM) and lunar module (LM) were chosen by the astronauts who were to fly on each mission. The code names were: Apollo 9-“Gumdrop” (CSM), “Spider” (LM); Apollo 10-“Charlie Brown” (CSM), “Snoopy” (LM); Apollo 11-“Columbia” (CSM), “Eagle” (LM); Apollo 12-“Yankee Clipper” (CSM), “Intrepid” (LM); Apollo 13-“Odyssey” (CSM), “Aquarius” (LM); Apollo 14-“Kitty Hawk” (CSM), “Antares” (LM); Apollo 15-“Endeavour” (CSM), “Falcon” (LM); Apollo 16-“Casper” (CSM), “Orion” (LM); Apollo 17-“America” (CSM); “Challenger” (LM).

The formula for numbering Apollo missions was altered when the three astronauts scheduled for the first manned flight lost their lives in a flash fire during launch rehearsal 27 January 1967. In honor of Astronauts Virgil I. Grissom, Edward H. White II, and Roger B. Chaffee, the planned mission was given the name “Apollo l ” although it was not launched. Carrying the prelaunch designation AS-204 for the fourth launch in the Apollo Saturn IB series, the mission was officially recorded as “First manned Apollo Saturn flight-failed on ground test. “

Manned Spacecraft Center Deputy Director George M. Low had urged consideration of the request from the astronauts’ widows that the designation “Apollo l”-used by the astronauts publicly and included on their insignia-be retained. NASA Headquarters Office of Manned Space Flight therefore recommended the new numbering, and the NASA Project Designation Committee announced approval 3 April 1967.

The earlier, unmanned Apollo Saturn IB missions AS-201, AS-202, and AS-203 were not given “Apollo” flight numbers and no missions were named “Apollo 2” and “Apollo 3.” The next mission flown, the first Saturn V flight (AS-501, for Apollo Saturn V No. 1), skipped numbers.

Lunar Rover parked on the Moon during the Apollo 15 mission.

. 2 and 3 to become Apollo 4 after launch into orbit 9 November 1967. Subsequent flights continued the sequence through 17. 5

The Apollo program carried the first men beyond the earth’s field of gravity and around the moon on Apollo 8 in December 1968 and landed the first men on the moon in Apollo 11 on 20 July 1969. The program concluded with Apollo 17 in December 1972 after putting 27 men into lunar orbit and 12 of them on the surface of the moon. Data, photos, and lunar samples brought to earth- by the astronauts and data from experiments they left on the moon-still transmitting data in 1974-began to give a picture of the moon’s origin and nature, contributing to understanding of how the earth had evolved.

APOLLO-SOYUZ TEST PROJECT (ASTP) . The first international manned space project, the joint U.S.-U.S.S.R. rendezvous and docking mission took its name from the spacecraft to be used, the American Apollo and the Soviet Soyuz.

On 15 September 1969, two months after the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission, the President’s Space Task Group made its recommendations on the future U.S. space program. One objective was broad international.

The Apollo spacecraft approaches the Soyuz for docking in orbit, in the artist’s conception at top. Cosmonaut Aleksey A. Leonov and Astronaut Donald K. Slayton check out the docking module in a 1974 training session.

[ 103 ] . participation, and President Nixon included this goal in his March 1970 Space Policy Statement. The President earlier had approved NASA plans for increasing international cooperation in an informal meeting with Secretary of State William P. Rogers, Presidential Assistant for National Security Affairs Henry A. Kissinger, and NASA Administrator Thomas 0. Paine aboard Air Force One while flying to the July Apollo 11 splashdown. 1

The United States had invited the U.S.S.R. to participate in experiments and information exchange over the past years. Now Dr. Paine sent Soviet Academy of Sciences President Mstislav V. Keldysh a copy of the U.S. post-Apollo plans and suggested exploration of cooperative programs. In April 1970 Dr. Paine suggested, in an informal meeting with Academician Anatoly A. Blagonravov in New York, that the two nations cooperate on astronaut safety, including compatible docking equipment on space stations and shuttles to permit rescue operations in space emergencies. Further discussions led to a 28 October 1970 agreement on joint efforts to design compatible docking arrangements. Three working groups were set up. Agreements on further details were reached in Houston, Texas, 21-25 June 1971 and in Moscow 29 November-6 December 1971. NASA Deputy Administrator George M. Low and a delegation met with a Soviet delegation in Moscow 4-6 April 1972 to draw up a plan for docking a U.S. Apollo spacecraft with a Russian Soyuz in earth orbit in 1975. 2

Final official approval came in Moscow on 24 May 1972. U.S. President Nixon and U.S.S.R. Premier Aleksey N. Kosygin signed the Agreement Concerning Cooperation in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes, including development of compatible spacecraft docking systems to improve safety of manned space flight and to make joint scientific experiments possible. The first flight to test the systems was to be in 1975, with modified Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft. Beyond this mission, future manned spacecraft of the two nations would be able to dock with each other. 3

During work that followed, engineers at Manned Spacecraft Center (renamed Johnson Space Center in 1973) shortened the lengthy “joint rendezvous and docking mission” to “Rendock,” as a handy project name. But the NASA Project Designation Committee in June 1972 approved the official designation as “Apollo Soyuz Test Project (ASTP),” incorporating the names of the U.S. and U.S.S.R. spacecraft. The designation was sometimes written “Apollo/Soyuz Test Project,” but the form “Apollo Soyuz Test Project” was eventually adopted. NASA and the Soviet Academy of Sciences announced the official ASTP emblem in March 1974. The circular emblem displayed the English word “Apollo” and the Russian [ 104 ] word ” Soyuz” on either side of a center globe with a superimposed silhouette of the docked spacecraft. 4

Scheduled for July 1975, the first international manned space mission would carry out experiments with astronauts and cosmonauts working together, in addition to testing the new docking systems and procedures. A three-module, two-man Soviet Soyuz was to be launched from the U.S.S.R.’s Baykonur Cosmodrome near Tyuratam on 15 July. Some hours later the modified Apollo command and service module with added docking module and a three-man crew would lift off on the Apollo-Skylab Saturn IB launch vehicle from Kennedy Space Center, to link up with the Soyuz. The cylindrical docking module would serve as an airlock for transfer of crewmen between the different atmospheres of the two spacecraft. After two days of flying joined in orbit, with crews working together, the spacecraft would undock for separate activities before returning to the earth. 5

GEMINI . In 1961 planning was begun on an earth-orbital rendezvous program to follow the Mercury project and prepare for Apollo missions. The improved or “Advanced Mercury” concept was designated “Mercury Mark II” by Glenn F. Bailey, NASA Space Task Group Contracting Officer, and John Y. Brown of McDonnell Aircraft Corporation. 1 The two-man spacecraft was based on the one-man Mercury capsule, enlarged and made capable of longer flights. Its major purposes were to develop the technique of rendezvous in space with another spacecraft and to extend orbital flight time.

NASA Headquarters personnel were asked for proposals for an appropriate name for the project and, in a December 1961 speech at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, Dr. Robert C. Seamans, Jr., then NASA Associate Administrator, described Mercury Mark II, adding an offer of a token reward to the person suggesting the name finally accepted. A member of the audience sent him the name “Gemini.” Meanwhile, Alex P. Nagy in NASA’s Office of Manned Space Flight also had proposed ” Gemini.” Dr. Seamans recognized both as authors of the name. 2

“Gemini,” meaning “twins” in Latin, was the name of the third constellation of the zodiac, made up of the twin stars Castor and Pollux. To Nagy it seemed an appropriate connotation for the two-man crew, a rendezvous mission, and the project’s relationship to Mercury. Another connotation of the mythological twins was that they were considered to be the patron gods of voyagers. 3 The nomination was selected from several made in NASA Headquarters, including “Diana,” “Valiant,” and “Orpheus”.

The Gemini 7 spacecraft was photographed from the window of Gemini 6 during rendezvous maneuvers 15 December 1965. Castor and Pollux, the Gemini of mythology, ride their horses through the sky (courtesy of the Library of Congress.)

. from the Office of Manned Space Flight. On 3 January 1962, NASA announced the Mercury Mark II project had been named “Gemini.” 4

After 12 missions-2 unmanned and 10 manned-Project Gemini ended 15 November 1966. Its achievements had included long-duration space flight, rendezvous and docking of two spacecraft in earth orbit, extravehicular activity, and precision-controlled reentry and landing of spacecraft.

The crew of the first manned Gemini mission, Astronauts Virgil I. Grissom and John W. Young, nicknamed their spacecraft “Molly Brown.” The name came from the musical comedy title, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, and was a facetious reference to the sinking of Grissom’s Mercury-[ 106 ] Redstone spacecraft after splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean 21 July 1961. “Molly Brown” was the last Gemini spacecraft with a nickname; after the Gemini 3 mission, NASA announced that “all Gemini flights should use as official spacecraft nomenclature a single easily remembered and pronounced name.” 5

Astronaut Edward H. White floats in space, secured to the Gemini 4 spacecraft.

MERCURY . Traditionally depicted wearing a winged cap and winged shoes, Mercury was the messenger of the gods in ancient Roman and (as Hermes) Greek mythology. 1 The symbolic associations of this name appealed to Abe Silverstein, NASA’s Director of Space Flight Development, who suggested it for the manned spaceflight project in the autumn of 1958. On 26 November 1958 Dr. T. Keith Glennan, NASA Administrator, and Dr. Hugh .

Full-scale mockups of the Mercury and Gemini spacecraft.

. L. Dryden, Deputy Administrator, agreed upon “Mercury,” and on 17 December 1958 Dr. Glennan announced the name for the first time. 2

On 9 April 1959 NASA announced selection of the seven men chosen to be the first U.S. space travelers, “astronauts.” The term followed the semantic tradition begun with “Argonauts,” the legendary Greeks who traveled far and wide in search of the Golden Fleece, and continued with “aeronauts”-pioneers of balloon flight. 3 Robert R. Gilruth, head of the Space Task Group, proposed “Project Astronaut” to NASA Headquarters, but the suggestion lost out in favor of Project Mercury “largely because it [Project Astronaut] might lead to overemphasis on the personality of the man.” 4

In Project Mercury the United States acquired its first experience in conducting manned space missions and its first scientific and engineering knowledge of man in space. After two suborbital and three orbital missions, Project Mercury ended with a fourth orbital space flight-a full-day mission by L. Gordon Cooper, Jr., 15-16 May 1963.

In each of Project Mercury’s manned space flights, the assigned astronaut chose a call sign for his spacecraft just before his mission. The choice of [ 108 ] “Freedom 7” by Alan B. Shepard, Jr., established the tradition of the numeral “7,” which came to be associated with the team of seven Mercury astronauts. When Shepard chose “Freedom 7,” the numeral seemed significant to him because it appeared that “capsule No. 7 on booster No. 7 should be the first combination of a series of at least seven flights to put Americans into space.” 5 The prime astronaut for the second manned flight, Virgil I. Grissom, named his spacecraft “Liberty Bell 7” because “the name was to Americans almost synonymous with ‘freedom’ and symbolical numerically of the continuous teamwork it represented.” 6

John Glenn, assigned to take the Nation’s first orbital flight, named his Mercury spacecraft “Friendship 7.” Scott Carpenter chose “Aurora 7,” he said, “because I think of Project Mercury and the open manner in which we are conducting it for the benefit of all as a light in the sky. Aurora also.

Astronaut John H. Glenn Jr., is hoisted out of the Friendship 7 spacecraft after splashdown in the Atlantic 20 February 1962. The god Mercury, poised for flight, at right (courtesy of the National Gallery of Art).

[ 109 ] . means dawn-in this case the dawn of a new age. The 7, of course, stands for the original seven astronauts.” 7 Walter M. Schirra selected “Sigma 7” for what was primarily an engineering flight-a mission to evaluate spacecraft systems; “sigma” is an engineering symbol for summation. In selecting “sigma,” Schirra also honored “the immensity of the engineering effort behind him.” 8 Cooper’s choice of “Faith 7” symbolized, in his words, “my trust in God, my country, and my teammates.” 9

SKYLAB . Planning for post-Apollo manned spaceflight missions evolved directly from the capability produced by the Apollo and Saturn technologies, and Project Skylab resulted from the combination of selected program objectives. In 1964, design and feasibility studies had been initiated for missions that could use modified Apollo hardware for a number of possible lunar and earth-orbital scientific and applications missions. The study concepts were variously known as “Extended Apollo (Apollo X)” and the “Apollo Extension System (AES).” 1 In 1965 the program was coordinated under the name “Apollo Applications Program (AAP)” and by 1966 had narrowed in scope to primarily an earth-orbital concept. 2

Projected AAP missions included the use of the Apollo Telescope Mount (ATM). In one plan it was to be launched separately and docked with an orbiting workshop in the “wet” workshop configuration. The wet workshop-using the spent S-IV B stage of the Saturn I launch vehicle as a workshop after purging it in orbit of excess fuel-was later dropped in favor of the ” dry” configuration using the Saturn V launch vehicle. The extra fuel carried by the S-IV B when used as a third stage on the Saturn V, for moon launches, would not be required for the Skylab mission, and the stage could be completely outfitted as a workshop before launch, including the ATM. 3

The name “Skylab,” a contraction connoting “laboratory in the sky,” was suggested by L/C Donald L. Steelman (USAF) while assigned to NASA. He later received a token reward for his suggestion. Although the name was proposed in mid-1968, NASA decided to postpone renaming the program because of budgetary considerations. “Skylab” was later referred to the NASA Project Designation Committee and was approved 17 February 1970. 4

Skylab 1 (SL-1), the Orbital Workshop with its Apollo Telescope Mount, was put into orbit 14 May 1973. Dynamic forces ripped off the meteoroid shield and one solar array wing during launch, endangering the entire program, but the three astronauts launched on Skylab 2 (SL-2)-the first manned mission to crew the Workshop-were able to repair the spacecraft and completed 28 days living and working in space before their safe return.

Skylab Orbital Workshop photographed from the Skylab 2 command module during fly-around inspection. The Workshop’s remaining solar array wing, after second wing was ripped off during launch, is deployed below the ATM’s four arrays. The emergency solar parasol erected by the astronauts is visible on the lower part of the spacecraft. The cutaway drawing shows crew quarters and work areas.

[ 111 ] They were followed by two more three-man crews during 1973 . The Skylab 3 crew spent 59 days in space and Skylab 4 spent 84. Each Skylab mission was the longest-duration manned space flight to that date, also setting distance in-orbit and extravehicular records. Skylab 4, the final mission (16 November 1973 to 8 February 1974) recorded the longest in-orbit EVA (7 hours 1 minute), the longest cumulative orbital EVA time for one mission (22 hours 21 min in four EVAs), and the longest distance in orbit for a manned mission (55.5 million kilometers).

The Skylab missions proved that man could live and work in space for extended periods; expanded solar astronomy beyond earth-based observations, collecting new data that could revise understanding of the sun and its effects on the earth; and returned much information from surveys of earth resources with new techniques. The deactivated Workshop remained in orbit; it might be visited by a future manned flight, but was not to be inhabited again.

SPACE SHUTTLE . The name ” Space Shuttle” evolved from descriptive references in the press, aerospace industry, and Government and gradually came into use as concepts of reusable space transportation developed. As early NASA advanced studies grew into a full program, the name came into official use. * 1

From its establishment in 1958, NASA studied aspects of reusable launch vehicles and spacecraft that could return to the earth. The predecessor National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and then NASA cooperated with the Air Force in the X-15 rocket research aircraft program in the 1950s and 1960s and in the 1958-1963 Dyna-Soar (“Dynamic-Soaring”) hypersonic boost-glide vehicle program. Beginning in 1963, NASA joined the USAF in research toward the Aerospaceplane, a manned vehicle to go into orbit and return, taking off and landing horizontally. Joint flight tests in the 1950s and 1960s of wingless lifting bodies-the M2 series, HL-10, and eventually the X-24-tested principles for future spacecraft reentering the atmosphere.

Marshall Space Flight Center sponsored studies of recovery and reuse of the Saturn V launch vehicle. MSFC Director of Future Projects Heinz H. Koelle in 1962 projected a “commercial space line to earth orbit and the.

The Space Shuttle lifts off in the artist’s conception of missions of the 1980s, at left, with booster jettison and tank jettison following in sequence as the orbiter heads for orbit and its mission.

. moon,” for cargo transportation by 1980 or 1990. Leonard M. Tinnan of MSFC published a 1963 description of a winged, flyback Saturn V. 2 Other studies of “logistics spacecraft systems,” “orbital carrier vehicles,” and “reusable orbital transports” followed throughout the 1960s in NASA, the Department of Defense, and industry.

[ 113 ] As the Apollo program neared its goal, NASA’s space program objectives widened and the need for a fully reusable, economical space transportation system for both manned and unmanned missions became more urgent. In 1966 the NASA budget briefing outlined an FY 1967 program including advanced studies of “ferry and logistics vehicles.” The President’s Science Advisory Committee in February 1967 recommended studies of more economical ferry systems with total recovery and rescue possibilities. 3 Industry studies under NASA contracts 1969-1971 led to definition of a reusable Space Shuttle system and to a 1972 decision to develop the Shuttle.

The term “shuttle” crept into forecasts of space transportation at least as early as 1952. In a Collier’s article, Dr. Wernher von Braun, then Director of the U.S. Army Ordnance Guided Missiles Development Group, envisioned space stations supplied by rocket ships that would enter orbit and return to earth to land “like a normal airplane,” with small, rocket-powered “shuttle-craft,” or “space taxis,” to ferry men and materials between rocket ship and space station. 4

In October 1959 Lockheed Aircraft Corporation and Hughes Aircraft Company reported plans for a space ferry or “commuter express,” for ” shuttling” men and materials between earth and outer space. In December, Christian Science Monitor Correspondent Courtney Sheldon wrote of the future possibility of a “man-carrying space shuttle to the nearest planets.” 5

The term reappeared occasionally in studies through the early 1960s. A 1963 NASA contract to Douglas Aircraft Company was to produce a conceptual design for Philip Bono’s “Reusable Orbital Module Booster and Utility Shuttle (ROMBUS),” to orbit and return to touch down with legs [ 114 ] like the lunar landing module’s. Jettison of eight strap-on hydrogen tanks for recovery and reuse was part of the concept. 6 The press-in accounts of European discussions of Space Transporter proposals and in articles on the Aerospaceplane, NASA contract studies, USAF START reentry studies, and the joint lifting-body flights-referred to “shuttle” service, “reusable orbital shuttle transport,” and “space shuttle” forerunners. **

In 1965 Dr. Walter R. Dornberger, Vice President for Research of Textron Corporation’s Bell Aerosystems Company, published “Space Shuttle of the Future: The Aerospaceplane” in Bell’s periodical Rendezvous. In July Dr. Dornberger gave the main address in a University of Tennessee Space Institute short course: “The Recoverable, Reusable Space Shuttle.” 7

NASA used the term “shuttle” for its reusable transportation concept officially in 1968. Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight George E. Mueller briefed the British Interplanetary Society in London in August with charts and drawings of “space shuttle” operations and concepts. In November, addressing the National Space Club in Washington, D.C., Dr. Mueller declared the next major thrust in space should be the space shuttle. 8 By 1969 “Space Shuttle” was the standard NASA designation, although some efforts were made to find another name as studies were pursued. 9 The “Space Shuttle” was given an agency-wide code number; the Space Shuttle Steering Group and Space Shuttle Task Group were established. In September the Space Task Group appointed by President Nixon to help define post-Apollo space objectives recommended the U.S. develop a reusable, economic space transportation system including a shuttle. And in October feasibility study results were presented at a Space Shuttle Conference in Washington. Intensive design, technology, and cost studies followed in 1970 and 1971. 10

[ 115 ] On 5 January 1972 President Nixon announced that the United States would develop the Space Shuttle.

The Space Shuttle would be a delta-winged aircraftlike orbiter about the size of a DC-9 aircraft, mounted at launch on a large, expendable liquid-propellant tank and two recoverable and reusable solid-propellant rocket boosters (SRBs) that would drop away in flight. The Shuttle’s cargo bay eventually would carry most of the Nation’s civilian and military payloads. Each Shuttle was to have a lifetime of 100 space missions, carrying up to 29 500 kilograms at a time. Sixty or seventy flights a year were expected in the 1980s.

Flown by a three-man crew, the Shuttle would carry satellites to orbit, repair them in orbit, and later return them to earth for refurbishment and reuse. It would also carry up to four scientists and engineers to work in a pressurized laboratory (see Spacelab) or technicians to service satellites. After a 7- to 30-day mission, the orbiter would return to earth and land like an aircraft, for preparation for the next flight.

At the end of 1974, parts were being fabricated, assembled, and tested for flight vehicles. Horizontal tests were to begin in 1977 and orbital tests in 1979. The first manned orbital flight was scheduled for March 1979 and the complete vehicle was to be operational in 1980.

SPACE TUG. Missions to orbits higher than 800 kilometers would require an additional propulsion stage for the Space Shuttle. A reusable “Space Tug” would fit into the cargo bay to deploy and retrieve payloads beyond the orbiter’s reach and to achieve earth-escape speeds for deep-space exploration. Under a NASA and Department of Defense agreement, the Air Force was to develop an interim version-the “interim upper stage (IUS),” named by the Air Force the “orbit-to-orbit stage (OOS),” to be available in 1980. NASA meanwhile continued planning and studies for a later full-capacity Space Tug. 11

Joseph E. McGolrick of the NASA Office of Launch Vehicles had used the term in a 1961 memorandum suggesting that, as capabilities and business in space increased, a need might arise for “a space tug-a space vehicle capable of orbital rendezvous and . . . of imparting velocities to other bodies in space.” He foresaw a number of uses for such a vehicle and suggested it be considered with other concepts for the period after 1970. McGolrick thought of the space tug as an all-purpose workhorse, like the small, powerful tugboats that moved huge ocean liners and other craft. The name was used frequently in studies and proposals through the years, and in September 1969 the Presidential Space Task Group’s recommendation for a [ 116 ] new space transportation system proposed development of a reusable, chemically propelled space tug, as well as a shuttle and a nuclear stage. 12

LARGE SPACE TELESCOPE. Among Shuttle payloads planned-besides Spacelab and satellites like those launched in the past by expendable boosters-was the Large Space Telescope (LST), to be delivered to orbit as an international facility for in-orbit research controlled by scientists on the ground. The LST would observe the solar system and far galaxies from above the earth’s atmosphere. On revisits, the Shuttle would service the orbiting telescope, exchange scientific hardware, and-several years later-return the LST to the earth.

LONG-DURATION EXPOSURE FACILITY. Another payload was to be placed in orbit for research into effects of exposure to space. The unmanned, free-flying Long-Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) would expose a variety of passive experiments in orbit and would later be retrieved for refurbishment and reuse.

SPACELAB . A new venture in space flight made possible by the Space Shuttle, Spacelab was to be a reusable “space laboratory” in which scientists and engineers could work in earth orbit without spacesuits or extensive astronaut training. The program drew the United States and Europe into closer cooperation in space efforts.

The name finally chosen for the space laboratory was that used by the European developers. It followed several earlier names used as NASA’s program developed toward its 1980s operational goal. In 1971 NASA awarded a contract for preliminary design of “Research and Applications Modules” (RAMs) to fly on the Space Shuttle. A family of manned or “man-tended” payload carriers, the RAMs were to provide versatile laboratory facilities for research and applications work in earth orbit. Later modules were expected to be attached to space stations, in addition to the earlier versions operating attached to the Shuttle. The simplest RAM mode was called a “Sortie Can” at Marshall Space Flight Center. It was a low-cost simplified. pressurized laboratory to be carried on the Shuttle orbiter for short “sortie” missions into space. 1 In June 1971 the NASA Project Designation Committee redesignated the Sortie Can the “Sortie Lab,” as a more fitting name. 2

When the President’s Space Task Group had originally recommended development of the Space Shuttle in 1969, it had also recommended broad international participation in the space program, and greater international cooperation was one of President Nixon’s Space Policy Statement goals in March 1970. NASA Administrator Thomas 0. Paine visited European.

A Spacelab module and pallet fill the payload bay of a scale-model Space Shuttle orbiter. The laboratory module is nearest the cabin.

. capitals in October 1969 to explain Shuttle plans and invite European interest, and 43 European representatives attended a Shuttle Conference in Washington. One area of consideration for European effort was development of the Sortie Lab. 3

On 20 December 1972 a European Space Council ministerial meeting formally endorsed European Space Research Organization development of Sortie Lab. An intergovernmental agreement was signed 10 August 1973 and ESRO and NASA initialed a memorandum of understanding. The memorandum was signed 24 September 1973. Ten nations-Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom-would develop and manufacture the units. The first unit was to be delivered to NASA free in the cooperative program, and NASA would buy additional units. NASA would fly Spacelab on the Shuttle in cooperative missions, in U.S. missions, and for other countries with costs reimbursed. 4

In its planning and studies, ESRO called the laboratory “Spacelab.” And when NASA and ESRO signed the September 1973 memorandum on cooperation NASA Administrator James C. Fletcher announced that NASA’s Sortie Lab program was officially renamed “Spacelab,” adopting the ESRO name. 5

[ 118 ] Spacelab was designed as a low-cost laboratory to be quickly available to users for a wide variety of orbital research and applications. Almost half the civilian Space Shuttle payloads were expected to fly in Spacelab in the 1980s. It was to consist of two elements, carried together or separately in the Shuttle orbiter: a pressurized laboratory, where scientists and engineers with only brief flight training could work in a normal environment, and an instrument platform, or “pallet,” to support telescopes, antennas, and other equipment exposed to space.

Reusable for 50 flights, the laboratory would remain in the Shuttle hold, or cargo bay, while in orbit, with the bay doors held open for experiments and observations in space. Seven-man missions, many of them joint missions with U.S. and European crew members, would include a three-man Shuttle crew and four men for Spacelab. Up to three men could work in the laboratory at one time, with missions lasting 7 to 30 days. At the end of each flight, the orbiter would make a runway landing and the laboratory would be removed and prepared for its next flight. Racks of experiments would be prepared in the home laboratories on the ground, ready for installation in Spacelab for flight and then removal on return. 6

One of the planned payloads was NASA’s AMPS (Atmospheric, Magnetospheric, and Plasmas-in-Space) laboratory, to be installed in Spacelab for missions in space. 7

At the end of 1974, life scientists, astronomers, atmospheric physicists, and materials scientists were defining experiment payloads for Spacelab. The first qualified flight unit was due for delivery in 1979 for 1980 flight. A European might be a member of the first flight crew. 8

* In January 1975, NASA’s Project Designation Committee was considering suggestions for a new name for the Space Shuttle, submitted by Headquarters and Center personnel and others at the request of Dr. George M. Low, NASA Deputy Administrator. Rockwell International Corporation, Shuttle prime contractor, was reported as referring to it as “Spaceplane.” (Bernie M. Taylor, Administrative Assistant to Assistant Administrator for Public Affairs, NASA, telephone interview, 12 Feb. 1975; and Aviation Week & Space Technology, 102 [20 January 1975], 10.)

** The Defense/Space Business Daily newsletter was persistent in referring to USAF and NASA reentry and lifting-body tests as “Space Shuttle” tests. Editor-in-Chief Norman L. Baker said the newsletter had first tried to reduce the name “Aerospaceplane” to “Spaceplane” for that project and had moved from that to “Space Shuttle” for reusable, back-and-forth space transport concepts as early as 1963. The name was suggested to him by the Washington, D.C., to New York airline shuttle flights. (Telephone interview, 22 April 1975.)

Application of the word “shuttle” to anything that moved quickly back and forth (from shuttlecock to shuttle train and the verb “to shuttle”) had arisen in the English language from the name of the weaving instrument that passed or “shot” the thread of the woof from one edge of the cloth to the other. The English word came from the Anglo-Saxon “scytel” for missile, related to the Danish “skyttel” for shuttle, the Old Norvegian “skutill” for harpoon, and the English “shoot.” (Webster’s International Dictionnary, ed.2 unabridged).

First space flight

The General Assembly, in its resolution A/RES/65/271 of 7 April 2011, declared 12 April as the International Day of Human Space Flight “to celebrate each year at the international level the beginning of the space era for mankind, reaffirming the important contribution of space science and technology in achieving sustainable development goals and increasing the well-being of States and peoples, as well as ensuring the realization of their aspiration to maintain outer space for peaceful purposes.”

12 April 1961 was the date of the first human space flight, carried out by Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet citizen. This historic event opened the way for space exploration for the benefit of all humanity.

The General Assembly expressed its deep conviction of the common interest of mankind in promoting and expanding the exploration and use of outer space, as the province of all mankind, for peaceful purposes and in continuing efforts to extend to all States the benefits derived there from.

Background

On 4 October 1957 the first human-made Earth satellite Sputnik I was launched into outer space, thus opening the way for space exploration. On 12 April 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth, opening a new chapter of human endeavour in outer space.

The Declaration further recalls “the amazing history of human presence in outer space and the remarkable achievements since the first human spaceflight, in particular Valentina Tereshkova becoming the first woman to orbit the Earth on 16 June 1963, Neil Armstrong becoming the first human to set foot upon the surface of the Moon on 20 July 1969, and the docking of the Apollo and Soyuz spacecrafts on 17 July 1975, being the first international human mission in space, and recall that for the past decade humanity has maintained a multinational permanent human presence in outer space aboard the International Space Station.”

UN and Space

From the very beginning of the Space Age, the United Nations recognized that outer space added a new dimension to humanity’s existence. The United Nations family strives continuously to utilize the unique benefits of outer space for the betterment of all humankind.

Recognizing the common interest of humankind in outer space and seeking to answer questions on how outer space can help benefit the people’s of Earth, the General Asssembly adopted its first resolution related to outer space, resolution 1348 (XIII) entitled “Question of the Peaceful Use of Outer Space”.

Today, the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) is the United Nations office responsible for promoting international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space. UNOOSA serves as the secretariat for the General Assembly’s only committee dealing exclusively with international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space: the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space(COPUOS).

UNOOSA is also responsible for implementing the Secretary-General’s responsibilities under international space law and maintaining the United Nations Register of Objects Launched into Outer Space.

United Nations Champion for Space Scott Kelly and UNOOSA Director Simonetta Di Pippo discuss International Day of Human Space Flight and UNOOSA’s work.

Our Planet Earth

In an awestruck manner, seventeen astronauts and cosmonauts from ten countries describe their perceptions of Earth as seen from space. Watch the documentary produced in July 1990.

Yuri Gagarin: First Man in Space

Yuri Gagarin was the first person to fly in space. His flight, on April 12, 1961, lasted 108 minutes as he circled the Earth for a little more than one orbit in the Soviet Union’s Vostok spacecraft. Following the flight, Gagarin became a cultural hero in the Soviet Union. Even today, more than six decades after the historic flight, Gagarin is widely celebrated in Russian space museums, with numerous artifacts, busts and statues displayed in his honor. His remains are buried at the Kremlin in Moscow, and part of his spacecraft is on display at the RKK Energiya museum.

Gagarin’s flight came at a time when the United States and the Soviet Union were competing for technological supremacy in space. The Soviet Union had already sent the first artificial satellite, called Sputnik, into space in October 1957.

Before Gagarin’s mission, the Soviets sent a test flight into space using a prototype of the Vostok spacecraft. During this flight, they sent a life-size dummy called Ivan Ivanovich and a dog named Zvezdochka into space. After the test flight, the Soviet’s considered the vessel fit to take a human into space. [Infographic: How the First Human Spaceflight Worked]

Becoming a legendary astronaut

The third of four children, Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was born on March 9, 1934, in a small village a hundred miles from Moscow. As a teenager, Gagarin witnessed a Russian Yak fighter plane make an emergency landing near his home. When offered a chance years later to join a flying club, he eagerly accepted, making his first solo flight in 1955. Only a few years later, he submitted his request to be considered as a cosmonaut. [Photos: Yuri Gagarin & 50 Years of Human Spaceflight]

More than 200 Russian Air Force fighter pilots were selected as cosmonaut candidates. Such pilots were considered optimal because they had exposure to the forces of acceleration and the ejection process, as well as experience with high-stress situations. Gagarin, a 27-year-old senior lieutenant at the time, was among the pilots selected.

On April 12, 1961, at 9:07 a.m. Moscow time, the Vostok 1 spacecraft blasted off from the Soviets’ launch site. Because no one was certain how weightlessness would affect a pilot, the spherical capsule had little in the way of onboard controls; the work was done either automatically or from the ground. If an emergency arose, Gagarin was supposed to receive an override code that would allow him to take manual control, but Sergei Korolev, chief designer of the Soviet space program, disregarded protocol and gave the code to the pilot prior to the flight.

Over the course of 108 minutes, Vostok 1 traveled around the Earth once, reaching a maximum height of 203 miles (327 kilometers). The spacecraft carried 10 days’ worth of provisions in case the engines failed and Gagarin was required to wait for the orbit to naturally decay. But the supplies were unnecessary. Gagarin re-entered Earth’s atmosphere, managing to maintain consciousness as he experienced forces up to eight times the pull of gravity during his descent.

Vostok 1 had no engines to slow its re-entry and no way to land safely. About 4 miles (7 km) up, Gagarin ejected from the spacecraft and parachuted to Earth. In order for the mission to be counted as an official spaceflight, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), the governing body for aerospace records, had determined that the pilot must land with the spacecraft. Soviet leaders indicated that Gagarin had touched down with the Vostok 1, and they did not reveal that he had ejected until 1971. Regardless, Gagarin still set the record as the first person to leave Earth’s orbit and travel into space. [Milestones in Human Spaceflight: Pictures]

Gagarin’s legacy

Upon his return to Earth, Gagarin was an international hero. A cheering crowd of hundreds of thousands of people greeted him in Red Square, a public plaza in Moscow. A national treasure, Gagarin traveled around the world to celebrate the historic Soviet achievement.

When he returned home, Gagarin became a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union (the highest legislative body in the Soviet Union) and was appointed commander of the Cosmonauts’ Detachment. Because the Soviets did not want to risk losing such an important public figure, they were hesitant about allowing Gagarin to return to space. He continued to make test flights for the Air Force, however.

On March 27, 1968, Gagarin was killed (along with another pilot) while test-piloting a MiG-15, a jet fighter aircraft. He was survived by his wife, Valentina Ivanovna Goryacheva, and two daughters.

NASA’s Apollo 11, the first mission to put people on the moon, landed in July 1969, and the crew left behind a commemorative medallion bearing Gagarin’s name. They also left medallions for other astronauts who lost their lives in space or while preparing for spaceflight.

Over time, the U.S. and the Soviet Union began working together in their spaceflight endeavors. The first joint U.S.-Soviet spaceflight was in 1975, called Apollo-Soyuz. Following that, NASA sent several space shuttle astronauts to Soviet/Russian space station Mir after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The shuttle-Mir collaboration paved the way for NASA and the Russian space agency (Roscosmos) to become major partners in the International Space Station program, which first launched modules in 1998 and continues research today.

Gagarin’s importance in the Russian space program continues. Crews using the Soyuz spacecraft participate in a number of prelaunch traditions prior to climbing on to the spacecraft — such as urinating on the launch bus tires — to follow in the footsteps of Gagarin’s historic flight. Beyond that, Gagarin is often held up as an example of character and heroism to younger children in Russia.

The 60th anniversary of Gagarin’s flight will be in 2021. The space community also commemorates Gagarin’s achievement every year with Yuri’s Night, a celebration that takes place on his launch date of April 12. Yuri’s Night was founded in 2001 and attracts thousands of celebrants each year.

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in space

On April 12, 1961, aboard the spacecraft Vostok 1, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin becomes the first human being to travel into space. During the flight, the 27-year-old test pilot and industrial technician also became the first man to orbit the planet, a feat accomplished by his space capsule in 89 minutes. Vostok 1 orbited Earth at a maximum altitude of 187 miles and was guided entirely by an automatic control system. The only statement attributed to Gagarin during his one hour and 48 minutes in space was, “Flight is proceeding normally; I am well.”

After his historic feat was announced, the attractive and unassuming Gagarin became an instant worldwide celebrity. He was awarded the Order of Lenin and given the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Monuments were raised to him across the Soviet Union and streets renamed in his honor.

The triumph of the Soviet space program in putting the first man into space was a great blow to the United States, which had scheduled its first space flight for May 1961. Moreover, Gagarin had orbited Earth, a feat that eluded the U.S. space program until February 1962, when astronaut John Glenn made three orbits in Friendship 7. By that time, the Soviet Union had already made another leap ahead in the “space race” with the August 1961 flight of cosmonaut Gherman Titov in Vostok 2. Titov made 17 orbits and spent more than 25 hours in space.

To Soviet propagandists, the Soviet conquest of space was evidence of the supremacy of communism over capitalism. However, to those who worked on the Vostok program and earlier on Sputnik (which launched the first satellite into space in 1957), the successes were attributable chiefly to the brilliance of one man: Sergei Pavlovich Korolev. Because of his controversial past, Chief Designer Korolev was unknown in the West and to all but insiders in the USSR until his death in 1966.

Born in the Ukraine in 1906, Korolev was part of a scientific team that launched the first Soviet liquid-fueled rocket in 1933. In 1938, his military sponsor fell prey to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin’s purges, and Korolev and his colleagues were also put on trial. Convicted of treason and sabotage, Korolev was sentenced to 10 years in a labor camp. The Soviet authorities came to fear German rocket advances, however, and after only a year Korolev was put in charge of a prison design bureau and ordered to continue his rocketry work.

In 1945, Korolev was sent to Germany to learn about the V-2 rocket, which had been used to devastating effect by the Nazis against the British. The Americans had captured the rocket’s designer, Wernher von Braun, who later became head of the U.S. space program, but the Soviets acquired a fair amount of V-2 resources, including rockets, launch facilities, blueprints, and a few German V-2 technicians. By employing this technology and his own considerable engineering talents, by 1954 Korolev had built a rocket that could carry a five-ton nuclear warhead and in 1957 launched the first intercontinental ballistic missile.

That year, Korolev’s plan to launch a satellite into space was approved, and on October 4, 1957, Sputnik 1 was fired into Earth’s orbit. It was the first Soviet victory of the space race, and Korolev, still technically a prisoner, was officially rehabilitated. The Soviet space program under Korolev would go on to numerous space firsts in the late 1950s and early ’60s: first animal in orbit, first large scientific satellite, first man, first woman, first three men, first space walk, first spacecraft to impact the moon, first to orbit the moon, first to impact Venus, and first craft to soft-land on the moon. Throughout this time, Korolev remained anonymous, known only as the “Chief Designer.” His dream of sending cosmonauts to the moon eventually ended in failure, primarily because the Soviet lunar program received just one-tenth the funding allocated to America’s successful Apollo lunar landing program.

Korolev died in 1966. Upon his death, his identity was finally revealed to the world, and he was awarded a burial in the Kremlin wall as a hero of the Soviet Union. Yuri Gagarin was killed in a routine jet-aircraft test flight in 1968. His ashes were also placed in the Kremlin wall.

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Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in space

Humans in Space

During the early years of the American and Soviet race into space, their competition was measured by headline-making “firsts”: the first satellite, first robotic spacecraft to the Moon, first man in space, first woman in space, and first spacewalk. To the dismay of the United States, the Soviet Union achieved each of these feats first. These events triggered a drive to catch up with—and surpass—the Soviets, especially in the high-profile endeavor of human space exploration.

The Mercury and Gemini programs were the early U.S. efforts in human spaceflight and they were spectacular successes:
May 1961: American astronaut Alan Shepard went briefly into space, but not into orbit, on the Mercury 3 mission
February 1962: Astronaut John Glenn spent five hours in orbit on the Mercury 6 mission
June 1965: Astronaut Edward White made the first U.S. spacewalk on the Gemini IV mission

Although the United States seemed to lag behind the U.S.S.R. in space, it pursued a methodical step-by-step program, in which each mission built upon and extended the previous ones. The Mercury and Gemini missions carefully prepared the way for the Apollo lunar missions.

After these first few missions that put Americans in space, America’s astronauts became the most visible symbols of space exploration. The public, newspapers, and television celebrated these young space pilots as national heroes, and their flights were widely heralded around the world.

Project Mercury

T. Keith Glennan approved Project Mercury in October 1958. The project was designed to put an astronaut into Earth orbit at the earliest date and test his ability to function in extreme acceleration (“g-forces”) and weightlessness. For many in the public, Congress, and NASA, these limited goals represented a first step in human exploration. Planning was already underway to evaluate more ambitious objectives, such as a space station or Moon landing.

The one-man Mercury missions developed hardware for safe spaceflight and return to Earth, and began to show how human beings would fare in space. From 1961 to 1963, the United States flew many test flights and six manned Mercury missions.

Six Mercury spacecraft were flown with astronauts aboard. The first two flights were suborbital and were boosted by Redstone launch vehicles. The last four were orbital flights and were boosted by Atlas rockets. The longest flight was 34 hours and 20 minutes.

Mercury Freedom 7

Astronaut Alan B. Shepard made the first U.S. piloted spaceflight in the Mercury Freedom 7 spacecraft on May 5, 1961. During this suborbital mission lasting 15 minutes and 22 seconds, Shepard reached an altitude of 186 kilometers (116 miles). The astronaut and his Mercury spacecraft were recovered 483 kilometers (302 miles) downrange from Cape Canaveral in the Atlantic Ocean by the USS Champlain.

Shepard was not the first human in space. Soviet cosmonaut Yuri A. Gagarin had orbited the Earth 23 days before Shepard’s flight, on April 12, 1961.

The Mercury spacecraft consists of a conical pressure section topped by a cylindrical recovery system section. The capsule’s frame is made of titanium, covered with steel and beryllium shingles. The base of the spacecraft is a beryllium heat sink, a technique for preventing the heat generated during reentry from harming an astronaut. Later flights used ablative heat shields, which protected the spacecraft by vaporizing and burning away during re-entry.

The Mercury spacecraft was equipped with three 454 kilogram (1000 pound) thrust solid-propellant retro-rockets mounted in a package on the heat shield. After the three rockets were fired to slow the spacecraft and allow it to drop to the Earth, the retro-rocket package was jettisoned.

Spacecraft Specifications

• Crew: one astronaut
• Maximum Diameter: 2.0 meters (6 feet 6 inches)
• Length at launch: 2.8 meters (9 feet 2 inches)
• Weight at launch: 1660 kilograms (3650 pounds)
• Weight as exhibited: 1100 kilograms (2422 pounds)
• Interior atmosphere: Pure oxygen at 264 millimeters of mercury (5.1 pounds per square inch)
• Reaction Control System: 16 rockets producing from 0.45 kilograms (1 pound) to 10.9 kilograms (24 pounds) thrust, depending on location
• Propellant for reaction control system: 90% hydrogen peroxide
• Prime contractor: McDonnell Aircraft Corporation

Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle

Used for the suborbital space flights of astronauts Alan B. Shepard, Jr. (Freedom 7) and Virgil I. Grissom (Liberty Bell 7) during the Mercury Program. The Mercury-Redstone launch vehicle was developed from the U.S. Army’s Redstone missile.

Launch Vehicle Specifications

• Height (with spacecraft): 25.4 meters (83.38 feet)
• Thrust: 35,380 kilograms (78,000 pounds)
• Propellants: Liquid Oxygen and Alcohol

Mercury Friendship 7

Astronaut John H. Glenn Jr. became the first American to orbit the Earth in the Friendship 7 Mercury spacecraft. On February 20, 1962, Glenn circled the Earth three times, in a flight lasting 4 hours and 55 minutes. Friendship 7 landed in the Atlantic Ocean.

Glenn’s flight followed two successful Soviet orbital flights and signaled that the United States could compete successfully in space. The high-profile drama of the space race and Glenn’s professionalism made him a national hero.

Spacecraft Specifications

• Height: 2.7 m (9 ft)
• Maximum Diameter: 1.9 m (6 ft 3 in)
• Weight: 1,300 kg (2,900 lb)
• Manufacturer: McDonnell Aircraft Corp. for NASA
• Launch Vehicle: Atlas-D

Mercury-Atlas Launch Vehicle

The Mercury-Atlas launch vehicle was developed from the U.S. Air Force’s Atlas ballistic missile. It was used in the Mercury Program Earth orbital flights of astronauts John H. Glenn, Jr. (Frienship 7), Scott M. Carpenter (Aurora 7), Walter M. Schirra (Sigma 7), and L. Gordon Cooper, Jr. (Faith 7).

Launch Vehicle Specifications

• Height (with spacecraft): 29 meters (95 feet)
• Thrust: 165,000 kilograms (365,000 pounds)
• Propellants: Liquid Oxygen and RP-1 (a form of Kerosene)

John Glenn

Astronaut John Glenn during pre-launch preparations.

Mercury Capsule MA-6 Friendship 7

Mercury “Friendship 7” on display in the Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall at the Museum in Washington, DC.

National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution / Eric Long

Inside Mercury “Friendship 7”

Interior of Mercury “Friendship 7” on display at the National Air and Space Museum.

National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution / Eric Long

John Glenn

Astronaut John H. Glenn Jr. is pictured aboard the MA-6/Friendship 7 capsule during the U.S. initial orbital flight.

S62-00303 (2-20-62) (ARCHIVAL PHOTO)

John Glenn Notebook

This notebook containing world maps and other data was carried by astronaut John Glenn Jr. during the flight of Friendship 7, the first U.S. orbital spaceflight carrying a human on February 20, 1962.

The Gemini Program

After Mercury, NASA introduced Gemini, an enlarged, redesigned spacecraft for two astronauts. Ten manned Gemini missions were flown from 1964 through 1966 to improve techniques of spacecraft control, rendezvous and docking, and extravehicular activity (spacewalking). One Gemini mission spent a record-breaking two weeks in space, time enough for a future crew to go to the Moon, explore, and return.

The Gemini had two major units. The reentry module held the crew cabin and heat shield. Behind it was the adapter, which consisted of two sections. The equipment section carried fuel, oxygen, and power supplies. The retrograde section carried retrorockets that slowed the spacecraft to make it fall out of orbit. Using small rockets on the adapter, the astronauts could not only change their orientation in space, but also their orbital path. Gemini was the first manned spacecraft that could alter its orbit during flight.

The adapter sections were discarded before reentry. The nose (rendezvous and recovery section) came off when the main parachute was deployed. The cabin section splashed down horizontally, with the two hatches on top.

Spacecraft Specifications

• Length (in orbit): 5.7 m (18 ft 10 in)
• Length (at landing): 2.74 m (9 ft)
• Maximum diameter (adapter): 3.05 m (10 ft)
• Diameter of heat shield: 2.26 m (7 ft 5 in)
• Heat shield: Silicone-elastismer-filled, phenolic-impregnated fiberglass honeycomb
• Spacecraft structure: Titanium (reentry module); magnesium and aluminum (adapter)
• Reentry module shingles: René 41 (a nickel-steel alloy) and beryllium
• Weight at launch (Gemini 7): 3,670 kg (8,074 lb)
• Weight at landing: About 1,500 kg (3,300 lb)
• Manufacturer: McDonnell Aircraft Corp.

The Gemini Heat Shield

A heat shield protected the Gemini spacecraft against the enormous heat generated by reentry into the atmosphere at more than 27,500 kilometers (17,000 miles) per hour. Like those of other early American and Soviet manned spacecraft, Gemini’s heat shield derived from ballistic-missile warhead technology. The dish-shaped shield created a shock wave in the atmosphere that held off most of the heat. The rest was dissipated by ablation—charring and evaporation—of the heat shield’s surface. Ablative shields were not reusable.

Gemini-Titan II Launch Vehicle

Used in the Gemini Program to boost the two-man Gemini spacecraft into Earth orbit. Ten manned missions were flown. The Gemini-Titan II was developed from the U.S. Air Force Titan II Intercontinental ballistic missile.

Launch Vehicle Specifications

• Height (with spacecraft): 33 meters (108 feet)
• Thrust at lift off: 193,500 kilograms (430,000 pounds)

Gemini 4: The First U.S. Spacewalk

American astronaut Edward H. White II was the pilot for the Gemini-Titan 4 space flight. He became the first American to perform an Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA, or “spacewalk”) from the Gemini IV spacecraft on June 3, 1965. He floated in zero gravity during the third revolution of the Gemini 4 spacecraft.

White is attached to the spacecraft by a 25-ft. umbilical line and a 23-ft. tether line, both wrapped in gold tape to form one cord. In his right hand White carries a Hand-Held Self-Maneuvering Unit (HHSMU). The visor of his helmet is gold plated to protect him from the unfiltered rays of the sun.

Gemini 7: Surviving 2 Weeks in Space

Launched into space aboard Gemini 7 on December 4, 1965, astronauts Frank Borman and James A. Lovell Jr. accomplished two of the central objectives of the Gemini program: rendezvous and long-duration space flight.

Their primary mission was to show that humans could live in weightlessness for 14 days, a space endurance record that would stand until 1970. Their spacecraft also served as the target vehicle for Gemini 6, piloted by Walter M. Schirra Jr. and Thomas P. Stafford, who carried out the world’s first space rendezvous. These two achievements were critical steps on the road to the Moon.

For Frank Borman and Jim Lovell, the flight was an endurance test. The cabin was very cramped—the size of the front half of a Volkswagen Beetle—and the two astronauts were the subject of numerous medical experiments.

Gemini 7’s primary mission was to demonstrate that astronauts could live in weightlessness without significant ill effects for 14 days, the longest duration anticipated for an Apollo lunar landing mission. Gemini 7 Astronauts Borman and Lovell later formed two-thirds of the Apollo 8 crew, the first to circle the Moon. Lovell also commanded Gemini 12 and the ill-fated Apollo 13 lunar landing mission.

Gemini 6: World’s First Space Rendezvous

Gemini 6 was actually launched after Gemini 7. It was supposed to take off on October 25, but the flight was cancelled after the unmanned rendezvous and docking target vehicle blew up. The mission was quickly changed to a rendezvous with Gemini 7.

Three days before Gemini 6’s successful launch on December 15, 1965, a heart-stopping shutdown of the Titan II launch vehicle’s engines occurred during the first lift-off attempt. Schirra and Stafford did not eject only because of their coolness under extreme pressure.

On December 15, 1965, Gemini 6, piloted by Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford, pulled within 0.3 meters (1 foot) of Gemini 7, piloted by Frank Borman and Jim Lovell. It was the first time in history that two vehicles had maneuvered to meet in space.

This photograph of the Gemini 7 spacecraft was taken from the hatch window of the Gemini 6 spacecraft during rendezvous and station-keeping maneuvers on December 15, 1965. The spacecraft were approximately nine feet apart, at an altitude of 160 miles.

Gemini 10 Checklists & Data Cards

Michael Collins carried these checklists during the Gemini 10 mission from July 18-21, 1966. The Systems Notebook had information about the Gemini spacecraft and mission protocol. The data cards were used as a checklist of procedures during the extravehicular activity (EVA) in Earth orbit. Procedures for experiments, as well as the results, were kept in the Experiment Log Book.

The woman who paid $250,000 to go into space

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Ketty Maisonrouge has waited 15 years for a trip that she knows will be out of this world.

The 61-year-old business school professor signed up back in 2005 for the promise of five minutes in zero-gravity, paying $250,000 (£190,500) to travel beyond the earth’s atmosphere.

Now the company that sold her the ticket, Virgin Galactic, says it will finally begin flights this year. Its founder, Sir Richard Branson, will be on the first trip, and Mrs Maisonrouge won’t be far behind.

“Hopefully it will be as amazing as I think,” says Mrs Maisonrouge.

If all goes to plan, Virgin Galactic will be the first private company to take tourists into space. The company says 600 people have already purchased tickets, including celebrities like Justin Bieber and Leonardo DiCaprio.

But rival firms are close behind. Blue Origin, started by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has also starting speaking to possible passengers for trips it hopes to start this year, while SpaceX, founded by Tesla’s Elon Musk, announced in 2019 that a Japanese billionaire would be its first passenger for a trip around the moon.

Dreaming of space

In 2019, Swiss bank UBS released a report estimating space tourism could become a $3bn industry in the next 10 years.

For Virgin Galactic, early buyers such as Mrs Maisonrouge helped prove the demand was there for private space travel – even with ticket prices at a quarter of a million dollars.

“To be able to put products as expensive as space on the market in the first place does include a high premium,” explains Julia Hunter, a senior vice-president at Virgin Galactic responsible for the day-to-day running of the human spaceflight programme.

Mrs Maisonrouge’s love of space started early. She can still remember vividly the moment in July 1969 when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon.

When she learned that Virgin Galactic was offering to send ordinary travellers to space, she immediately rushed to sign up.

Since buying her ticket, Mrs Maisonrouge has kept her plans mostly private, sharing them only with family, close friends and her fellow “founders” – the group of original Virgin Galactic ticket holders.

In November 2019, a group of them got their first chance to try on the spacesuits – designed by sportswear brand Under Armour – which they will wear on their trip to space.

“For me, it was like the realisation that this is really going to happen soon,” says Mrs Maisonrouge. “When you’ve been waiting for 15 years, when you’ve been dreaming about it for as long as you can remember, you wonder until it happens if it will really happen.”

Unlike the astronauts from the legendary Apollo missions, who went through months of rigorous training and gruelling physical ordeals, Mrs Maisonrouge and her fellow space tourists will take just three days to train for their trip. Virgin Galactic says it could be shorter, but they want passengers to “understand the choreography” and “get the most” out of their experience.

She and fellow founders have also been given an early chance to visit Virgin Galactic’s terminal at Spaceport America, in the desert of New Mexico. The company has designed a lounge equipped with floor-to-ceiling windows to view the launches, a barista to make fresh coffee and an interactive walkway.

From here, Virgin Galactic’s tourists will board spaceships for a 90-minute round trip with just a few minutes in low-orbit. It’s a far more luxurious experience from the one that government astronauts have had.

Dan Hicks, who manages Spaceport America for the state of New Mexico, says Virgin Galactic is spearheading this new type of travel and that the facility will one day be a “full-up transportation hub for the space industry”.

Multi-million dollar trip

A quarter of a million dollars may seem like a hefty price tag for a tourist trip. But Virgin Galactic says it expects near-term demand for space flights to far outstrip supply, which could even cause the price of tickets to rise.

Seven private citizens have already paid for multi-million dollar tickets to go into space with Russian Soyuz spaceflights going back as far as 2001, making them the first space tourists.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) has also relied on Soyuz spaceships to take US astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) since it ended its shuttle program in 2011, paying approximately $86m per spot.

Nasa is now also turning to private enterprise. The agency has signed deals with SpaceX and Boeing to carry US astronauts. Those tickets don’t come cheap either – Nasa is paying SpaceX $55m per spot and Boeing $90m.

Spaceflights for government astronauts and space tourists are only part of the potential private space industry. Point-to-point travel that leaves Earth’s orbit could become a $20bn sector by 2030, according to UBS. By leaving the planet’s orbit, trips across the world would be much faster.

SpaceX has already released marketing material for a 40-minute flight from New York City to Shanghai, using its spaceflight technology.

That could mean far more of us get the chance to sample space travel, at least briefly.

The space travel industry has caught the eye not just of billionaire businessmen such as Sir Richard and Jeff Bezos, but also Wall Street investors. Virgin Galactic became the first human space flight company to list its shares on the stock market in October 2019.

For the many people hoping to make money from space tourism, 2020 could be the year when stellar promises really start to take off.

India Announces Plans For Its First Human Space Mission

Members of the press cover the launch of the solar-powered rover Chandrayaan-2 in September. The goal was a moon landing, but the craft crashed. Another attempt to send a rover to the moon is underway. Manjunath Kiran/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Members of the press cover the launch of the solar-powered rover Chandrayaan-2 in September. The goal was a moon landing, but the craft crashed. Another attempt to send a rover to the moon is underway.

Manjunath Kiran/AFP via Getty Images

India’s space agency says that four astronaut candidates have been selected for its first human mission, targeted to launch by 2022, but they’ve not been publicly named or identified.

India hopes to join the United States, Russia and China as the world’s fourth nation capable of sending people to space. It has been developing its own crewed spacecraft, called Gaganyaan (or “sky vehicle” in Sanskrit), that would let two to three people orbit Earth on a weeklong spaceflight.

K Sivan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, held a press briefing on New Year’s Day and told reporters that the four astronauts would start their training in Russia in a few weeks.

#ISRO
A Press Meet was organised today, January 01, 2020, at ISRO Headquarters, Bengaluru on the New Year’s Day. Dr K Sivan, Chairman, ISRO addressed and interacted with over hundred media persons during the meet.

He also said his agency had government approval for its next robotic moon mission, Chandrayaan-3, and that work is already underway. That mission could launch in 2021.

Sivan told reporters that this lunar effort would include a lander and a rover, much like the Chandrayaan-2 mission. Last year, India made an unsuccessful attempt to put a small solar-powered rover on the moon. Its landing system malfunctioned, and it crashed.

K Sivan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, announced plans for a moon mission and for the country’s first human space flight at a press conference Wednesday. Manjunath Kiran/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

K Sivan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, announced plans for a moon mission and for the country’s first human space flight at a press conference Wednesday.

Manjunath Kiran/AFP via Getty Images

Last month, NASA released an image showing the debris field left on the moon by the doomed lander.

The Chandrayaan-2 mission also included an orbiting spacecraft, however, that is still circling the moon and functioning well. That means it can be used by Chandrayaan-3’s rover to relay communications back to Earth.

India’s first successful lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, put a spacecraft in orbit around the moon in 2008 and then later sent a probe hurtling toward the moon’s south pole, where it deliberately crashed and released material that got analyzed by the orbiter’s scientific instruments, helping to confirm the presence of water ice on the moon.

That orbiter stopped functioning after less than a year, but the success was a huge boost for India’s space program.

Then, in 2014, India put a satellite in orbit around Mars, beating its space rival China to the red planet and becoming the fourth national space agency to reach Mars.

So far, however, the only citizen of India to fly in space is Rakesh Sharma, an Indian Air Force pilot who traveled on a Russian spacecraft in 1984.