1903 - Konstantin
Tsiolkovsky begins a series of papers discussing the use of rocketry
to reach outer space, space suits, and colonization of the solar
system. Two key points discussed in his works are liquid fuels and staging.
1952 - Wernher
von Braun discusses the technical details of a manned exploration of
Mars in
The Mars Project.
1953 - Colliers Magazine
publishes a series of articles on man's future in space, igniting the interest
of people around the world. The series includes numerous articles by Ley
and von Braun, illustrated by Chesley Bonestell.
1957 - The USSR launches Sputnik
I, the first artificial satellite.
1958 - The US
launches Explorer
I, the first American artificial satellite, on a Jupiter-C
rocket.
1958 - US launches their
first ICBM, the Atlas-B
(the Atlas-A was a test article only).
1961 - the USSR launches
Vostok 1, Yuri
Gagarin reached a height of 327 km above Earth and was the first man
to orbit earth.
- US, a Mercury capsule named Freedom 7 with Alan
B. Shepard, spacecraft was launched by a Redstone
rocket on a ballistic trajectory suborbital flight.
1962 - The US launches
Mercury MA-6 (Friendship 7) on an Atlas D booster, John
Glenn finally puts America in orbit.
1963 - The USSR launches
Vostok 6, Valentina
Tereshkova was the first woman (and first civilian) to orbit earth.
She remained in space for nearly three days and orbited the earth 48 times.
