History of Space exploration

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A Brief History of Space Exploration
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1942
In 1942 the German V2 was the first rocket to
reach 100km from the Earths surface (the
boundary of space).The rocket was designed by
Wernher Von Braun, who later worked with NASA as
the creator of the rockets that went to the moon.
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1947
In 1947, the first animals were launched into
space. Fruit flies were used to study the effects
of space travel on animals, and were chosen
because they are more similar to humans than you
might imagine!The flies travelled with a supply
of corn to eat on the flight.
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1949
Albert II, was the first monkey in space. He was
a Rhesus monkey, a type of monkey that originally
comes from Asia. Albert went into space on June
14, 1949 in a specially adapted American V2
rocket, that flew to a height of 83 miles from
earth.
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1957
On October 4, 1957, Russia launched the first
satellite into space Sputnik 1, and the space
age had properly begun!Sputnik was the first
satellite in orbit around the earth. Today there
are over 500 working satellites in space. Sputnik
means "Satellite" in Russian.
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1957
In November 1957, the Russian space dog Laika
became the first animal to orbit the earth.Laika
travelled in a spacecraft known as Sputnik 2.
Laika means "Barker" in Russian, and her mission
helped scientists understand whether people could
survive in space.
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1961
On April 12, 1961, Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin
became the first man in space. Gagarin's
spacecraft, Vostok 1, completed one orbit of the
earth, and landed about two hours after
launch.Gagarin had to bail out and land using
his parachute, because the Vostok 1 was designed
to crash land!
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1969
On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong, and then Buzz
Aldrin, took "one small step" and became the
first men on the moon. The first words said on
the moon were "the Eagle has landed." Their
spaceship, Apollo 11 worked perfectly, flying
them 250,000 miles to the moon, and bringing them
all the way back safely to earth.
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1971
From 1971, American astronauts on the fourth,
fifth and sixth Apollo missions enjoyed use of a
moon car to explore the moon. Known as the Lunar
Rover, it was electric powered, and had a top
speed of 8mph.It was designed and developed in
only 17 months, by Boeing, the airplane company
famous for making the Jumbo Jet.
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1981
Until April 12, 1981 all spacecraft were designed
to be used only once. The Space Shuttle, was
designed to be reused for up to 100 visits to
space, in an attempt to make space travel less
expensive.With five hugely powerful rocket
motors, it can fly at more than 17,000 miles per
hour. Six have been built.
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1986
On January 28, 1986, tragedy struck. The
Challenger exploded shortly after launch, because
of a fuel system failure. All seven astronauts on
board were killed, and all space shuttles were
grounded for nearly three years.This shocking
accident reminded the world of the dangers of
space travel, and the incredible bravery of all
astronauts.
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2000
In 2000, the first permanent crew moved into the
International Space Station, where crews of
astronauts have been living ever since. The ISS
is a huge space station for research and space
exploration that began construction in 1986 and
was finished in 2010.
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2003
On October15, 2003, China sent its first man,
Yang Liwei, into space.They succeed in becoming
the third country ever to send a human into
space.
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Information taken from
www.spacekids.co.uk/spacehistory