# NASA and the space age The conquest of space: Goddard and the rocket pioneers, Operation Paperclip and von Braun, the founding of NASA, Mercury and Gemini and Apollo, the Shuttle and its disasters, the space station, and the new commercial space age. *This story part of: Science and technology* *The Cold War parallel this story* *The Nazi bargains: Paperclip and the recruitment of the enemy led to this story* *The space race: rivalry, rendezvous, and spying parallel this story* *How the West supported the Nazis: finance, appeasement, and Cold War bargains continues this story* ## c. 1903 — Tsiolkovsky publishes the rocket equation Konstantin Tsiolkovsky published a paper deriving the equation that relates a rocket's velocity to its exhaust speed and mass of propellant. It showed that spaceflight was possible with liquid-fueled, staged rockets. ## 3 March 1915 — Founding of the NACA Congress created the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics to guide and coordinate American aviation research. The NACA later became the core of NASA in 1958. ## c. 1919 — Goddard's report on reaching extreme altitudes Robert Goddard published "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes" through the Smithsonian, laying out the math of rocket flight. The press mocked his suggestion that a rocket could reach the Moon. ## c. 1923 — Oberth's The Rocket into Interplanetary Space Hermann Oberth published a book arguing that rockets could carry people into space. It inspired a generation of German rocket enthusiasts, including Wernher von Braun. ## 16 March 1926 — Goddard launches the first liquid-fuel rocket Robert Goddard flew the world's first liquid-propellant rocket, which rose about 12 meters in a short flight. The design principle became the basis of modern rocketry. ## 5 July 1927 — Founding of the German rocket society Amateur enthusiasts formed the Verein fuer Raumschiffahrt, or Society for Space Travel, to build and test rockets. Its members included a young Wernher von Braun before the group was absorbed into military work. ## c. 1936 — Founding of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory A group of Caltech students and researchers, including Frank Malina and Jack Parsons, began rocket experiments in the Arroyo Seco. The work grew into the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, later run for NASA. ## c. 1937 — Peenemuende rocket center established The German army opened a research center on the Baltic coast to develop long-range rockets under Wernher von Braun. It became the birthplace of the V-2 missile. ## 3 October 1942 — First V-2 rocket reaches space A German V-2 test flight became the first human-made object to reach the edge of space. The rocket, designed as a weapon, proved that large liquid-fueled machines could fly to the boundary of space. ## 1944 — Operation Paperclip begins The top-secret Operation Paperclip began in 1944, bringing Nazi scientists to America under military contracts while obscuring their pasts. > "A top-secret program called Operation Paperclip commenced in 1944 that sought to bring top Nazi scientists to America under secret military contracts while white-washing their past and high-ranking connections with Nazi Socialism." > — Technocracy Rising ## 8 September 1944 — First combat use of the V-2 rocket Germany fired the first V-2 ballistic missiles against London and Paris late in World War II. The weapon killed thousands and was built largely by concentration camp labor. ## 2 May 1945 — Von Braun surrenders to American forces Wernher von Braun and his core rocket team gave themselves up to United States troops in the Alps. They chose the Americans over the advancing Soviet army. ## c. 1945 — Operation Paperclip begins The United States secretly recruited Wernher von Braun and hundreds of German rocket scientists at the end of World War II. Their knowledge fed the American missile and space programs. *Source: Implementation of the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act* *Source: Project Paperclip and American Rocketry after World War II* ## 4 October 1957 — Launch of Sputnik 1 The Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite, a metal sphere that beeped as it circled the Earth. The event shocked the United States and opened the space age. ## 3 November 1957 — Sputnik 2 carries Laika into orbit The Soviet Union sent a dog named Laika into orbit, the first living creature to circle the Earth. The animal did not survive, but the flight showed that living things could ride a rocket into space. ## 6 December 1957 — Vanguard rocket explodes on the pad The first American attempt to answer Sputnik ended when the Vanguard rocket rose a few feet and blew up on live television. The failure deepened fears that the country was losing the space race. ## 1958 — NASA names its programs after the ancient gods NASA drew its program names from Greco-Roman mythology: Mercury the messenger, Gemini the twins, Apollo the god of the sun and prophecy, and later Artemis (Apollo's twin) for the return to the Moon, plus Orion, Juno, and the Saturn and Atlas and Titan rockets. The oldest gods still name the newest machines. ## 31 January 1958 — Explorer 1, the first US satellite A team led by von Braun and JPL launched Explorer 1, the first American satellite. Its instruments discovered the Van Allen radiation belts around the Earth. ## 29 July 1958 — Founding of NASA Eisenhower signs the National Aeronautics and Space Act, converting the old aeronautics committee NACA into a civilian space agency that opens on October 1, 1958. NASA goes on to run Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and the moon landing within eleven years. ## 7 October 1958 — Project Mercury announced NASA unveiled Project Mercury, its first program to put an American in space. The effort selected seven military test pilots as the original astronauts. ## 13 September 1959 — Luna 2 reaches the Moon The Soviet probe Luna 2 became the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another world when it struck the Moon. It marked another Soviet lead in the early space race. ## 12 April 1961 — Yuri Gagarin, first human in space Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth once aboard Vostok 1, becoming the first person in space. The flight stunned the world and pressured the United States to respond. ## 5 May 1961 — Alan Shepard, first American in space Alan Shepard flew a short suborbital hop aboard Freedom 7, becoming the first American in space. The flight came weeks after Gagarin's orbit and gave the country a boost. ## 25 May 1961 — Kennedy's pledge to land on the Moon President Kennedy told Congress that the nation should commit to landing a man on the Moon before the decade was out. The speech set the goal that shaped the Apollo program. ## 20 February 1962 — John Glenn orbits the Earth John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth aboard Friendship 7, circling the planet three times. His flight matched a milestone the Soviets had already reached and made him a national hero. ## 12 September 1962 — Kennedy's We choose to go to the Moon speech Speaking at Rice University, President Kennedy made the public case for the Moon program to a national audience. The address became the defining statement of American ambition in space. ## 23 March 1965 — First crewed Gemini flight Gemini 3 carried two astronauts and began the program that tested the skills needed to reach the Moon. Gemini crews practiced docking, long flights, and working outside the spacecraft. ## 3 June 1965 — Ed White's first American spacewalk During Gemini 4, Ed White floated outside his capsule for about twenty minutes in the first American spacewalk. It proved that astronauts could work in the vacuum of space. ## 27 January 1967 — Apollo 1 fire A flash fire swept through the Apollo 1 capsule during a ground test, killing astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. The disaster forced a major redesign of the spacecraft. ## 9 November 1967 — First flight of the Saturn V NASA launched the uncrewed Apollo 4 mission on the first flight of the giant Saturn V rocket. The booster, designed by von Braun's team, remained the most powerful rocket to carry people for decades. ## 11 October 1968 — Apollo 7, first crewed Apollo mission After the Apollo 1 fire, Apollo 7 carried a crew into Earth orbit to test the redesigned command module. Its success put the Moon program back on track. ## 21 December 1968 — Apollo 8 orbits the Moon Apollo 8 carried the first humans to leave Earth's orbit and circle the Moon. The crew's live broadcasts and the Earthrise photograph became lasting images of the era. ## 20 July 1969 — Apollo 11 lands on the Moon Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to walk on the Moon while Michael Collins orbited above. An estimated 600 million people watched the landing on television. ## 19 November 1969 — Apollo 12, second crewed lunar landing Apollo 12 made a precise landing near an earlier robotic probe on the Moon. The mission showed that lunar landings could be routine and accurate. ## 11 April 1970 — Apollo 13 survival An oxygen tank exploded on the way to the Moon, and the crew used the lunar module as a lifeboat to get home. The safe return became a famous story of improvised engineering under pressure. ## 7 December 1972 — Apollo 17, the last Moon landing Apollo 17 was the final crewed mission to the Moon and the only one to carry a trained geologist. No human has returned to the lunar surface since. ## 14 May 1973 — Skylab, America's first space station NASA launched Skylab, its first space station, built from leftover Apollo hardware. Three crews lived aboard and studied the Sun, the Earth, and how the body copes with long stays in space. ## 17 July 1975 — Apollo-Soyuz handshake in orbit American and Soviet spacecraft docked in orbit and the crews shook hands, easing Cold War rivalry in space. The mission was the first international human spaceflight. ## 20 August 1977 — Voyager 1 and 2 launched NASA launched two probes to tour the outer planets, returning close views of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Both later crossed into interstellar space, the most distant human-made objects. > "They comprise three facts of life with which even the youngest student must learn to deal and may be introduced by the key words: crowds, praise, and power." > — Life in Classrooms > "students have something in common with the members of two other of our social institutions that have involuntary attendance: prisons and mental hospitals." > — Life in Classrooms > "First, there was almost no relation between measures of students' attitudes toward school and measures of their attention in class. The average correlation coefficient describing this relationship was .10." > — Life in Classrooms ## 12 April 1981 — First Space Shuttle flight The Space Shuttle Columbia flew the program's first mission, the first reusable crewed spacecraft to reach orbit and glide back to a runway. It began three decades of shuttle flights. ## 18 June 1983 — Sally Ride, first American woman in space Sally Ride flew aboard the shuttle Challenger and became the first American woman in space. Her flight marked a shift in who could become an astronaut. ## 28 January 1986 — Challenger disaster The shuttle Challenger broke apart shortly after launch, killing all seven crew members including teacher Christa McAuliffe. A cold-damaged seal in a booster caused the failure and grounded the fleet for years. ## 24 April 1990 — Hubble Space Telescope launched The shuttle Discovery carried the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit, giving astronomers a clear view above the atmosphere. A flaw in its mirror was later fixed by a spacewalking crew. ## 2 December 1993 — First Hubble repair mission Astronauts on shuttle mission STS-61 installed corrective optics that fixed Hubble's blurry vision. The repair turned a troubled telescope into one of science's most productive instruments. ## 29 June 1995 — First Shuttle-Mir docking The shuttle Atlantis docked with Russia's Mir station, joining the two former rivals in orbit. The Shuttle-Mir program taught both sides to work together before building the International Space Station. ## 4 July 1997 — Mars Pathfinder and the Sojourner rover NASA landed the Pathfinder probe on Mars and released Sojourner, the first rover to drive on another planet. The mission showed that cheap, fast robotic exploration could work. ## 20 November 1998 — First module of the space station launched The Russian-built Zarya module became the first piece of the International Space Station in orbit. Over the next decade the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada assembled the outpost. ## c. September 2000 — Blue Origin founded Jeff Bezos quietly founded the rocket company Blue Origin to lower the cost of reaching space. It later flew a reusable suborbital rocket and carried paying passengers. ## 2 November 2000 — First crew arrives at the space station The Expedition 1 crew moved into the International Space Station, beginning a continuous human presence in orbit. People have lived aboard the station without a break ever since. ## c. March 2002 — SpaceX founded Elon Musk founded SpaceX with the goal of cutting launch costs and eventually reaching Mars. The company grew into NASA's main partner for cargo and crew flights. ## 1 February 2003 — Columbia disaster The shuttle Columbia broke apart during reentry, killing all seven astronauts aboard. Falling foam had damaged the wing at launch, and the loss led to the decision to retire the fleet. ## 15 October 2003 — China's first human spaceflight Yang Liwei orbited the Earth aboard Shenzhou 5, making China the third country to launch a person into space on its own. The flight announced China as a serious spacefaring nation. ## 4 January 2004 — Spirit and Opportunity land on Mars NASA's twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity reached Mars and found strong evidence that water once flowed there. Opportunity kept working for more than fourteen years. ## 28 September 2008 — Falcon 1 reaches orbit SpaceX became the first private company to put a liquid-fueled rocket into orbit with its small Falcon 1. The success came after three failures had nearly bankrupted the firm. ## 4 June 2010 — First flight of the Falcon 9 SpaceX launched its larger Falcon 9 rocket for the first time. Later versions landed and flew again, sharply lowering the cost of reaching orbit. ## 21 July 2011 — End of the Space Shuttle program The shuttle Atlantis landed after the final mission, STS-135, ending thirty years of flights. NASA then relied on Russian rockets to reach the space station until commercial vehicles were ready. ## 6 August 2012 — Curiosity rover lands on Mars NASA lowered the car-sized Curiosity rover onto Mars using a rocket-powered sky crane. It found that the planet could once have supported microbial life. ## 14 July 2015 — New Horizons flies past Pluto After a nine-year journey, NASA's New Horizons probe made the first close flyby of Pluto. It revealed icy mountains and plains on a world once seen only as a dot. ## 6 February 2018 — First launch of the Falcon Heavy SpaceX flew the Falcon Heavy, then the most powerful operating rocket, and landed two of its boosters side by side. The demonstration flight carried a Tesla car into space. ## 3 January 2019 — Chang'e 4 lands on the Moon's far side China's Chang'e 4 made the first soft landing on the far side of the Moon. The mission marked China's rise as a major power in space exploration. ## 30 May 2020 — Crew Dragon carries astronauts to orbit SpaceX flew NASA astronauts to the space station aboard its Crew Dragon capsule. It was the first crewed orbital launch from American soil since the shuttle retired in 2011. ## 18 February 2021 — Perseverance and Ingenuity reach Mars NASA landed the Perseverance rover to search for signs of ancient life and collect rock samples. It carried the small Ingenuity helicopter, which made the first powered flight on another planet. ## 25 December 2021 — James Webb Space Telescope launched The James Webb Space Telescope launched as the largest and most powerful space observatory ever built. Its infrared instruments can see the earliest galaxies and study distant planets. ## 26 September 2022 — DART deflects an asteroid NASA's DART spacecraft crashed into a small asteroid to test whether an impact could change its path. It was the first demonstration of a way to defend the Earth from a dangerous asteroid. ## 16 November 2022 — Artemis I flies around the Moon NASA launched the uncrewed Artemis I mission, sending its new Orion capsule around the Moon on the giant Space Launch System rocket. It was the first step in the plan to return astronauts to the lunar surface. ## c. November 2022 — China completes the Tiangong space station China finished assembling its Tiangong space station with the docking of its final module. The outpost gave China a permanent crewed presence in orbit and sharpened its rivalry with the United States. ## 20 April 2023 — First flight test of SpaceX Starship SpaceX launched the first full test of Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built. The vehicle is central to plans for carrying people to the Moon and Mars.