Since the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA, NASA) was created half a century ago, it has launched hundreds of missions into space. From the probes that touched the limits of our solar system, to the manned capsules that gave impetus to the development of technology, much is the merit of NASA as the successor and successor of the space race.
Here is a list of the most important and coolest NASA missions.
Satellite WMAP
Did you know that humanity has an infant snapshot of a young universe?
We cannot get any images of the moment of the Big Bang. In the first several hundred thousand years of the universe's life, matter was too hot and closely knocked down for photons to penetrate anywhere. It could only be seen for a few light-years in any direction before the universe was cleared by giant clouds of hydrogen, making it impossible to look further.
However, after about 380,000 years, everything cooled down and spread, and the first light was able to escape from its imprisonment. This light from the most tender age of the universe falls on Earth from all parts of the sky. It shows the Universe in its early stages and is known as cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation.
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Since its discovery, scientists have set out to map the hot and cold spots of the CMB to see if they are in line with expert predictions. The data was collected only a few decades ago. NASA had to launch the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) for scientists to get a high-quality, high-resolution image of the radiation.
The results of the probe were in line with predictions and confirmed that the temperature of the Universe was almost uniform almost 14 billion years ago. It is amazing that we managed to extract information about such a distant fact in time.
The satellite was launched on June 30, 2001 at 3:46 pm EDT time aboard the Delta-II-7425-10 launch vehicle. In April 2002, WMAP completed its first CMB observation. In February 2003, the first quality CMB images and work with analysis of the results were released.
WMAP research papers are among the most used and cited in the history of space science.
Vikings 1 and 2
Until 1976, the United States had never successfully landed a probe on another planet. Parachutes and other landing methods often did not work, and multimillion-dollar vehicles sent to the Red Planet, as a rule, crashed on the surface, moving at speeds of thousands of kilometers per hour.
Getting something into Earth's orbit is often difficult. It is even more difficult to leave Earth's orbit, enter the orbit of another celestial body, and then successfully land on this planet. Yet this feat of engineering was accomplished by the Viking probes.
Twin devices were launched within a month on TitanIIIE / Centaur rockets. Part of the transport was supposed to remain in orbit on Mars, and the other - to land on the surface.
Based on what we observed from Earth, scientists came to the conclusion that life should not have existed on Mars. But we have never been to Mars, so no one was confident in this conclusion. When the probes sent the first images and the results of NASA experiments, everything was confirmed. No trace of green men or microbial life has been found on Mars.
Friendship 7
By early 1962, the United States had been in space for just over 30 minutes, and the clocks counting down to the end of the decade were pounding in fury. The United States had not yet sent a person into orbit, and it was critical to get to the moon and bypass the USSR. And that was about to change with the launch of Friendship 7, Mercury's third American mission.
Lieutenant Colonel John Glenn, a military test pilot, was supposed to send a new Atlas rocket into Earth orbit. The rocket took off on February 20, 1962 and successfully entered Earth's orbit for a full five hours. Glenn himself successfully landed 1,300 kilometers south of Bermuda.
The mission's objectives to test a new rocket, study Earth's orbit and prove that humans can function in space have been met successfully.
Gemini IV
While the Mercury missions taught Americans the basics of orbiting, the Gemini missions showed the techniques needed to fly to the moon. One of the most important skills on the moon was extravehicular activity, or a walk in outer space, when it was necessary to leave the capsule and go into the vacuum of space. And since the US had never done anything like this before, it was extremely important to practice before going on the moon.
Edward White II, a US Air Force test pilot, was to become the first American in space. Together with their friend James McDivitt, they launched on June 3, 1965 on a Titan II rocket. White's space walk lasted 36 minutes and proceeded without incident.
The mission objectives of assessing the long-term effects of space flight (the mission lasted four days) and carrying out the space walk were successfully met. Nevertheless, the capsule landed 80 kilometers further from the target. (The astronauts forgot that the Earth was spinning below them when calculating the trajectory of the return).
STS-1
After the success of the Apollo program, NASA began looking for what else could be done on this scale. The idea of a space shuttle was born - a reusable spacecraft that landed like an airplane and took off like a rocket. This transport was supposed to launch experimental installations and satellites into orbit and stay in space for weeks. Several shuttles were planned, the first of which was Columbia.
Taking off on April 12, 1981, piloted by John Young and Robert Crippen, the massive rocket ascended 166 nautical miles into orbit. The mission lasted two days and six hours, during which the ship's systems were thoroughly checked. It then slid down and landed at Edwards AFB in California. At that time, the shuttle and its tank were painted white, not the black, white and orange colors that everyone later got used to.
ISS
The International Space Station is an important symbol of international cooperation. In the late 1990s, the first module of the station was delivered, and within ten years it was completed.
NASA's space shuttles were an important part of the station's construction, taking astronauts and production units from around the world into orbit to work on the station. The first crews began arriving in the early 2000s. NASA has also played an important role in the research and development of parts and construction methods here on Earth.
Currently, the ISS is located at an altitude of over 350 kilometers and moves at a speed of over 8 kilometers per second.
Voyagers 1 and 2
Launched in the late summer of 1977 aboard the Titan-Centaur rocket, Voyager's probes were to meet the four unexplored giant planets of the outer solar system: Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus. Probes have been exploring these planets for a decade.
Voyager 1 is currently in interstellar space and Voyager 2 is in the heliopause. Located 20 billion kilometers from Earth, Voyager 1 is the most distant man-made object in human history.
Both probes were equipped with a message from Earth to aliens that could intercept a spacecraft because they could well survive billions of years of travel through interstellar space. All these years the probes have been transmitting data. But it will soon stop.
Curiosity
Launched on an Atlas V rocket in late 2011, the Curiosity rover took with it the most advanced (and most expensive) scientific instruments and systems ever created by engineers.
The rover successfully landed in August 2012 thanks to an innovative landing system. The Curiosity dropped by parachute. Just before landing, the parachute unhooked, and the rover engines had already driven the rover to land.
The purpose of the rover is to replicate the success of the Viking missions and determine whether conditions on Mars have ever existed suitable for microbial life. Curiosity has found some evidence that microscopic life may once have lived on Mars, but the experiments are still pending.
Apollo 8
President Kennedy's goals - to land a man on the moon before the late 1960s - were running out of time. By the very end of the decade, NASA was moving at an incredibly fast pace.
Apollo 8 became the first manned spacecraft to leave Earth orbit and travel to the Moon. If he missed, he would be forever in cold space. If I got too close, I would crash into the moon.
The mission was launched on December 21, 1968, along with the most powerful rocket in history, the Saturn V. Apollo 8 successfully entered lunar orbit on the night before Christmas 1968. The travel was broadcast on all continents of the globe.
Having circled the moon ten times, Apollo 8 headed home and successfully splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on December 27.
Apollo 11
NASA considers this a feat of human technology - the greatest of all - and it's hard to disagree. The 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing became the most famous and monumental event in NASA history. The mission began on July 16, 1969. The crew included Mike Collins, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong. The launch and entry into lunar orbit went off without a hitch, and hundreds of millions of people clung to television screens witnessed.
The device consisted of two parts: the command module Columbia, which was supposed to stay near the moon and return people home to Earth, and Eagle, the lunar module, which was to land on the moon. The descent took place on July 20.
More than 500 million people on Earth watched this event on TV. The descent was difficult, because the planned landing site was strewn with large stones. It was dangerous.
Taking advantage of fuel reserves, Armstrong landed the lunar module 6.4 kilometers from the planned location. When the engine turned off and the apparatus sat in the moon dust, Armstrong uttered his famous: "The eagle has landed." (Eagle = Eagle).
The pioneers of the Moon successfully returned to Earth a few days later, laying the groundwork for five more lunar missions in the near future.
Ilya Khel