Space Exploration

January 4, 2004

Spirit, a NASA Mars Rover, lands successfully on Mars.

January 4, 1959

Two days after launch, the Soviet spacecraft Luna 1 becomes the first to reach the vicinity of the Moon.

January 4, 1958

After nearly 3 months in orbit, the first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite, Sputnik 1 falls to Earth.

January 3, 1999

The Mars Polar Lander is launched. The mission ultimately ended in failure during an attempted landing on Mars’ surface. Attempts to re-establish communication with the lander failed after the lander entered Mars’ atmosphere. It has been concluded that the most likely cause of the failure was a software error, causing the lander to crash into the planet. Even though software was the likely culprit, it has not been proven that Microsoft had anything to do with it 🙂

January 2, 2004

The NASA spacecraft Stardust successfully flies past Comet Wild 2, collecting samples that are returned to Earth.

January 2, 1959

Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun, is launched by the U.S.S.R.

The view of Earth rising over the lunar surface from Apollo 8

December 23, 1968

Astronauts Frank Borman, James A. Lovell, and William Anders become the first men to orbit the Moon. Flying in Apollo 8, the men perform 10 total lunar orbits and test many of the procedures that will be used in future lunar missions. Additionally, the men were the first humans to travel beyond low Earth orbit, the first to see Earth as a whole planet, and the first to directly see the far side of the Moon. On Christmas Eve, the crew made a television broadcast from which they read the first 10 verses from the Book of Genesis.  It was the most watched television program ever at the time.