The first images of Earth taken from space followed the same year while the first animal experiment saw fruit flies lifted into space in 1947, both also on modified V … NASA's budget for the year 2016, for example, was $19.3 billion, which will be spent here on Earth at NASA centers, on contracts to space contractors, and other companies that supply whatever it is that NASA needs. There have been numerous space launches throughout this decade that made great impacts on the exploration of space. There is still much to learn about the great beyond. Exploring space gives us an opportunity to locate these hazards in advance to prepare an encounter that could help to preserve our race.Then there are the interstellar items to consider. Introduction. With the substantial completion of the ISS following STS-133 in March 2011, plans for space exploration by the USA remain in flux. Install coding tools for Python development. NASA is responsible not only for missions to space, but also for research into aeronautics and aerospace. Choosing the Best Space Exploration Lesson Online. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in 1957 used the fact that his country had been first to launch a satellite as evidence of the technological power of the Soviet Union and of the superiority of communism. Some people are demanding to work in space because it is helpful. 3. Ring in the new year with a Britannica Membership. Introduction To Space Technology Information Technology Essay. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. But the advancement and changes that are taking place in the modern time are also worth noticing. The first scientific exploration from space was the cosmic radiation experiment launched by the U.S. on a V-2 rocket on 10 May 1946. The early era of space exploration was driven by a “Space Race” between the Soviet Union and the United States, the launch of the first man-made object to orbit the Earth, the USSR’s Sputnik 1, on 4 October 1957, and the first Moon landing by the American Apollo 11 craft on 20 July 1969 are often taken as landmarks for this initial period. 1. Learn about what coding is and install tools to help you code. Governments realized early on that the ability to observe Earth from space could provide significant benefits to the general public apart from security and military uses. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. Introduction Space exploration is considered as an innovation, creativity and discovery that are facilitated by space technology and that can be used to improve the current technological position of a country. Activities are designed to be part of an interdisciplinary program. (For a general discussion of spacecraft, launch considerations, flight trajectories, and navigation, docking, and recovery procedures, see spaceflight.). Learn about the various scientific efforts to study the planet Mars, including the Curiosity rover. The strong hold that space travel has always had on the imagination may well explain why professional astronauts and laypeople alike consent at their great peril, in the words of Tom Wolfe in The Right Stuff (1979), to sit “on top of an enormous Roman candle, such as a Redstone, Atlas, Titan or Saturn rocket, and wait for someone to light the fuse.” It perhaps also explains why space exploration has been a common and enduring theme in literature and art. This reality meant that space exploration had to serve very broad interests, and it indeed has done so in a variety of ways. After the first 20 years of exploration, focus shifted from one-off flights to renewable hardware, such as the Space Shuttle program, and from competition to cooperation as with the International Space Station (ISS). A space mission is a journey into space (unmanned or with a crew) for a specific reason - usually to gather scientific information. As of March 2011, the US Senate and House of Representatives are still working towards a compromise NASA funding bill, which will probably terminate Constellation and fund development of a heavy lift launch vehicle (HLLV). On April 20, 1961, in the aftermath of the Gagarin flight, he asked his advisers to identify a “space program which promises dramatic results in which we could win.” The response came in a May 8, 1961, memorandum recommending that the United States commit to sending people to the Moon, because “dramatic achievements in space…symbolize the technological power and organizing capacity of a nation” and because the ensuing prestige would be “part of the battle along the fluid front of the cold war.” From 1961 until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, competition between the United States and the Soviet Union was a major influence on the pace and content of their space programs. China, Russia, Japan, and India have advocated manned missions to the Moon during the 21st century, while the European Union has advocated manned missions to both the Moon and Mars during the 21st century. Suggestions have been made that in the future other areas of space activity, including using resources found on the Moon and near-Earth asteroids and the capture of solar energy to provide electric power on Earth, could become successful businesses. While the study of space is carried out mainly by astronomers with telescopes, the physical exploration of space is conducted both by unmanned robotic probes and human spaceflight. A complete list of all crewed spaceflights, with details on each mission’s accomplishments and crew, is available in the section Chronology of crewed spaceflights. Omissions? Common rationales for exploring space include advancing scientific research, uniting different nations, ensuring the future survival of humanity and developing military and strategic advantages against other countries. With the development of rockets and the advances in electronics and other technologies in the 20th century, it became possible to send machines and animals and then people above Earth’s atmosphere into outer space. These satellites quickly found numerous civilian uses in such areas as personal navigation, surveying and cartography, geology, air-traffic control, and the operation of information-transfer networks. With space exploration, everyone can understand how we got where we are today as well as the most recent developments related to space. Introduction to Space Exploration Mankind will migrate into space, and will cross the airless Saharas which separate planet from planet and sun from sun. Even before the first satellite was launched, U.S. leaders recognized that the ability to observe military activities around the world from space would be an asset to national security. Other countries also viewed having a successful space program as an important indicator of national strength. TIROS 7 (Television and Infra-Red Observation Satellite 7), launched June 19, 1963. Although it was technically a much less challenging achievement than carrying humans into orbit, its success was seen as an important step toward opening up space to commercial travel and eventually to tourism. Space exploration revolves around the history and the future of the universe. Constellation, a Bush Administration program for a return to the Moon by 2020 was judged inadequately funded and unrealistic by an expert review panel reporting in 2009.