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Space Topics

Past Missions


The world changed on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik 1. Sputnik's launch inaugurated the Space Age and set off the United States - Soviet Union space race. Both countries reached the Moon in 1959. NASA accomplished the first flybys of Venus in 1962 with Mariner 2 and Mars with Mariner 4 in 1964. The Soviets landed on Venus in 1970 with Venera 7 and Mars in 1971 with Mars 3.

These early steps to space were fraught with drama as the two superpowers competed with each other for space "firsts" as part of their political competition. They also gave us many of the most memorable events in space exploration: Buzz Aldrin's first footprints on the Moon; the vision of the blue marble of Earth rising over the stark lunar horizon; and the first panoramic views of the landscapes of Mars and Venus.

Now, half a century after the start of the Space Age, international cooperation has largely replaced nationalistic rivalry as an international fleet of spacecraft has visited every planet in the solar system except Pluto. The European Space Agency and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency have joined NASA and the Russian space agency in exploring our solar system, and India and China are both making first steps toward the Moon. Each new mission is adding incrementally to a wealth of data provided by earlier missions, data that is now shared freely among all nations.