The Space Age is a period encompassing the activities related to the space race, space exploration, space technology, and the cultural developments influenced by these events, beginning with the launch of Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957,[1] and continuing to the present.
Video of Neil Armstrong and the first step on the Moon. Apollo 11, being the first spaceflight mission that landed humans on the Moon, is one of the most significant moments in the Space Age. | |
This period is characterized by changes in emphasis on particular areas of space exploration and applications. Initially, the United States and the Soviet Union invested unprecedented amounts of resources in breaking records and being first to meet milestones in crewed and uncrewed exploration. The United States established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the USSR established the Kosmicheskaya programma SSSR to meet these goals. This period of competition gave way to cooperation between those nations and emphasis on scientific research and commercial applications of space-based technology.[2][3]
Eventually other nations became spacefaring. They formed organizations such as the European Space Agency (ESA), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), and the China National Space Administration (CNSA). When the USSR dissolved the Russian Federation continued their program as Roscosmos.[2][3]
In the early 2020s, some journalists have used the phrase "New Space Age" in reference to a resurgence of innovation and public interest in space exploration as well as commercial applications of low Earth orbit (LEO) and more distant destinations. New developments include the participation of billionaires in crewed space travel, including space tourism and interplanetary travel.[4][5]
Phases
Foundational developments to suborbital spaceflights
Some vehicles reached suborbital space much earlier than the launch of Sputnik. In June 1944, a German V-2 rocket became the first manmade object to enter space, albeit only briefly.[6] In March 1926 American rocket pioneer Robert H. Goddard launched the world's first liquid fuel rocket. This was considered by some to be the start of the Space Age, although it did not reach outer space.[7]
Since Germans undertook the sub-orbital V-2 rocket flight in secrecy, it was not initially public knowledge. Also, the German launches, as well as the subsequent sounding rocket tests performed in both the United States and the Soviet Union during the late 1940s and early 1950s, were not considered significant enough to define the start of the space age because they did not reach orbit. A rocket powerful enough to reach orbit could also be used as an intercontinental ballistic missile, that could deliver a warhead to any location on Earth. Some commentators claim this is why the orbital standard is commonly used to define when the space age began.[6]
1957 to 1970s/1980s: Initiating Space Race
The Space Race was the first era of the Space Age. It was a race between the United States and the Soviet Union which began with the Soviet Union's October 4, 1957, launch of Earth's first artificial satellite Sputnik 1 during the International Geophysical Year.[8] Weighing 83.6 kg (184.3 lb) and orbiting the Earth once every 98 minutes.[8][9] The race resulted in rapid advances in rocketry, materials science, and other areas. One of the underlying motivations for the space race was military. The two nations were also in a nuclear arms race following the Second World War. Both nations made use of German missile technology and scientists from their missile program. The advantages, in aviation and rocketry, required for delivery systems were seen as necessary for national security and political superiority.[10]
The Cold War era competition between the United States and Soviet Union is one of the reasons the space age happened at that time. Since then the space age continues for the generation of scientific knowledge, the innovation and creation of markets, inspiration, and agreements between the space-faring nations.[11] Other reasons for the continuation of the space age are defending Earth from hazardous objects like asteroids and comets.[12]
Much of the technology developed for space applications has been spun off and found additional uses, such as memory foam. In 1958 the United States launched its first satellite, Explorer 1. The same year President Dwight D. Eisenhower created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, commonly known as NASA.[13]
Prior to the first attempted human spaceflight, various animals were flown into outer space to identify potential detrimental effects of high g-forces in takeoff and landing, microgravity, and radiation exposure at high altitudes.[14]
The Space Race reached its peak with the Apollo program that captured the imagination of much of the world's population.[15] From 1961 to 1964, NASA’s budget was increased almost 500 percent, and the lunar landing program eventually involved some 34,000 NASA employees and 375,000 employees of industrial and university contractors. The Soviet Union proceeded tentatively with its own lunar landing program which it did not publicly acknowledge, partly due to internal debate over its necessity and the untimely death (in January 1966) of Sergey Korolev, chief engineer of the Soviet space program.[13]
The landing of Apollo 11 was watched by over 500 million people around the world and is widely recognized as one of the defining moments of the 20th century. Since then, public attention has largely moved to other areas.[16]
The last major leap of in the USSR-USA Space Race was the Skylab and Salyut programs, which established the first space stations for the U.S. and USSR in Earth orbit following termination of both countries' moon programs.[17]
1970s/1980s to 2010s: Diversification
At the conclusion of the Apollo program, crewed flights from the United States were rare, then ended while the shuttle program was getting ready to kick into gear, and the space race had been over since the Apollo-Soyuz test project of 1975, started a period of U.S.–Soviet co-operation. The Soviet Union continued using the Soyuz spacecraft.[18]
The shuttle program restored spaceflight to the U.S. following the Skylab program, but the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986 marked a significant decline in crewed Shuttle launches. Following the disaster, NASA grounded all Shuttles for safety concerns until 1988.[19] During the 1990s funding for space-related programs fell sharply as the remaining structures of the now-dissolved Soviet Union disintegrated and NASA no longer had any direct competition.[20]
Since then, participation in space launches has increasingly widened to include more governments and commercial interests. Since the 1990s, the public perception of space exploration and space-related technologies has been that such endeavors are increasingly commonplace.[21]
NASA permanently grounded all U.S. Space Shuttles in 2011. NASA has since relied on Russia and SpaceX to take American astronauts to and from the International Space Station.[21][22]
2010s to present: New Space
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In the early 21st century, the Ansari X Prize competition was set up to help jump-start private spaceflight.[23] The winner, Space Ship One in 2004, became the first spaceship not funded by a government agency.[24]
Several countries now have space programs; from related technology ventures to full-fledged space programs with launch facilities.[25] There are many scientific and commercial satellites in use today, with thousands of satellites in orbit, and several countries have plans to send humans into space.[26][27] Some of the countries joining this new race are France, India, China, Israel and the United Kingdom, all of which have employed surveillance satellites. There are several other countries with less extensive space programs, including Brazil, Germany, Ukraine, and Spain.[28]
As for the United States space program, NASA is currently constructing a deep-space crew capsule named the Orion. NASA's goal with this new space capsule is to carry humans to Mars. The Orion spacecraft is due to be completed in the early 2020s. NASA is hoping that this mission will “usher in a new era of space exploration.”[28]
Another major factor affecting the current Space Age is the privatization of space flight.[29] A significant private spaceflight company is SpaceX which became the proprietor of one of world's most capable operational launch vehicle when they launched their current largest rocket, the Falcon Heavy in 2018. Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX, has put forward the goal of establishing a colony of one million people on Mars by 2050 and the company is developing its Starship launch vehicle to facilitate this. Since the Demo-2 mission for NASA in 2020 in which SpaceX launched astronauts for the first time to the International Space Station, the company has maintained an orbital human spaceflight capability. Blue Origin, a private company founded by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, is developing rockets for use in space tourism, commercial satellite launches, and eventual missions to the Moon and beyond.[30] Richard Branson's company Virgin Galactic is concentrating on launch vehicles for space tourism.[31] A spinoff company, Virgin Orbit, air-launches small satellites with their LauncherOne rocket. Another small-satellite launcher, Rocket Lab, has developed the Electron rocket and the Photon satellite bus for sending spacecraft further into the Solar System, the company also plans to introduce the larger Neutron launch vehicle in 2025.[32]
Elon Musk has the stated that the main reason he founded SpaceX is to make humanity a multiplanetary species, and cites reasons for doing it including: To ensure the long-term continuation of our species and protecting the "light of consciousness".[33][34] He also said,
You want to wake up in the morning and think the future is going to be great - and that’s what being a spacefaring civilization is all about. It’s about believing in the future and thinking that the future will be better than the past. And I can’t think of anything more exciting than going out there and being among the stars.[35]
The Space Age marked a major comeback and return with the launch of NASA's Space Launch system during the Artemis 1 mission on November 16, 2022; it marked the first time a human rated spacecraft had been to the Moon in nearly 50 years, as well as the return of United States capability to get astronauts to the Moon with the Space Launch System and Orion.[36] Additional goals for the 2020s include completion of the Lunar Gateway, mankind’s first space station around the Moon, and the first crewed moon landing since the Apollo era with Artemis 3.
The U.S. Military has also joined the new space age with the creation of the new Space Force on December 20th 2019.
Chronology
| Date | First | Project | Participant | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 20, 1944 | Artificial object in outer space, i.e. beyond the Kármán line | V-2 rocket MW 18014 test flight[37] | – N/A | Germany |
| October 24, 1946 | Pictures from space (105 km)[38][39][40] | U.S.-launched V-2 rocket from White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. | – N/A | United States |
| February 20, 1947 | Animals in space | U.S.-launched V-2 rocket on 20 February 1947 from White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.[41][42][43] | - fruit flies | United States |
| October 4, 1957 | Artificial satellite | Sputnik 1[44] | – N/A | Soviet Union |
| November 3, 1957[45] | Animal in orbit | Sputnik 2[46] | Laika the dog | Soviet Union |
| January 2, 1959 | Lunar flyby, spacecraft to achieve a heliocentric orbit | Luna 1[47] | – N/A | Soviet Union |
| September 12, 1959 | Impact on the Lunar surface; thereby becoming the first human object to reach another celestial body | Luna 2[48] | – N/A | Soviet Union |
| October 7, 1959 | Pictures of the far side of the Moon, first spacecraft to use Gravity assist | Luna 3[49][50] | – N/A | Soviet Union |
| January 31, 1961 | Hominidae in space | Mercury-Redstone 2[51] | Ham (chimpanzee) | United States |
| April 12, 1961 | Human in space | Vostok 1[52][53] | Yuri Gagarin | Soviet Union |
| May 5, 1961 | Manual orientation of crewed spacecraft and first human space mission that landed with pilot still in spacecraft, thus the first “completed” human spaceflight by then FAI definitions[54] | Freedom 7 (Mercury-Redstone 3)[55] | Alan Shepard | United States |
| December 14, 1962 | Successful flyby of another planet (Venus closest approach 34,773 kilometers) | Mariner 2[56] | – N/A | United States |
| March 18, 1965 | Spacewalk | Voskhod 2[57][58] | Alexei Leonov | Soviet Union |
| December 15, 1965 | Space rendezvous | Gemini 6A[59] and Gemini 7[59] | Schirra, Stafford, Borman, Lovell | United States |
| February 3, 1966 | Soft landing on the Moon by a spacecraft | Luna 9[60][61] | – N/A | Soviet Union |
| March 1, 1966 | Human-made object to impact another planet | Venera 3[62][63] | – N/A | Soviet Union |
| March 16, 1966 | Orbital docking between two spacecraft | Gemini 8[64] & Agena Target Vehicle[65] | Neil Armstrong, David Scott | United States |
| April 3, 1966 | Artificial satellite of another celestial body (other than the Sun) | Luna 10[66] | – N/A | Soviet Union |
| October 18, 1967 | Telemetry from the atmosphere of another planet | Venera 4[67] | – N/A | Soviet Union |
| December 21–27, 1968 | Humans to orbit the Moon | Apollo 8 | Borman, Lovell, Anders | United States |
| July 20, 1969 | Humans land and walk on the Moon | Apollo 11[68] | Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin | United States |
| December 15, 1970 | Telemetry from the surface of another planet | Venera 7[69] | – N/A | Soviet Union |
| April 19, 1971 | Operational space station | Salyut 1[70][71] | – N/A | Soviet Union |
| June 7, 1971 | Resident crew | Soyuz 11 (Salyut 1) | Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, Viktor Patsayev | Soviet Union |
| July 20, 1976 | Pictures from the surface of Mars | Viking 1[72] | – N/A | United States |
| April 12, 1981 | Reusable orbital spaceship | STS-1[73] | Young, Crippen | United States |
| February 19, 1986 | Long-duration space station | Mir[74] | – N/A | Soviet Union |
| February 14, 1990 | Photograph of the whole Solar System[75] | Voyager 1[76] | – N/A | United States |
| November 20, 1998 | Current space station | International Space Station[77] | – N/A | Russia |
| August 25, 2012 | Interstellar space probe | Voyager 1[78] | – N/A | United States |
| November 12, 2014 | Artificial probe to soft-land on a comet (67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko)[79] | Rosetta[80] | – N/A | European Space Agency |
| July 14, 2015 | Space probes to explore all major planets recognized in 1981[81] | New Horizons[82] | – N/A | United States |
| December 20, 2015 | Vertical landing of an orbital rocket booster on a ground pad.[83] | Falcon 9 flight 20[84] | – N/A | United States |
| April 8, 2016 | Vertical landing of an orbital rocket booster on a floating platform at sea.[85] | SpaceX CRS-8[86] | – N/A | United States |
| March 30, 2017 | Relaunch and second landing of a used orbital rocket booster.[87] | SES-10[88] | – N/A | United States |
| January 3, 2019 | Soft landing on the lunar far side | Chang'e 4[89][90] | – N/A | China |
| May 30, 2020 | Human orbital spaceflight launched by a private company | Crew Dragon Demo-2/Crew Demo-2/SpaceX Demo-2/Dragon Crew Demo-2[91] | Bob Behnken, Doug Hurley | United States |
| April 19, 2021 | First powered controlled extraterrestrial flight by an aircraft | Ingenuity as part of NASA's Mars 2020 mission | – N/A | United States |
| July 11, 2021 | Commercial space tourism flight | Virgin Galactic Unity 22[92] | David Mackay, Michael Masucci, Sirisha Bandla, Colin Bennet, Beth Moses, Richard Branson | United States |
| October 5, 2021 | Feature-length fiction film shot in space (The Challenge) | Soyuz MS-19[93] | Anton Shkaplerov, Klim Shipenko, Yulia Peresild | Russia |
| November 16, 2022 | Artemis 1 launch restoring American capability to get humans to the Moon | Artemis 1[94] | - N/A | United States |
Cultural influences
Arts and architecture
Iconic rocket ship-shaped tail lights and fins on a 1959 Cadillac Coupe de Ville
Satellite-influenced signage at the Town Motel in Birmingham, Alabama
TWA Moonliner II replica atop the restored TWA Corporate Headquarters building in Kansas City, MO, 2007
The Space Age is considered to have influenced:
- Automotive design: Virgil Exner's Forward Look, 1957-1961
- Googie architecture
- Space Age fashions by André Courrèges, Pierre Cardin, Paco Rabanne, Rudi Gernreich,[95] Emanuel Ungaro, Jean-Marie Armand,[96] Michèle Rosier, and Diana Dew
- Furniture design of the 1950s and '60s by Eero Saarinen, Arne Jacobsen, Eero Aarnio, and Verner Panton
- Amusement park attractions, such as TWA Moonliner and Mission: Space.
- Cold War playground equipment
Music
The Space Age also inspired musical genres:[citation needed]
See also
References
External links
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