Paper
The First Decade in Space
Published Apr 1, 1969 · C. Horsford
International Relations
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Abstract
With plans now well advanced in the United States for a manned landing on the Moon in late 1969 despite the setback caused by the fire in the Apollo spacecraft last year, it is hard to realize that it was only in October 1957 that the bleep from the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, was heard all over the world. Since then the advances have been rapid, many of them major scientific achievements in their own right, and the military potential of this new field coupled with political considerations of national prestige have served to keep the &dquo;space race&dquo; a lively issue ever since. The landmarks on the scientific side can be summarised as the development of scientific satellites for geophysical and meteorological research, including radiation: the development and orbiting of satellites designed for communications, by radio, telephone and television, notably Telstar and Early Bird; the deep space probes to Mars, Venus and the Moon, and the remarkable photographs and information obtained therefrom, and finally the U.S.-Soviet manned space programmes which have been widely publicised from the early space &dquo;hops&dquo; with Mercury and Vostok 1 capsules to sustained missions with Voskhod and Gemini space vehicles culminating in the first space &dquo;walk&dquo; outside the craft in 1965.
The first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, in 1957, led to rapid advances in space science, communications, and manned space missions, with the first space walk in 1965.
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