Libby Jackson - Galaxy Girls: 50 Amazing Stories of Women in Space

Contents

Contents

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To

IMOGEN

and

LUCY

1543

Nicolaus Copernicus publishes De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres), proposing that Earth revolves around the Sun

1609 1619

Johannes Kepler publishes works that define his laws of planetary motion, describing the orbits of the planets around the Sun

1687

Sir Isaac Newton publishes Principia Mathematica, laying out the laws of gravity

1903

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky publishes Exploration of the World Space with Reaction Machines, showing that rockets could get to space

MARCH 3 1915

The US National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the precursor organization to NASA, is formed

MARCH 16 1926

Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket in Massachusetts

1945

Wernher von Braun surrenders to the US Army and moves to the United States to lead American rocket development

AUGUST 1946

Sergei Korolev, known as the Chief Designer, and the main architect of the Soviet space program, is appointed

OCTOBER 4 1957

The Soviet Union puts the first satellite, Sputnik, into orbit

NOVEMBER 3 1957

The Soviet Union puts the first animal in orbit, a dog named Laika

FEBRUARY 1 1958

The United States puts their first satellite, Explorer 1, into orbit

OCTOBER 1 1958

NASA, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration, becomes operational

APRIL 12 1961

Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space, orbiting the Earth in a 108-minute flight

JUNE 16 1963

Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman to fly into space on the Vostok 6 mission

MARCH 18 1965

Alexei Leonov makes the first spacewalk during the Voskhod 2 mission

FEBRUARY 3 1966

Luna 9, a Soviet robotic lander, makes the first controlled landing on the Moon

JANUARY 27 1967

Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee all perish when their spacecraft catches fire during a preflight launch rehearsal on the launchpad

APRIL 24 1967

Vladimir Komarov is killed when his parachute fails to open properly during the reentry of the Soyuz 1 mission spacecraft

DECEMBER 21 1968

Apollo 8 is the first crewed mission to orbit the Moon, with Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders on board

JULY 20 1969

Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin are the first humans to walk on the Moon, while Michael Collins stays in lunar orbit

APRIL 14 1970

An explosion in an oxygen tank cripples the Apollo 13 spacecraft on the way to the Moon and threatens the lives of Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert. They safely make it back to Earth three days later thanks to the heroic efforts of mission control

APRIL 19 1971

The Soviet Union launches Salyut 1, the first space station

DECEMBER 14 1972

The Apollo 17 Lunar Module, with Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt on board, lifts off from the lunar surface and meets with Ronald Evans in the Command Module. Humans have not returned to the Moon since

MAY 14 1973

Skylab, the United States first space station, reaches orbit

MAY 30 1975

The European Space Agency (ESA) is formed, merging the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO) and the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO)

APRIL 12 1981

The first Space Shuttle mission, STS-1, launches

JUNE 18 1983

Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space

JANUARY 28 1986

The Space Shuttle Challenger explodes seventy-three seconds after launch, killing the crew

FEBRUARY 20 1986

The Soviet Union launches the Mir space station

MAY 18 1991

Helen Sharman becomes the first British person in space, and also the first non-American or non-Soviet woman in space

DECEMBER 25 1991

The Soviet Union is dissolved, and the fifteen Soviet states, including Russia and Kazakhstan, become independent countries

MARCH 22 1995

Valeri Polyakov returns to Earth from Mir after spending 437 days in space, so far the longest flight ever undertaken

FEBRUARY 24 1997

A fire breaks out on the Mir space station, but the crew is able to extinguish it safely

JUNE 25 1997

During a manual docking test, a Progress cargo ship collides with the Mir space station, causing a leak. The crew is able to isolate the module, eventually regaining control of the space station

NOVEMBER 20 1998

The first module of the International Space Station, Russias Zarya, launches into space

NOVEMBER 2 2000

Expedition 1 launches to the ISS, which has been continuously occupied by a crew ever since

MARCH 23 2001

Having been mothballed in 1999, Mir descends into the Earths atmosphere and breaks up over the Pacific Ocean

FEBRUARY 1 2003

The Space Shuttle Columbia is destroyed as it reenters the Earths atmosphere, following damage to a wing on launch, killing all seven crew members

OCTOBER 15 2003

China becomes the third country to launch a human into space, as Yang Liwei orbits Earth on the Shenzhou 5 mission

OCTOBER 4 2004

SpaceShipOne wins the Ansari X Prize by flying, piloted, more than 62 miles above Earth twice within two weeks

JULY 21 2011

Atlantis touches down in Florida, at the end of the last Space Shuttle flight

SEPTEMBER 29 2011

China launches their first space station, Tiangong-1

DECEMBER 5 2014

First test flight of the Orion spacecraft, a new crewed vehicle designed to take humans to orbit the Moon and Mars

MARCH 1 2016

Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko return from the ISS after spending 340 days in space, the longest visit to the ISS so far

... STILL TO COME...

2018

First flights of CST-100 Starliner and Crew Dragon to launch, taking crew to the ISS

2019

First crewed mission of Orion

2030s?

First humans walk on the surface of Mars

I have been fascinated by space my whole life. Like many of the women in this book, I remember looking up in awe at the night sky as a child, learning the constellations, hoping to catch sight of a shooting star. I was captivated by the Moon, bright and beautiful; by the stories of those who had walked on it years before I was even born; and by the Space Shuttles that were roaring into orbit.