Space science is a set of scientific knowledge related to space exploration, also known as astronautics. Since the launch of the first artificial satellite in 1957, humans have traveled to the Moon, probes have explored the solar system, and instruments in space have discovered thousands of planets around other stars. During the Cold War, a space race between the Soviet Union and the United States ensued, with the Soviets surpassing their rival in almost every corner until the United States beat them to the Moon. Audio, illustrations, photos and videos are credited below the multimedia resource, except for promotional images which usually link to another page containing the multimedia credit.
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All interactive games on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. The first Earth-orbiting satellite was only two years old when it left the streets of Moscow just over a week before its historic launch. She was a terrier dog and, by all accounts, a good dog. Her 1957 flight paved the way for space exploration when scientists didn't know if spaceflight was lethal to living things.
Valeri Polyakov's single-spaceflight record of nearly 438 days aboard the Mir space station has not been broken. Once in space, the motion of a spacecraft, both when it is not propelled and when it is under propulsion, is covered by an area of study called astrodynamics. Current examples of commercial use of satellite space include satellite navigation systems, satellite television and satellite radio. A little over three weeks later, NASA launched astronaut Alan Shepard into space on a suborbital trajectory - a flight that goes to space but does not cover the entire Earth.
Some spacecraft remain in space indefinitely, others disintegrate during re-entry into the atmosphere and others reach a planetary or lunar surface to land or impact. Development of large reusable spaceships with wings capable of transporting people and equipment to Earth orbit in a way that would make access to space routine and cost-effective is ongoing. To date, the longest human occupation of space is the International Space Station which has been in continuous use for 22 years and 37 days. Another statement is that space exploration is a necessity for humanity and that remaining on Earth will lead to extinction. The health effects of space have been well documented through years of research in the field of aerospace medicine. Space flights are the use of space technology to achieve the flight of spaceships to and through outer space. Since the advent of space technology in the second half of the 20th century, ownership of property in space has been confusing with strong arguments for and against.
These belts contain radiation trapped by Earth's magnetic fields which currently makes building habitable space stations above 1000 km impractical. Salyut 1 was the first space station of any kind launched into low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on April 19th 1971.
