SPACE PROBES (in chronological order)
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Pioneer IV Instrument Package Cape Canaveral, Fla.: The fiberglass instrument package of the U.S. Army Pioneer IV satellite is hoisted atop the Juno II launching vehicle here prior to the successful March 3rd [1959] firing. In Washington, D.C., March 4th, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced that the Pioneer IV, running slightly behind schedule, was speeding toward a late afternoon rendezvous with the Moon. NASA said the space capsule, on its way to becoming an artificial satellite, should pass within 38,000 miles of the Moon. Officials said that only a collision with a meteorite could stop the satellite from joining the Soviet Lunik in orbit around the Sun. Original plans called for the satellite to pass the Moon at a distance of 15,000 miles or less, but a slight deviation from the planned course swung the Pioneer IV further away. (Official U.S. Army Photo via UPI) |
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JPL picture 293-7950B Launch of Mariner 5 |
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NASA picture 66-H-1067 An
artist's concept of the NASA Pioneer B interplanetary spacecraft depits
the Pioneer orbiting the Sun. The new 140-pound, drum shaped craft will
continuously scan a full circle in the plane of the Earth's orbit. The
spacecraft will fly an "out" mission, moving in 28 weeks to a position
about 12 million miles outside the Earth's orbit, 105 million miles
from the Sun, and 34 million miles behind the Earth on a parallel
orbit. The Pioneer launch is scheduled at Cape Kennedy no earlier than
August 17, 1966. |
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JPL picture. The dual Saturn
V-launched Voyager Mars lander and orbiter |
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JPL picture 241-211A. One of
the Mariner Mars 69 probes in stowed position |
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JPL picture 337-8586AC. The
increasing accuracy of 1960s space technology |
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A PARACHUTE FOR
MARS - 20 June 1970 It is at the Langley research center in Hapton (Virginia) that tests are carried out on the SPED (Supersonic Planetary Entry Decelerator), a parachute designed to softly land a probe on Mars, It is built to open in 6/10 of a second at high altitude, that is in rarefied air identical to the Martian atmosphere and a small parachute is deployed after it when the speed is 2.7 times that of sound. The parachute and the US Martian probe tested in the resonance chamber at Langley. (NASA image via AFP) |
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Jupiter's Red Spot, the
Shadow of the moon Io, and the surface cloud structure are shown in
this photograph taken at 11:02 p.m. PST on December 1 [1973] as NASA's
Pioneer approached the planet from a distance of 2,500,000 kilometers. |
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NASA picture P-19891 - 18
September 1977 A picture of the Earth and Moon, the first of its kind ever taken by a spacecraft, was taken by Voyager 1 when it was 11.66 million kilometers from Earth. |
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NASA picture S78-36446 - 17
June 1978 Viking Lander 2 photographed this sunrise at Utopia Planitia on Mars on 14 June 1978. The sun was actually visible, seemingly resting on the horizon before ascending into a pink-tinged golden sky to illuminate another day on the red planet. |
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NASA picture S81-36530 - 17
August 1981 Variations in chemical composition from one part of Saturn's ring system to another are visible in this Voyager 2 picture as subtle colour variations that can be recorded with special computer-processing techniques. This highly enhanced colour view was assembled from clear, orange amd ultraviolet frames obtained Aug. 17 from a distance of 8.9 million kilometers. |
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Proposed NASA mission to
launch a spacecraft in July 1985 to rendezvous with comet Tempel 2 in
July 1988 flying past Halley's Comet and sending a probe toward it to
sample material from its nucleus in December 1985. |
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ESA's Giotto Halley probe |
ELDO/ESRO
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The ELDO stand at Munchen's
IVA fair in the early 1960s. At center is the Europa first stage (Blue
Streak) engine. At left is the French second stage engines. |
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The ELDO stand at Munchen's IVA fair in the early 1960s. At right is a Europa third stage tank. At left is the French second stage engines. |
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Overview of the ELDO stand at
Munchen's IVA fair in the early 1960s. |
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Launch of a Blue Streak from
Woomera EC6 pad |
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The engine of the Europa
French second stage under test at Vernon |
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Structures of the Europa
German third stage under construction at ERNO Bremen. |
Others
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A late 1960s NASA design for
a lifting body shuttle |
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India's SLV3 lifting off |
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