Since the days of Sputnik and Explorer 1, thousands of spacecraft have gone into space, some of them carrying human passengers. The first person to orbit the Earth was the Russian Yuri Gagarin, on April 12, 1961. The first American to do so was John Glenn, who completed three orbits on February 20, 1962; more than 26 years later, at age 77, Glenn returned to space aboard the space shuttle. ... in orbit. ... Manned satellites include various " space stations " intended for long-term residence. ...

... The first person to orbit the Earth was the Russian Yuri Gagarin, on April 12, 1961. The first American to do so was John Glenn, who completed three orbits on February 20, 1962; more than 26 years later, at age 77, Glenn returned to space aboard the space shuttle. ... Any manned mission faces the problem of safe return to Earth, which requires getting rid of the huge amount of energy associated with orbital motion. A spacecraft in low Earth orbit moves at about 24 times the velocity of sound. ...

Astronotes Armagh Planetarium's Stellar Blog! ... Concept Spacecraft . ... Monthly Sky Notes . ... October . ... By admin September 30, 2011 Posted in: Human Exploration . Gemini Spacecraft: The red and gold spheres in the Equipment Module are propellant tanks and the red cylinder in the nose is the parachute pack. ... Image credit: NASA) . ... Amazingly in 2011, an outfit called Space Operations Inc proposed launching updated Geminis (rebadged as Eclipse spacecraft) for commercial clients! ...

GRANAT is the Russian x-ray sattelite launched to the high apogee orbit (200,000 km) and operated almost for 10 years (1989 -1999) , carrying out four major instruments: French SIGMA coded-mask hard x-ray telescope (30-1000 keV), Soviet ART-P coded-mask telescope (2??-60?? keV), all-sky monitor WATCH (6-150 keV), and a gamma-burst detector PHEBUS . ... Since September 1994, GRANAT is in the survey mode. ... Explore pages devoted to individual GRANAT instruments (including main scientific results): . ...

Mariner 10 . ... Mariner 10 was the seventh successful launch in the Mariner spacecraft series, and the first to use the gravitational pull of one planet ( Venus ) to reach another ( Mercury ). ... It measured 1.39 meters (4.56 feet) diagonally and 0.457 meters (1.5 feet) in depth. ... Views of Mariner 10 . ... Venus/Mercury Mission . ... Launched in November 1973, this mission provided new information about Mercury and Venus in the Mariner program's first dual-planet mission. ...

Ground Support of RadioAstron . Control and Tracking Stations . RadioAstron satellite control (command transmission, telemetry, orbit measurements) will be conducted from Evpatoria and Bear Lake control stations. ... Coarse orbit measurements will be carried out from control stations. Each measurement takes ten minutes. ... Orbit measurements at tracking stations give only radial component of spacecraft velocity but the measurements are going continuously during observing sessions. ...

... S.P. KOROLEV ROCKET AND SPACE CORPORATION ENERGIA . ... OAO RSC "Energia" . ... Company's History . ... ISS Russian Segment . ... News . ... On Monday, December 21, RSC Energia specialists for the first time in the history of operation of the cargo and crew transportation spacecraft of Progress and Soyuz type ran a communications session with the new-series spacecraft Progress MS via a relay satellite. ... RSC Energia: Progress MS-02 docked with the ISS.' ... 2015 JSC "S.P. Korolev RSC "Energia" . ...

... SSAU History . ... The Ground Control Complex for Small Spacecraft of Samara State Aerospace University took control of the satellites Aist-1 . ... The data received from SSAU scientific equipment on board of the satellites Aist-1 was processed by the engineers of the Rocket and Space Centre and then was transferred to the university scientists. ... On April 19, 2013 the first small spacecraft Aist-1 was launched from the space-launch complex Baykonur together with a research satellite Bion-M No. ...

JSC History . ... NASA History . ... Space Shuttle: 1981 to 2011 . NASA's Space Shuttle orbiters were the first spacecraft capable of routinely launching into orbit like rockets and then returning to Earth as gliders. ... http://www.nasa.gov/agency/crm/shuttle/index.html . ... http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/oral_histories/sts-r.htm . ... http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/shuttle_pk/pk/Flight_001_STS-001_Press_Kit.pdf . ... http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/shuttle_pk/shuttle_press.htm . ...

. The XMM-Newton website has moved to the following location: . http://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/xmm-newton

Target: Venus . The Soviet VEGA Spacecraft Two remarkable "busloads" of automated spacecraft were launched toward Venus by the Soviet Union in December of 1984. Each one contains three separate modules: one lander and one balloon-carried atmosphere probe to be dropped off at Venus in June, 1985, and one major package of instruments which will continue on to encounter Halley's Comet in March, 1986. ... Venus and Earth: A Comparison . Earth . ... in Earth days) . ... 243 Earth days . ...

Instrument . ... Scanning TV-sensor with on-board data recording system for global coverage mode . ... recording, direct transmission . ... IR-radiometer for global coverage and direct data transmission modes . ... The scientific instrument package onboard the Meteor-3 spacecraft provides for regular instant acquisition of images of cloudiness and Earth surface in visible and infra-red bands, data on air temperature and humidity, sea surface temperature and clouds temperature. ...