The Progression of Astronomy

The 1920s

Albert Michelson

Accurately measured Betelgeuses diameter

December 13, 1920

Slipher, like Hubble, studied nebulae

He observed the Doppler effect in 41 nebulae

39 with a red shift, 2 with a blue shift

1923

Hubble's and Slipher's work paved the way for the Big Bang Theory

Robert Goddard -

Father of modern rocketry

March 16, 1926

Goddard Launches first

liquid-fuelled rocket

The 1960s

Satellites of all kinds were put into orbit, from communications to spy satellites

Space probes were deployed to photograph, map, and study other bodies in the solar system.

Allan Sandage

Discovers "quasi-stellar objects"

or "quasars"

1960

Dr. John Reynolds studies a meteorite and deduces the age of the solar system to be approximately 4.95 billion years old

January 2, 1960

Alan Shepard, Jr

Second man in space,

but the first American

1961

John Glenn

First American to orbit Earth

Fenruary 20, 1962

Herbert Friedman (left) and Riccardo Giancconi (right)

They designed a satellite to measure X-rays before they enter Earth's atmosphere

1963

Edward Dwight

First black pilot chosen by NASA

March 30, 1963

Arno A. Penzias (right) and Robert W. Wilson (left) discoverd background radiation in the universe, created by the Big Bang.

1964

July 20, 1969

"One small step for man,

One giant leap for mankind."

The 1990s

The Hubble Space Telescope

is placed into orbit.

April 24, 1990

Mark C. Lee (right) and N. Jan Davis

The first married couple in space.

September 12, 1992

Ronald Sega (top left), Franklin Chang-Diaz (mid left), Kenneth Reightler (bottom left), Charles Bolden (bottom right), Jan Davis (mid right), and Sergei Krikalyov (top right)

Crew of the first joint U.S.-Russian space mission

Launched February 3, 1994

Landed February 11, 1994

The comet Shoemaker-Levy 9

fragments and impacts Jupiter

July 1994

Norman E. Thagard

First astronaut to fly in a Russian Rocket

March 14, 1995

A probe from the spaceship Galileo successfully enters Jupiter's atmosphere.

December 7, 1995

NASA receives first data from Galileo - the message travelled over 2.3 billion miles

December 10, 1995

Shannon W. Lucid returns from a 6 month mission aboard the Russian spacestation Mir. Named America's most experienced astronaut.

September 25, 1996

The Hale-Bopp comet comes within 122 million miles of Earth

March 1997

The ashes of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry (left) and LSD guru Timothy Leary (right) are sent into space for the first space funeral.

April 21, 1997

Eileen M. Collins is name the first

female commander of a space

mission by President Clinton

1998

The most intense meteor shower since

the 60s, the Leonid shower,

threatens 500 satellites orbiting Earth

November 17, 1998

Astronomy

and

Space Travel

Is this all?

He studied nebulae

and found galaxies

Edwin Hubble