spaceflight

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Images & Videos

International Space Station, 2000

The Giotto space probe, developed and launched by the European Space Agency for a flyby of Halley's Comet in 1986.

U.S. Explorer 10 satellite shown undergoing testing in a National Aeronautics and Space Administration laboratory. Explorer 10 was launched March 25, 1961, and relayed magnetic field data from a high Earth orbit. The satellite was one of more than 50 scientific spacecraft launched as part of the Explorer program between 1958 and 1975.

Watch the launch and booster separation of Gemini spacecraft as it is lifted off the ground by a Titan II rocket

satellite orbits

gravity versus launch speed

Earth as photographed by the Galileo space probe during its December 1990 gravity-assist flyby of the planet. Earlier, in February, Galileo had skirted Venus, and it passed near Earth again in December 1992 before heading out of the inner solar system to an encounter with Jupiter in December 1995.

Artist's rendering of the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous Shoemaker spacecraft.

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Apollo 11 Lunar Module with its four landing-gear footpads deployed. This photograph was taken from the Command Module as the two spacecraft moved apart above the Moon.

5 Unforgettable Moments in the History of Spaceflight and Space Exploration

After a perfect launch, spectators try to catch a last glimpse of Space Shuttle Columbia, barely visible at the top end of the twisted column of smoke.

7 Accidents and Disasters in Spaceflight History

(Buzz Aldrin) stands next to the U.S. flag at Tranquility Base on the Moon during NASA's Apollo 11 mission, July 20, 1969. Aldrin's forward-leaning stance was the normal resting position of an astronaut wearing the life-support pack.

Moon Landing: Just the Facts

Space race (1957-1969) infographic between United States (U.S.) and Russia. America, Soviet Union, U.S.S.R., space exploration

Timeline of the Space Race, 1957–69

Planet Earth and lunar moon from space

Where Did the Moon Come From?

Discover

Santa Claus flying in his sleigh, christmas, reindeer

Was Santa Claus a Real Person?

Title: Senate Square, St. Petersburg, December 14, 1825: repression of the troop mutiny - watercolor by Carl Ivanovitch Kollman, 1825 depicts Decembrist uprising clashing with cavalry, with spectators watching. (new style December 26, 1825) Europe. Saint

8 of the Largest Empires in History

Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1855), founder of the house of Rothschild; lithograph by Friedrich Lieder, c. 1830.

Where Do Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories About the Rothschild Family Come From?

A Factory Interior, watercolor, pen and gray ink, graphite, and white goache on wove paper by unknown artist, c. 1871-91; in the Yale Center for British Art. Industrial Revolution England

Inventors and Inventions of the Industrial Revolution

Thanksgiving Turkey with all the sides

Why Do We Eat Turkey on Thanksgiving?

Los Angeles Police Department wanted flyer on Elizabeth Short, aka the "Black Dahlia," who was brutally murdered in January 1947. The FBI supported the Los Angeles Police Department in the case, including by identifying Short through her fingerprints that

America’s 5 Most Notorious Cold Cases (Including One You May Have Thought Was Already Solved)

Rural Irish landscape, Sligo, Ireland.

Why Is Ireland Two Countries?

spaceflight: Media

Videos

Watch the launch and booster separation of Gemini spacecraft as it is lifted off the ground by a Titan II rocket

Watch the launch and booster separation of Gemini spacecraft as it is lifted off the ground by a Titan II rocket

This video shows the liftoff of a Gemini spacecraft atop a two-stage Titan II launch...

Video: NASA

Watch an Apollo mission lift off from the Moon to rendezvous with the Command and Service modules

Watch an Apollo mission lift off from the Moon to rendezvous with the Command and Service modules

This video shows an Apollo mission taking off from the Moon. The Lunar Module consisted...

Video: NASA

NASA's journey to landing a man on the Moon

NASA's journey to landing a man on the Moon

History of the American human spaceflight program in the 1960s.

Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Images

International Space Station, 2000

International Space Station, 2000

The International Space Station, imaged from the space shuttle Endeavour...

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Molniya 1

Molniya 1

Soviet Molniya 1 communications satellite, one of a series deployed beginning in...

Sovfoto

The Giotto space probe, developed and launched by the European Space Agency for a flyby of Halley's Comet in 1986.

The Giotto space probe, developed and launched by the European Space Agency for a...

Courtesy of the European Space Agency

Soyuz

Soyuz

Rocket with Expedition 33 crew members on board the Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft launching...

NASA

U.S. Explorer 10 satellite shown undergoing testing in a National Aeronautics and Space Administration laboratory. Explorer 10 was launched March 25, 1961, and relayed magnetic field data from a high Earth orbit. The satellite was one of more than 50 scientific spacecraft launched as part of the Explorer program between 1958 and 1975.

U.S. Explorer 10 satellite shown undergoing testing in a National Aeronautics and...

NASA

satellite orbits

satellite orbits

Basic characteristics of orbits in which a satellite can be placed around Earth,...

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

gravity versus launch speed

gravity versus launch speed

The launch speed required for a spacecraft to escape Earth's gravitational pull differs...

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Earth as photographed by the Galileo space probe during its December 1990 gravity-assist flyby of the planet. Earlier, in February, Galileo had skirted Venus, and it passed near Earth again in December 1992 before heading out of the inner solar system to an encounter with Jupiter in December 1995.

Earth as photographed by the Galileo space probe during its December 1990 gravity-assist...

NASA/JPL

Artist's rendering of the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous Shoemaker spacecraft.

Artist's rendering of the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous Shoemaker spacecraft.

NASA

Mir

Mir

The Mir space station in orbit, at an early stage of assembly in the late 1980s....

© Sovfoto/Eastfoto

space shuttle landing

space shuttle landing

Shuttle orbiter Discovery making a landing on the runway at the John F....

NASA

Soyuz TMA-20M

Soyuz TMA-20M

The Soyuz TMA-20M landing near Zhezqazghan, Kazakhstan, carrying Expedition 48 crew...

NASA/Bill Ingalls

Journey of the Galileo spacecraft to Jupiter. Galileo's multiple gravity-assist trajectory involved three planetary flybys (Venus once and Earth twice), two passes into the asteroid belt, and a fortuitous view of the collision of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter.

Journey of the Galileo spacecraft to Jupiter. Galileo's multiple gravity-assist trajectory...

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

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