BEYOND OUR HORIZONS.

Space exploration has indeed changed the way we live our daily lives. As Lyndon. B. Johnson rightly pointed out: “ the moon trip is just one of the many goals of space exploration”.  “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind’’. These were the words of Neil A. Armstrong on July 20^th, 1969, as he became the first person to step on the moon.

The success of landing on the moon and sending of unmanned crafts to other planets have only brought about more goals for the future. By the 1990s, scientists planned for a time when people would visit the Earth’s neighbouring planet (mars).  When manufacturing facilities would be carried out in space, and even a time when mankind can make contact with life on other worlds (planets).

The knowledge acquired from space exploration has been immense. Instruments on space-crafts have been able to discover some other heavenly bodies that were unknown to mankind. One great discovery was the discovery of the Van Allan’s belt (a zone of radiation encircling Earth). They have also helped to provide much data on phenomena’s such as planetary rings, solar flares, binary stars and exploding galaxies. They have also been able to give out great information about natural processes occurring on Earth, and how humans react in unfavourable conditions.

SOME UNFORGETABLE MANNED SPACE MISSIONS:

After unmanned vehicles were sent to space and they had provided the right information to prefect the necessary technologies that will help mankind overcome the hazards of radiation, weightlessness and other problems we would likely face in outer space.

·       APRIL 12^TH, 1961, VOSTOK 1 (USSR). Crew: Yuri A. Gagarin- The first person in space. He completed 1 orbit of the Earth. The flight lasted 1hour 48minutes.

·       MAY 5^TH, 1961, FREEDOM 7 (U S A). Crew: Alan B. Shepard Jr. He was the first American in space. In a suborbital flight, lasting 15minutes.

·       AUG 6-7, 1961, VOSTOK 2 (USSR). Crew; Ghermans Titov. He completed 17 orbits of the Earth which lasted for 25hours 18minutes.

·       JUNE 16-19, 1963, VOSTOK 6 (USSR). Crew: Valentina Tereshkova- The first woman in space.

·       OCT 12-13, 1964, VOSTOD 1 (USSR). Crew: Valdimir M. Komarov, Konstantin P. Feoktistov, and Boris B. Yegorov. The first spacecraft to carry more than one person into space.

·       APRIL 23-24, 1967, SOYUZ 1 (USSR). Crew:  Valdimir M. Komarov.  Cosmonaunt killed in re-entry accident- The first actual space fatality.                                                                                                                                                                            

Science Exploration has indeed changed our world!!!

                                                                                                                                 -AN ERA