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Explorer 1 was first US satellite designed and built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), The mission followed the the first 2 Soviet satellites, Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2. Explorer 1 was launched on January 31, 1958 atop the Juno I booster from Cape Canaveral in Florida. It was the first spacecraft to detect Van Allen radiation belts .  Redstone, Jupiter-C and Mercury Redstone to compare   The original lifetime of the satellite before the orbital decay was estimated 3 years. The high power transmitter was powered for 31 days and the low power transmitter for 105 days. The Explorer 1 stopped data transmission on May 23, 1958, but against the assumptions it remained in orbit for another 12 years and reentered the atmosphere on March 31, 1970.  The total mass of satellite was 13.37 kg,  including 8.3kg of instrumentation, compared to 83.6 kg of Sputnik 1 . Explorer 1 had 2 antennas to transmit data from scientific instruments. A 60 mW transmitter fed a dipol...

The space station was designed to remain in low Earth orbit as an artificial satellite with crew onboard, to be docked with another spacecraft, and to perform scientific or other experiments.  The first serious reference to a space station was Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in early 20th century. Herman Potočník published The problem of Space Travel in 1929, which was the first vision of rotating wheel to create artificial gravity. For example in 1951, Wernher von Braun published his designed for rotating wheel space station in reference to Potočník's concept. On the other hand Soviets were following Tsiolkovsky's ideas. First space stations: Salyut (see Soyuz spacecraft second generation ), Almaz , Skylab (see Skylab ) (1971 - 1986) The first space station was Soviet Salyut 1 launched on April 19, 1971. As every space stations in the beginning it was launched as a compact piece with supplies necessary for the crew before it was used by the crew launched separately later. A...

Already during the Apollo program there were many proposals how to continue after the end of the project. Three major directions came into the game: manned mission to Mars, permanent stace station also to learn long term operations in the space needed for a trip to Mars, and in the end cheaper space vehicle, which would be possible to launch cargo and crew to the space station, see article The Space Shuttle . Space Station Freedom was planned NASA project to develop manned Earth orbiting station in 1980s. Station was never constructed and after cutbacks, the project evolved into the International Space Station. Also due to the joint project  Shuttle - Mir Program . That brought a lot of experiences and need for bigger collaboration for a bigger projects.  Drawing: Revised Baseline Configuration: Freedom (1987) NASA was calling for quite large project which would connect several tasks in the orbit: an orbiting repair for satellites, an assembly point for spacecraft, a...

The Space Shuttle was partially reusable low orbit spacecraft operated by NASA. I was already mentioning Space Shuttle program in the previous article Shuttle-Mir Program . The Space Shuttle program was actually 4th manned US program, which was performing crew transportation from Earth to orbit between years 1981 and 2011, called Space Transportation System (STS). The Space Shuttle consisted of orbiter launched by two solid rocket boosters and external fuel tank, which was able to carry up to 8 astronauts. Solid rocket boosters provided the biggest thrust during the first two minutes of the flight up to height 46 km. After they burned out, they were jettisoned and they parachuted into the Atlantic Ocean where they were recovered. After that they were checked and if possible they were used again.  The meaning of solid rocket booster includes the entire rocket assembly, such as rocket motor, recovery parachutes, electronic instrumentation, separation rockets, safety destruc...

Shuttle - Mir program is another collaborative program between US and Russia, remember  Apollo-Soyuz test project . This program involved Space Shuttle to fly to the space station Mir ( Mir space station ) .  The program consisted of 11 space flights to the Russian Mir, and American astronauts living in the station.  In early 1980s NASA planned space station Freedom as a counterpart to Mir, while Soviets planned to replace Mir with Mir-2 in 1990s. American president G.H.W. Bush and Russian president B. Yeltsin agreed to cooperate on the space exploration in June 1992. US Vice president Al Gore, Jr. and Russian Prime minister V. Chernomyrdin announced plans for a new space station (probably later International Space Station) and agreed on close collaboration and involvement of Space shuttle in Mir station program, creating project called Shuttle-Mir program.     Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev became the first Russian to fly aboard the space shuttle STS-60 ...

Mir , which means Peace in translation, was Soviet (later Russian) space station in a low orbit operated between 1986 and 2001. The station served as a microgravity research laboratory, where was possible to perform experiments in different fields, such as biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology and spacecraft technologies.  Mir still holds the record for the longest single human spaceflight. Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov spent in space 437 days and 18 hours between the years 1994 and 1995. The station had capacity for crew consisting of 3 for longer term and larger crew for short visits.  Space station Mir as viewed from Space Shuttle Endeavour during STS-89 The first core module was launched in 1986 and it was followed by 6 other modules. Proton rockets were used to launch the modules. The docking module was carried by the US Space Shuttle STS-74 in 1995. Station consisted of 7 pressurized modules and some unpressurized parts.  Mir space station parts, from May...

Progress is currently Russian cargo spacecraft to International Space Station ( ISS ). Originally it was Soviet supply cargo to space station Mir .  Progress has similar size and shape as Soyuz spacecraft. It consists of 3 parts:  A pressurized module in the front, carrying scientific equipment, food, letters from home, clothes. A fuel compartment - the reentry module from Soyuz was replaced with an unpressurized propellant and refueling compartment.  A propulsion module. That remained unchanged.  There is no need for life support and heat shields, so the mas was reduced. After undocking, the spacecraft makes a retrofire and burns up in the atmosphere.  Version : Progress (1978-1990) or also Progress 7K-TG was Soviet unmanned spacecraft which was used to resupply space station in low orbit, including Salyut 6, Salyut 7, and Mir. It was the first version of the Progress spacecraft. This version was derived from the manned Soyuz 7K-T called also "...