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Introduction

About...

• Travelling in Space
• Ventures in Space
• People in Space
• Spacecraft
• The Solar System
• The Stars

Archives of... Concluded Missions Defunct Projects Space History

Travelling...

• Into Orbit
• To the Stars

Missions...

• To the Moon
• Round the Solar System

Exploring...

• The Moon & Mars
• The Solar System

Settlements...

• In Space
• On Other Worlds

Apollo (1963-72)

General

An Annotated Bibliography of the Apollo Program

Compiled by Roger D. Launius and J.D. Hunley. Non-technical. Commemorates the 25th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing. 1994. (The NASA History Series: Monographs in Aerospace History, No. 2) (Old site.)

Apollo: A Retrospective Analysis

By Roger D. Launius. 1994. (The NASA History Series: Monographs in Aerospace History, No. 3) (Old site.)

Apollo: Expeditions to the Moon

Edited by Edgar M. Cortright. Contributions from James Webb, Robert Gilruth, Wernher von Braun, Rocco Petrone, the Apollo astronauts, and other key figures. 1975. At the NASA History Series site.

Apollo Flight Times

The "actual flight times for the Apollo missions including total round trip hours and time spent on the lunar surface." (Right down to the tenth of a second.) Assembled by Judy Allton. At the ILEWG site.

Apollo Images

A small collection of assorted kinds (but mostly from Apollos 11 or 17). At NASA JSC's Exploration Library site.

The Apollo Landing Sites

A Lunar and Planetary Institute slide set. Compiled by James R. Zimbelman.

Apollo Landing Sites

Maintained by Dan Durda. Uses photos to "zoom in" on the Apollo landing sites. Note: only those of Apollo 11, 12, 14 seem to be currently available.

Apollo Lunar Landings 1969-1972 (at NSSDC)

Landing site coordinates plus "where are they now?" for the command & lunar modules (including the command modules for the Apollo-Soyuz & Skylab missions).

Apollo Manned Missions

The Apollo Manned Space Program. Apollos 1, 7-17. Mission details, landing site coordinates, etc. At the US National Air and Space Museum site.

Apollo Missions

An "introduction to the lunar exploration missions of the Apollo program" providing "information at a general level" and links to more detailed information. The Lunar and Planetary Institute's page on the mission (at their Exploring the Moon site).

The Apollo Mode Decision

• By Pamela E. Mack. The story of how the decision was made to have Apollo use the Lunar Orbit Rendezvous technique.
• "During the first enthusiasm for a race after Kennedy's announcement, Lockheed and Bell Aerosystems proposed sending a man on a one way trip to the moon and resupplying him with unmanned vehicles for several years until NASA developed a way to bring him back. This idea was not taken seriously (though NASA received a number of letters from Americans volunteering for a one-way trip to the moon)."
• "Lunar orbit rendevous was chosen because it gave the best choice of winning the race to the moon. Some even argue that it was the only way to get to the moon at reasonable cost in a reasonable amount of time. On the other hand, it was not the technology with the most potential for future development, and it helped make Apollo in many ways a technological dead end."

The Apollo Program (1963 - 1972) (at NSSDC)

Information on and data from the manned missions, plus information on the unmanned earth-orbiting & suborbital missions.

Apollo Spacecraft

Where are they now, other details. Includes details on the mockups, trainers, & related craft involved in, or connected with, the Apollo Project. Also links to the KSC pages on individual craft. At the Field Guide to American Spacecraft site.

The Apollo Spacecraft: A Chronology

Edited by Ivan D. Ertel, Mary Louise Morse, et al. An online 4-volume history from its beginnings through to 13 July, 1974. Volume 1 was published in 1969, Volumes 2 & 3 in 1973, and Volume 4 in 1978. (The NASA History Series: NASA SP-4009) (Old site.)

Apollo Spacecraft Systems Development Diaries

Follows the "technical development of Apollo spacecraft systems and configurations" using entries from official NASA project chronologies". At Mark Wade's Encyclopedia Astronautica site.

Apollo to the Moon

At the US National Air and Space Museum site.

Chariots for Apollo: A History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft

By Courtney G. Brooks, James M. Grimwood, and Loyd S. Swenson, Jr. Note: the subtitle for this publication is potentially misleading! It carries the story from 1957 through to Apollo 11 in 1969 only! Published 1979. (The NASA History Series: NASA SP-4205) (Old site.)

Contact Light: A Personal Retrospective of Project Apollo

• By Kipp Teague. A personal look at the Apollo missions seen through the eyes of a someone who grew up during the Apollo era. Complete with spectacular photos. See also his companion site, The Project Apollo Archive, below.
• "More than simply a means of unravelling the mysteries of the Moon, and despite its roots in cold war oneupmanship, the Apollo program provided a generation with a technical challenge and unifying source of inspiration unlike anything in recent human history, and will most likely remain unmatched in this regard for the foreseeable future. Many like myself owe their choice of technical, scientific and engineering careers at least partly to the inspiration of Apollo. More importantly, with Apollo, our 300,000-year-old species at long last broke the bonds of the Earth and took its first 'giant leap' into the Universe."

Enchanted Rendezvous: John C. Houbolt and the Genesis of the Lunar-Orbit Rendezvous Concept

By James R. Hansen. 1995. The fascinating story of how the LOR technique was chosen to land America's astronauts on the Moon. (The NASA History Series: Monographs in Aerospace History, No. 4)

Giant Leap: The Apollo Chronicles

"Between 1968 and 1972 after seven years of intense design and engineering activity, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States (NASA) carried out eleven missions which for the first and only time this century, carried humans into deep space." At The Space Centre site.

Lunar Modules

Where are they now, other details. Includes details on the test craft, models, & related craft involved in, or connected with, the Apollo Project. At the Field Guide to American Spacecraft site.

Moonport: A History of Apollo Launch Facilities and Operations

By Charles D. Benson and William Barnaby Faherty. 1978. (The NASA History Series: NASA SP-4204) (Old site.)

NASA Apollo Program (missing)

By Bob Brennart. Includes a table of Apollo launches (starting with the first Saturn launch test in 1960, what is claimed "must be" the largest collection of Apollo photos on the Internet, and a map of Cape Canaveral.

Project Apollo

"The Flights of Apollo", etc. Part of the NASA Human Spaceflight Programs History. (Old site.)

Project Apollo (at KSC)

Project overview, unmanned Saturn missions, unmanned Apollo-Saturn missions, manned missions.

Project Apollo Drawings and Technical Diagrams

No text, but a wealth of pics and schematics culled from a variety of hard-to-find sources. Part of NASA's history site's Technical Diagrams and Drawings page. Note: most of them concentrate on the command and lunar modules or the CSM as a whole. That is, the site has no drawings of the service module's interior arrangements.

Samoa and Apollo

A website about a long-neglected aspect of the Apollo missions. Maintained by David J. Herdrich. ("Recently I found out that many of the Apollo missions to the moon of the late '60s and early '70s splashed down near American Samoa and that the astronauts from many of these missions came through here.")

A Summary of Lunar Exploration Missions: Humans on the Moon

By Anne M. Platoff. A Summary of Lunar EVAs on the Apollo Missions. At NASA JSC's Exploration Library site.

Track to the Moon

By Hamish Lindsay on a Where No Man Has Gone Before: A History of Apollo Lunar Exploration Missions

By William David Compton. 1989. (The NASA History Series: NASA SP-4214) (Old site.)

Apollo 10

Mission Report: Apollo 10 (May 8 - May 16, 1969) (missing)

Published by NASA June 17, 1969.

Apollo 11

Apollo 11: 25 Years Later

The 25th anniversary of Apollo 11 (1969-1994).

Apollo 12

Remembering Apollo 12: When the Sea of Tranquility Became the Ocean of Storms

By Michael Arrington. At the Planet Arrington E-Zine site.

Apollo 13

The Apollo 13 Accident

Includes a detailed chronology (see also below) of events surrounding the accident itself. Plus images & other details. At the NSSDC site.

Apollo 13: A Successful Failure

From an information summary titled "NASA Facts: Apollo 13 A Successful Failure," MR7, Johnson Space Center. At NASA's Marshall Spaceflight Centre's Liftoff to Space Exploration site.

Apollo 13--Thirty Years Later: Separating Fact from Film

Michael Arrington talks to T.K. "Ken" Mattingly. May 2000. At the Planet Arrington E-Zine site.

Detailed Chronology of Events Surrounding the Apollo 13 Accident

Events from 2.5 minutes before the accident to about 5 minutes after.

Apollo 14

The Moon Trees

The story of Stuart Roosa and the tree seeds he carried with him aboard Apollo 14.

Apollo 15

Apollo 15 Flight Journal

By David Woods and Frank O'Brien. The inflight equivalent of the Apollo Surface Journal (see Exploring the Moon & Mars). At the NASA History site.

Apollo 15 from Lunar Orbit (missing)

Also Surveyor 1. "In early '97 there was one of those annoying 'Faked Moon Landings!'-discussions going on in the sci.space.* newsgroups. People came to the question whether or not the descent stages would be visible from earth (with the HST--no, they're not), and [the author] remembered the photos taken from lunar orbit by the CSM."

Apollo's Computers

An Interview with Allan Klumpp

By Stanley R. Mohler, Jr. Krumpp was Principal Designer of the LM Computer Descent Guidance Software. Read all about the computer errors that happened during the Apollo 11 landing and other fascinating stuff. Reprinted (and updated) from the Spring 1995 Texas Tech University Academic Computing Services Newsletter. At the University of North Texas's Benchmarks archive site (Sep/Oct 1995).

Equipment and Tools

Lessons from Old Shovels and Rakes: A Book of Apollo Tools

By Judy Allton. At NASA JSC's Beyond LEO newsletter site. January 1995 issue. Fairly brief.

The Lunar Module

A Giant Step for L[ong] I[sland]

"The LEM, built by Grumman, ferries astronauts on a dangerous mission to the moon". By Michael Dorman. A Long Island, NY, slant on the LM & the Apollo missions. (The Grumman factory which built the LM was situated on Long Island.) At the Long Island History site.

Pioneers in Motion: The Lunar Module

Cutaways & cross-sections of the LM! Peel back the layers and see what's "under the hood" of Grumman's lunar module. At the Long Island History site.

The Lunar Rover

Apollo to the Moon: Lunar Roving Vehicle

Specs, pics, etc. Part of the US National Air and Space Museum's Apollo to the Moon site.

Glen and Diane's Lunar Rover Page

Mainly pictures of the Apollo 16 rover at Boeing's Seattle factory in the early 1970s.

The Lunar Rover Qualification Test Vehicle

Very brief. At Smithsonian's National Air & Space Museum site.

The Lunar Roving Vehicle

About the 2-man vehicle which transported the Apollo astronauts on exploration traverses across the Moon during the Apollo 15, 16, and 17 missions. Includes diagrammatic drawings of the rover. From "Press Kit, Release No: 71-119, Project: Apollo 15." (Another copy here at the Smithsonian's National Air & Space Museum site.)

The Lunar Roving Vehicle: A Brief History

Specs and a (very) brief rundown. At Boeing's history site.

Other Websites

The Apollo Saturn Reference Page

Online reference material to the Saturn V & Saturn Ib, the Apollo spacecraft, and Launch Complex 39 at KSC. Includes online versions of various technical manuals and other hard-to-find materials.

The Project Apollo Archive

Maintained by Kipp Teague. A "reference source" on the manned lunar landing program. Images, chronologies, lunar lander simulator (needs javascript), maps, diagrams, dozens of multimedia clips, and other goodies. A companion site to Teague's Contact Light page (for which, see above).

Apollo-Soyuz (1975)

Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP)

Program overview. Part of KSC's Historical Archive.

The Partnership: A History of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project

By Linda Ezell and Edward Ezell. 1978. (The NASA History Series: NASA SP-4209) (Old site.)

Project Apollo-Soyuz Drawings and Technical Diagrams

No text, but a wealth of pics and schematics culled from a variety of hard-to-find sources. Part of NASA's history site's Technical Diagrams and Drawings page. Note: some of the drawing labels are partly in Russian.

Buran (c.1974-1993)

The Soviet Space Shuttle Project: Buran

"Why was Buran built?", "The Flight of Buran", "Buran: The Amusement Ride"

Shuttle Buran

A brief overview plus pics. At NASA's Marshall Spaceflight Centre's Liftoff to Space Exploration site.

The VSM: Energia & Buran

Pics (mainly conceptual images, but also some actual snaps) of the defunct Soviet space shuttle. Part of the Virtual Space Museum. Some of the pics are VRML images.

Gemini (1962-1966)

Gemini Spacecraft

Where are they now, other details. Includes details on the mockups, trainers, & related craft involved in, or connected with, the Gemini Project. Also links to the KSC pages on individual craft. At the Field Guide to American Spacecraft site.

On the Shoulders of Titans: A History of Project Gemini

By Barton C. Hacker and James M. Grimwood. 1977. (The NASA History Series: NASA SP-4203) (Old site.)

Project Gemini

Program overview and missions (manned and unmanned). Part of KSC's Historical Archive.

Project Gemini: A US Manned Space Program (missing)

A typical mission, the actual missions, where are they now, MOL, etc.

Project Gemini Drawings and Technical Diagrams

No text, but a wealth of pics and schematics culled from a variety of hard-to-find sources. Part of NASA's history site's Technical Diagrams and Drawings page.

Project Gemini Technology and Operations: A Chronology

Prepared by James M. Grimwood, and Barton C. Hacker, with Peter J. Vorzimmer. (The NASA History Series: NASA SP-4002)

Win a Gemini!

A footnote to the history of the space program from Scott Cook. "In 1967 [when Scott was about 10], the Revell model company ran a contest, the grand prize of which was a full-size Gemini spacecraft. ... thousands of us model-building space nuts entered it. Like most of them, I spent hours trying to figure out the logistical problems--[like] where do you put a 19-foot-long, 10-foot-at-the-base, 3500lb spacecraft?" At the Cloth Monkey site.

Mercury (1958-63)

The Flights of Project Mercury

Links to various pages at NASA's KSC site. Goals, overview, technical diagrams and drawings, etc, as well s brief pages on each of the manned and unmanned missions.

Project Mercury Drawings and Technical Diagrams

No text, but a wealth of pics and schematics culled from a variety of hard-to-find sources. Part of NASA's history site's Technical Diagrams and Drawings page.

Individual Missions (in order of mission)

Results of the Second Manned Suborbital Space Flight, July 21, 1961

Gus Grissom's suborbital flight. At the NASA History Series site.

Results of the Second U.S. Manned Orbital Space Flight, May 24, 1962

Scott Carpenter's orbital flight. At the NASA History Series site.

Results of the Third U.S. Manned Orbital Space Flight, October 3, 1962

Walter Schirra's orbital flight. At the NASA History Series site.

Mercury Project Summary including Results of the Fourth Manned Orbital Flight, May 15 and 16, 1963

Gordon Cooper's orbital flight. At the NASA History Series site.

Langley's Role in Project Mercury

Includes a chronology of "key Mercury events".

The Liberty Bell-7 Project (missing)

Liberty Bell-7 was Gus Grissom's Mercury spacecraft. It accidentally sank (in three miles of water) after the flight. This site has pages on the flight, the history of Project Mercury...and details of plans to raise the Liberty Bell-7.

Mercury: Birth of a Dream

At The Space Centre site.

Mercury Spacecraft

Where are they now, other details. Includes details on the mockups, trainers, & related craft involved in, or connected with, the Mercury Project. Also links to the KSC pages on individual craft. At the Field Guide to American Spacecraft site.

Project Mercury

Program overview, image library, and missions (manned and unmanned). Part of KSC's Historical Archive.

This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury

By Loyd S. Swenson, Jr., James M. Grimwood, and Charles C. Alexander. 1966. (The NASA History Series: NASA SP-4201) (Old site.)

Salyut (1971-1985)

The History of Space Exploration site:

[Salyut 1] [Salyut 3] [Salyut 4] [Salyut 5] [Salyut 6] [Salyut 7]

Salyut 7 Space Station Missions (139K)

By Dennis Newkirk. Part (chapter 5) of a larger work (the Almanac of Soviet Manned Space Flight) not on line.

Skylab (1973-74)

Project Skylab

Program overview and missions (manned and unmanned). Part of KSC's Historical Archive.

Project Skylab Drawings and Technical Diagrams

No text, but a wealth of pics and schematics culled from a variety of hard-to-find sources. Part of NASA's history site's Technical Diagrams and Drawings page.

Skylab

Where are they now, other details. At the Field Guide to American Spacecraft site.

Skylab: A Chronology

By Roland W. Newkirk and Ivan D. Ertel, with Courtney G. Brooks. 1977. (The NASA History Series: NASA SP-4011)

Vostok (1961-1962)

["Vostok" is Russian for "East".]

Vostok Spacecraft, Crews, and Launch Vehicles

Part of The History of Space Exploration.

VSM: Vostok and Voskhod

Pics of Vostok & Voskhod capsules and launch vehicles. Part of the Virtual Space Museum.

1M (1960-61)

[Mars mission. Soviet Union.]

1M: the First Mars Probe

At Paolo Ulivi's Grand Tour! A Planetary Exploration Page.

Clementine 1 (1994)

[A lunar orbiter & asteroid (Geographos) rendezvous mission. The Geographos part had to be abandoned due to problems. DOD/NASA.]

Articles and Essays

Clementine Explores the Moon

Second edition, 1997. A Lunar and Planetary Institute slide set. Compiled by Paul D. Spudis and D. Ben J. Bussey.

Lessons Learned from the Clementine Mission

"...perhaps the most basic lesson from the Clementine mission is that the ability to carry out end-to-end planning and implementation of a (U.S.) planetary mission has evolved beyond NASA's domain." An assessment of the Clementine mission by the Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration (COMPLEX) of the US National Academy of Sciences. 1997.

Websites

Clementine (missing)

What is it, timeline, etc. At the US Physics and Space Technology Directorate server.

Clementine--DSPSE

DSPSE = Deep Space Program Science Experiment. Clementine data set, mission information, links, etc.

Clementine Homepage

Background (including how it all began on the back of a napkin), mission, sensors, etc. Includes a number of technical papers in PDF (ie Adobe Acrobat) format and a comprehensive collection of links to other sites dealing with the mission. At the Praxis site.

The Clementine Mission

The Lunar and Planetary Institute's page on the mission (at their Exploring the Moon site).

Clementine Project Information (at NSSDC)

Clementine to the Moon

Brief overview page at the NSSDC. "The Clementine mission mapped most of the lunar surface at a number of resolutions and wavelengths from UV to IR."

Clementine Satellite Program

Various pics and snippets, including a press release which tells of Clementine being successfully recontacted (in 1995) after ten months of silence. At the Spacecraft Command Language Interface and Control Systems site. Brief.

Deep Space 2 (1999)

[Mars penetrator. Piggy-backed on the Mars Polar Lander (aka Mars Surveyor '98 Lander) & was lost with it. NASA, for the New Millennium Program.]

Deep Space 2 (at NSSDC)

Deep Space 2 Home Page

Technology Payload New Millennium Microprobe

At the Mars Surveyor '98 site.

Evolved Water Experiment (missing)

Various bits concerning the "early studies of small Mars penetrators for direct geochemical analyses" which led to the Evolved Water Experiment on the Mars Microprobe mission.

Explorer (1958-early 1980s)

Explorer-I and Jupiter-C

The first US satellite and space launch vehicle. Part of Sputnik and The Dawn of the Space Age. (Old site.)

The Explorer Series of Spacecraft

Part of Sputnik and The Dawn of the Space Age. (Old site.)

NASA's Explorer Missions (at NSSDC)

Describes itself as a "definitive list". Extends down to 1997 (though with a long gap--save for Explorer 65) between 1981 and 1989. Has one or two surprising members (notably COBE as Explorer 66).

RAE-2

• "A lunar radio telescope". At Paolo Ulivi's Grand Tour! A Planetary Exploration Page.
• "A few months after the end of the Apollo-17 mission, NASA launched the last American lunar probe for 21 years: Explorer-49. It wasn't in fact a real lunar probe, but a small lunar orbiting radio astronomy observatory. For this reason, the probe is also known as RAE-2 (Radio Astronomy Explorer)."

Giotto (1985-1992)

[Halley's comet probe. Did a flyby of Comet Grigg-Skjellerup in 1992 & may do another comet in 1999 (albeit the ESA says that the probe's mission ended in 1992). ESA.]

ESA Science: Giotto

At the ESA science site.

Giotto (at NSSDC)

Giotto

Mission objectives and other details. Also a nice artist's impression of Giotto "in orbit" with a comet (presumably Halley's).

Giotto Pics

On an ESA site with pics & artists' impressions of various ESA projects.

Hiten (See Muses-A.)

ICE (See ISEE 3.)

ISEE 3 (1978-1997)

[ISEE = International Sun-Earth Explorer. Later renamed ICE (International Cometary Explorer). Explorer-class (Explorer 59) heliocentric spacecraft. Originally in a halo orbit at the L1 Lagrangian point. As ICE, visited the comet Giacobini-Zinner. NASA/ESA.]

ISEE 3 (at NSSDC)

Third mission of the ISEE program.

Luna (1959-1976)

[A series of impacter (2), flyby (3), orbiting (10, 11, 12, 14, 19,22), and soft-landing (9, 13, 17, 16, 17, 20, 21, 24) missions to the Moon. Lunas 17 & 21 also carried a lunar rover (Lunokhod), while Lunas 16, 20, & 24 were sample returns. Soviet Union.]

Luna (at NSSDC)

[Luna 2] [Luna 3] [Luna 9] [Luna 10] [Luna 11] [Luna 12] [Luna 13] [Luna 14] [Luna 16] [Luna 17] [Luna 19] [Luna 20] [Luna 21] [Luna 22] [Luna 24]

The Luna Missions

The Lunar and Planetary Institute's page on the mission (at their Exploring the Moon site).

Object-E

• Mostly a table (with pics) of the various "Object-E" probes. Most of them went on to be flown as Luna probes. At Paolo Ulivi's Grand Tour! A Planetary Exploration Page.
• "The first Soviet Luna probes were known to their builders as 'Object E' (pronounced 'ye') for they were the sixth payload for the R-7 family of ICBM and launchers (E is the sixth letter of the Russian alphabet)."

Lunar Orbiter (1966-1967)

[A series of imaging missions to the Moon for the purpose of mapping the lunar surface before the Apollo landings. NASA.]

Destination Moon: A History of the Lunar Orbiter Program

A NASA book-length scholarly work by Bruce K. Byers. 1977. (The NASA History Series: Technical Memoranda, TM-3487.) (Old site.)

Lunar Orbiter (at NSSDC)

The Lunar Orbiter Program

The Lunar and Planetary Institute's page on the mission (at their Exploring the Moon site).

Lunar Prospector (1998-1999)

[Lunar orbiter. Mapped the chemical composition of the lunar surface and the Moon's global magnetic and gravity fields at a level of detail greater than that achieved by previous missions, & looked for water ice at the poles. A NASA Discovery mission.]

Lunar Prospector (at NSSDC)

Lunar Prospector FAQ

At the Lunar Prospector Homepage.

Lunar Prospector Homepage

Claims to have the "world's largest source of information--past and present--about the Moon". History of lunar exploration, description of Lunar Prospector, etc. Parts of the site use Shockwave.

The Lunar Prospector Impact Page

News and lots of links. At the homepage for the Computational Fluid Physics Laboratory at the University of Texas.

The Lunar Prospector Mission

The Lunar and Planetary Institute's page on the mission (at their Exploring the Moon site).

Moonlink

"An Internet-based Education, Outreach and Public Awareness Program of NASA's Lunar Prospector Mission." Hosted by Space Explorers, Inc..

Magellan (1989-1994)

[Venus orbiter probe. NASA.]

Magellan (at NSSDC)

Magellan Mission to Venus

Includes:

• Magellan Venus Explorer's Guide
  Edited by Carolynn Young. Published by JPL in August 1990 (JPL Publication 90-24) just prior to Magellan's Venus Orbit Insertion. Describes the Magellan radar-mapping mission to Venus.

Mariner

[A series of flyby probes to Mars (3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 9), Venus (1, 2, 5, 10), and Mercury (10). NASA.]

JPL's Missions site (all very brief):

[Mariner 2 to Venus] [Mariner 4 to Mars] [Mariner 5 to Venus] [Mariners 6 & 7 to Mars] [Mariner 9 to Orbit Mars] [Mariner 10 to Venus & Mercury]

Mercury: Mariner 10 Image Project

The author (Mark S Robinson) is in the process of "calibrating and digitally mosaicking much of the lunar and mercurian image data acquired by Mariner 10", some of which will be posted to this site as the work progresses. Description of the mission's encounters with Mercury & Venus, references, etc.

The Mariner Space Probes

Very brief details, with links to the relevant NSSDC pages on the successful probes. (Old site.)

The Voyage of Mariner 10: Mission to Venus and Mercury

Essentially the story of Mariner 10's trip to Mercury via Venus in fine detail. By James A. Dunne and Eric Burgess. Later chapters (& appendices) not yet on online.

Mars '96 (1996)

[Failed Mars orbiter/lander. Russia.]

Mars 96 Orbiter (at NSSDC)

Mars-96 Home Page

Launch profile timeline, map of launch ground track, and other information. A Russian space agency site.

Mars '96 Mission

The mission's objectives, instruments, team, etc. A Russian space agency site.

Mars '96 Mission Description Index

Materials are "drawn from Mars '94 descriptions and recent (early 1995) Mars '96 documents provided by Russian, French, and American sources in support of the Mars (Balloon) Relay Implementation and Operations Planning Group (IOPG)." Includes descriptions of the science objectives, mission description, orbiter payload information, etc.

New Eyes for Mars: Testing Cameras for the Mars '96 Mission

By Gerhard Neukum. From The Planetary Report, vol. 16, no. 3, May/Jun 1996.

What Really Happened with Mars '96

Igor Lissov, with comments from James Oberg. Dated November 19, 1996. At the E-Prints site.

Mars Climate Orbiter (see Mars Surveyor '98)

Mars Observer (1992-3)

[Failed Mars orbiter. NASA.]

Life After Mars Observer

By Conrad J. Storad. "Gotta lose them ole Red Planet blues." Article in ASU Research Magazine Spring/Summer, 1994. ("The fingerpointing began quickly after the press conference on August 23. NASA officials had just announced that their ballyhooed first return trip to Mars since 1976 was a bust.")

The Loss of Mars Observer

A brief statement on the Coffey Board report, links to a couple of press releases, & a Mars Observer system schematic. At the Malin Space Systems site.

Mars Observer

Description of mission , instrumentation, and configuration of the probe. At NASA's Center for Mars Exploration site.

Mars Observer (at NSSDC)

Mars Observer (missing)

Part of JPL's Planetary Exploration site.

Mars Observer

At NASA's Spacelink site.

Mars Observer Camera Operations Animation (MPG) (260K)

Segments of "a three-minute computer animation done at MSSS in July-August 1992, explaining the mission of the Mars Observer Camera." At the Malin Space Systems site.

Mars Pathfinder (1996-97)

[Mars lander and rover. NASA. A Discovery mission.]

Websites

Mars Pathfinder

At the Center for Mars Exploration site.

Mars Pathfinder (at NSSDC)

Mars Pathfinder (missing)

Mission thumbnail + factsheet. Part of JPL's Planetary Exploration site.

Mars Pathfinder Homepage

At JPL's Mars Exploration site.

Return to Mars

At the National Geographic site. 3D images, take a virtual ride on the Sojourner rover, or "peer across the dusty Martian surface".

USGS Participation in the Mars Pathfinder Mission

USGF = United States Geological Survey.

Lander & Rover Experiments

Determination of the Chemical Composition of Martian Soil and Rocks: The Alpha-Proton-X-ray Spectrometer

Academic paper. By R. Rieder, H. WŠnke, T. Economou, & A. Turkevich. At Economou's website. Note: only part of the paper is on-line.

Electrostatic Charging of the Mars Pathfinder Rover

By Joseph C. Kolecki.

Mars Pathfinder Imager

At the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory site at the University of Arizona.

Measuring Dust on Mars

Sojourner's Materials Adherance Experiment (MAE). Related papers:

• Materials Adherance Experiment: Technology
  By Phillip P. Jenkins, Geoffrey A. Landis, & Lawrence G. Oberle. Academic paper.

NASA Lewis Participation in Mars Pathfinder

NASA's Lewis Research Centre's page on Pathfinder.

The Rocky Micro-Rovers (missing)

Rocky, Bullwinkle, and Mars Pathfinder: the Sojourner prototypes.

Wheel Abrasion Experiment (WAE)

The WAE assessed wheel surface wear on the Pathfinder rover.

Other Pages

From Scabland to Mars: Preparing for the Pathfinder Mission

By Kari Magee. From The Planetary Report, vol. 16, no. 2, Mar/Apr 1996.

Mars Pathfinding in the Channeled Scabland

"(Or, 'Ken and Jim's Excellent Adventure, Part 2')" By Ken Edgett. In TES NEWS, December 1995. "The September 24-30, 1995, excursion to the Channeled Scabland was an opportunity for Mars Pathfinder scientists and spacecraft engineers to prepare for the Mars landing by evaluating a real, Mars-analog terrain."

Pathfinder Sojourner Simulation (missing)

Web Interface for Telescience (WITS) rover simulation system for the Mars Pathfinder Sojourner rover.

Source Guide to the Mars Pathfinder Mission (missing)

Brief overview & history of the mission, especially the rovers.

Mars Polar Lander (see Mars Surveyor '98)

Mars Surveyor '98 (1998-1999)

[2 separate spacecraft, one an orbiter (now named the Mars Climate Orbiter) & the other a lander (the Mars Polar Lander). Part of NASA's 10-year Mars Surveyor program. Both failed to reach Mars.]

Both

Mars Surveyor '98 Home Page

Mars Surveyor 1998 Project Information

Lander Only

How [Mars] Polar Lander May Have Died

One-page graphic depiction of four possible scenarios. At the Mars Society's Ohio Chapter's site.

Lander Descent Imager

Includes the "complete technical proposal, with illustrations".

Mars Polar Lander (at NSSDC)

Mars Polar Lander Team Homepage

Mars Volatiles and Climate Surveyor (MVACS) Homepage

Orbiter Only

Mars Climate Orbiter (at NSSDC)

RAC & SSI

Two cameras provided for the mission by the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory of the University of Arizona.

Why The Mars Probe Went Off Course

By James Oberg. Originally published in SPECTRUM magazine, December 1999. At the author's website. ("Aircraft accident investigators have a special term for a particularly insidious type of accident--CFIT, or controlled flight into terrain. It occurs when human error in the cockpit, in the traffic control tower, or in the flight planning process in effect flies a perfectly good airplane right into the ground.")

Muses-A (1990-1993)

["Mu-launched Space Engineering Satellite." Renamed Hiten after launch. Used to verify the swingby technology of modulating the course and speed of a probe by utilizing the gravity of the moon. Released a 12-kg orbiter Haroromo. Japan.]

Hiten (at Japan's ISAS)

Not much info here. Only a pic & the barest details.

Hiten

Pic plus very brief details. At ISAS's site on its missions.

Muses-A (at NSSDC)

Phobos 1 & 2 (1988-9)

[Failed Mars orbiters/Phobos landers. Soviet Union.]

Fobos 2

Only a couple of navigation images (of Phobos) & the bare launch details currently available. A Russian space agency site.

Phobos 1 & 2 (at NSSDC)

Phobos Mission Homepage

At the (Russian) Planetary Data Image Processing Lab homepage.

Pioneer

Able (1958)

[Lunar missions. Originally a US Air Force project (named "Able"), then transferred to NASA control when that agency was formed in October 1958 (which renamed it "Pioneer"; Able-2 == Pioneer-1). ARPA/USAF, later NASA.]

Project Able

Brief rundown (plus pic). At Paolo Ulivi's Grand Tour! A Planetary Exploration Page.

Pioneer 5 (1958)

[First US interplanetary mission. NASA.]

Pioneer-5

At Paolo Ulivi's Grand Tour! A Planetary Exploration Page.

Pioneer 10 (main mission: 1972-73; then on to 1997)

[Flyby probe to Jupiter, thence out of the solar system. Contact still maintained on an intermittent basis. NASA.]

Pioneer 11 (main mission: 1972-79; then on to 1995)

[Flyby probe to Jupiter & Saturn, thence out of the solar system. NASA.]

Pioneer Project Homepage

Covers both Pioneer 10 & 11. Also brief details on Pioneers 6 through 9.

Pioneer 10 (at NSSDC)

Pioneer 11 (at NSSDC)

Pioneer Venus (1978)

[Venus probes. NASA.]

• Pioneer Venus (at NSSDC)

Planet A (See Suisei.)

Ranger (1964-1965)

[A series of hardware test and imaging flights to the Moon. Only 7, 8, & 9 were successful. NASA.]

Ranger (at NSSDC)

An archive of the images sent back by Rangers 7, 8, and 9.

Rangers: Mission to the Moon

Very brief. Part of JPL's Missions site.

The Ranger Program

The Lunar and Planetary Institute's page on the mission (at their Exploring the Moon site).

Sakigake (1985-?1999)

[("Sakigake" = Japanese for "pioneer".) Halley's comet probe. Was to do a flyby of Comet Honda-Mrhos-Pajdusakova in 1996 & another, of Comet Giacobini-Zinner, in 1998. NSSDC says contact lost in November 1995, ISAS claims 1999 (and makes no mention of comets). Japan.]

Sakigake (at Japan's ISAS)

Not much info here. Only a pic & the barest details.

Sakigake

Pic plus very brief details. At ISAS's site on its missions.

Sakigake (at NASA's NSSDC)

Suisei (Planet A) (1985-1991)

[("Suisei" = Japanese for "comet".) Halley's comet probe. Planned flybys of Comets Tempel-Tuttl and Giacobini-Zinner (post-1991) were cancelled. Japan.]

Suisei (at Japan's ISAS)

Not much info here. Only a pic & the barest details.

Suisei

Pic plus very brief details. At ISAS's site on its missions.

Suisei (at NASA's NSSDC)

Sputnik (1957-1960)

[The first earth-orbiting satellites. Soviet Union.]

Korolev, Sputnik, and The International Geophysical Year

By Asif A. Siddiqi. Part of Sputnik and The Dawn of the Space Age. (Old site.)

Korolev's Triple Play: Sputniks 1, 2, and 3

By James Harford. Part of Sputnik and The Dawn of the Space Age. (Old site.)

Sputnik and the Origins of the Space Age

By Roger D. Launius. Visions of Technological Success, American Response to Sputnik, and the Birth of NASA. Part of Sputnik and The Dawn of the Space Age. (Old site.)

Sputnik Satellite Program

Part of The History of Space Exploration.

Surveyor (1966-1968)

[A series of softlander flights to the Moon. NASA.]

Surveyor (at NSSDC)

Descriptions of missions and data set information held by NSSDC.

Surveyor Moon Landers

Very brief. Part of JPL's Missions site.

The Surveyor Program

The Lunar and Planetary Institute's page on the mission (at their Exploring the Moon site).

Vanguard

[America's first (but unsuccessful) attempt to launch a satellite into earth orbit. USA.]

Vanguard: A History

By Constance McLaughlin Green and Milton Lomask. 1970. (The NASA History Series: NASA SP-4202) Also part of Sputnik and The Dawn of the Space Age. (Old site.) (Another copy here.)

Vega 1 & 2 (1984-86)

[Flyby probes to Venus & Halley's Comet. Also carried landers & balloons for release at Venus. Soviet Union.]

Vega 1 (at NSSDC)

Vega 2 (at NSSDC)

Vega Mission Homepage

At the (Russian) Planetary Data Image Processing Lab homepage.

Venera (1967-1984)

[Venus orbiter and lander missions. Soviet Union.]

Venera 15 & 16

At the Views of the Solar System site.

Venera Mission Summaries, 1967 - 1984 (missing)

Successful missions only. At the Views of the Solar System site.

Viking (1975-1983)

[Mars lander & orbital missions. NASA.]

Fact Sheet: Project Viking

Life on Mars: The Viking Labeled Release Experiment

Scientific papers and other info on the LR experiment (& on the issue of life on Mars in general). At the website for Gilbert Levin's Biospherics Incorporated.

Viking (at NSSDC)

Viking 1 & 2

At the JPL's Welcome to the Planets site.

The Viking Mission

At the US National Air and Space Museum site.

Viking Missions

Chronology, pics, various facts and figures about the mission, "Mars after Viking". At the Centre for Mars Exploration site.

Viking to Mars (missing)

Part of JPL's Planetary Exploration site.

Zond (1964-1979)

["Zond" = Russian for "probe". Zond 1 was a Venus mission, Zond 2 a Mars mission, Zond 3-8 lunar missions. The successful lunar missions included 1 flyby (3) & 4 circumlunar missions (5-8)--ie they returned to Earth. Soviet Union.]

Zond (at NSSDC)

[Zond 3] [Zond 5] [Zond 6] [Zond 7] [Zond 8]

Zond Lunar Mission Summaries, 1965 - 1970 (missing)

Successful lunar missions only. At the Views of the Solar System site.

The Zond Missions

The Lunar and Planetary Institute's page on the mission (at their Exploring the Moon site).

Miscellaneous

Unmanned Space Project Management: Surveyor and Lunar Orbiter

By Erasmus H. Kloman. 1972. (The NASA History Series: NASA SP-4901) (Old site.)

Lists of Man-made Objects on Other Worlds (up to c.1990) (missing)

Want to know whereabouts the Pioneer Venus entry probes are now believed to lie on Venus? Or where the Hiten Japanese spaceprobe is on the moon? Compiled by Jonathan McDowall.

A Brief History of Rocketry

At the Views of the Solar System site. (A plain text version can be found here at NASA's KSC site.)

Brief History of Rockets

Author unknown, but probably by the "NASA Teachers Resource Center".

Countdown! NASA Launch Vehicles & Facilities (missing)

A narrative summary of NASA launch vehicles and facilities prepared by the NASA Kennedy Space Center in March 1987. Apparently, once part of a hypercard stack!

Launch Vehicles for Manned Spaceflight

Where are they now, other details. ("All boosters actually used in Manned Space Flight were expendable (except STS Orbiters and SRBs) and therefore no longer exist. This list consists of left over hardware or full-scale simulations. In some cases, actual excess missles were "dressed-up" to play the part of a historic vehicle.") At the Field Guide to American Spacecraft site.

Saturn V Launch Vehicle Homepage (missing)

All about the rocket that sent America to the Moon.

Beta, A Single Stage Reusable Ballistic Space Shuttle Concept

By Dietrich E Koelle. A proposal from the 1970s for a reusable SSTO VTOL launch vehicle. At the Space Future site.

Clipper Graham Incident Report (part of) (missing)

Two key sections (4 and 8) of the Clipper Graham Incident Investigation Board report. At a NASA ftp site.

The Delta Clipper Experimental: Flight Testing Archive (missing)

About Delta Clipper & Clipper Graham.

Single Stage Rocket Technology

About Delta Clipper & Clipper Graham.

Note: beware of failing links! Most websites about the more recent projects are concept pages, and thus are liable to vanish with the project. (Having said that, though, some of these missions--eg the proposed Mars Aeroplane--may yet fly by being "recycled", in which case they will be returned to an appropriate slot in one of the Missions... sections.)

See also Encyclopedia Astronautica's Your Flight Has Been Cancelled for (more) manned spaceflights that never were, and the Grand Tour website's A Gallery of Space Probes Which Never Were for (mainly pics of) the unmanned sort.

5NM (c.1970-?)

[Unmanned Mars lander & sample return probe. Would have launched in 1975. Soviet Union.]

5NM: a Soviet Prestige Mission

At Paolo Ulivi's Grand Tour! A Planetary Exploration Page.

Aladdin

["The 'flying carpet' sample return mission" for NASA's Discovery program. Not funded. Would have launched in 2003 to bring back samples from Phobos & Deimos.]

Aladdin Homepage (missing)

Champollion (See Deep Space 4.)

Clementine 2 (Would have launched mid-1995)

[Summarised by one source as a "micro-satellite development program", and by another as a "micro-satellite near-Earth asteroid interception mission". Believed to have been a joint venture between the USAF Space Warfare Center, Phillips Laboratory, and NASA to rendezvous with a number of near-Earth asteroids and characterize each via probe impact. Reportedly a victim of a Presidential line-item veto. DOD/NASA.].

The Cancellation of Clementine 2 Asteroid Intercept Mission (missing)

Also includes a copy of the Leon Jaroff piece (see below).

Clementine II: A Double Asteroid Flyby and Impactor Mission (PDF)

By R.J. Boain. Dated April 1993. A fairly detailed paper about the mission. On JPL's Tech Reports server. Lots of specs and diagrams.

The Clementine II Mission

Brief but informative note from Thomas Carr of the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.

Clementine II Targets Asteroids

Brief (and that "1988" as the launch date should probably be read as "1999"!).

Press Release from the NSS on Clementine 2's Axing

"The National Space Society was disappointed to learn of President Clinton's recent line-item vetoes of several small military space programs."

Proposed Clementine Mission (PDF)

By Thomas C. Duxbury. Dated October 1997. Brief. Includes drawings of the proposed craft. On JPL's Tech Reports server.

Report on the US National Defence Authorisation Act for 1997 (272K)

Buried in this report (of the US Senate Armed Services Committee) is a brief description of the aims of Clementine 2. ("By using near-earth asteroids as sensor demonstration targets...") See also the US 1997 NDA Act itself (584K!), and this page at the P.E.R.M.A.N.E.N.T. site.

Washington Brushes off the Asteroid Threat

By Leon Jaroff. Mentions Toutatis as the targeted asteroid, plus other tidbits. Lifted from a Time magazine article of October 1997. (Another copy here.)

Deep Space 4

[Comet (Tempel-2) orbiter, lander, & sample return mission. NASA, for the New Millennium Program. Would have launched in 2003. Cancelled 1 July, 1999 due to "budgetary constraints".]

Deep Space 4 (at NSSDC)

Deep Space 4 Homepage

At the New Millennium site.

Diana

[A lunar & comet mission using Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP). Included a lunar subsatellite. Would have been a NASA Discovery mission.]

Diana Mission Description (missing)

Dyna Soar (X-20) (1957-63)

["Dyna Soar" = "Dynamic Soaring". Winged spaceplane (with an unfortunate title). Single seat. America's first manned spacecraft which actually reached the hardware stage. Conceived for the US Air Force as a successor to the X-15. One non-flying prototype completed. USAF.]

Boeing Dyna-Soar

At the Deep Cold site. Brief, but terrific computer-generated graphics of how the vehicle would have looked.

Dynasoar (the craft)

At Mark Wade's Encyclopedia Astronautica site.

Dynasoar (the project)

At Mark Wade's Encyclopedia Astronautica site.

Euromoon 2000

[A sizable (2900 kg) lunar mission to the Moon's south pole that was cancelled not long after it was announced! Would have sent two spacecraft (an orbiter and a lander) in 2000 & 2001 to search for possible frozen volatiles such as water. Reused much of the (also defunct) LEDA design. ESA.]

Euromoon 2000 (BR122)

Prepared by: Wubbo J. Ockels. "A Plan for a European Lunar South Pole Expedition". A lengthy description of the mission & probe, including pics and diagrams. Stored at the ESA's publications site.

Euromoon Info.

Stored at Carl Koppeschaar's ASTRONET site.

Europa Ice Clipper

[A Europa sample return mission for NASA's Discovery program. Not funded. Would have been launched in 2001 to bring back samples in 2014.]

Europa Ice Clipper Homepage

Includes:

• Europa Ice Clipper Science Summary
  Excepted from the Discovery mission proposal to NASA.

Europa Ice Clipper

Very brief, but includes an artist's impression of the proposed probe over Europa.

Interlune-One

[A lunar lander with two rovers. Harrison Schmitt would have been "Principal Investigator". Would have been a NASA Discovery mission.]

Interlune-One Project Fact Sheet (missing)

Intermarsnet

[An orbiter, free flyers/landers. Would have been a Horizon 2000 project for launch c.2003. ESA.]

Intermarsnet Page

Site consists mainly of gifs: "viewgraphs shown at presentation given to the scientific community by the Intermarsnet team".

LEDA

[LEDA = Lunar European Demonstration Approach. A lunar lander with a rover. A launch date of c.2002 had been proposed. ESA.]

LEDA

LK Lander

[Part of the Soviet lunar landing program. The equivalent of the American LM. 1-man. Soviet Union.]

LK "Luniy Korabl" Lunar Ship

At the Deep Cold site. Brief, but good CG graphics.

LOOM

[LOOM = Lunar Orbiting Observatory Mission. Proposed lunar mapping mission conceived as a follow-up to the Hiten and LUNAR-A missions. Orbiter and lander. Would have launched c.2002. Japan.]

LOOM

Mariner-A (& B) (c.1959-61)

[Unmanned Venus fly-by probes. NASA.]

Mariner-A

Photo of A (and a drawing of B) plus brief details. At Paolo Ulivi's Grand Tour! A Planetary Exploration Page.

Mars Aeroplane

[Proposed aeroplane on Mars. NASA.]

The Mars Airplane

A NASA Langley site for a now-defunct NASA project to send a robotic plane to Mars in 2003, the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers' flight.

Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander

[Part of NASA's 10-year Mars Surveyor program. At one stage was going to include a rover.]

Dust Accumulation and Removal Technology (DART) Experiment on the Mars 2001 Surveyor Lander

By Geoffrey A. Landis and Phillip P. Jenkins. Paper. At a NASA Glenn (ex-Lewis) Research Centre site.

Exploring PV on the Red Planet

"Mars Array Technology Experiment and Dust Accumulation and Removal Technology." Text of a paper about experiments on the 2001 lander. By Geoffrey A. Landis, David Scheiman, et al. Presented at the 15th Space Photovoltaics Research and Technology Conference, June 10-12, 1997. At the Solar Energy on Mars site.

Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander (at NSSDC)

Mars Surveyor 2001 Athena Rover Mini-Thermal Emission Spectrometer Homepage

NASA Glenn experiments on the Mars Surveyor Lander [2001]

Website at NASA's Glenn (ex-Lewis) Research Centre site.

Save the Mars Lander Home Page

History of the lander, photo gallery, difference and similarities with MPL, etc. ("If NASA does not make funding available to finish it, the built and tested lander in this picture will go to waste.")

MESO (c.1968-69)

[Unmanned Mercury fly-by probe. Would have launched in 1975. ESRO (European Space Research Organisation, a predecessor of the ESA).]

MESO

Concept pic plus brief details. At Paolo Ulivi's Grand Tour! A Planetary Exploration Page.

MOL (1960-67)

[MOL= "Manned Orbiting Laboratory". Would have been America's first space station. 2-man. Would have used the Titan III and a Gemini capsule. USAF.]

MOL (the craft)

At Mark Wade's Encyclopedia Astronautica site.

MOL (the project)

At Mark Wade's Encyclopedia Astronautica site.

USAF Manned Orbiting Laboratory

At the Deep Cold site.

USAF McDonnell Blue Gemini

At the Deep Cold site. "An integral component of MOL was to be the Gemini spacecraft."

MORO

[Moon ORbiting Observatory. Would have been a Horizon 2000 project. Launch date would have been c.2003. ESA.]

MORO

The Soviet Manned Lunar Landing Project

The VSM: N-1/LK

Pics (mainly conceptual images, but also some actual snaps) of bits and pieces of the Soviet answer to the Americans' Apollo program. Part of the Virtual Space Museum. Some of the pics are VRML images.

Spiral (c.1962)

[Manned spaceplane. Soviet Union.]

Mikoyan MiG 105 Spiral & 50-50

At the Deep Cold site. Great CG graphics.

STEP

[A physics experiment. STEP = Satellite Test of the Equivalence Principle. Intended to test the equivalent principle of relativity (which states that the equivalence of gravitational and inertial mass is a postulate that cannot be proven). Would have been a Horizon 2000 project. ESA.]

• The STEP Mission and Spacecraft

Zvezda (1965-67)

["Zvezda" means "star". Space station. Soviet Union.]

Soyuz 7K-VI Zvezda

At the Deep Cold site. Terrific CG graphics.

Project Helios

[Nuclear pulse drive. A project to develop a manned spacecraft propelled by the shockwaves made by nuclear bombs."]

Project Helios

By Scott Lowther. Very brief description. At the Island One Society site. The pics it alludes to can be found here.

Project Orion

[Nuclear pulse drive. A "late '50's-early '60's USAF-NASA project to develop a manned spacecraft propelled by the shockwaves made by nuclear bombs."]

Orion

By Scott Lowther. Brief description for a model kit. At the Island One Society site. Pics can be found here.

Project Orion: Its Life, Death, and Possible Rebirth

By Michael Flora. At the Island One site. (Another copy here at the Encyclopedia Astronautica site.)

• George Dyson's Letter to Michael Flora About the Orion Paper
  A (brief) letter from the son of Freeman Dyson. ("You can imagine how exciting it was, as a five-year-old boy, to move out to La Jolla so Freeman (otherwise in an inaccessibly theoretical world) could begin work (with Taylor et. al.) on actually building a space ship.")

Proposed Successors to the Saturn V

Saturn V

At Mark Wade's Encyclopedia Astronautica site. ("After the Saturn V drawings had been issued, Marshall engineers immediately turned to considering further developments of the basic launch vehicle. These would be required for Apollo Applications, Manned Orbiting Research Laboratory, Mars fly-by, and Mars landing missions in the 1970's and 1980's.")

An Aeronautics and Astronautics Chronology

Pre-NASA (1915-1957)

[1915-1919] [1920-1924] [1925-1929] [1930-1934] [1935-1939] [1940-1924] [1945-1949] [1950-1954] [1955-1957]

Early NASA (pre-Apollo): 1958-1960

[1958] [1959] [1960]

Early NASA (pre-Apollo): 1961

[January-March 1961] [April-June 1961]

[July-September 1961] [October-December 1961]

A Chronology of Solar System Discovery

From the dawn of history until the present day. At the Views of the Solar System site.

A Chronology of Space Exploration:

• By Date
• By Planetary Body

At the Views of the Solar System site.

Chronology of Sputnik/Vanguard/Explorer Events 1957-58

Part of Sputnik and The Dawn of the Space Age.

Chronology of Lunar and Planetary Exploration

From 1957 to 2006. Part of Major NASA Planetary Probes History.

Chronology of Mars Exploration

From 1960 to 2005. Part of Major NASA Planetary Probes History.

Historical Landmarks of the Russian (and Soviet) Space Forces (missing)

From 1946 thru to 1996. At the Russian Space Forces site.

The History of Space Exploration (Timeline)

At the Astronaut Connection site.

History Speaks for Itself (missing)

A timeline of selected events in space exploration from 1957 onwards. (Plus a list of readers' predictions as to what the future will bring!) At the Space Day site.

Mars Chronology

Up to 1993. By Anne M. Platoff. At NASA JSC's Exploration Library site.

The Race to the Moon: A Chronology

1950 to 1978. Good coverage of the Soviet perspective as well as the American one.

Robot Planetary Explorers

Of the Moon, asteroids, and planets. Chronological listing within target (ie Moon, outer planets, etc). Unsuccessful ones as well as the successful ones listed, as well as a capsule summary (some longer than others) for each. At the Encyclopaedia Astronautica site.

Spaceflight Chronology 1890-1956

By Robert L. Perry. From Hermann Ganswindt proposing a "reaction-powered spaceship" thru to "Weapon System 117L". Part of his Origins of the USAF Space Program 1945-1956.

NASA (USA)

NASA's Origins and the Dawn of the Space Age

(If you want to view a non-frames version, click here.) By David S.F. Portree. c.1998. From October 1958 to December 1960. (The NASA History Series: Monographs in Aerospace History, No. 10)

Orders of Magnitude: A History of the NACA and NASA, 1915-1990

By Roger E. Bilstein. 3rd edition. 1989. (The NASA History Series: NASA SP-4406) (Old site.)

The Soviet Lunar Program

By Douglas M. Messier.

The Soviet Manned Lunar Program

Edited and compiled by Marcus Lindroos. At the E-Prints site.

Soviet Missions to the Moon (at NSSDC)

"The Soviet Lunar program had 20 successful missions to the Moon...." Links together the information the NSSDC currently holds regarding them. The page includes the first picture ever taken of the far side of the moon.

U.S. and Soviet Manned Lunar Landing Projects (a GIF) (missing)

By Dennis Newkirk. 1993. A comparison chart. Unmanned missions are also in the chart.

U.S. and Soviet Missions to the Moon

By Anne M. Platoff. At NASA JSC's Exploration Library site.

Why the Soviets Never Beat the U.S. to the Moon

An interview with Charles P. Vick. 1997. "A Soviet space expert discusses how recently declassified material confirms his painstaking discoveries over decades about why the Soviet Union was unable to win the space race." At the E-Prints site.

Exploring Mars: An Education Brief

By Allan Treiman and Walter Kiefer. Prepared in January 1999 for the Lunar and Planetary Institute. An overview of telescopic & robotic exploration of Mars from prehistoric times to Mars Pathfinder & MGS. (Another copy here.) Includes a March 2000 update on MCO & MPL, the possibility of an ancient martian ocean, & other matters.

Mars and Fobos Probes

A table of the Soviet (& Russian) Mars & Phobos missions. (Date & time, launcher & launch place, etc). A Russian space agency site.

Mars: A Virtual History of Discovery

An educational site, with various activities. At the Mars Academy site.

Mars Mission Launch Sequence

List of launch dates and other details of all Mars missions to date, whether successful or not. (Also includes a list of proposed future missions.) At the SEDS Mars site.

Missions to Mars

By Anne M. Platoff. At NASA JSC's Exploration Library site.

On Mars: Exploration of the Red Planet 1958-1978

By Linda Ezell and Edward Ezell. Covers the Mariner, Voyager (not the one to the outer solar system!), & Viking projects. 1984. (The NASA History Series: Project Histories, SP-4212.) (Old site.)

The Soviet/Russian Mars Program

By Douglas M. Messier.

The Struggle to Capture Images On Mars

By Andrew Chaikin. 23 June 2000. About Michael Malin's efforts to ensure a camera was sent on NASA's Mars Observer and Mars Global Surveyor missions against those colleagues who claimed "'there was no need to fly a camera" because "Viking had already taken all the pictures we ever needed of Mars'". At the Space.com site.

Three Mars Missions to Launch in Late 1996 (121K)

Info about Mars Pathfinder, Global Surveyor, and Mars '96. Historical Mars Missions, Mars at a glance, etc.

American Manned Spacecraft

From the X-15 to the space shuttle. A full list in order of flight. Note that this is a list of spacecraft, not spaceflights. Therefore individual craft (eg the shuttles) which make or made multiple flights only get one entry apiece, not one per flight! At the Field Guide to American Spacecraft site.

Chronology of Selected Highlights in the First 100 American Human Spaceflights (1961-1995)

At NASA's history site. (Old site.)

Early Astronaut Selection and Training

Brief. Covers 1959 through to 1966. Part of KSC's Historical Archive.

U.S. Human Spaceflight, A Record of Achievement, 1961-1998 (167K)

Compiled by Judy A. Rumerman. 1998. (The NASA History Series: Monographs in Aerospace History, No. 9) Note: the title given here is the one listed on the NASA histories page, not the one used in the document itself (which, though essentially the same, omits the "U.S." part). Since no Soviet manned flights are dealt with in the monograph, the title given here seemed the better and more descriptive.

Manned Spaceflight: 1961-1969

Chronology of highlights. At Katie Neish's space site. Extracted from Spaceflight: A Smithosonian Guide.

Manned Spaceflight: 1970-1979

Chronology of highlights. At Katie Neish's space site. Extracted from Spaceflight: A Smithosonian Guide.

Manned Spaceflight: 1980-1989

Chronology of highlights. At Katie Neish's space site. Extracted from Spaceflight: A Smithosonian Guide.

Russian Space Stations

Ranges from Tsiolkovsky's Beyond the Planet Earth to Mir. A NASA factsheet.

Shoot for the Moon

By Gregory A Smith. "A Brief Outline of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo Space Programs (1961 - 1972)". At the Apollo Society site.

Soviet Conquest of Space

• Giant soviet space stations. TMK, MOK, and others. At the Encyclopaedia Astronautica site.
• "When it came to space stations, the Soviet Union started out with big ideas and then progressively reduced them. The N1 itself was originally designed around a conceptual space station not to be placed in near earth orbit but rather on a Mars flyby trajectory."

Space Suits Online

Everything you ever wanted to know about (American) spacesuits but didn't know where to ask. From Mercury to the Shuttle.

Walking to Olympus: An EVA Chronology (3.5MB) (PDF)

By David S.F. Portree. A large (3.5MB) "online chronicle of EVAs conducted since the dawn of the space age." At NASA's Human Spaceflight website. (Another copy, also PDF, can be found here at the Johnson Space Centre History Archive site.)

Where No Flag Has Gone Before: Political and Technical Aspects of Placing a Flag on the Moon

By Anne Platoff. August 1993. At NASA's Human Spaceflight website. (Other copies can be found here at NASA JSC's Exploration Library site and again here at the Johnson Space Centre History Archive site.)

Why We Came Home From the Moon

• By Frank Sietzen, Jr. Article in Space Policy Digest, July 1999.
• "Democratic leaders in the Senate, led by Sen. Walter F. Mondale, Minn (who would win the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1984 and later become the Clinton administration's Ambassador to Japan) would come within a handful of votes in 1971 of killing the U.S. manned space program, worried, he said, that NASA would try to restore the ideas of a space station and a Mars mission. And thus, just when it had begun, America turned in victory from sailing the lunar skies and acted more like it had lost the great peaceful space race."

History of Research in Space Biology and Biodynamics at the U.S. Air Force Missile Development Center Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, 1946-1958

Author unknown. An "early Air Force report contains information that NASA built upon in developing Project Mercury". At the NASA History Series site.

NASA Lewis Launch Vehicle History

At NASA's Lewis Research Centre site.

Pages from the History of the Lewis Research Centre

Timeline, George W. Lewis, Lewis alumni (including Dan Goldin), etc.

Liquid Hydrogen as a Propulsion Fuel, 1945-1959

By John L. Sloop. 1978. Also has appendices on (amongst other things) the use of hydrogen from the 19th century through to World War II. (The NASA History Series: NASA SP-4404)

The History of British Spaceplane Concepts

Skylon, HOTOL, Mustard, and others. Brief details of each, some with links for further information. Part of the Skylon website.

History of the Soviet Space Program

At the Encyclopaedia Astronautica site.

Space Exploration: From Talisman of the Past to Gateway for the Future

By John F. Graham, 1995. Online book. Chapters include "Defining Space", "Basic Facts of Space", "History of Space", etc. At the Space.Edu site (Dept. of Space Studies, Uni. of North Dakota).

Websites

My Little Space Museum

By Karl Dodenhoff.

Sputnik and The Dawn of the Space Age

Website about Sputnik, Vanguard, and the other pioneering programs of the space age. Note: many of the individual resources on this site have been given separate links on these pages.

The Virtual Space Museum

Maintained by Alexander Chernov. A "VRML-enhanced" online "museum". A real treasure trove of pics of Soviet & Russian space hardware, from launch pads to rockets, from Sputnik to Mir...including conceptual images of N-1 & L-3, which were to have been the rocket and lander (respectively) of the Soviet manned lunar landing project. Some of the pics are VRML images, and some are the author's own photos. (A "place where space vehicles are more than figures and photos - they are real things. You can move and turn them any way you like, get inside them, have a guided tour of some of them.")

Space Movies Cinema (missing)

Quicktime movies of (amongst others) Armstrong first stepping onto the moon, a Gemini EVA, a shuttle launch, even the first lunar golfshot!

Key Documents in the History of (American) Space Policy

Includes transcripts of three of President Kennedy's speeches, including famous one to Congress in 1961 in which he proposed putting a man on the Moon by the end of the decade. (Old site.)

Beyond the Atmosphere: Early Years of Space Science

By Homer Newell (a former NASA associate administrator for space science). 1980. Covers the "administrative and technical aspects of this subject, as well as such topics as international cooperation." (The NASA History Series: Project Histories, SP-4211.) (Old site.)

Origins of the USAF Space Program 1945-1956

By Robert L. Perry. Originally printed in Volume V (Space Systems Division Supplement) History of Deputy Commander (AFSC) for Aerospace Systems in 1961. At the E-Prints site.

First Among Equals: The Selection of NASA Space Science Experiments

By John Naugle (a former head of NASA's Office of Space Science and the agency's Chief Scientist). 1991. A history of the selection process, from its (and NASA's) origins, through to the Space Science Board and the Impact of James Webb. (The NASA History Series: NASA SP-4215)

Soviet Venus Missions

By Douglas M. Messier.

History of the Air Force Chimpanzees

Author unknown. Ham, Enos, and company and the role they played in the space program. At the Center For Captive Chimpanzee Care's site.

Missions the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory of the University of Arizona is or has been involved with

"LPL has had great success in competitions to place instruments on spacecraft, and to be selected as members of investigation teams."