| The $10 million competition to send a private manned rocket into space started looking more like a race Thursday, when a Canadian team announced plans to launch its rocket three days after an American group intends to begin qualifying for the Ansari X prize. Leaders of the Canadian da Vinci Project plan to launch their Wild Fire rocket Oct. 2 from Kindersley, Saskatchewan. The da Vinci Project's Wild Fire has a traditional rocket configuration, with a capsule on top of a booster, but it will be carried up to about 80,000 feet by a reusable balloon before it is released and its rocket motor is ignited. The capsule and booster are designed to separate and descend beneath parachutes for reuse.
Military space program:
Different countries use space vehicles for satellite surveillance, distant detection of ballistic missiles, communications & navigation. Counter-satellite weapon systems were also developed.
Space agencies:
Main article: List of space agencies
Brazilian Space Agency Founded in 1994;
European Space Agency (ESA) - 1964;
Indian Space Research Organization 1969;
Canadian Space Agency 1989;
China National Space Administration 1993;
National Space Agency of Ukraine (NSAU) 1996;
National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) - 1958;
Federal Space Agency of Russia (FSA RF) - 1990;
Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAEA) - 2003.
Stages of space exploration in USSR: Voyage to the Stars was laid by Communists, 1964
Important space programs & flights of Space Agencies of various countries:
Artificial Earth Satellites (AES):
Satellite first series of satellites in the world (USSR);
o Sputnik -1 First vehicle, which was launched by human into space (USSR);
Vanguard series of first American satellites (USA).
List of satellites of USSR & Russian Federation: Electron, Polyot, Meteor, Ekran, Raduga, Horizon, Molniya, Geyser, Altair, Coupon, GLONASS, Parus, Photon, Oka, Strela, Resource, Selina, Bion, Romb, Cicada.
Robotic interplanetary probes:
Pioneer Program to study the Moon, interplanetary space, Jupiter & Saturn (USA);
Voyager Program to study the gigantic planets (USA);
Mariner Study the Venus, Mars & Mercury (USA);
Mars Study Mars, first soft landing on its surface (USSR);
Venera Program to study the atmosphere of Venus & its surface (USSR);
Viking Program to study the surface of Mars (USA);
Vega Program to study Comet Halley, landing of sounding weather balloon on Venus (USSR);
Phobos mission to study the satellites of Mars (USSR);
Mars Express artificial satellite of Mars, landing of Mars rover Beagle-2 (ESA);
Galileo mission to study Jupiter & its satellites (NASA);
Huygens Probe for studying the atmosphere of Titan (ESA);
Rosetta landing of space craft on nucleus of comet Churyumov Gerasimenko (ESA);
Hayabusa soil sample from asteroid Itokawa (JAEA);
MESSENGER mission to study Mercury (NASA);
Magellan spacecraft mission to study Venus (NASA);
New Horizons mission to study Pluto & its satellites (NASA);
Venus Express probe to study Venus (ESA);
Phoenix program to study surface of Mars (NASA).
Lunar stations:
Luna program to study the Moon, transportation of soil from Moon, Lunakhod-1, Lunakhod-2 (USSR);
Ranger receiving TV images of Moon during hard-landing on its surface (USA);
Explorer 35 (Lunar Explorer 2) study of Moon & circumlunar space from selenocentric orbit (USA);
Lunar Orbiter exit onto orbit around Moon, mapping of Moon surface (USA);
Surveyor soft-landing probe on Moon, study of Moon soil (USA);
Lunar Prospector mission to study the Moon (USA);
Smart-1 Program to study the Moon, spacecraft is equipped with ion engine (ESA);
Kaguya Program to study Moon & circumlunar space (Japan);
Change -1 mission to study the Moon, mapping of lunar surface (China).
Human spaceflights:
Vostok Trying out the first human spaceflights (USSR, 19611963);
Mercury Trying the human spaceflights (USA, 19611963);
Voskhod manned orbital flights; first exit into open space, first multi-seater spacecraft (USSR, 19641965);
Gemini twin-seater space shuttle, first docking in circum-terrestrial orbit (USA, 19651966);
Apollo manned space flights onto Moon (USA, 19681972/1975);
Soyuz Manned expeditions (USSR/Russia, since 1968)
Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, ASTP, 1975.
Space Shuttle reusable space shuttle (USA, from 1981);
Buran reusable space shuttle (USSR, unmanned probe flight in 1988);
Shenzhou orbital human spaceflights (China, from 2003)
Space Stations:
Salyut First series of space stations (USSR);
Skylab space station (USA);
Mir First modular type space station (USSR);
International Space Station (ISS).
Private spacecrafts:
SpaceShipOne First private space craft
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