National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA is the one responsible for the civilian space program of the nation as well as the researches done in regards to aerospace and aeronautics findings. It is a renowned agency that has been sending professional astronauts into space and has attained many achievements in their missions. The top 10 achievements that National Aeronautics and Space Administration have attained are as follows:
1. Launch of the First US Satellite, Explorer I
After 3 years of completing the Satellite Explorer, it was finally launched in 1958 with a length of 80 inches and a weight of about 30.8 pounds. The satellite was designed to measure cosmic rays that can be found just above the Earth.
2. Freedom 7
Launched in 1961, Alan Shepard was the first in the whole crew of NASA who orbited the planet Earth. With an interval of 15 minutes and 28 seconds after its launch at 9:34 in the morning, it has traveled about 303 miles with 8,262 kph as its average speed.
3. Apollo 11
By 1967, the agency was starting to focus on taking America to the moon, which has established the start of making Apollo 1. But the plan was not successful because of the technical failure that has happened. Later that year, the plan for designing Apollo 11 has started, which then made a successful mission to the moon on July 20, 1969 making Neil Armstrong as the first man to be recorded to set foot on the moon.
4. Apollo 13
It was launched in April 11, 1970 and after 55 hours the oxygen has exploded on the spacecraft. Though there was a problem with the life present, the crew still managed to land safely on Earth in the Pacific Ocean.
5. Pioneer 10 Visits Jupiter
1972 marked the launch of Pioneer 10 in space and reached Jupiter, which is the farthest planet from Earth. As it reached Jupiter, the first time of recording observations from an outer planet has happened. Its last transmission made was in 2002.
6. Space Shuttle
Due to the disaster happened with the launch of Apollo, scientists from NASA aimed to design a reusable spacecraft with using technology in a new level. After 9 years, it launched successfully in 1981.
7. Hubble Space Telescope
After 15 years of making a telescope for having an entire aerial view of the universe, Edwin Hubble launched the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990.
8. Mars Pathfinder
December of 1996 was the launch of the pathfinder and has reached Mars in July of 1997. After travelling 309 million miles, the pathfinder revealed that the possibility of human survival in the planet is high since it is wet and warm. Since it successful launch, there were over 17,000 picture recorded from Mrs Pathfinder.
9. Chandra X-Ray Observatory
With a 25x greater sensitivity than of the Hubble’s telescope, the formation of the observatory in 1999 made it possible to record images with using x-rays from the fluctuations occurring in energy.
10. International Space Station
It was initially in its orbit receiving the crew of NASA in 2000. ISS measures a length of 108. 5 meters, has a width of 72.80 meters and weighs around 450 tons.
