Trajectory: Milestones in Space Exploration

Cold War and the Start of the Space Race - Cold War rivalry and the acceleration of space exploration. Servicing Hubble - Preparations for Hubble’s final servicing mission. Chasing a Comet – Launch and the difficult path to rendezvous. Space Debris - Monitoring orbital debris.

Project Mercury Begins - The start of NASA & America’s first manned space program. Mar Express - The European Space Agency’s Mars Satellite. The Soyuz Launch System - The gradual evolution of Russia’s Soyuz launcher.

Project Mercury Advances - America’s first manned space program finally puts a man in orbit. Camera Tracking - the array of special cameras that follow a spacecraft at launch. The International Space Station - The building and operation of the orbiting laboratory.

Project Gemini Commences – Did Gemini give the US a lead in the space race? Venus Express – The last days of ESA’s Venus probe. EMU - NASA’s Extravehicular Mobility Unit. Deep Space Communications – ESA’s worldwide network of giant dishes.

Project Gemini Advances - NASA refines the techniques needed for rendezvous. Cassini at Saturn - In the Cassini probe’s final years of activity its handlers are asking it to do more complex and risky assignments.

Project Gemini: Docking and EVA - In the final phase of the Gemini program NASA struggles with docking and spacewalks. Curiosity Roving Mars - On the surface of Mars the Curiosity rover is changing the way we think about the red planet.

The Apollo Program Begins - At the very beginning of NASA’s moon project things go wrong. ESA’s special training program for astronauts. Planck - Mapping the cosmic microwave background radiation.

Rebuilding Project Apollo - After the Apollo 1 disaster NASA resumes manned space flight. Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 - Monitoring the Earth’s Co2 levels in unprecedented detail. Zero Gravity Training - Parabolic flights and their role in weightlessness training.

Beyond Earth Orbit - The Apollo program takes bold new steps. IXV Re-entry Vehicle - Europe is working to perfect a re-entry vehicle. Galileo Satellites Lost and Found - Navigation satellites go into incorrect orbit.

To the Moon – The Apollo program achieves its major objective. Dragon Falcon and Spacex – New Directions in re-usable spacecraft. Gaia – Mapping our galaxy in unprecedented detail.

The beginning of the End – After the first moon landing the Apollo science program was about to start in earnest but people were losing interest. Apollo gets complicated – new technology is added that extends the reach of the Apollo program.

The Shuttle Program – The first reusable spacecraft. The Challenger Disaster – Pressing launch schedules to lead to carelessness and the loss of the Challenger. Return to Space – A re-designed shuttle is back in space with a redefined role.

The Space Shuttles matures – the Space Transportation System changes the nature of orbital missions. Complex Construction in Space – Confidence in the shuttle begins to return and engineers forget the lessons of the past.