Science and Space History
Discoveries, missions and the people who made them, from early observatories to the space age.
1958
1958 · Space
Project SCORE Launches an Early Communications Satellite
December 18, 19581958
1958 · Space
Before Mercury Had a Name: NASA’s Human Spaceflight Decision
October 7, 19581957
1957 · Space
The Vanguard TV-3 Launch Fails
December 6, 19571957
1957 · Space
Laika Orbits Earth Aboard Sputnik 2
November 3, 19571957
1957 · Space
Sputnik 1 enters Earth orbit
October 4, 19571954
1954 · Medicine & Health
The First Successful Human Kidney Transplant
December 23, 19541954
1954 · Technology
Obninsk begins supplying electricity from nuclear power
June 27, 19541952
1952 · History
Ivy Mike Detonates and Opens the Thermonuclear Age
November 1, 19521952
1952 · Technology
The Boeing B-52 prototype takes flight
April 15, 19521951
1951 · Technology
Shockley announces the junction transistor
July 4, 19511949
1949 · Science
The Hale Telescope records its first light
January 26, 19491947
1947 · Technology