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Space Exploration Timeline

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Space Exploration Timeline

Read the timeline, then solve the questions. Use the dates to work out the order and time between milestones. All dates are in the Common Era (CE).

Milestones in space exploration

People have studied the stars for thousands of years. These milestones show how space exploration changed over time: • Around 1609 — Galileo Galilei used a telescope to observe the sky, including moons orbiting Jupiter. • 1957 — Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit Earth, was launched by the Soviet Union. This helped begin the Space Race. • 1961 — Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel into space and orbit Earth. • 1969 — Apollo 11 landed on the Moon. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to walk on its surface. • 2000 — The first crew began living aboard the International Space Station (ISS), an orbiting laboratory where people from different countries work together. • 2021 — The James Webb Space Telescope launched to study distant objects in space.

Read the timeline closely

Answer using the timeline above. Give a reason where asked.

1.Which event happened first: Galileo’s telescope observations or the launch of Sputnik 1?

Galileo’s telescope observations
The launch of Sputnik 1
They happened in the same year

2.What was Sputnik 1, and why was its launch an important milestone?

3.Match each person or mission to the milestone it is known for.

Galileo Galilei
Yuri Gagarin
Apollo 11
James Webb Space Telescope

First human to travel into space and orbit Earth
Launched to study distant objects in space
First mission to land people on the Moon
Used a telescope to observe the sky

4.True or false: The first crew began living aboard the ISS before Apollo 11 landed on the Moon.

TrueFalse

5.How many years passed between Yuri Gagarin’s spaceflight and the Apollo 11 Moon landing? Show or explain your calculation using the timeline.

6.Put these events in chronological order, from earliest to latest: the ISS’s first crew, Sputnik 1, Apollo 11, and the James Webb Space Telescope launch.

7.Fill in the blank: Yuri Gagarin was a Soviet .

8.Explain one important difference between the 1969 Apollo 11 mission and the work carried out aboard the ISS.

9.Imagine a classmate says, “The James Webb Space Telescope launched before the first crew lived on the ISS.” Use the dates to correct the claim and say how many years apart the two events were.

10.Choose one milestone from the timeline and explain how it helped people explore or learn about space. Use a detail from the timeline.