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Space Age
Historical period started in 1957

The Space Age began with the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957 and encompasses the space exploration, technology, and cultural shifts related to space activities. Initially driven by competition between the United States and the Soviet Union, with agencies like NASA and the Kosmicheskaya programma SSSR, it later evolved into international cooperation and scientific focus. Other nations joined via organizations such as the ESA, JAXA, ISRO, and CNSA. The early 2020s introduced the "New Space Age," marked by renewed innovation, commercial ventures in low Earth orbit, and space tourism involving billionaires and interplanetary travel.

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Periodization

The periodization of the Space Age can differ substantially, with some differentiating between a first Space Age and a second Space Age, which are separated at the turn of the 1980s/1990s.8

Periods

See also: History of spaceflight

Foundational developments to suborbital spaceflights

See also: History of rockets

Some vehicles reached suborbital space much earlier than the launch of Sputnik. In June 1944, a German V-2 rocket became the first manmade object to enter space, albeit only briefly.9 In March 1926 American rocket pioneer Robert H. Goddard launched the world's first liquid fuel rocket but it did not reach outer space.10

Since Germans undertook the sub-orbital V-2 rocket flight in secrecy, it was not initially public knowledge. Also, the German launches, as well as the subsequent sounding rocket tests performed in both the United States and the Soviet Union during the late 1940s and early 1950s, were not considered significant enough to define the start of the space age because they did not reach orbit. A rocket powerful enough to reach orbit could also be used as an intercontinental ballistic missile, that could deliver a warhead to any location on Earth. Some commentators claim this is why the orbital standard is commonly used to define when the space age began.11

1957 to 1970s/1980s: Establishment and Space Race

Further information: Space Race

The Space Race was the first era of the Space Age. It was a race between the United States and the Soviet Union which began with the Soviet Union's October 4, 1957, launch of Earth's first artificial satellite Sputnik 1 during the International Geophysical Year.12 Weighing 83.6 kg (184.3 lb) and orbiting the Earth once every 98 minutes.1314 The race resulted in rapid advances in rocketry, materials science, and other areas. One of the underlying motivations for the space race was military. The two nations were also in a nuclear arms race following the Second World War. Both nations made use of German missile technology and scientists from their missile program. The advantages, in aviation and rocketry, required for delivery systems were seen as necessary for national security and political superiority.15

The Cold War era competition between the United States and Soviet Union is one of the reasons the space age happened at that time. Since then the space age continues for the generation of scientific knowledge, the innovation and creation of markets, inspiration, and agreements between the space-faring nations.16 Other reasons for the continuation of the space age are defending Earth from hazardous objects like asteroids and comets.17

Much of the technology developed for space applications has been spun off and found additional uses, such as memory foam. In 1958 the United States launched its first satellite, Explorer 1. The same year President Dwight D. Eisenhower created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, commonly known as NASA.18

Prior to the first attempted human spaceflight, various animals were flown into outer space to identify potential detrimental effects of high g-forces in takeoff and landing, microgravity, and radiation exposure at high altitudes.19

The Space Race reached its peak with the Apollo program that captured the imagination of much of the world's population.20 From 1961 to 1964, NASA's budget was increased almost 500 percent, and the lunar landing program eventually involved some 34,000 NASA employees and 375,000 employees of industrial and university contractors. The Soviet Union proceeded tentatively with its own lunar landing program which it did not publicly acknowledge, partly due to internal debate over its necessity and the untimely death (in January 1966) of Sergey Korolev, chief engineer of the Soviet space program.21

The landing of Apollo 11 was watched by over 500 million people around the world and is widely recognized as one of the defining moments of the 20th century. Since then, public attention has largely moved to other areas.22

The last major leap of in the USSR–USA Space Race was the Skylab and Salyut programs, which established the first space stations for the U.S. and USSR in Earth orbit following termination of both countries' moon programs.23

At the conclusion of the Apollo program, crewed flights from the United States were rare, then ended while the shuttle program was getting ready to kick into gear, and the space race had been over since the Apollo–Soyuz test project of 1975, started a period of U.S.–Soviet co-operation. The Soviet Union continued using the Soyuz spacecraft.24

The shuttle program restored spaceflight to the U.S. following the Skylab program, but the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986 marked a significant decline in crewed Shuttle launches. Following the disaster, NASA grounded all Shuttles for safety concerns until 1988.25 During the 1990s funding for space-related programs fell sharply as the remaining structures of the now-dissolved Soviet Union disintegrated and NASA no longer had any direct competition,26 engaging rather in more substantial cooperation like the Shuttle–Mir program and its follow-up the International Space Station.

Diversification

Participation of private actors and other countries beside the Soviet Union and the United States in spaceflight had been the case from the very start of spaceflight development. A first commercial satellite had been launched by 1962, as well as in 1965 a third country achieving orbital spaceflight. The very beginning of the space age, the launch of Sputnik was in the context of international exchange, the International Geophysical Year 1957. Also soon into the space age the international community came together starting to negotiate dedicated international law governing outer space activity.

In the 1970s the Soviet Union started to invite other countries to fly their people into space through its Intercosmos program and the United States started to include women and people of colour in its astronaut program.

First exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union was formalized in the 1962 Dryden–Blagonravov agreement, calling for cooperation on the exchange of data from weather satellites, a study of the Earth's magnetic field, and joint tracking of the NASA Echo II balloon satellite.27 In 1963 President Kennedy could even interest premier Khrushchev in a joint crewed Moon landing,2829 but after the assassination of Kennedy in November 1963 and Khrushchev's removal from office in October 1964, the competition between the two nations' crewed space programs heated up, and talk of cooperation became less common, due to tense relations and military implications. Only later the United States and the Soviet Union slowly started to exchange more information and engage in joint programs, particularly in the light of the development of safety standards since 1970,30 producing the co-developed APAS-75 and later docking standards. Most notably this signaled the ending of the first era of the space age, the Space Race, through the Apollo–Soyuz which became the basis for the Shuttle–Mir program and eventually the International Space Station programme.

Such international cooperation, and international spaceflight organization was furthermore fueled by increasingly more countries achieving spaceflight capabilies and together with a by the 1980s established private spaceflight sector, both being embodied by the European Space Agency. This allowed the formation of an international and commercial post–Space-Race spaceflight economy and period, with by the 1990s a public perception of space exploration and space-related technologies as being increasingly commonplace.31

This increasingly cooperative diversification persisted until competition started to rise in this diversified conditions, from the 2010s and particularly by the early 2020s.

2010s to present: New Space competition

In the early 21st century, the Ansari X Prize competition was set up to help jump-start private spaceflight.32 The winner, Space Ship One in 2004, became the first spaceship not funded by a government agency.33

Several countries now have space programs; from related technology ventures to full-fledged space programs with launch facilities.34 There are many scientific and commercial satellites in use today, with thousands of satellites in orbit, and several countries have plans to send humans into space.3536 Some of the countries joining this new race are France, India, China, Israel and the United Kingdom, all of which have employed surveillance satellites. There are several other countries with less extensive space programs, including Brazil, Germany, Ukraine, and Spain.37

As for the United States space program, NASA permanently grounded all U.S. Space Shuttles in 2011. NASA has since relied on Russia and SpaceX to take American astronauts to and from the International Space Station.3839 NASA is currently constructing a deep-space crew capsule named the Orion. NASA's goal with this new space capsule is to carry humans to Mars. The Orion spacecraft is due to be completed in the early 2020s. NASA is hoping that this mission will "usher in a new era of space exploration."40

Another major factor affecting the current Space Age is the privatization of space flight.41 A significant private spaceflight company is SpaceX which became the proprietor of one of world's most capable operational launch vehicle when they launched their current largest rocket, the Falcon Heavy in 2018. Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX, has put forward the goal of establishing a colony of one million people on Mars by 2050 and the company is developing its Starship launch vehicle to facilitate this. Since the Demo-2 mission for NASA in 2020 in which SpaceX launched astronauts for the first time to the International Space Station, the company has maintained an orbital human spaceflight capability. Blue Origin, a private company founded by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, is developing rockets for use in space tourism, commercial satellite launches, and eventual missions to the Moon and beyond.42 Richard Branson's company Virgin Galactic is concentrating on launch vehicles for space tourism.43 A spinoff company, Virgin Orbit, air-launches small satellites with their LauncherOne rocket. Another small-satellite launcher, Rocket Lab, has developed the Electron rocket and the Photon satellite bus for sending spacecraft further into the Solar System, the company also plans to introduce the larger Neutron launch vehicle in 2025.44

Elon Musk has the stated that the main reason he founded SpaceX is to make humanity a multiplanetary species, and cites reasons for doing it including: To ensure the long-term continuation of our species and protecting the "light of consciousness".4546 He also said,

You want to wake up in the morning and think the future is going to be great – and that's what being a spacefaring civilization is all about. It's about believing in the future and thinking that the future will be better than the past. And I can't think of anything more exciting than going out there and being among the stars.47

The Space Age marked a major comeback and return with the launch of NASA's Space Launch system during the Artemis I mission on November 16, 2022; it marked the first time a human rated spacecraft had been to the Moon in nearly 50 years, as well as the return of United States capability to get astronauts to the Moon with the Space Launch System and Orion.48 Additional goals for the 2020s include completion of the Lunar Gateway, mankind's first space station around the Moon, and the first crewed moon landing since the Apollo era with Artemis III.

The U.S. Military has also joined the new space age with the creation of the new Space Force on December 20th 2019.

Chronology

See also: Timeline of space exploration

DateFirstProjectParticipantCountry
June 20, 1944Artificial object in outer space, i.e. beyond the Kármán lineV-2 rocket MW 18014 test flight49—Germany
October 24, 1946Pictures from space (105 km)505152U.S.-launched V-2 rocket from White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.—United States
February 20, 1947Animals in spaceU.S.-launched V-2 rocket on 20 February 1947 from White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.535455fruit fliesUnited States
October 4, 1957Artificial satelliteSputnik 156—Soviet Union
November 3, 195757Animal in orbitSputnik 258Laika the dogSoviet Union
January 2, 1959Lunar flyby, spacecraft to achieve a heliocentric orbitLuna 159—Soviet Union
September 12, 1959Impact on the Lunar surface; thereby becoming the first human object to reach another celestial bodyLuna 260—Soviet Union
October 7, 1959Pictures of the far side of the Moon, first spacecraft to use Gravity assistLuna 36162—Soviet Union
January 31, 1961Hominidae in spaceMercury-Redstone 263Ham (chimpanzee)United States
April 12, 1961Human in spaceVostok 16465Yuri GagarinSoviet Union
May 5, 1961Manual orientation of crewed spacecraftFreedom 7 (Mercury-Redstone 3)66Alan ShepardUnited States
December 14, 1962Successful flyby of another planet (Venus closest approach 34,773 kilometers)Mariner 267—United States
March 18, 1965SpacewalkVoskhod 26869Alexei LeonovSoviet Union
December 15, 1965Space rendezvousGemini 6A70 and Gemini 771Schirra, Stafford, Borman, LovellUnited States
February 3, 1966Soft landing on the Moon by a spacecraftLuna 97273—Soviet Union
March 1, 1966Human-made object to impact another planetVenera 37475—Soviet Union
March 16, 1966Orbital docking between two spacecraftGemini 876 & Agena Target Vehicle77Neil Armstrong, David ScottUnited States
April 3, 1966Artificial satellite of another celestial body (other than the Sun)Luna 1078—Soviet Union
October 18, 1967Telemetry from the atmosphere of another planetVenera 479—Soviet Union
December 21–27, 1968Humans to orbit the MoonApollo 8Borman, Lovell, AndersUnited States
July 20, 1969Humans land and walk on the MoonApollo 1180Neil Armstrong, Buzz AldrinUnited States
December 15, 1970Telemetry from the surface of another planetVenera 781—Soviet Union
April 19, 1971Operational space stationSalyut 18283—Soviet Union
June 7, 1971Resident crewSoyuz 11 (Salyut 1)Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, Viktor PatsayevSoviet Union
July 20, 1976Pictures from the surface of MarsViking 184—United States
April 12, 1981Reusable orbital spaceshipSTS-185Young, CrippenUnited States
February 19, 1986Long-duration space stationMir86—Soviet Union
February 14, 1990Photograph of the whole Solar System87Voyager 188—United States
November 20, 1998Current space stationInternational Space Station89—Russia
August 25, 2012Interstellar space probeVoyager 190—United States
November 12, 2014Probe to soft-land on a comet (67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko)91Rosetta92—European Space Agency
July 14, 2015Space probes to explore all major planets recognized in 198193New Horizons94—United States
December 20, 2015Vertical landing of an orbital rocket booster on a ground pad.95Falcon 9 flight 2096—United States
April 8, 2016Vertical landing of an orbital rocket booster on a floating platform at sea.97SpaceX CRS-898—United States
March 30, 2017Relaunch and second landing of a used orbital rocket booster.99SES-10100—United States
January 3, 2019Soft landing on the lunar far sideChang'e 4101102—China
May 30, 2020Human orbital spaceflight launched by a private companyCrew Dragon Demo-2/Crew Demo-2/SpaceX Demo-2/Dragon Crew Demo-2103Bob Behnken, Doug HurleyUnited States
April 19, 2021First powered controlled extraterrestrial flight by an aircraftIngenuity as part of NASA's Mars 2020 mission—United States
July 11, 2021Commercial space tourism flightVirgin Galactic Unity 22104David Mackay, Michael Masucci, Sirisha Bandla, Colin Bennet, Beth Moses, Richard BransonUnited States
October 5, 2021Feature-length fiction film shot in space (The Challenge)Soyuz MS-19105Anton Shkaplerov, Klim Shipenko, Yulia PeresildRussia
November 16, 2022Artemis I launch restoring American capability to get humans to the MoonArtemis I106—United States

Cultural influences

Arts and architecture

The Space Age is considered to have influenced:

Music

The Space Age also inspired musical genres:

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Space Age. Look up space age in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Interactive media

References

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