Fifty-three years ago this week, 26-year-old Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to fly in space. Vostok 6 was Valentina Tereshkova's first and only fli...

Pioneer 10 (originally designated Pioneer F) is an American space probe, launched in 1972 and weighing 258 kilograms (569 pounds), that completed the first mission to the planet...

Light from the Sun takes about 5 and 1/2 hours to reach it and roughly the same time to return to Earth. By the time the light reaches us, it has spread out so much that the pla...

In 1949, the "Bumper-WAC" became the first human-made object to enter space as it climbed to an altitude of 393 kilometers (244 miles). The rocket consisted of a JPL WAC Corpora...

In 1966, the Soviet spacecraft Luna 9 became the first vehicle to land safely on the lunar surface. Stocked with scientific and communications equipment, the small spacecraft ph...

Mariner 9 was launched successfully on May 30, 1971, and became the first artificial satellite of Mars when it arrived and went into orbit. NASA's Viking Project found a place i...

MESSENGER (Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging) was the seventh Discovery-class mission, and the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury. Its primary goal was...

Multimedia assignments or projects allow your students to present their newly attained knowledge through images, audio and video instead of just textually. Find or create online...

The photosphere is the outermost part of the sun's layers and gets self radiated by itself and means the light spheres of the sun