• → European Space Agency

      • Space for Europe
      • Space News
      • Space in Images
      • Space in Videos
    • About Us

      • Welcome to ESA
      • DG's News and Views
      • For Member State Delegations
      • Business with ESA
      • ESA Exhibitions
      • ESA Publications
      • Careers at ESA
    • Our Activities

      • Space News
      • Observing the Earth
      • Human Spaceflight
      • Launchers
      • Navigation
      • Space Science
      • Space Engineering
      • Operations
      • Technology
      • Telecommunications & Integrated Applications
    • For Public

    • For Media

    • For Educators

    • For Kids

    • ESA

    • Welcome to ESA

    • History

    • Welcome to ESA
    • History of Europe in space
    • ELDO/ESRO/ESA:
      Key dates 1960-2012
    • Key figures
    • European space pioneers
    • Past Directors General of ESA
    • ESRO Directors General
    • ELDO Secretaries General
    • Chairs of ELDO/ESRO/ESA Council
    • ESA History Project
    • The History of the European Space Agency
    • Space history on the web
    • Further reading on European space history
    • Download
    • Bulletin 119: The ESA History Project
    • History Study Reports
    • A History of the European Space Agency, Volume I:
      The story of ESRO and ELDO, 1958-1973 (pdf)
    • A History of the European Space Agency, Volume II:
      The story of ESA, 1973-1987 (pdf)

    ESA > About Us > Welcome to ESA > ESA history

    50 years of space astronomy

    Russia U.S. Europe Rest of the world
    1957-1961
      Oct. 1959 - Explorer 7, NASA's 1st solar astronomy satellite

    Apr. 1961 - Explorer 11, 1st gamma astronomy satellite

       
    1962-1966
    Dec. 1964 - Kosmos 51, 1st Soviet gamma/UV astronomy satellite March 1962 - OSO-1, 1st orbiting solar observatory April 1962 - Ariel 1 , Great Britain's 1st solar astronomy satellite

    March 1964 - Ariel 2 , Great Britain's 1st radio astronomy satellite

     
    1967-1971
    June 1967 - Kosmos 166, 1st Soviet solar X-ray astronomy satellite July 1968 - Explorer 38, NASA's 1st radio-astronomy satellite.

    Dec. 1968 - OAO-1, 1st successful orbiting astronomy observatory, UV astronomy

    Dec. 1970 - Explorer 42 Uhuru, NASA's 1st X-ray astronomy satellite

    May 1968 - ESRO's 1st satellite, ESRO-2B, studies solar and cosmic radiation

    Dec. 1968 - HEOS 1, Europe's 1st satellite in cislunar orbit, studies solar and cosmic radiation

     
    1972-1976
      Aug. 1972 - OAO-3 Copernicus, NASA's 1st UV/X-ray orbiting astronomy observatory

    May 1973 - Apollo Telescope Mount, 1st orbiting manned astronomy observatory on Skylab space station

    April 1971 - Tournesol, France's 1st UV and solar astronomy satellite

    March 1972 - TD-1, ESRO's 1st astronomy satellite conducts 1st all-sky UV survey

    Aug. 1974 - ANS, the 1st Dutch satellite, is dedicated to UV/X-ray astronomy

    Oct. 1974 -Ariel 5, Great-Britain's 1st X-ray astronomy satellite

    Aug. 1975 - ESA's COS-B gamma ray observatory, first complete survey of galactic sources

    Apr. 1975 - Aryabhata, India's 1st science satellite X-ray and solar astronomy
    1977-1981
      Aug. 1977 - HEAO-1, NASA's 1st high-energy X-ray observatory    
      Jan. 1978 - IUE, joint ESA/NASA/UK UV astronomy observatory  
    June 1979 - KRT-10 radio-telescope deployed on Salyut 6 space station Aug. 1978 - HEAO-2 Einstein, high-energy X-ray observatory

    Sept. 1979 - HEAO-3, NASA's 1st gamma ray observatory

    Feb. 1980 - SMM Solar Max, solar observatory.

      Feb. 1979 - Corsa-B, Japan's 1st X-ray astronomy satellite

    Feb. 1981 - Astro A, Japan's 1st solar astronomy satellite
    1982-1986
      Jan. 1983 - IRAS, joint NASA/Netherlands/UK infrared astronomy satellite  
    March 1983 - Astron 1, 1st large Soviet UV observatory   May 1983 - Exosat, ESA's 1st X-ray astronomy satellite  
    1987-1991
    Dec. 1989 - Granat, 1st large Soviet gamma ray observatory Nov. 1989 - COBE, 1st satellite dedicated to the cosmic background radiation

    April 1990 - NASA launches the Hubble Space Telescope, its first 'great observatory'

    Aug. 1989 - ESA's Hipparcos, 1st astrometry satellite conducts the most accurate mapping of the skies through 1993

    Dec. 1989 - French Sigma telescope flown on Granat, Soviet gamma ray observatory

    April 1990 - ESA's Faint Object Camera flies on Hubble Space Telescope

    Feb. 1987 - Astro C, Japan's 1st gamma astronomy satellite
      June 1990 - RoSat, joint German/NASA/UK X-ray/UV observatory  
    July 1990 - Gamma 1, Soviet gamma/X-rays observatory Dec. 1990 - STS-35, 1st space shuttle mission dedicated to astronomy

    pril 1991 - Compton gamma ray observatory, NASA's 2nd 'great observatory'

    July 1990 - Major French and Polish contribution to Gamma 1, Soviet gamma/X-rays observatory  
    1992-1996
    March 1994 - Koronas I, joint Russia/Ukraine solar X-ray astronomy mission June 1992 - EUVE, NASA extreme UV astronomy satellite

    Dec. 1995 - RXTE, NASA X-ray astronomy satellite

    Nov. 1995 - ISO, ESA's first infrared astronomy satellite

    Dec. 1995 - SOHO, joint ESA/NASA solar observatory at the L1 libration point

    April 1996 - BeppoSAX, joint Italy/Netherlands X-ray astronomy satellite

     
    1997-2001
      Dec. 1998 - SWAS, 1st submillimetric astronomy satellite

    March 1999 - WIRE, wide-field infrared astronomy satellite

    July 1999 - Chandra X-ray observatory, NASA's 3rd "great observatory"

    Dec. 1999 - ESA's XMM-Newton is the world's most sensitive X-ray astronomy observatory Feb. 1997 - Muses B, Japan's 1st radio-astronomy satellite
    2001-2006
      June 2001 - WMAP, NASA's 2nd satellite to refine the map of cosmic background radiation

    Feb. 2002 - RHESSI, high-energy solar astronomy satellite

    Apr. 2003 - Galex, 1st all-sky UV survey since Europe's TD-1

    Aug. 2003 - Spitzer infrared space telescope, NASA's 4th and last "great observatory"

    Nov. 2004 - Swift, NASA UV and gamma/X-ray satellite to identify gamma bursts origin

    Oct. 2002 - ESA's Integral gamma ray observatory combines celestial imaging and spectroscopy of X-ray and gamma energies

    Dec. 2006 - CoRoT, French astronomy satellite with ESA contribution, dedicated to astrosismology and exoplanet detection

    June 2003 - MOST, Canada's 1st astrosismology satellite

    Feb. 2006 - Astro F, Japan's 1st infrared astronomy satellite

    2007
        Feb. 2007 - Rosetta's flyby of Mars  

    Last update: 14 July 2009

    Rate this

    Views

    Share

    • Currently 0 out of 5 Stars.
    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5
    Rating: 0/5 (0 votes cast)

    Thank you for rating!

    You have already rated this page, you can only rate it once!

    Your rating has been changed, thanks for rating!

    9
    facebook
    twitter
    reddit
    google plus
    digg
    tumbler
    digg
    blogger
    myspace
    • ESA Oral History Project
    • 30 years of ESA in pictures
    • 50 years of space in pictures
    • ESA Publications
    • Space astronomy
      • Lyman Spitzer: Space telescope pioneer
        • Michael Perryman: Mapping the stars with maths

    Connect with us

    • RSS
    • Youtube
    • Twitter
    • Flickr
    • Google Buzz
    • Subscribe
    • App Store
    • LATEST ARTICLES
    • · CryoSat hits land
    • · Ariane 5 completes seven launches …
    • · Measuring skull pressure without t…
    • · Malargüe station inauguration
    • · The solar wind is swirly
    • FAQ

    • Jobs at ESA

    • Site Map

    • Contacts

    • Terms and conditions