Space Exploration Facts for Kids

A Picture of Space Exploration

This web page contains space exploration facts for kids and is a great resource for anyone interested in space travel. We’re going to provide you with the latest and most accurate facts and events in space exploration. Alongside space exploration, you’ll learn about histroic exploration milestones and find more resources on space exploration.

The space exploration facts below will help you understand what space exploration is, why we explore space, past historic milestones in space exploration and other helpful space exploration facts. We hope the below facts about space exploration are helpful and make researching it fun, while opening your imagination to outer space.

If any of the below space exploration facts are inaccurate or out of date, please contact us and let us know.

19 Space Exploration Facts for Kids

  1. Space exploration is a term used to describe the exploration of outer space using astronomy and space technologies.
  2. Space can be studied from the surface of Earth using telescopes, while physical exploration of space is done with satellites, space based telescopes, unmanned spacecrafts and human spaceflight.
  3. The exploration of objects in outer space predates recorded history.
  4. There are currently three countries with human spaceflight capabilities. They are the United States of America, Russia and China.
  5. In 1610, Galileo Galilei was the first person to observe the night sky using a telescope.
  6. In 1840, John William Draper was the first person to take a clear picture of an object in space using a telescope. He took a picture of the Moon.
  7. On March 16th, 1926, the United States of America launched the first liquid-fueled rocket.
  8. On June 20th, 1944, Nazi Germany put the first man-made object into space, a V-2 Rocket (MW 18014).
  9. On October 4th, 1957, the Soviet Union put the first satellite into space, the Sputnik 1 satellite.
  10. On August 7th, 1959, the United States of America took the first picture of Earth from space.
  11. On April 12th, 1961, the Soviet Union put the first human into space, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.
  12. On July 14th, 1965, the United States of America took the first picture of another planet, the planet Mars.
  13. On July 20th, 1969, the United States of America put the first humans on the Moon, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.
  14. On April 19th, 1971, the Soviet Union deployed the first space station, the Salyut 1.
  15. On October 22nd, 1975, the Soviet Union took the first picture of another planet’s surface, the planet Venus.
  16. On April 12th, 1981, the United States of America deployed the first reusable manned orbital spacecraft.
  17. On March 22nd, 1995, Russia (formerly Soviet Union) set the record for the longest duration in space. Valeri Polyakov spent over 437 days in space.
  18. On November 20th, 1998, multiple countries launched the first multinational space station and the largest man-made object into space, the International Space Station.
  19. On August 25th, 2012, the United States of America’s Voyager 1 spacecraft became the first man-made object to enter interstellar space.

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