1977 Voyager I and Voyager 2 are launched Voyager I and Voyager 2 are launched on trajectories that take them to Jupiter and Saturn. Over the next decade the Voyagers rack up a long list of achievements. They find 22 new satellites (3 at Jupiter, 3 at Saturn, 10 at Uranus, and 6 at Neptune); discover that Jupiter has rings and that Saturn's rings contain spokes and braided structures; and send back images of active volcanism on Jupiter's moon lo—the only solar body other than Earth with confirmed active volcanoes. 1977 Voyager I and Voyager 2 are launched Voyager I and Voyager 2 are launched on trajectories that take them to Jupiter and Saturn. Over the next decade the Voyagers rack up a long list of achievements. They find 22 new satellites (3 at Jupiter, 3 at Saturn, 10 at Uranus, and 6 at Neptune); discover that Jupiter has rings and that Saturn's rings contain spokes and braided structures; and send back images of active volcanism on Jupiter's moon lo—the only solar body other than Earth with confirmed active volcanoes. 1981 Space Shuttle Columbia is launched The Space Shuttle Columbia, the first reusable winged spaceship, is launched on April 12 from Kennedy Space Center. Astronauts John W. Young and Robert L. Crippin fly Columbia on the first flight of the Space Transportation System, landing the craft at Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California on April 14. Using pressurized auxiliary tanks to improve the total vehicle weight ratio so that the craft can be inserted into its orbit, the mission is the first to use both liquid- and solid-propellant rocket engines for the launch of a spacecraft carrying humans. 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger destroyed during launch On the 25th shuttle flight, the Space Shuttle Challenger is destroyed during its launch from the Kennedy Space Center on January 28, killing astronauts Francis R. (Dick) Scobee, Michael Smith, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, and Sharon Christa McAuliffe. The explosion occurs 73 seconds into the flight when a leak in one of two solid rocket boosters ignites the main liquid fuel tank. People around the world see the accident on television. The shuttle program does not return to flight until the fall of 1988.
1990 Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope goes into orbit on April 25, deployed by the crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery. A cooperative effort by the European Space Agency and NASA, Hubble is a space-based observatory first dreamt of in the 1940s. Stabilized in all three axes and equipped with special grapple fixtures and 76 handholds, the space telescope is intended to be regularly serviced by shuttle crews over the span of its 15-year design life. 1990 Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope goes into orbit on April 25, deployed by the crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery. A cooperative effort by the European Space Agency and NASA, Hubble is a space-based observatory first dreamt of in the 1940s. Stabilized in all three axes and equipped with special grapple fixtures and 76 handholds, the space telescope is intended to be regularly serviced by shuttle crews over the span of its 15-year design life. 1998 International Space Station The first two modules of the International Space Station are joined together in orbit on December 5 by astronauts from the Space Shuttle Endeavour. In a series of spacewalks, astronauts connect cables between the two modules—from the United States and Zarya from Russia—affix antennae, and open the hatches between the two spacecraft. 2000 Expedition One of the International Space Station On October 31 Expedition One of the International Space Station is launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan—the same launch-pad from which Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. Prior to its return on March 21, 2001, the crew conducts scientific experiments and prepares the station for long-term occupation.
The conference held at the Washington Hilton in October 1972 wasn't meant to jump-start a revolution. Staged for a technological elite, its purpose was to showcase a computer-linking scheme called ARPANET, a new kind of network that had been developed under military auspices to help computer scientists share information and enable them to harness the processing power of distant machines. Traffic on the system was still very light, though, and many potential users thought it was too complex to have much of a future. The conference held at the Washington Hilton in October 1972 wasn't meant to jump-start a revolution. Staged for a technological elite, its purpose was to showcase a computer-linking scheme called ARPANET, a new kind of network that had been developed under military auspices to help computer scientists share information and enable them to harness the processing power of distant machines. Traffic on the system was still very light, though, and many potential users thought it was too complex to have much of a future. In the conference hall at the hotel was an array of terminals whose software permitted interactions with computers hundreds or thousands of miles away. The invitees were encouraged to experiment—try out an air traffic control simulator, play chess against an electronic foe, explore databases. There had been some problems in setting up the demonstrations. At one point, a file meant to go to a printer in the hall was mistakenly directed to a robotic turtle, resulting in a wild dance. But it all worked when it had to, convincing the doubters and engaging their interest so effectively that, as one of the organizers said, they were "as excited as little kids." Within a month, traffic on the network increased by two-thirds. In a few more years, ARPANET hooked up with other networks to become a connected archipelago called the Internet. By the end of the 20th century, more than 100 million people were thronging Internet pathways to exchange e-mail, chat, check the news or weather, and, often with the aid of powerful search engines to sift for useful sites, navigate the vast universe of knowledge and commerce known as the World Wide Web. Huge electronic marketplaces bloomed. Financial services, the travel industry, retailing, and many other businesses found bountiful opportunities online. Across the world, the connecting of computers via the Internet spread information and rearranged human activities with seismic force.
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