Mission Gallery

Laika the space dog postcard

Laika the space dog postcard. Artwork on postcard of Laika, the bitch who became the first animal in space. She was launched aboard the Soviet Sputnik 2 spacecraft. Sputnik 2 was launched on 3 November 1957. Laika (meaning "Husky" or "Barker") was contained within a sealed cabin with a food store and an air conditioner. Soviet propaganda at the time maintained that she survived for about a week, but in fact she died after just a few hours due to overheating and panic. The spacecraft was not designed to be recovered and it burnt up as it re-entered the atmosphere on 14 April 1958, 162 days after its launch

© DETLEV VAN RAVENSWAAY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Voyager spacecraft

Voyager spacecraft. Computer artwork of a Voyager spacecraft passing out of our solar system. Two Voyager spacecraft were launched in 1977, taking advantage of a rare alignment of the giant outer planets that made it possible to visit them in a single mission. Over the next twelve years the probes successfully carried out fly-by surveys of the Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune systems. A wealth of images and scientific data was beamed back to Earth using their dish antennae (yellow). The spacecraft have exceeded the escape velocity for the solar system, and continue to beam back data as they head out into interstellar space

© VICTOR HABBICK VISIONS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Apollo 17 sample of lunar basalt

Apollo 17 sample of lunar basalt. The dark areas visible on the Moon (the lunar maria) are plains of flood basaltic lava flows. Lunar basalts differ from terrestrial ones in their high iron content and wide range of titanium concentrations. Lunar basalts range from 4.2 to 1.2 billion years old, with most being around 3 to 3.5 billion years old. The Apollo moon landings from 1969 to 1972 returned 2, 415 samples and over 380 kilograms of moon rock. Studying moon rock helps reveal the conditions present in the early solar system when the Moon and Earth were forming. This sample has a diameter of 15 millimetres and weighs 1.1 grams

© DETLEV VAN RAVENSWAAY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY