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Themes > Science > Physics > Astrophysics > The History of High-Energy Astrophysics > 1960-1964 |
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1964 |
The Crab Nebula supernova remnant is discovered to be a bright, extended X-ray source using lunar occultation techniques (Bowyer et al. 1964, Science, 146, 912). |
16 Jun 1963 |
Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space in Vostok 6. |
20 Feb 1962 |
John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth in Friendship 7. |
26 Jan 1962 |
Launch of Ranger 3, the first successful launch of a satellite towards the Moon. Although Ranger 3 failed to crash into the Moon as planned, its gamma-ray detectors did make the first detection of the diffuse gamma-ray background. |
18 Jun 1962 |
Launch of the second ASE-MIT experiment on a USAF Aerobee 150 rocket. This experiment was the first to detect cosmic X-rays: it detected both the diffuse X-ray `background' as well as the first discrete or point-like X-ray source (now referred to as Sco X-1 and, in fact, this is the brightest persistent X-ray source): see Giacconi et al. Phys. Rev. Lett., 9, 439 (1962) for more details. (The first ASE-MIT experiment yielded no results due to a failure of the Nike-Asp rocket engine.) |
Sept 1961 |
Detector failure on Explorer 11 ends its mission. In addition to solar flares and radiation from the Van Allen belts, Explorer 11 detected 22 gamma-ray events from random directions over the sky. |
25 May 1961 |
In front of a joint session of the United States Congress, President John F. Kennedy suggests that the U.S.A. should "commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth". |
27 Apr 1961 |
Launch of Explorer-11, the first satellite to detect gamma rays from cosmic sources. |
12 Apr 1961 |
Successful launch of the first human into space -- Yuri Gagarin in the USSR's Vostok 1. |
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