Astronomy and Space Exploration
- January 15 - The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 5.
- March 3 - Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 9 to test the lunar module.
- March 13 - Apollo program: Apollo 9 returns safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module.
- May 16 - Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet spaceprobe, lands on Venus.
- May 17 - Venera program: Soviet Venera 6 begins to descend into Venus', atmosphere sending back atmospheric data before being crushed by pressure.
- May 18 - Apollo program: Apollo 10 launches.
- May 22 - Apollo program: Apollo 10's lunar module flies within 15,400 m of the Moon's surface.
- May 26 - Apollo program: Apollo 10 returns to Earth after a successful eight-day test of all the components needed for the upcoming first manned Moon landing.
- July 20 - Apollo program: The human race, represented by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, lands on the Moon. Apollo 11 lifted off for the Moon on July 16 and returned safely on July 24.
- August 5 - Mariner program: Mariner 7 makes its closest fly-by of Mars (3,524 kilometers).
- November 14 - Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 12, the second manned mission to the surface of the Moon (landed on the Moon on November 19).
- November 19 - Apollo program: Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean land at Oceanus Procellarum ("Ocean of Storms") and become the third and fourth humans to walk on the Moon.
Read more about this topic: 1969 In Science
Famous quotes containing the words astronomy, space and/or exploration:
“Awareness of the stars and their light pervades the Koran, which reflects the brightness of the heavenly bodies in many verses. The blossoming of mathematics and astronomy was a natural consequence of this awareness. Understanding the cosmos and the movements of the stars means understanding the marvels created by Allah. There would be no persecuted Galileo in Islam, because Islam, unlike Christianity, did not force people to believe in a “fixed” heaven.”
—Fatima Mernissi, Moroccan sociologist. Islam and Democracy, ch. 9, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. (Trans. 1992)
“Here were poor streets where faded gentility essayed with scanty space and shipwrecked means to make its last feeble stand, but tax-gatherer and creditor came there as elsewhere, and the poverty that yet faintly struggled was hardly less squalid and manifest than that which had long ago submitted and given up the game.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“I call her old. She has one family
Whose claim is good to being settled here
Before the era of colonization,
And before that of exploration even.
John Smith remarked them as he coasted by....”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)