Astronomy and Space Exploration
- January 31 - Apollo program: Astronauts aboard Apollo 14 lift off for a mission to the moon.
- February 5 - Apollo 14 lands on the Moon.
- February 9 - Apollo program: Apollo 14 returns to Earth after the third manned moon landing.
- May 19 - Mars probe program: Mars 2 is launched by the Soviet Union.
- May 30 - Mariner program: Mariner 9 is launched toward Mars.
- June 30 - The crew of the Soyuz 11 spacecraft are killed when their air supply leaks out through a faulty valve during re-entry preparations, the only human deaths to occur outside Earth's atmosphere.
- July 26 - Apollo program: Launch of Apollo 15. On July 31 the Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover a day after landing on the surface.
- November 13 - Mariner program: Mariner 9 enters Mars orbit.
Read more about this topic: 1971 In Science
Famous quotes containing the words astronomy, space and/or exploration:
“It is noticed, that the consideration of the great periods and spaces of astronomy induces a dignity of mind, and an indifference to death.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“No being exists or can exist which is not related to space in some way. God is everywhere, created minds are somewhere, and body is in the space that it occupies; and whatever is neither everywhere nor anywhere does not exist. And hence it follows that space is an effect arising from the first existence of being, because when any being is postulated, space is postulated.”
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“Typography tended to alter language from a means of perception and exploration to a portable commodity.”
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