Trajectory: Milestones in Space Exploration

Cold War & The Start of the Space Race - Cold War rivalry and the acceleration of space exploration. Servicing Hubble - Preparations for Hubble's final servicing mission. Chasing a Comet - Launch and the difficult path to rendezvous. Space Debris - Monitoring orbital debris.

Project Mercury Begins - The start of NASA & America's first manned space program. Mars Express - The European Space Agency's Mars Satellite. The Soyuz Launch System - The gradual evolution of Russia's Soyuz launcher.

Project Mercury Advances - America's first manned space program finally puts a man in orbit. Camera Tracking - The array of special cameras that follow a spacecraft at launch. The International Space Station - The building and operation of the orbiting laboratory.

Project Gemini Commences - Did Gemini give the US a lead in the space race? Venus Express - The last days of ESA's Venus probe. EMU - NASA's Extravehicular Mobility Unit. Deep Space Communications - ESA's worldwide network of giant dishes.

Project Gemini Advances - NASA refines the techniques needed for rendezvous. Cassini at Saturn - In the Cassini probe's final years of activity, its handlers are asking it to do more complex and risky assignments. Learning More About Mars - An interlinked group of satellites and rovers are paving the way for a manned mission to Mars.

Project Gemini: Docking and EVA - In the final phase of the Gemini program NASA struggles with docking and spacewalks. Curiosity Roving Mars - On the surface of Mars the Curiosity rover is changing the way we think about the red planet. Swarm - A constellation of satellites is trying to discover why the Earth's magnetic field is diminishing rapidly.

The Apollo Program Begins - At the very beginning of NASA's moon project things go wrong. Caves - ESA's special training program for astronauts. Planck - Mapping the cosmic microwave background radiation.

Rebuilding Project Apollo - After the Apollo 1 disaster NASA resumes manned space flight. Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 - Monitoring the Earth's Co2 levels in unprecedented detail. Zero Gravity Training - Parabolic flights and their role in weightlessness training.

To the Moon - The Apollo program achieves its major objective. Dragon, Falcon and Spacex - New directions in re-usable spacecraft. Gaia- Mapping our galaxy in unprecedented detail.

The Beginning of the End - After the first Moon landing the Apollo science program was about to start in earnest but people were losing interest. Apollo Gets Complicated - New technology is added that extends the reach of the Apollo program. The End of Apollo - The final missions to the lunar surface.

The Shuttle Program - The first re-useable spacecraft. The Challenger Disaster - Pressing launch schedules lead to carelessness and the loss of the Challenger. Return to Space - A re-designed shuttle is back in space with a redefined role.

The Space Shuttle Matures - The Space Transportation System changes the nature of orbital missions. Complex Construction in Space - Confidence in the shuttle begins to return and engineers for get the lessons of the past. The Final Years of the Space Shuttle - After the Columbia disaster the space shuttle has one last project to complete.