In 1986 Russia launched the world’s largest space station ‘Mir’. Mir means both peace and world in Russian and the Communist party hoped this would be a symbol of their peaceful space exploration. Mir had six docking stations which would allow for expansion as well as access for space craft. The space station was used by both Russian and American astronauts but like the American ‘skylab’ project, Mir proved too costly and it was decommissioned and re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on the 23rd of March 2001, landing in the South Pacific Ocean. Mir orbited the Earth 86,000 times and gave scientist a better understanding of living in space for long periods of time. In September 1993 The United Sates and Russian governments agreed to build the International space station (ISS).
In 1965 The United States Ranger 8 completed its mission by crashing onto the Luna surface. After the success of Ranger 7, Ranger 8 was launched on the 17th of February with the mission to take close up photos of the moon. The unmanned probe took more than 7,000 high resolution photos of the moon and sent them back to Earth before impacting on the moon.
In 1962 the US sent their first Astronaut into Earth’s orbit. The Mercury-Atlas 6 made three orbits of Earth piloted by Astronaut John Glenn (he named the craft Friendship 7). He landed safely in the Atlantic Ocean after 4hours and 56 minutes of spaceflight.
In 1547 Edward VI was crowned King of England. After the death of his father Henry VIII on the 28th of January, Edward became his successor at aged 9. Edward’s reign was short lived due to illness and he died on the 19th of July 1553. His half sister Mary reigned until her death from illness on the 17th of November 1558 and was succeeded by their half sister Queen Elizabeth I.
