The document summarizes space travel through the decades from the 1950s to 2000s in several paragraphs. It describes how the Cold War drove the initial space race between the US and Soviet Union in the 1950s. The 1960s saw the first human orbital flights by both countries. The 1970s saw the launch of the first space station by the Soviets and plans by the US for a reusable space shuttle. The 1980s marked the end of the Cold War space rivalry. Finally, the document discusses how nanotechnology in the 2000s holds the potential to revolutionize space travel and living.

1. Space Travel Through the Decades By Marilyn Krause

2. The Push for Space Travel 1950’s The force behind the 1950s' push into spacewas the Cold War. Russia had the lead when on October 4, 1957 it sent the first satellite, Sputnik, into orbit.

3. America Joins the Race The successful launch of Explorer 1 on January 31, 1958. Meant that the U.S. had joined the "space race.” America suffered a series of embarrassing failures but on March in1959 Pioneer 4 was launched it was able to achieve lunar distance, missing the moon by 37,500 miles

4. Orbiting Earth 1960’s On April 12, 1961, the Soviets launch Yuri Gagarin on the world's first piloted space mission. He orbited the Earth once. The first American orbited Earth on February 12, 1962. He circled the globe three times. America was still overshadowed by the Soviet’s flights.

5. 1970’s 1971, two years before the Soviet launched the world's first space station. With three cosmonauts who spent 21 days aboard the station America came up with a re-usable space shuttle that would ferry astronauts to and from Earth. The shuttle would launch satellites, and serve as an orbiting research platform.

6. The Cold War is Died 1980’s 1983 the Soviet Union officially acknowledge the existence of the Plesetsk launch complex. This only happened after space enthusiast, Geoffrey Perry, found an irregular orbiting soviet satellite.

7. Nanotechnology 2000 NASA has embraced nanotechnology. They think it is the future of space travel and space living. Nanotechnology holds the key to the true revolution of the way we live and travel on Earth and in space.

8. Web site list http://www.space.com/news/spacehistory/greatest_space_events_1950s-1.html http://www.space.com/news/spacehistory/greatest_space_events_1960s.html http://www.space.com/news/spacehistory/greatest_70s_991230.html