when was the first time a satellite was sent into orbit?
410445
Sputnik 1957\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite#The_first_artificial_satellite
289819
Not a satellite, since that's something that is in an established orbit, but a space probe, yes.  There's one on the way at the moment.  At full speed, it'll be the fastest traveling manmade object ever, but even at that sort of speed it'll take nine years to get there.
858379
It was designed by the European Space Ancency.  It was originally designed to fly to Halley's Comet, which it did make contact on March 13, 1986.  It survived it's encountered with the comet and continued on.  They also used it to encounter the Grigg-Skjellerup Comet.  The mission lasted from July 2, 1985 - July 23, 1992.
603232
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon on July 20,1969.  Ten others followed during the next 3 years.
538357
Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova was the first woman in space. however, on Vostok 6 in 1963
1135240
There have been six.\n\n-- Apollo 11: July 16, 1969.\n(First manned landing on the Moon, July 20.)\n-- Apollo 12: November 14, 1969.\n-- Apollo 14: January 31, 1971.\n(The infamous Alan Shepard walks on the Moon.)\n-- Apollo 15: July 26, 1971.\n(First mission with the Lunar Rover vehicle.)\n-- Apollo 16: April 16, 1972.\n-- Apollo 17: December 7, 1972.\n(Last Apollo mission.)\n\nYes, all the landings were done within a 2-1/2 year period. Back then, there was a LOT of excitement about actually landing on the surface. But ever since then, the level of interest has been waning, and thus NASA could not justify the tremendous cost of a lunar expedition to Congress to appropriate the necessary funds. More focus has been going into unmanned exploration and surveying, with the bulk going into more practical Earth-orbit missions.\n\n(You'll notice that Apollo 13 is missing from the list above. If you've read the book "Lost Moon" or seen the movie "Apollo 13", then you know exactly why. ^.^)
322134
must be thousands, as strictly all satellites that have been launched and are still up there go round the sun by virtue of the fact that the earth and all other planets go round the sun
687844
Pictures from low orbit were taken by the Russian and American astronauts in the early 60's.\n\nBut the most impressive picture was taken in 1968 by the Apollo 8 astronauts: the first  photograph of the Earth from deep space.\n\nhttp://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap051224.html
662586
I say Newton in about 1700:\n\n"Newton’s form of Kepler’s third law shows that one can use orbital motion to determine the masses of the objects."
723467
The first "computer" :)  was discover in 1938 by John Atanasov (lived in the USA, but bulgarian :) )
22844
Yes. First lunar landing was in July, 1969. \nCheck NASA website and google for landing on moon.
44994
The Soviet Luna program had launched Luna 1, the first spacecraft to fly past the moon on January 4, 1959. Its successor, Luna 2, was the first spacecraft to land on the moon, while Luna 3 took the first photos of the far side of the moon on October 7, 1959. Luna 9, launched by the USSR on February 3, 1966, performed the first "soft landing" on the moon; and Luna 10 became the first spacecraft to orbit the moon on April 3, 1966.\n\nThere have been no Russian cosmonauts on the surface.\n\nFollow the link for more information.\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_landing
91987
The space vehicle was launched at 7:51:00 a.m. EST on December 21, 1968, and was inserted into a 103 by 98 nautical mile parking orbit. The launch vehicle was a three-stage Saturn V and the spacecraft was a standard block II command and service module configuration. A lunar module test article was mounted in the spacecraft/launch vehicle adapter for mass loading purposes.
627503
The first U.S. manned space mission:\n\nMission: Mercury 3 (first manned flight)\nSpacecraft Name: Freedom 7\nOccupant: Alan Shepard\nDate: 5/5/1961
205841
Not sure who was the 'first' but the Egyptian Ptolemy left records that show he knew the Earth was a sphere.  He even calculated its circumference fairly accurately.\n\nWhere he was incorrect, of course, was proposing a geocentric view of the universe with the Earth in the middle and fairly complicated system of orbits to describe the movement of the various visible astronomical bodies.  It wouldn't be until Copernicus over a thousand years later, until this particular view was corrected.
125071
NASA was started in the '50's to get the USA in the 'Space Race' - the Soviet Union (USA's arch-nemisis at the time) had launchest THE FIRST satellite ever. The USA felt embarrased and needed to show them up. \n\nNASA and the 'money wasted' is responsible for quite a few modern conveniences, from CAT scans to industrial processes and materials, to cordless power tools, etc.\n\nIt is money well spent!
190629
(m)\n\nLaunching NASA \n\n"An Act to provide for research into the problems of flight within and outside the Earth's atmosphere, and for other purposes." With this simple preamble, the Congress and the President of the United States created the national Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on October 1, 1958. NASA's birth was directly related to the pressures of national defense. After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union were engaged in the Cold War, a broad contest over the ideologies and allegiances of the nonaligned nations. During this period, space exploration emerged as a major area of contest and became known as the space race. \n\nDuring the late 1940s, the Department of Defense pursued research and rocketry and upper atmospheric sciences as a means of assuring American leadership in technology. A major step forward came when President Dwight D. Eisenhower approved a plan to orbit a scientific satellite as part of the International Geophysical Year (IGY) for the period, July 1, 1957 to December 31, 1958, a cooperative effort to gather scientific data about the Earth. The Soviet Union quickly followed suit, announcing plans to orbit its own satellite. \n\nThe Naval Research Laboratory's Project Vanguard was chosen on 9 September 1955 to support the IGY effort, largely because it did not interfere with high-priority ballistic missile development programs. It used the non-military Viking rocket as its basis while an Army proposal to use the Redstone ballistic missile as the launch vehicle waited in the wings. Project Vanguard enjoyed exceptional publicity throughout the second half of 1955, and all of 1956, but the technological demands upon the program were too great and the funding levels too small to ensure success. \n\nGo through the following link, it will very helpful to you\nhttp://www.policyalmanac.org/economic/archive/nasa_history.shtml