Space Missions: From Concepts to Designs to In-Orbit Operations

Over the years, space missions have evolved, and they have demonstrated human curiosity, innovation, and determination. They also help humans to understand the world and improve our lives. This is made possible by technological advancements, international cooperation, development of reusable rockets, and new spacecraft.

Several space missions have been developed over many decades. Examples of such missions are Earth Observation Missions, Satellite Communication Missions, Satellite Navigation Missions, Interplanetary and Interstellar Missions, and Human Spaceflight Missions.

In the 1850s, the first attempts at observing the Earth from a high altitude were using hot air balloons, having mounted cameras, for aerial photography. During World War I and II, aerial photography was an important tool for observing enemy troop movements. 

Arthur C. Clarke described the first practical concept of satellite communication in a paper titled “Extra-Terrestrial Relays: Can Rocket Stations Give World-wide Radio Coverage?” published in the October 1945 issue of Wireless World. The first satellite to relay voice signals was launched by the U.S. government’s Project SCORE (Signal Communication by Orbiting Relay Equipment) on December 19, 1958, and it broadcast a taped message conveying “peace on earth and goodwill toward men everywhere” from U.S. Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The first idea of a space-based navigation system came into being after the launch of the world’s first satellite mission, Sputnik-1 by the Soviet Union in 1957. The scientists at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) tracked the satellite using the shifts in its radio signal known as the “Doppler Effect.” This is credited as the origin of the United States Global Positioning System (GPS).

In the course “Space Missions: From Concepts to Designs to In-Orbit Operations” you will learn about Earth observation, Satellite Communication, Satellite Navigation, Interplanetary and Interstellar, and Human Spaceflight missions, their evolutions, applications, segments, travel approaches, mission endeavors, technology concepts, tools & techniques.