Blossoming of the space age, 1961–1971

Abstract

The decade from 1961 was a time when space exploration moved ahead very rapidly. It was the period when manned space flight moved from the first orbital flights of Yuri Gagarin in April 1961 and John Glenn in February 1962 to Apollo landings on the Moon starting on 20 July 1969. Planetary exploration with unmanned spacecraft began with Mariner II flying past Venus in December 1962; and, by 1971, both American and Soviet spacecraft had conducted initial explorations of that planet and Mars. Earth satellites had progressed from the simple flights of the early Sputniks and Explorers to operational communication spacecraft in synchronous orbit, operational weather satellites and scientific satellites in orbits ranging from near Earth to lunar distances. It was, indeed, a decade of space achievements and the International Astronautical Congresses reflected the interest and excitement of space exploration. During the decade they were held at the following venues: 1961, Washington; 1962, Varna; 1963, Paris; 1964, Warsaw; 1965, Athens; 1966, Madrid; 1967, Belgrade; 1968, New York; 1969, Mar del Plata; and 1970, Constance. The variety of localities indicates the extent of membership of the International Astronautical Federation and the support that it was receiving. Attendance at these congresses ranged from 350 to 1000 delegates. The format of each congress comprised welcoming and social events organized by the host country, technical sessions covering all areas of space interest, plenary sessions devoted to specific topics of general interest and, in many cases, exhibit areas displaying space hardware and the results of recent research and experiments.