... Orbits in Space . ... The ion rocket is another means of providing thrust, more gradually but also more efficiently than a conventional rocket. ... As in the nuclear rocket, the energy which propels the xenon jet comes from a different source; here it is electrical energy from solar cells. ... The XIPS ("zips") ion engine developed by the Hughes corporation was tested in the laboratory and then aboard a Russian spacecraft, launched 6 October 1997; it is the one shown on top of this page. ...

... For a timeline of the exploration of the magnetic environment of the Earth, Sun and Planets, see here . ... Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) builds the first astronomical telescope and observes for the first time craters on the Moon, satellites around Jupiter, and the way Venus goes through phases like the Moon (crescent, etc.) ... 17 December--First successful flight by the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. ... 16 March--Goddard launches his first liquid-fuel rocket. ...

Mariner 10 . ... Mariner 10 was the seventh successful launch in the Mariner spacecraft series, and the first to use the gravitational pull of one planet ( Venus ) to reach another ( Mercury ). ... It measured 1.39 meters (4.56 feet) diagonally and 0.457 meters (1.5 feet) in depth. ... Views of Mariner 10 . ... Venus/Mercury Mission . ... Launched in November 1973, this mission provided new information about Mercury and Venus in the Mariner program's first dual-planet mission. ...

Cosmic Research, Vol. 42, No. 5, 2004, pp. 435­488. Translated from Kosmicheskie Issledovaniya, Vol. 42, No. 5, 2004, pp. 453­508. Original Russian Text Copyright © 2004 by Veselovsky, Panasyuk, Avdyushin, Bazilevskaya, Belov, Bogachev, Bogod, Bogomolov, Bothmer, Boyarchuk, Vashenyuk, Vlasov, Gnezdilov, Gorgutsa, Grechnev, Denisov, Dmitriev, Dryer, Yermolaev, Eroshenko, Zherebtsov, Zhitnik, Zhukov, Zastenker, Zelenyi, Zeldovich, Ivanov-Kholodnyi, Ignat'ev, Ishkov, Kolomiytsev, Krasheninnikov, Kudela,