The year 1959 in
science and
technology involved some significant events, listed below.
Astronomy and space exploration
January 2 – Soviet spacecraft Luna 1 is launched by a
Vostok rocket from the
Baikonur Cosmodrome; the first man-made object to attain
escape velocity, it is intended to impact Earth's
Moon, but an error causes it instead to become the first spacecraft to fly by the Moon and the first man-made object to enter
heliocentric orbit.
May 28 –
Jupiter AM-18 rocket launches two primates,
Miss Baker and Miss Able, into space from
Cape Canaveral in the United States along with living microorganisms and plant seeds. Successful recovery makes them the first living beings to return safely to Earth after space flight.
June 25 – A KH-1
Corona satellite, believed to be the first operational spy satellite, is launched as science mission "Discoverer 4" from
Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, aboard a
Thor-Agena rocket.
July 7 – At 14:28 UT
Venusoccults the star
Regulus. The rare event (which will next occur on October 1, 2044) is used to determine the diameter of Venus and the structure of Venus' atmosphere.
August 7 – The United States launches the
Explorer 6 satellite from the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral.
August 14 –
Explorer 6 sends the first picture of Earth from orbit.
September 14 – Soviet spacecraft Luna 2 becomes the first man-made object to crash on Earth's Moon.
September 19 –
Giuseppe Cocconi and
Philip Morrison establish the scientific rationale for
SETI with the publishing of their seminal paper "Searching for Interstellar Communications" in Nature.
October 7 – Russian probe Luna 3 sends back the first images of the far side of Earth's Moon.
October 13 – The United States launches
Explorer 7.
First
femur of
Arlington Springs Man is found on
Santa Rosa Island, California, by Phil C. Orr. The remains are subsequently dated to 13,000 years BP, making them potentially the oldest known human remains in North America.
^Grassé, P.-P. (1959). "La reconstruction du nid et les coordinations inter-individuelles chez Belicositermes natalensis et Cubitermes sp. La théorie de la Stigmergie: Essai d'interprétation du comportement des termites constructeurs". Insectes Sociaux (6): 41–80.
^McLaughlin, Thomas P.; et al. (May 2000).
"A Review of Criticality Accidents"(PDF). CSRIC.
Los Alamos National Laboratory. p. 96. Archived from
the original(PDF) on 2007-09-26. Radiation doses were intense, being estimated at 205, 320, 410, 415, 422, and 433
rem.74 Of the six persons present, one died and the other five recovered after severe cases of radiation sickness.
^Johnston, Wm. Robert (2005-09-14).
"Vinca reactor accident, 1958". Database of radiological incidents and related events – Johnston's Archive. Retrieved 2012-07-02.
^Gould, R. Gordon (1959). "The LASER, Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation". In Franken, P. A.; Sands, R. H. (eds.). The Ann Arbor Conference on Optical Pumping, the University of Michigan, 15 June through 18 June 1959. p. 128.
OCLC02460155.
^Challoner, Jack, ed. (2009). 1001 Inventions That Changed the World. London: Cassell. p. 754.
ISBN978-1-84403-611-0.
^Graham, Lois (1959). Effect of adding a combustible to atmosphere surrounding diffusion flame (Thesis).
OCLC45226021.
The year 1959 in
science and
technology involved some significant events, listed below.
Astronomy and space exploration
January 2 – Soviet spacecraft Luna 1 is launched by a
Vostok rocket from the
Baikonur Cosmodrome; the first man-made object to attain
escape velocity, it is intended to impact Earth's
Moon, but an error causes it instead to become the first spacecraft to fly by the Moon and the first man-made object to enter
heliocentric orbit.
May 28 –
Jupiter AM-18 rocket launches two primates,
Miss Baker and Miss Able, into space from
Cape Canaveral in the United States along with living microorganisms and plant seeds. Successful recovery makes them the first living beings to return safely to Earth after space flight.
June 25 – A KH-1
Corona satellite, believed to be the first operational spy satellite, is launched as science mission "Discoverer 4" from
Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, aboard a
Thor-Agena rocket.
July 7 – At 14:28 UT
Venusoccults the star
Regulus. The rare event (which will next occur on October 1, 2044) is used to determine the diameter of Venus and the structure of Venus' atmosphere.
August 7 – The United States launches the
Explorer 6 satellite from the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral.
August 14 –
Explorer 6 sends the first picture of Earth from orbit.
September 14 – Soviet spacecraft Luna 2 becomes the first man-made object to crash on Earth's Moon.
September 19 –
Giuseppe Cocconi and
Philip Morrison establish the scientific rationale for
SETI with the publishing of their seminal paper "Searching for Interstellar Communications" in Nature.
October 7 – Russian probe Luna 3 sends back the first images of the far side of Earth's Moon.
October 13 – The United States launches
Explorer 7.
First
femur of
Arlington Springs Man is found on
Santa Rosa Island, California, by Phil C. Orr. The remains are subsequently dated to 13,000 years BP, making them potentially the oldest known human remains in North America.
^Grassé, P.-P. (1959). "La reconstruction du nid et les coordinations inter-individuelles chez Belicositermes natalensis et Cubitermes sp. La théorie de la Stigmergie: Essai d'interprétation du comportement des termites constructeurs". Insectes Sociaux (6): 41–80.
^McLaughlin, Thomas P.; et al. (May 2000).
"A Review of Criticality Accidents"(PDF). CSRIC.
Los Alamos National Laboratory. p. 96. Archived from
the original(PDF) on 2007-09-26. Radiation doses were intense, being estimated at 205, 320, 410, 415, 422, and 433
rem.74 Of the six persons present, one died and the other five recovered after severe cases of radiation sickness.
^Johnston, Wm. Robert (2005-09-14).
"Vinca reactor accident, 1958". Database of radiological incidents and related events – Johnston's Archive. Retrieved 2012-07-02.
^Gould, R. Gordon (1959). "The LASER, Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation". In Franken, P. A.; Sands, R. H. (eds.). The Ann Arbor Conference on Optical Pumping, the University of Michigan, 15 June through 18 June 1959. p. 128.
OCLC02460155.
^Challoner, Jack, ed. (2009). 1001 Inventions That Changed the World. London: Cassell. p. 754.
ISBN978-1-84403-611-0.
^Graham, Lois (1959). Effect of adding a combustible to atmosphere surrounding diffusion flame (Thesis).
OCLC45226021.