Titan has a diameter roughly 50% larger than Earth's moon and is 80% more massive. It is the second-largest moon in the Solar System, after Jupiter's moon Ganymede, and it is larger by volume than the smallest planet, Mercury, although only half as massive
Vanguard 1 or Vanguard I was the fourth artificial satellite launched, and the oldest still orbiting Earth, though there is no longer any communication with it.
Launched on March 17, 1958, Vanguard I celebrated its 50th anniversary in space in 2008. Having completed over 200,000 orbits of the Earth, it is expected to remain in orbit for up to 2000 years. Its current apogee is almost 2500 miles (4000 km) and its perigee about 400 miles (650 km). It completes an orbit of the Earth every 132 minutes.
The Moon is the oldest (and only known natural) satellite at an estimated age of 4.5 billion years. Its perigee and apogee are about 223,000miles (360,000km) and 252,000miles (406,000km) respectively. It completes one orbit of the Earth every 27.3 days.
Earth. We shoot 'em up there all the time. Weather satellites, spy satellites, communications satellites ... oh, and there's the ol' moon up there, too. But we humans didn't shoot that one up there.
What? You thought I'd say Jupiter or Saturn?
Fie.
...the Devil loves you, too.
DLM@193-46-5551
Natural satellites have been around for a very long time; we don't know which ones are "oldest". The biggest and closest natural satellite, the one that even the very first humans would have noticed right away, is the Moon.
The the fastest satellite and the fastest manmade object is Helios-B (Helios 2).
Its speedrecord is 252792 km/h or about 0.02% of the speed of light.
With respect to only the Earth, the Moon is the largest satellite. With respect to the solar system, Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter, is the largest.
I think it's the International Space Station(ISS).
The biggest satellite in the whole Solar System is Ganymede, which is one of Jupiter's moons.
The first artificial satellite to successfully achieve earth orbit was Sputnik-1, launched by the USSR in October, 1957.
A satellite in orbit around the Earth does not fall into the Earth because the force of Gravity between the satellite and Earth is exactly balanced by the centripetal reaction force of the satellite constantly changing direction. Think of driving in a car in a straight line. Now, think about turning right. You will be pulled towards the left. Well, actually, you are going in a straight line and the car is moving to the right. That causes you to drift towards the left. You encounter the door, and now you are going to the right as well. The door is pushing on you towards the right, and you are pushing towards the left against the door. The force pushing you towards the right is sort of like Gravity, while the force you are pushing on the door to the left is your centripetal reaction force. Since you are going in a constant speed circle, these two forces are balanced. Its the same type of thing as a satellite.
This can vary depending on the function of the satellite. In general, the satellite is launched by unmanned rockets or from the space shuttle payload bay at the correct altitude. After the satellite is released from the launch vehicle, the speed of a satellite is adjusted so that the rate at which it is being pulled back toward the earth is the same as the rate at which the earth is turning underneath it. So it is continually falling but not hitting the earth. This is what is also happening to the space shuttle when in earth orbit and the ISS. Satellites in geostationary orbit - where they appear to remain over a single point on the earth - must have a circular orbit for this to occur. That is why they are placed over the equator. Any other orbit is elliptical in shape. The problem that arises is that the earth is not perfectly round, even at the equator, and so the orbit of geostationary satellites must be adjusted every two weeks to compensate for this. The engines are remotely fired for the correct amount of time. When the fuel runs out, this can no longer be done. Orbital mechanics is a complex and detailed concept to understand. See some of the Web Links to the left.
In 2016, the spinning, solar-powered Juno spacecraft will reach Jupiter and enter into a highly elliptical polar orbit that skims only 5000 kilometers above the planet's atmosphere. Building on the results of previous missions, Juno will provide new information to help us determine how, when and where this giant planet formed
Currently any satellite must be launched on a rocket to reach space, though ideas for non-rocket launch exist.
Yes, the Apollo 8 mission of December 1968 was a success. It had the first manned spacecraft to leave earth orbit, the first manned spacecraft to reach the moon and to orbit another celestial body; enabled the first direct views of the far side of the moon, and generated one of spaceflights most famous photographs, that of earthrise during lunar orbit. It paved the way for remaining missions in the Apollo program including the later lunar landing of Apollo 11. The three crew, Borman, Lovell and Anders, completed mission objectives and returned safely to Earth.
The first man made satellite to orbit the Earth was Sputnik 1, launched on 4th October 1957 by the Soviet Union Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet pilot, was the first man to reach orbit on 12th April 1961.
Sputnik was the first satellite to orbit the Earth. It was Russian and transmitted a radio signal. It is possible that a earlier satellite could be in orbit, without any communications this would be the same as a cannon shell etc. So long as an object can reach orbit it will constantly drop towards the planet and because the planet is round the object will rotate around being pulled by gravity
The Soviet Sputnik 1. launched October 4, 1957, was the first satellite to orbit the earth. Many other rockets reached space before that, but they were all suborbital military flights.
Columbia
It takes 9 years, and the first satellite will reach Pluto in 2015. The satellite was launched on January 9, 2006. I cannot wait till we find out the deep secrets of Pluto...
A satellite can be launched into orbit simply by launching it out of the Earth's atmosphere. To do so, the object will need to reach escape velocity, calculated by the formula v = sqrt(2GM/r), where G is the universal gravitational constant, M is the mass of the earth, and r is the distance from the center of the earth.
ap0llo 13
The first rocket to reach space was a V-2 (V-4)rocket launched in 1942 by the Germans during World War II. The first space satellite to orbit the Earth was Sputnik 1 in 1957. The first manned spacecraft was the Vostok I, which carried Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into Earth orbit on April 12, 1961.
Explorer I (the first US satellite to orbit the Earth) was launched on January 31, 1958, and discovered the radiation belts known as the Van Allen Belt. Additional satellites were launched to study the radiation. Unfortunately Explorer 2 (March 5, 1958) failed to reach orbit. Explorer 3, also known as Gamma 1, was successfuly orbited on March 26, 1958, becoming the second US satellite in space.
The first satellite was called Sputnik. The first spaceship to carry a large living organism was called Sputnik II, or "Muttnik" since the creature on board was a small dog named Laika. The Russian Vostok space craft carried the first human, Yuri Gagarin, into earth's orbit. The first American to reach space, Alan Shephard, flew aboard the Mercury capsule on a Redstone rocket named "Freedom 7." He did not, however, orbit the earth.
The velocity of rocket must reach 16x than the gravitational force of Earth to establish an orbit in space.
No person has ever made it past the orbit of the Moon.