Beyond a few million kilometers from the Earth, but still in the region of the Earth's orbit, a prediction of the flux of dust is even more unreliable.

In 1989, the European Space Agency's Hipparcos satellite took astrometry into orbit, where it could be less affected by mechanical forces of the Earth and optical distortions from its atmosphere.

Kennedy's goal was accomplished on the Apollo 11 mission when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed their Lunar Module ( LM ) on the Moon on July 20, 1969 and walked on its surface while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit in the command spacecraft, and all three landed safely on Earth on July 24.

It stands alone in sending manned missions beyond low Earth orbit ; Apollo 8 was the first manned spacecraft to orbit another celestial body, while the final Apollo 17 mission marked the sixth Moon landing and the ninth manned mission beyond low Earth orbit.

Notable as one of the first attempted launches beyond Earth orbit by any country.

* 1966 – Lunar Orbiter 1 takes the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the Moon.

The first and second stages of the Saturn V rocket performed nominally ; the spacecraft, along with the mission's three crew members aboard, successfully entered orbit around Earth just under twelve minutes after lift-off.

Just under five hours later, on the CSM's 65th orbit around the Moon, its Service Propulsion System main engine was reignited to propel the craft on a trajectory that would return it to Earth.

It was discovered in 1725 and later explained by the third Astronomer Royal, James Bradley, who attributed it to the finite speed of light and the motion of Earth in its orbit around the Sun.

Let us suppose ( as is the practical case ) that the star is sufficiently distant that all light from the star travels in parallel paths to the Earth observer, regardless of where the Earth is in its orbit.

This in turn results in the slowing down of the rotation rate of Earth ( at about 42 nsec / day ), and in gradual increase of the radius of Moon's orbit ( at ~ 4. 5 cm / year rate ).

* 1999 – NASA launches into orbit the Terra platform carrying five Earth Observation instruments, including ASTER, CERES, MISR, MODIS and MOPITT.

* 1957 – Project Vanguard: A launchpad explosion of Vanguard TV3 thwarts the first United States attempt to launch a satellite into Earth orbit.

His first action is to trigger a nuclear weapon in orbit around the Earth, in order to absorb the energy contained within for his own use.

The Earth completes its orbit and the Sun traces its entire path in a little over year | 365 days.

The ecliptic is the apparent path of the Sun on the celestial sphere as seen from the Earth's center, and also the plane of this path, which is coplanar with the orbit of the Earth around the Sun.

Also, the Earth does not actually orbit the Sun, but the Solar System barycenter, therefore an alternate definition of the ecliptic is the mean plane of the orbit of Earth-Moon barycenter around the Solar System barycenter.

A seventh landing mission, the 1970 Apollo 13 flight, failed in transit to the Moon when an oxygen tank explosion disabled the command spacecraft's propulsion and life support, forcing the crew to use the Lunar Module as a " lifeboat " for these functions to return to Earth safely.

By the time mission control issued the wake-up call to the crew for flight day two, the spacecraft was approximately away from the Earth, traveling at about.

After opening the hatch and reuniting with Mattingly, the crew transferred the samples Young and Duke had collected on the surface into the CSM for transfer to Earth.

When the wake-up call was issued to the Apollo 16 crew for their final day in space by capsule communicator Tony England, the spacecraft was about out from Earth, traveling just over.

The crew takes the photograph known as The Blue Marble as they leave the Earth.

* 1974 – After 84 days in space, the crew of Skylab 4, the last crew to visit American space station Skylab, returns to Earth.

In a desperate battle, the crew of the SY-3 destroy the Kilaak's lunar outpost and return the alien control system to Earth.

Some 26 months after the Earth Return Vehicle is originally launched from Earth, a second vehicle, the " Mars Habitat Unit ", would be launched on a 6-month long low energy transfer trajectory to Mars, and would carry a crew of four astronauts ( the minimum number required so that the team can be split in two without leaving anyone alone ).

Once on Mars, the crew would spend 18 months on the surface, carrying out a range of scientific research, aided by a small rover vehicle carried aboard their Mars Habitat Unit, and powered by the methane produced by the Earth Return Vehicle.

To return, the crew would use the Earth Return Vehicle, leaving the Mars Habitat Unit for the possible use of subsequent explorers.

The upper stage comprises the living accommodation for the crew during their six-month return trip to Earth from Mars.

A crew of explorers from Earth visit a Mars inhabited by reptilian mermen, savage dwarf-like beings with long, tentacled arms, bat-men and a race of civilized macrocephalic gnomes.

* In Die Erde is nah: die Marsexpedition ( 1970 ), by Ludek Pesek, published in English as The Earth is Near ( 1973 ), a crew of twenty men undertake the first manned mission to Mars, and after landing in the wrong area due to computer malfunction and / or human error, have to cope with vicious sand storms, and a long trek undertaken in vehicles to their original intended area of exploration.

View of the Earth, taken in 1972 by the Apollo 17 astronaut crew.

* 1964 – The Soviet Union launches the Voskhod 1 into Earth orbit as the first spacecraft with a multi-person crew and the first flight without space suits

The first two seasons of Star Trek: Enterprise depict the exploration of interstellar space by the crew of an Earth ship able to go farther and faster into outer space than any humans had previously gone, due to the breaking of the Warp 5 barrier that made interstellar travel feasible, analogous to the Bell X-1 breaking the sound barrier.

He was attending the wedding of William Riker and Deanna Troi on Earth and was traveling to Betazed with the Enterprise crew for the second wedding ceremony when the ship was diverted to investigate positronic signals from a system near the Romulan border.

She can no longer remain with Voyager, but before leaving, she uses her newly acquired powers to hurl Voyager and crew safely beyond Borg space, 9, 500 light-years closer to Earth.

In the film's plot, the crew of the USS Enterprise-E travel from the 24th to 21st century to save their future after the cybernetic Borg conquered Earth by changing the timeline.

Learning that the fleet is losing the battle, the Enterprise crew disobeys orders and heads for Earth, where a single, damaged Borg Cube opposes a group of Starfleet vessels.

Picard orders the Enterprise to follow it, and as they are enveloped in the vortex, the crew briefly glimpses an Earth populated entirely by Borg.

* In D. F. Jones's 1977 novel Colossus and the Crab, Martian life predated life on Earth, but faced a process of devolution as conditions on the planet worsened.

The organization faced overwhelming scientific evidence and public opinion that maintained that the Earth is a sphere.

The leadership of Asterome are now faced with several severe challenges: Handling the influx of refugees, removing any Bulerite used in the construction of Asterome, consolidating their resources now that the Earth can no longer supply them with finished goods, and preventing increasingly aggressive attempts by the outer colonies and remnants of Earth's government to take control and plunder Asterome.

At the beginning of the conflict he is faced with the decision to invade Earth or return home to ask for directions ( the latter apparently having a humiliating and degrading connotation.

) However, he starts to grow discouraged as he is faced with a significantly more technologically advanced species than initial reports suggested: The most recent intelligence on Earth ( Tosev-3 as labeled by the Race ) dated back to the Middle Ages.

During this downtime, the band was faced with issues that almost resulted in them breaking-up, but eventually Iced Earth resurfaced with Burnt Offerings.

Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth has become a handbook for political leaders faced with decolonization.

The REF had faced the Invid before but it is soon realized that the Invid have been evolving on Earth and consequently, their military abilities and strength has grown considerably.

" At the conclusion of Season 9, Clark, faced with the threat of Zod causing a war between Earth and the Kandorians, used another Kryptonian artifact known as the " Book of Rao " to transport all the Kryptonians on Earth to another planet where they could live and rebuild Krypton in peace, Clark managing to escape relocation due to him being injured by a Blue Kryptonite blade that negated his powers until the transportation effect had passed and Lois removed the blade from his side.

The modern Transformers ' first encounter with the Quintessons came in the Earth year 2005 ( during the events of The Transformers: The Movie ), when Hot Rod, Kup and the Dinobots were stranded on the planet and faced Quintesson justice, only able to escape when Grimlock intimidated the Sharkticons into revolting, and Wheelie led the marooned Autobots to a Quintesson ship to allow them to get off the planet.

Construction of the laboratory and second tunnel faced fierce opposition from Italian and international environmental groups including Pro Natura, LIPU and Club Alpino Italiano as well as the World Wildlife Federation and WWF Italia, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth.

The Tenctonese are faced with a deadly new bacteria created by a Purist group determined to rid the Earth of all Newcomers.

In legend, Gaozu once promised Han Xin that if he " faced Heaven and stood firm on Earth " ( 頂天立地 ; i. e. remained loyal ) to the Han Dynasty, he would not have Han Xin killed by any weapon used by soldiers.

Jack's return to Earth happened during the period known as the Kang War, and Jack of Hearts was accepted as a member of the Avengers, becoming the fifty-second superhero to join the team, though the traditional welcoming ceremony for new Avengers were deferred given the nature of the crisis they faced.

When the Robotech Masters arrived at Earth in 2029 to capture the protoculture matrix in the remains of the SDF-1, the United Earth Forces ( UEF ) and the ASC were faced with the difficult task of fighting an enemy that had superior technology and numbers.

Just before Earth was found, Galactica faced the Cylons in a final climactic battle and destroyed them forever.

When the Dilgar attack fleet emerged from hyperspace, instead of facing a small colonial garrison, they faced more than 600 Earth warships and thousands of Starfury fighters.

Takion predicted that the Earth faced a grave threat.

In this 2008 exhibit, visitors learned that turtles and tortoises have lived on Earth for about 300 million years, long before the dinosaurs were around, but now some turtles are faced with the threat of extinction due to pollution, habitat loss and global climate change.

They then faced the Kree Armada, who had been ordered by the resurrected Kree Supreme Intelligence to wipe out Earth and the Inhumans.

Following the robot's defeat, Hammerstein was trapped under the Cursed Earth for decades before emerging, whereupon he faced off against Judge Dredd.

Responsible for almost every threat " the Team " faced in the season, they acted as the Board of Directors for Project Cadmus, developed the Kobra-made Blockbuster / Venom chemical, brought New Genesis technology to Earth with the help of their as-yet-unrevealed Partner, brokered peace in Rhelasia, placed Hugo Strange in power at Belle Reve prison, established the Injustice League as their proxies to fool the hero community into believing the group was defeated, cloned Roy Harper and used him to infiltrate the Justice League, and enslaved the Justice League to initiate an attack on the planet Rimbor to provoke an alien attack on Earth.