Spacecraft : 100 Iconic Rockets, Shuttles, and Satellites That Put Us in Space

In 1957, the world looked on with both uncertainty and amazement as the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first manmade orbiter. Sputnik 1 would spend three months circling Earth every 98 minutes and covering 71 million miles in the process. The world's space programs have gone far (literally and figuratively) since then, and the spacecraft they have developed and deployed represent almost unthinkable advances for such a relatively short period.