1980-1999 SFC

This page details the years 1980-2000 according to the timeline presented in the Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology.
 * Note: The SFC was published in 1980, so events after that date may not correspond to real-life history.

1980
Space shuttle flights begin as available payload space is booked full. Early missions will demonstrate the many uses of the gravity-free vacuum of space.

1982
Lunar Polar Orbiter transmits data concerning surface chemistry and heat flow on the moon.

Project Galileo departs from Earth orbit for Jupiter. It will descend into the Jovian atmosphere behind a heat shield, radioing back data until the increasing pressure crushes the hull, about 30 minutes after entry.

1983
The Space Telescope is orbited. This 2.4m aperture optical telescope, working above atmospheric turbulence, will revolutionize man's view of the universe.

The Venus Atmospheric Balloon enters the Venusian atmosphere, sending back data from its gondola of scientific instruments; it circles the planet on the stratospheric winds for several days.

1985
Probe flies by Halley's Comet with a battery of instruments that measure its tenuous tail, and continues on to encounter comet Tempel 2 in 1988.

1986
Multiple Asteroid Rendezvous Mission will view these bodies in space close-up with an eye on the future mining of these interplanetary travelers.

1988
Mars Sample Return Probe is launched. It will retrieve soil and rocks for analysis back on Earth when it returns in 1991.

1991
The Saturn Dual Probe arrives at the planet, with the satellite going into orbit as the descent stage relays information as it enters the planet's atmosphere.

1992
The space shuttle completes its twelve-year series so successfully, man will forever be in space.

1994
Manned missions to the moon begin again with several nations taking part. Cooperating as never before, they have a goal of building a permanent moon base by the turn of the century.

1996
The DY-100 is the first mass-produced space ship capable of short interplanetary travel (Earth-moon). In an uprated mode, it will be able to take men to Mars.

1998
Goddard Moonbase, the first large scale international space project, will provide accommodations for 70 in the fields of space research and industry.

1999
Asteroid Belt Lander reveals asteroids to be rich in important raw materials for further space industrialization.