Astronomy and Space Exploration
- March 14 - Jodrell Bank Observatory in England makes radio contact with the U.S. Pioneer 5 probe over a distance of 407,000 miles (655,000 km).
- April–July - Cornell University astronomer Frank Drake begins searching for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence with Project Ozma at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory at Green Bank, West Virginia.
- April 13 - The United States launches navigation satellite Transit I-b.
- May 15 - Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 4 into Earth orbit.
- June 3 - British-born American theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson proposes the idea of Dyson spheres.
- August 12 - First experimental Project Echo passive communications satellite goes into orbit.
- August 19 - Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 5 with the dogs Belka and Strelka, forty mice, two rats and a variety of plants. The spacecraft will return to earth the next day and all animals will be recovered safely.
- Dutch mathematician Hans Freudenthal invents the artificial language Lincos, intended for communication with extraterrestrial intelligence.
Read more about this topic: 1960 In Science
Famous quotes containing the words astronomy, space and/or exploration:
“It is noticed, that the consideration of the great periods and spaces of astronomy induces a dignity of mind, and an indifference to death.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Art and power will go on as they have done,—will make day out of night, time out of space, and space out of time.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“For women who do not love us, as for the “disappeared”, knowing that we no longer have any hope does not prevent us form continuing to wait. We live on our guard, on watch; women whose son has gone asea on a dangerous exploration imagine at any minute, although it has long been certain that he has perished, that he will enter, miraculously saved, and healthy.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)