Overview

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This course provides a view of the history of spaceflight, from early writings telling of human's fascination of space through the early Russian and American space stations. Developed as an interesting and entertaining slice of space history that is accessible to anyone with an interest in human spaceflight

Syllabus

Introduction

A welcome video and course syllabus

Unit 1 - Apollo 11 Moon Landing

Learn about the Apollo 11 moon landing with interesting interviews with the astronauts who made history

Unit 2 - Humankind’s Musings on Space Travel

Learn about how previous generations thought about the possibility of space travel

Unit 3 - Early Rocketry

Learn about how rockets were developed from the ancient Chinese through today's powerful rockets

Unit 4 - Early Soviet Space Program

Learn about steps the Soviet Union took to launch the first man in space

Unit 5 - Mercury Program

Learn about the United State's first efforts to put a human in space

Unit 6 - Gemini Program

Learn about how NASA refined their human space flight program in preparation for a moon landing

Unit 7 - Apollo Program

Learn about the last technical innovations required to land a human on the moon

Unit 8 - Early Space Stations

Learn about how the early steps taken to send humans in space for extended missions

Unit 9 - Soviet - US Collaboration in Space

Learn how the Soviet Union and US began to learn to collaborate in space

Unit 10 - Soviet and Russian Mir Space Station

Learn about activities on the Russian Mir space station and the extensive activities with the Americans

Unit 11 - Spaceflight Disasters

Learn about the various disasters that occur during the period of human spaceflight

Taught by

Dr. Chuck Layne

Reviews

4.0 rating, based on 1 Class Central review

4.4 rating at Coursera based on 427 ratings

Start your review of A Brief History of Human Spaceflight

Kristina Šekrst

I've been waiting for a course like this for quite a while, since I've always wanted to know about the history of spaceflight missions. I believe the perfect continuation would be a course on robotic spacecraft missions as well. The part 2 of this c…

I've been waiting for a course like this for quite a while, since I've always wanted to know about the history of spaceflight missions. I believe the perfect continuation would be a course on robotic spacecraft missions as well. The part 2 of this course has been announced, and a part about spaceflight catastrophes seems to fall in it, which is often referenced in class.

The course goes over Soviet and American space expeditions: Vostok, Voshod, Soyuz, Mercury, Gemini, Apollo etc. Its strength lies in great footages, TV streams and interviews. Its flaws are in the fact that course texts are often presented on the slides without any voiceover, and it's difficult to read them. Every lesson is usually a 45-minute lecture, but it's more like a documentary. Technical issues like "pause now and go to quiz 3" should be resolved for the next run, or the videos should be splitted accordingly.

The instructor is very active in the forums, but the lectures are more in a video/TV format with various voiceovers, rather than the traditional style. I guess this is an advantage. The instructor has also created Prezis along with PDFs, which is a nice touch, and a good review material. However, this course has gone straight to an on-demand one, and I believe that it could work better in a live session.

Taught by

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