Space history at a glance (part 1)

Britain’s contribution to space science began hundreds of years before Prime Minister Harold Macmillan announced a new British space research programme in 1959.
For centuries our scientists and astronomers have shaped how the world is seen and they continue to add to our knowledge of the Universe through space missions and ground-based science.
The following list highlights some of the most important
discoveries for science as well as key missions involving British scientists and engineers.
1668 - Sir Isaac Newton builds the first reflecting telescope. Over 300 years later, Newton's invention forms the basis of the Hubble Space Telescope.
1675 - John Flamsteed becomes the first Astronomer Royal at The Royal Observatory in Greenwich.
1687 - Newton publishes Principia Mathematica, possibly the most important book in the history of science. It contains his theory of universal gravitation, marking the beginning of modern astronomy.
1705 - Edmund Halley correctly predicts that a comet seen in 1682 would reappear in 1758. The comet, now named after Halley, is visible from Earth every 7576 years. It featured in the famous Bayeux Tapestry, was last seen from Earth in 1986 and observed in close-up by ESA’s Giotto spacecraft. The comet will return in 2061.
1781 - William Herschel, a German musician who spent his whole life in England, discovers the planet Uranus with a mirror telescope of his own creation.
1798 - Henry Cavendish, an English chemist and physicist, first measures the force of gravity between two objects.
1846 - Calculations made by English mathematician John Couch Adams enable Johann Galle to see Neptune for the first time.