500th Anniversary of Humanity's First Circumnavigation of Earth

Five hundred years ago the first “orbit” of planet Earth, achieved in the spirit of the first human voyages to the Moon fifty years ago, was undertaken by the Portuguese explorer Magellan, using mission design and exploration guiding principles that remain in force today as we pursue the exploration of space.

The connections between what Magellan and his team achieved 500 years ago and the past 60 years of space exploration are strong, with catalytic impact as we move forward in our exploration of the universe in the next 50 years. The linkages between Renaissance era exploration by sea and today’s space missions inspires us to look back in order to look forward, as we imagine our next voyages in space, back to the Moon and onto Mars with women and men from planet Earth making the leap from sea to space.

Music Credit: Via Killer Tracks, GTP56_Stunt_Kite, ICON023_Anything_is_Possible, ATMOS402_Spiralling_Spheres

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Video producer: Richard Melnick