Editing 1959 in science (section)

==Astronomy and space exploration==
* January 2 – Soviet spacecraft ''[[Luna 1]]'' is launched by a [[Vostok (rocket family)|Vostok rocket]] from the [[Baikonur Cosmodrome]]; the first man-made object to attain [[escape velocity]], it is intended to impact Earth's [[Moon]], but an error causes it instead to become the first spacecraft to fly by the Moon and the first man-made object to enter [[heliocentric orbit]].
* February 6 – At [[Cape Canaveral]], Florida, the first successful test firing of a [[Titan (rocket family)|Titan]] [[intercontinental ballistic missile]] is accomplished.
* February 17 – [[Vanguard 2]], the first [[weather satellite]], is launched to measure [[cloud cover]] for the [[United States Navy]].
* March 3 – Lunar probe [[Pioneer 4]] becomes the first American object to escape dominance by Earth's gravity.
* April 9 – [[NASA]] announces its selection of seven [[Aviator#Military|military pilots]] to become the first United States [[astronaut]]s, later known as the '[[Mercury Seven]]'.
* May 28 – [[PGM-19 Jupiter#Biological flights|Jupiter AM-18]] rocket launches two primates, [[Miss Baker]] and Miss Able, into space from [[Cape Canaveral Air Force Station|Cape Canaveral]] in the United States along with living microorganisms and plant seeds. Successful recovery makes them the first living beings to return safely to Earth after space flight.
* June 25 – A KH-1 [[Corona (satellite)|Corona satellite]], believed to be the first operational spy satellite, is launched as science mission "Discoverer 4" from [[Vandenberg Air Force Base]], California, aboard a [[Thor-Agena]] rocket.
* July 7 – At 14:28 UT [[Venus]] [[Occultation|occults]] the star [[Regulus]]. The rare event (which will next occur on October 1, 2044) is used to determine the diameter of Venus and the structure of Venus' atmosphere.
* August 7 – The United States launches the [[Explorer 6]] satellite from the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral.
* August 14 – [[Explorer 6]] sends the first picture of Earth from orbit.
* September 14 – Soviet spacecraft ''[[Luna 2]]'' becomes the first man-made object to crash on Earth's Moon.
* September 19 – [[Giuseppe Cocconi]] and [[Philip Morrison]] establish the scientific rationale for [[SETI]] with the publishing of their seminal paper "Searching for Interstellar Communications" in ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]''.
* October 7 – Russian probe ''[[Luna 3]]'' sends back the first images of the far side of Earth's Moon.
* October 13 – The United States launches research satellite [[Explorer 7]].
* November 24 – [[Yardymli meteorite]] makes a landfall in [[Azerbaijan]].
* December 4 – [[Little Joe 2]], a mission in the [[Mercury program]], carries [[Monkeys and apes in space|Sam]], a rhesus macaque monkey, close to the edge of space.
* [[Coma Berenicids]] discovered.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://meteorshowersonline.com/showers/coma_berenicids.html|title=Coma Berenicids|work=Meteor Showers Online|accessdate=2011-11-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101125061207/http://meteorshowersonline.com/showers/coma_berenicids.html|archive-date=2010-11-25|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* First successful test of a [[nuclear thermal rocket]] engine, as part of [[Project Rover]] at [[Los Alamos National Laboratory]] in the United States under [[Raemer Schreiber]].<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|url= https://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/31/us/re-schreiber-88-nuclear-bomb-physicist.html|accessdate=2013-10-04|title=R. E. Schreiber, 88, Nuclear Bomb Physicist|first=Eric|last=Pace|date=31 December 1998}}</ref>