1972 in science

The year 1972 in science and technology included many events, some of which are listed below.

Astronomy and space exploration

• January 5 – President of the United States Richard Nixon orders the development of a space shuttle program.
• February 4 – Mariner 9 sends pictures from Mars
• February 21 – The Soviet unmanned spaceship Luna 20 lands on the Moon.
• March 2 – Launch of Pioneer 10 spacecraft.
• April 16 – Apollo 16 launched
• July 23 – The United States launches Landsat 1, first Earth-resources satellite.

Computer science

• Cray Research founded

Technology

• February 1 – First scientific hand-held calculator (HP-35) introduced (price $395)

Awards

• Nobel Prizes
  • Physics – John Bardeen, Leon Neil Cooper, John Robert Schrieffer
  • Chemistry – Christian B. Anfinsen, Stanford Moore, William H. Stein
  • Medicine – Gerald Edelman, Rodney R Porter
• Turing Award – Edsger Dijkstra

Births

Deaths

• October 1 – Louis Leakey (d. 1903 in science), British paleontologist.