Timeline of space exploration

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This is a timeline of space exploration including notable achievements and first accomplishments or major events in humanity's exploration of outer space.

Pre-20th century[]

Date	Event leading to space exploration	Country	Researcher(s)	Ref(s)
1610	First telescopic observation of the night sky: discovery of Jupiter's moons, lunar craters and the phases of Venus.	Republic of Venice	Galileo Galilei
1813	First exposition of the rocket equation based on Newton's third law of motion: Treatise on the Motion of Rockets	UK	William Moore
1840	First clear telescopic photograph of another world: the Moon.	United States	John William Draper
1845	First proper observation of other galaxies which are termed "whirlpool nebulae".	UK	William Parsons
1861	A Journey Through Space makes first proposal of using rockets for space flight	UK	William Leitch
1895	First proposal of space elevator	Russia	Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

1900–1956[]

Date	Mission success	Country/organization	Mission name	Ref(s)
1903	Inspired by the writings of Jules Verne, first serious work published that showed physical space exploration was theoretically possible: Исследование мировых пространств реактивными приборами (The Exploration of Cosmic Space by Means of Reaction Devices)	Russia	Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
1914	Goddard files for and is subsequently awarded U.S. patents on multistage and liquid-fueled rockets	United States	Robert H. Goddard
1917	First observation of an extrasolar planet (exoplanet) round Van Maanen 2 although it is not recognised as such at the time.	Netherlands	Adriaan van Maanen
1919	Goddard's widely influential paper "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes" discussed solid- and liquid-fueled rocketry	United States	Robert H. Goddard
15 December 1923	Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen ("By Rocket into Planetary Space") self-published after its rejection as a doctoral thesis.	Germany	Hermann Oberth
1924	Society for Studies of Interplanetary Travel founded	USSR	Members include Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Friedrich Zander, Yuri Kondratyuk
16 March 1926	Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket	United States	Robert H. Goddard
1927	Verein für Raumschiffahrt (Society for Space Travel) formed; it includes many top European rocket scientists.	Germany
1927	Завоевание межпланетных пространств (The Conquest of Interplanetary Space) discusses rocket mechanics and orbital effects including the gravitational slingshot	USSR	Yuri Kondratyuk
1928	Das Problem der Befahrung des Weltraums – der Raketen-Motor (The Problem of Space Travel – The Rocket Motor) discusses space travel and its potential uses for scientific experiments.	Germany	Herman Potočnik
11 June 1928	Lippisch Ente, first successful rocket-powered full-size aircraft, as part of Opel RAK program	Germany	Alexander Lippisch (designer), (pilot), Fritz von Opel and Max Valier (program heads)
30 September 1929	Opel RAK.1, first successful public flight of a rocket-powered aircraft, as part of Opel RAK program	Germany	Julius Hatry (designer), Fritz von Opel (pilot and program head), Max Valier (program head)
January 1933	British Interplanetary Society founded	UK	Philip E. Cleator
20 June 1944	V-2 Rocket (MW 18014): First artificial object to cross what would later be defined as the Kármán line and hence first spaceflight in history.	Germany	Wehrmacht
October 1945	Article in Wireless World, "Extra-Terrestrial Relays — Can Rocket Stations Give Worldwide Radio Coverage?" makes first discussion of geostationary satellites as a means of communication.	UK	Arthur C. Clarke
10 May 1946	First space research flight (cosmic radiation experiments)	United States	captured and improved V-2 rocket
24 October 1946	First pictures of Earth from 105 km (65 mi)	United States	V-2	[1][2]
20 February 1947	First animals in space (fruit flies)	United States	V-2	[1][3]
24 February 1949	WAC Corporal missile mounted onto a V-2 rocket, producing the first two-stage liquid-fueled rocket, that sets a record altitude of 244 miles (392.68 kilometers).	United States	Bumper-5
20 September 1956	The first rocket to pass the Thermopause and enter the Exosphere. At 682 miles (1,097.57 km) altitude and 3,335 miles range, the 3-stage Jupiter-C breaks both records and achieves MACH 18 velocity.	United States	Jupiter-C (first launch)

1957–1959[]

Date	Mission achievements	Country/organization	Mission name	Ref(s)
21 August 1957	First intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)	USSR	R-7 Semyorka/SS-6 Sapwood
4 October 1957	First artificial satellite First signals from space	USSR	Sputnik 1
3 November 1957	First mammal in orbit, the dog Laika	USSR	Sputnik 2
31 January 1958	Confirmed existence of the Van Allen radiation belt	USA (ABMA)	Explorer 1
4 January 1959	First rocket to reach Earth escape velocity; attempt to impact the Moon's surface; missed by 5,995 kilometers (3,237 nmi) First artificial object in heliocentric orbit First detection of solar wind	USSR	Luna 1
7 August 1959	First photograph of Earth from orbit	USA (NASA)	Explorer 6
13 September 1959	First impact into the Moon First delivery of national pennants to a celestial body	USSR	Luna 2
4 October 1959	First photos of another world from space: the far side of the Moon	USSR	Luna 3

1960–1969[]

Date	Mission success	Country/organization	Mission name	Ref(s)
March 1960	First solar probe.	USA (NASA)	Pioneer 5
19 August 1960	First plants and animals to return alive from Earth orbit	USSR	Sputnik 5
10 October 1960	First probe launched to Mars (failed to reach target)	USSR	Mars 1M
31 January 1961	First Hominidae in space, first tasks performed in space; Ham (chimpanzee).	USA (NASA)	M-R 2
12 February 1961	First launch from Earth orbit of upper stage into a heliocentric orbit First mid-course corrections First spin-stabilisation	USSR	Venera 1
12 April 1961	First human spaceflight (Yuri Gagarin) First human-crewed orbital flight	USSR	Vostok 1
5 May 1961	First human-piloted space flight (Alan Shepard) First human-crewed suborbital flight First human space mission that landed with pilot still in spacecraft, thus the first complete human spaceflight by FAI definitions.	USA	Freedom 7	[4]
19 May 1961	First planetary flyby (within 100,000 km of Venus – no data returned)	USSR	Venera 1
6 August 1961	First crewed space flight lasting over twenty four hours by Gherman Titov, who is also the first to suffer from space sickness.	USSR	Vostok 2
7 March 1962	First orbital solar observatory	USA (NASA)	OSO-1
26 April 1962	First spacecraft to impact the far side of the Moon	USA (NASA)	Ranger 4	[5]
11 August 1962	First dual crewed spaceflight First communication between two crewed space vehicles in orbit.	USSR	Vostok 3 & Vostok 4
18 August 1962	First auroral research rocket launched into the ionosphere	Norway	Ferdinand 1
November 1962	First Mars flyby (11,000 km) but contact was lost	USSR	Mars 1
14 December 1962	First successful planetary flyby (Venus closest approach 34,773 kilometers)	USA (NASA)	Mariner 2
16 June 1963	First woman in space (Valentina Tereshkova)	USSR	Vostok 6
19 July 1963	First reusable crewed spacecraft (suborbital)	USA (NASA)	X-15 Flight 90
12 October 1964	First multi-person crew (3) in orbit	USSR	Voskhod 1
18 March 1965	First space walk/extra-vehicular activity (Alexei Leonov)	USSR	Voskhod 2
March 1965	First crewed spacecraft to change orbit	USA (NASA)	Gemini 3
14 July 1965	First Mars flyby (closest approach 9,846 kilometers; returned pictures)	USA (NASA)	Mariner 4
14 July 1965	First close-up photographs of another planet: Mars	USA (NASA)	Mariner 4
15 December 1965	First orbital rendezvous (parallel flight, no docking)	USA (NASA)	Gemini 6A/Gemini 7
3 February 1966	First soft landing on another world (the Moon) First photos from another world	USSR	Luna 9
1 March 1966	First impact into another planet (Venus)	USSR	Venera 3
16 March 1966	First orbital docking between two spacecraft	USA (NASA)	Gemini 8/Agena target vehicle
3 April 1966	First artificial satellite around another world (the Moon)	USSR	Luna 10
August 1966	First probe to map the Moon	USA	Lunar Orbiter 1
30 October 1967	First automated (crewless) docking	USSR	Cosmos 186/Cosmos 188
September 1968	First animals and plants to leave Earth orbit, to travel to and circle the Moon, and the first Moon mission with passengers to return safely to Earth	USSR	Zond 5
7 December 1968	First orbital ultraviolet observatory	USA (NASA)	OAO-2
21 December 1968	First piloted orbital mission of another celestial body (Moon), First Trans-Earth injection First human space mission to enter the gravitational influence of another celestial body (25 December)	USA (NASA)	Apollo 8
January 1969	First docking between two crewed spacecraft in Earth orbit, also the first crew exchange in space	USSR	Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5
January 1969	First to parachute in Venus's atmosphere, lost contact before landing.	USSR	Venera 5
23 May 1969	First docking of two crewed spacecraft around another celestial body.	USA (NASA)	Apollo 10
20 July 1969	First human on the Moon, and first space launch from a celestial body other than the Earth First sample return from the Moon.	USA (NASA)	Apollo 11
August 4, 1969	First photograph of Phobos from Space	USA (NASA)	Mariner 7
19 November 1969	First rendezvous on the surface of a celestial body	USA (NASA)	Apollo 12/Surveyor 3

1970–1980[]

Date	Mission success	Country/organization	Mission name	Ref(s)
24 September 1970	First automatic sample return from the Moon	USSR	Luna 16
17 November 1970	First lunar rover	USSR	Lunokhod 1
12 December 1970	First X-ray orbital observatory	USA (NASA)	Uhuru (satellite)
15 December 1970	First soft landing on another planet (Venus) First signals from another planet	USSR	Venera 7
19 April 1971	First space station	USSR	Salyut 1
June 1971	First crewed orbital observatory	USSR	Orion 1
14 November 1971	First to maintain orbit around another planet (Mars)	USA (NASA)	Mariner 9
27 November 1971	First impact into Mars	USSR	Mars 2
2 December 1971	First soft Mars landing First signals from Mars surface First photograph from Martian surface.	USSR	Mars 3
3 March 1972	First human made object sent on escape trajectory away from the Sun	USA (NASA)	Pioneer 10
15 July 1972	First mission to enter the asteroid belt and leave inner Solar System	USA (NASA)	Pioneer 10
15 November 1972	First orbital gamma ray observatory	USA (NASA)	SAS 2
14 May 1973	Launch of Skylab - first American space station	USA (NASA)	Skylab	[6]
3 December 1973	First Jupiter flyby (at 130,000 km)	USA (NASA)	Pioneer 10
5 February 1974	Venus flyby at 5768 kilometers, first gravitational assist manoeuvre First photograph of Venus from Space	USA (NASA)	Mariner 10
29 March 1974	First Mercury flyby at 703 kilometers	USA (NASA)	Mariner 10
30 May 1975	Formation of European Space Agency, which pools the resources of several European countries.	ESA
15 July 1975	First multinational crewed mission	USSR USA (NASA)	Apollo-Soyuz Test Project
20 October 1975	First orbit around Venus	USSR	Venera 9
22 October 1975	First successful photos from the surface of another planet (Venus)	USSR	Venera 9
17 April 1976	Closest flyby of the Sun (43.432 million kilometers) Maximum speed record among spacecraft (252,792 km/h)	USA (NASA) West Germany (DFVLR)	Helios 2
20 July 1976	First successful photos and soil samples from the surface of Mars	USA (NASA)	Viking Lander
26 January 1978	First real time remotely operated ultraviolet orbital observatory	USA (NASA) ESA UK (SERC)	International Ultraviolet Explorer
4 December 1978	First extended (multi-year) orbital exploration of Venus from 1978 to 1992	USA (NASA)	Pioneer Venus Orbiter
5 March 1979	Jupiter flyby (closest approach 349,000 km) encounters with Five Jovian moons, discovery of volcanism on Io	USA (NASA)	Voyager 1
1 September 1979	First Saturn flyby at 21,000 km, first photographs of Titan from Space	USA (NASA)	Pioneer 11
12 November 1980	Saturn flyby (closest approach 124,000 kilometers), close encounter of Titan and encounters with a dozen others.	USA (NASA)	Voyager 1

1981–1999[]

Date	Mission success	Country/organization	Mission name	Ref(s)
12 April 1981	First Reusable crewed orbital spacecraft	USA (NASA)	STS-1
1 March 1982	First Venus soil samples and sound recording of another world	USSR	Venera 13
19 August 1982	First mixed gender crew aboard space station, and first woman, Svetlana Savitskaya, on space station.	USSR	Salyut 7
25 January 1983	First Infrared orbital observatory	USA (NASA) UK (SERC) Netherlands (NIVR)	IRAS
13 June 1983	First spacecraft beyond the orbit of Neptune (first spacecraft to pass beyond all Solar System planets)	USA (NASA)	Pioneer 10
7 February 1984	First untethered spacewalk, Bruce McCandless II	USA (NASA)	STS-41-B
25 July 1984	First spacewalk by woman, Svetlana Savitskaya	USSR	Salyut 7
11 June 1985	First balloon deployed on another planet (Venus)	USSR	Vega 1
24 January 1986	First Uranus flyby (closest approach 81,500 kilometers (44,000 nmi)	USA (NASA)	Voyager 2
28 January 1986	First major American space loss, the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, an explosion soon after liftoff which killed, among others, Christa McAuliffe, a high school teacher	USA (NASA)	STS-51-L
19 February 1986	First consistently inhabited long-term research space station	USSR	Mir
4 March 1986	First flyby of a comet (Halley's Comet, 8,889 kilometers)	USSR	Vega 1 & Vega 2
13 March 1986	First close up observations of a comet (Halley's Comet, 596 kilometers)	ESA	Giotto
July 1988	First suspected detection of an exoplanet Gamma Cephei Ab, although the discovery was retracted in 1994, and not confirmed until 2002.	Canada	Team of astronomers, led by Bruce Campbell, Gordon Walker, and Stephenson Yang; existence announced by Anthony Lawton & P. Wright in 1989
8 August 1989	First astrometric satellite	ESA	Hipparcos
25 August 1989	First Neptune flyby (closest approach at 29,240 km)	USA (NASA)	Voyager 2
18 November 1989	First orbital cosmic microwave observatory	USA (NASA)	COBE
14 February 1990	First photograph of the whole Solar System	USA (NASA)	Voyager 1	[7]
24 April 1990	Optical orbital observatory	USA (NASA) ESA	Hubble Space Telescope
2 July 1990	First time a spacecraft coming from deep space uses the Earth for a gravity-assist manoeuvre	ESA	Giotto	[8]
15 September 1990	Extended (multi-year) orbital exploration of Venus	USA (NASA)	Magellan
21 October 1991	First asteroid flyby (951 Gaspra closest approach 1,600 kilometers)	USA (NASA)	Galileo
1992	First confirmed observation of an exoplanet	Canada Poland	Aleksander Wolszczan & Dale Frail
8 February 1992	First polar orbit around the Sun	USA (NASA) ESA	Ulysses
22 March 1995	Record longest duration spaceflight (437.7 days) set by Valeri Polyakov	Russia (FKA)	Mir
7 December 1995	First orbit of Jupiter	USA (NASA)	Galileo
7 December 1995	First mission into the atmosphere of a gas giant (Jupiter)	USA (NASA)	Galileo's atmospheric entry probe
12 February 1997	First orbital radio observatory	Japan (ISAS)	HALCA
4 July 1997	First operational rover on another planet (Mars)	USA (NASA)	Mars Pathfinder
20 November 1998	First multinational space station, Largest artificial object built in space to date	Russia (FKA) USA (NASA) Europe (ESA) Japan (JAXA) Canada (CSA)	International Space Station

2000–2021[]

Date	Mission success	Country/organization	Mission name	Ref(s)
14 February 2000	First orbiting of an asteroid (433 Eros)	USA (NASA) ESA	NEAR Shoemaker
12 February 2001	First landing on an asteroid (433 Eros)	USA (NASA)	NEAR Shoemaker
21 June 2004	First human spaceflight launched by a private company (suborbital). First private astronaut (Mike Melvill)	USA (Mojave Aerospace Ventures)	SpaceShipOne Flight 15P
1 July 2004	First orbit of Saturn	USA (NASA) ESA Italy (ASI)	Cassini–Huygens
8 September 2004	First sample return beyond lunar orbit (solar wind)	USA (NASA)	Genesis
14 January 2005	First soft landing on Titan First soft landing in the outer Solar System	ESA USA (NASA) Italy (ASI)	Cassini–Huygens
19 November 2005	First asteroid ascent (25143 Itokawa) First interplanetary escape without undercarriage cutoff[clarification needed]	Japan (JAXA)	Hayabusa
15 January 2006	First sample return from comet (81P/Wild)	USA (NASA)	Stardust
8 November 2008	Discovery of lunar water in the form of ice	INDIA (ISRO)	Chandrayaan-1
6 March 2009	Kepler Mission is launched, first space telescope designated to search for Earth-like exoplanets	USA (NASA)	Kepler Mission	[9]
13 June 2010	First sample return from asteroid (25143 Itokawa)	Japan (JAXA)	Hayabusa
18 March 2011	First orbit of Mercury	USA (NASA)	MESSENGER
16 July 2011	First orbit of giant asteroid Vesta	USA (NASA)	Dawn
25 August 2012	First manmade probe in interstellar space.	USA (NASA)	Voyager 1
12 November 2014	First artificial probe to make a planned and soft landing on a comet (67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko).	ESA	Rosetta	[10]
6 March 2015	First orbit of dwarf planet (Ceres). First spacecraft to orbit two separate celestial bodies.	USA (NASA)	Dawn
July 2015	First flyby of dwarf planet (Pluto). Last original encounter with one of the nine major planets recognized in 1981.	USA (NASA)	New Horizons
10 August 2015	First food grown in space eaten (lettuce).	USA (NASA) Japan (JAXA)	International Space Station	[11]
23 November 2015	First propulsive landing of a rocket after sending something into space (suborbital).	USA (Blue Origin)	New Shepard 2	[12]
21 December 2015	First propulsive landing of an orbital rocket.	USA (SpaceX)	Falcon 9 first-stage landing tests
19 October 2017	First known interstellar object detected passing through the Solar System	Hawaii Haleakalā Observatory	Oumuamua
21 September 2018	First operational rover on asteroid (162173 Ryugu)	Japan (JAXA)	Hayabusa2	[13]
1 January 2019	First contact binary explored by spacecraft (486958 Arrokoth)	USA (NASA)	New Horizons	[14]
3 January 2019	First soft landing on the far side of the Moon; also first germination of seeds on another celestial body.	China (CNSA)	Chang'e 4	[15]
10 April 2019	First direct photograph of a black hole and its vicinity.	USA (NASA)	Event Horizon Telescope	[16]
30 May 2020	First orbital human spaceflight launched by a private company.	USA (SpaceX)	SpaceX Demo-2	[17]
19 April 2021	First aerodynamically-powered flight on another celestial body (Mars).	USA (NASA)	Ingenuity	[18]

See also[]

• Discovery and exploration of the Solar System
• Timeline of Solar System exploration
• Timeline of artificial satellites and space probes
• Timeline of space travel by nationality

References[]

External links[]

• Chronology of Space Exploration archive of important space exploration missions and events, including future planned and proposed endeavors
• Crewed spaceflight 1961-1980
• Crewed spaceflight chronology
• History of crewed space missions Archived 2009-02-07 at the Wayback Machine
• Timeline of the Space Race/Moon Race
• Chronology: Moon Race at russianspaceweb.com
• Space Timeline in 3d