Significant milestones in space exploration

date accomplished event details country or agency

Oct. 4, 1957 first artificial Earth satellite Sputnik 1 U.S.S.R.

Nov. 3, 1957 first animal launched into space dog Laika aboard Sputnik 2 U.S.S.R.

Sept. 14, 1959 first spacecraft to hard-land on another celestial object (the Moon) Luna 2 U.S.S.R.

Oct. 7, 1959 first pictures of the far side of the Moon Luna 3 U.S.S.R.

April 1, 1960 first applications satellite launched TIROS 1 (weather observation) U.S.

Aug. 11, 1960 first recovery of a payload from Earth orbit Discoverer 13 (part of Corona reconnaissance satellite program) U.S.

April 12, 1961 first human to orbit Earth Yury Gagarin (Gagarin, Yury Alekseyevich) on Vostok 1 U.S.S.R.

Dec. 14, 1962 first data returned from another planet (Venus) Mariner 2 U.S.

June 16, 1963 first woman in space Valentina Tereshkova (Tereshkova, Valentina) on Vostok 6 U.S.S.R.

July 26, 1963 first satellite to operate in geostationary orbit Syncom 2 (telecommunications satellite) U.S.

March 18, 1965 first space walk Aleksey Leonov (Leonov, Aleksey Arkhipovich) on Voskhod 2 U.S.S.R.

July 14, 1965 first spacecraft pictures of Mars Mariner 4 U.S.

Feb. 3, 1966 first spacecraft to soft-land on the Moon Luna 9 U.S.S.R.

April 24, 1967 first death during a space mission Vladimir Komarov (Komarov, Vladimir Mikhaylovich) on Soyuz 1 U.S.S.R.

Dec. 24, 1968 first humans to orbit the Moon Frank Borman (Borman, Frank), James Lovell (Lovell, James A(rthur), Jr.), and William Anders (Anders, William A.) on Apollo (Apollo program) 8 U.S.

July 20, 1969 first human to walk on the Moon Neil Armstrong (Armstrong, Neil) on Apollo (Apollo program) 11 U.S.

Sept. 24, 1970 first return of lunar samples by an unmanned spacecraft Luna 16 U.S.S.R.

Dec. 15, 1970 first soft landing on another planet (Venus) Venera 7 U.S.S.R.

April 19, 1971 first space station launched Salyut 1 U.S.S.R.

Nov. 13, 1971 first spacecraft to orbit another planet (Mars) Mariner 9 U.S.

Dec. 2, 1971 first spacecraft to soft-land on Mars Mars 3 U.S.S.R.

Dec. 3, 1973 first spacecraft to fly by Jupiter Pioneer (http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=61640) 10 U.S.

July 17, 1975 first international docking in space Apollo (Apollo program) and Soyuz spacecraft during Apollo-Soyuz Test Project U.S., U.S.S.R.

July 20, 1976 first pictures transmitted from the surface of Mars Viking 1 U.S.

Sept. 1, 1979 first spacecraft to fly by Saturn Pioneer (http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=61640) 11 U.S.

April 12-14, 1981 first reusable spacecraft launched and returned from space space shuttle Columbia U.S.

Jan. 24, 1986 first spacecraft to fly by Uranus Voyager 2 U.S.

March 13, 1986 first spacecraft to make a close flyby of a comet nucleus Giotto at Halley's Comet European Space Agency

Aug. 24, 1989 first spacecraft to fly by Neptune Voyager 2 U.S.

April 25, 1990 first large optical space telescope launched Hubble Space Telescope U.S., European Space Agency

Dec. 7, 1995 first spacecraft to orbit Jupiter Galileo U.S.

Nov. 2, 2000 first resident crew to occupy the International Space Station William Shepherd, Yury Gidzenko, and Sergey Krikalyov U.S., Russia

● Feb. 14, 2000

● Feb. 12, 2001

first spacecraft to orbit (2000) and land on (2001) an asteroid NEAR (Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous Shoemaker) at the asteroid Eros U.S.

June 21, 2004 first privately funded manned spacecraft to achieve suborbital flight above 100 km (62 miles) SpaceShipOne Mojave Aerospace Ventures (commercial joint venture)

July 1, 2004 first spacecraft to orbit Saturn Cassini-Huygens U.S., European Space Agency, Italy

Jan. 14, 2005 first spacecraft to land on the moon of a planet other than Earth (Saturn's moon Titan) Huygens probe of the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft U.S., European Space Agency, Italy