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The first man made object is lanched into space
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Soviet Luna 9 is the first spacecraft to soft-land on the moon
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Soviet Luna 10 is the first spacecraft to orbit the moon
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U.S. Lunar Orbiter 1 enters moon orbit, and takes the first picture of the Earth from the distance of the moon
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Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, Jr. make the first manned soft landing on the Moon, and the first moonwalk, using Apollo 11
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Mariner 7 returns high-resolution images of the Martian surface, concentrating on the southern hemisphere.
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Apollo 13 is launched, suffering an explosion in its SM oxygen tanks. Its Moon landing is aborted, and the crew, James A. Lovell, Jr., John L. Swigert, Jr. and Fred W. Haise, Jr., return safely
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Salyut 1 space station is launched by the U.S.S.R. It remains in orbit until May 28, 1973
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Space Shuttle Endeavour lifts off on a 12 day mission to the ISS. They install the first set of ISS's solar panels and radiators for removing heat
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fifteen years after its first launch, and after nearly 10 years of continuous occupation by astronauts, the Mir space station is de-orbited, breaking up in the atmosphere and impacting in the Pacific Ocean
