History of Space Travel

WAC Corporal

1946

It was the first (US designed) rocket that reached the edge of space. The first pictures of the Earth were taken from an altitude of 105 km by the V-2.

R-1

1951

First dog, named Laika, was sent to space by the USSR.

R-7

1957

First artificial satellite developed by the USSR.

Explorer 6

1959

First photograph of Earth taken from the orbit (USA).

Vostok I

1961

First manned flight carrying Yuri Gagarin (USSR).

OSO-1

1962

First orbital solar observatory (USA).

Vostok 6

1963

First woman in space Valentina Tereshkova of the USSR.

Luna 10

1966

First artificial satellite to be sent successfully around the Moon (USSR).

Apollo 8

1968

First manned orbital mission of Moon (USA).

Apollo 11

1969

First human on the Moon and first space launch from a celestial body, 1 year from man reaching the moon's orbit (USA).

Luna 16

1970

First automatic sample return from the Moon (USSR).

Salyut 1

1971

First space station (USSR).

Pioneer 10

1972

First human made object that had been sent on escape trajectory away from the Sun (USA).

Mariner 10

1974

First photograph of Venus from Space (USA).

Venera 13

1982

First Venus soil samples and sound recording of another world (USSR).

STS-41-B

1984

First untethered spacewalk, Bruce McCandless II (USA).

Voyager 1

1990

First photograph of the whole Solar System (USA).

Mir

1995

First Record longest duration spaceflight (437.7 days) set by Valeri Polyakov (Russia).

NEAR Shoemaker

Period: 2000 to 2001

First orbiting and landing on an asteroid (433 Eros) – by the USA.

Genesis

2004

First sample return beyond lunar orbit (solar wind)- by the USA.

Hayabusa

2005

First interplanetary escape without undercarriage cutoff. (Japan)

Stardust

2006

First sample return from comet (81P/Wild) – by the USA.

Kepler Mission

2009

First space telescope designated to search for Earth-like exoplanets – by the USA.

MESSENGER

2011

First orbit of Mercury – by the USA.

Voyager 1

2012

First manmade probe in interstellar space – by the USA.

Rosetta

2014

First man-made probe to make a planned and soft landing on a comet (European Space Agency).

Dragon

2020

First commercial rocket to ferry astronauts to orbit. (SpaceX)