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First telescopic observation on night sky
Galileo Galilei used a telescope to made the discovery of Jupiter's moons, Lunar craters and the phases of Venus. -
First exposition of the rocket equation
William Moore's Treatise on the Motion of Rockets is the first exposition of the rocket equation based on Newton's third law of motion. -
First clear telescopic photograph of another world
One of the first pictures ever taken of the moon by John William Draper. -
The first liquid-fueled rocket
Robert H. Goddard launched the first liquid-fueled rocket. -
First vehicle to cross the Kármán line
A German V2 rocket was the first to cross the Kármán line. -
First pictures of Earth from 105 km
V-2 rocket gave us our first look at Earth from beyond the atmosphere。 -
First animals in space.
An American V-2 rocket carried fruit flies launched and became the first animals to reach outer space and be recovered alive. -
First intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)
The first ICBMs were deployed by the Soviet Union. -
First artificial satellite
Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I, the world's first artificial satellite. -
The first animal to orbit Earth
The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2. On board the small satellite was a little dog, Laika, the first animal to orbit Earth. -
First human in space
Yuri Gagarin was the first human to journey into outer space. His Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth. -
First successful planetary flyby
Mariner 2, an American space probe to Venus, was the first robotic space probe to conduct a successful planetary flyby. -
First extra-vehicular activity
The Union Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov made the first spacewalk in history. -
First Mars flyby
Mariner 4 performed the first successful flyby of the planet Mars, returning the first pictures of the Martian surface. -
First orbital docking between two spacecraft
First docking between American spaceflight Gemini 8 and spacecraft Agena target vehicle. -
First soft landing on another world
Luna 9, an unmanned space mission of the Soviet Union's Luna programme, became the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on the Moon. -
First human on the moon
Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that landed the first humans on the Moon, American astronaut Neil Armstrong. -
First automatic sample return from the Moon
Luna 16 was an unmanned space mission and was the first robotic probe to land on the Moon and return a sample of lunar soil to Earth. -
First space station
The first space station was Salyut 1, which was launched by the Soviet Union. -
First landing on Mars
Viking 1, an unmanned scientific probe controlled by scientists on Earth, transmits the first pictures from the surface of Mars. -
First space shuttle
Space Shuttle Columbia was the first space-rated Space Shuttle in NASA's orbiter fleet. It launched for the first time on mission STS-1. -
First photograph of the whole solar system
First photograph of the whole solar system was taken by Voyager 1. It was lanched by NASA. -
Hubble space telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit by NASA to observe the space. -
First Spacecraft to Leave the Solar System
Pioneer 10, launched on March 2, 1972, reaches a distance 50 times farther from the sun than Earth, becoming the first spacecraft to leave the solar system. -
First polar orbit around the Sun
Ulysses was a joint venture of NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). It is the first to polar orbit around the sun. -
First mission into the atmosphere of a gas giant
Galileo launched the first probe into Jupiter, directly measuring its atmospher. -
First operational rover on another planet
Mars Pathfinder is an American robotic spacecraft that landed a base station with a roving probe on Mars. -
First Spacecraft to Orbit Saturn
Cassini-Huygens operates by NASA,ESA and ASI, became the first spacecraft to go into orbit around Saturn. -
Kepler Mission is launched
Kepler Mission is launched by NASA. It is the first space telescope designated to search for Earth-like exoplanets. -
First spacecraft to orbit two separate celestial bodies
Dawn is a space probe launched by NASA. It is the first spacecraft to orbit two separate celestial bodies.
