Space exploration timeline

By Jomapele

  • First observation of night sky

    First observation of night sky
    First telescopic observation of the night sky: Discovery of Jupiter's moons, lunar craters and the phases of Venus.

  • The Moon

    The Moon
    First clear telescopic photograph of another world: The Moon.

  • Animals In Space

    Animals In Space
    First animals in space

  • Sputnik

    Sputnik
    The Soviet Union launched the first satellite, Sputnik, into space.

  • Yuri Gagarin

    Yuri Gagarin
    Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space.

  • Vladimir Komarov

    Vladimir Komarov
    Cosmonaut Vladimir M. Komarov was killed in a crash when the parachute on his Soyuz 1 spacecraft failed to deploy.

  • Landing on the Moon

    Landing on the Moon
    Neil Armstrong and "Buzz" Aldrin became the first men on the moon.

  • Mae Jemison

    Mae Jemison
    Mae Jemison became the first African-American woman in space.

  • John Glenn

    John Glenn
    John Glenn became the oldest man in space.

  • Columbia

    Columbia
    The Space Shuttle Columbia broke up on re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.

  • Space Program

    Space Program
    President Bush proposed a new space program that would send humans back to the moon by 2015 and establish a base to Mars and beyond.

  • Stardust

    Stardust
    NASA spacecraft Stardust returned safely to Earth in a desert near Salt Lake City with the first dust ever collected from a comet.

  • Messenger

    Messenger
    The NASA space probe Messenger skimmed 124 miles above Mercury.

  • Dawn

    Dawn
    NASA's Dawn spacecraft became the first man made craft to orbit an asteroid.