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the first object to orbit the Earth is launched by the U.S.S.R
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Sputnik 2 was launched carrying the dog Laika for 7 days in orbit was ;launched by the U.S.S.R
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Explorer 1 is the first U.S satellite to be launched lifts off at Cape Canaveral
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Explorer 2 is launched but fails to reach orbit
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Luna 2 is launched and impacts on the moon, becoming the first man-made object to hit the moon
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Luna 3, a translunar satellite is launched orbiting the moon and photographing 70% of the far side of the moon
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Vostok 1 is launched, carrying cosmonaut Yuri A. Gargarin, the first man in space
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Friendship 7 lifts off with John H. Glenn, the first American in orbit
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Vostok 6 carries Valentina Tereshkova, becoming the first woman in space
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Mariner returns the first close-range phtos about Mars
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Venera 3 impacts on Venus, the first spacecraft to reach another planet
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Soyuz 1, carrying Vladimir M. Komarov, ctashes, killing Komarov, becoming the first spaceflight fatality
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Zond 5 becomes the first spacecraft to orbit the Moon and return.
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Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to walk on the moon
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Viking 2 lands on mars and discovers water frist
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the Challenger lifts off with Sally K. Ride, the first U.S. woman to go into space
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Endeavour launches, making the first on-orbit service of the Hubble Space Telescope
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Space shuttle Discovery becomes the first shuttle mission to be flown by a female pilot
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space shuttle Columbia lifts off with the first Urkanian astronaut, Leonid Kadenyuk.
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Deep Space 1 succesfully completes its flyby of comet Borrelly
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the Spirit Rover parachutes to the surface of Mars. Designed to stay 3 months, it stays over 3 years.
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NASA's Messenger Probe conducts its first flyby of mercury, almost 33 years after the last spacecraft encountered it
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NASA's Dawn spacecraft enters orbit around the asteroid Vesta