-
1981
The voyager 2 spacecraft arrives at Saturn and begins sending back images of the planet and its moon. -
Period: to
1981 to present day
1981 to present day -
1986
The space shuttle Challenger explodes shortly after liftoff of mission STS-5TL, resulting in the loss of the spacecraft and her seven member crew. One of these members being a civilian, Christa Auliffe. -
1989
The voyager 2 spacecraft arrives at Neptune, giving us our first close up of the blue planet and its moons. -
1990
Space shuttle discovery lifts off for STS-31, carrying the Edwin P. Hubble space telescope (HST). The telescope is successfully deployed, but is found to contain a seriously flawwed mirror resulting in fuzzy images. -
1197
The Mars pathfinder probe lands on the surface of Mars. A small robotic rover examines the nearby terrain, sending back detailed images of the planets surface. -
2005
After a journey of 174 days, the Deep impact space probe fulfulls its mission by slamming into a comet known as Tempel 1. -
2006
After a journey of nearly seven years and 2.9 billion miles ( 4.6 billion kilometers). Nasa's stardust mission successfully comes to a conclusion in the desert salt flats of the Utah test and training range. The capsule safely parachutes to the ground after collecting dust and particle samples from comet Wild 2. -
2011
NASA's messenger spacecraft becomes the first man made craft to orbit the closest planet to the Sun, Mercury. -
2011
Russia launches the Spektr-r which becomes larges telescope to be place into orbit. -
2012
Australian skydiver Felix Baumgartner becomes the first human being to break the sound barrier without a jet or spacecraft as he jumps from the edge of space. A capsule attached to a helium balloon takes him 24 miles up and he sets a new record.
