Rocket ship

Important dates in space exploration

By 100765

  • Philadelphia committee led by Benjamin Franklin attempts to regulate waste disposal and water pollution.

  • Henry David Thoreau publishes Walden

  • The term ecology is coined in German as Oekologie by Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel

  • The term acid rain is coined by Robert Angus Smith in the book Air and Rain

  • The term smog is coined by Henry Antoine Des Voeux in a London meeting to express concern over air pollution

  • US Congress created the National Park Service

  • R-1

    R-1

    First time dogs were sent to space.
  • R-7

    R-7

    First intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) developed.
  • Sputnik 1

    Sputnik 1

    First artificial satellite.
  • Vostok 1

    Vostok 1

    First manned flight carrying Yuri Gagarin

  • Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring

  • Vostok 6

    Vostok 6

    First woman in space (Valentina Tereshkova).
  • Luna 10

    Luna 10

    First artificial satellite around the Moon.

  • The Apollo 8 picture of Earthrise

  • Apollo 11

    Apollo 11

    First human on the Moon and first space launch from a celestial body (by NASA) - Commander Neil Armstrong and Pilot Buzz Aldrin.
  • Luna 16

    Luna 16

    First automatic sample return from the Moon.

  • Earth Day – April 22., millions of people gather in the United States for the first Earth Day organized by Gaylord Nelson, former senator of Wisconsin, and Denis Hayes, Harvard graduate student. US Environmental Protection Agency established

  • Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer entered into force

  • Voyager 1

    Voyager 1

    First photograph of the whole Solar System (by NASA).

  • The Kyoto Protocol was negotiated in Kyoto, Japan in December. Countries that ratify this protocol commit to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gasses

  • U.S. rejects the Kyoto Protocol

  • Kepler Mission

    Kepler Mission

    First space telescope designated to search for Earth-like exoplanets – by NASA

  • U.S. announces it will cease participation in the Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation

  • U.S. announces it will rejoin the Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation