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Soviet Union launches Sputnik I.
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Sputnik II launches, with ill-fated Laika the dog on board.
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United States launches Explorer I from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
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NASA is formed after Congress passes the National Aeronautics and Space Act.
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Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to enter space and return safely.
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With the launch of Freedom 7, Alan Shepard becomes the first American man in space. The suborbital flight, which was part of the Mercury Project, lasted 15 minutes, 28 seconds.
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U.S. President John F. Kennedy announces the goal of sending astronauts to the moon before the end of the decade.
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Launch of Friendship 7 makes astronaut John Glenn the first American to go into orbit. Total flight time was just shy of five hours.
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Launch of Gemini 5, carrying astronauts Gordon Cooper and Charles Conrad on an eight-day mission to test rendezvous guidance and navigation systems, as well as study how humans could handle long-term exposure to a space environment. Gemini would be the cr
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Mission AS-204 is struck by tragedy when a flash fire breaks out during a launch pad test, killing three astronauts: Virgil Grissom, who had participated in Mercury and Gemini flights; Edward White, who conducted NASA's first extravehicular activity; and
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First test flight of the Saturn V rocket, which would carry dozens of spacecraft into space in the years to come
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Launch of Apollo 11
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Astronauts Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Neil Armstrong become the first men to walk on the moon.
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Launch of unmanned Pioneer 10: Earth's first space probe to an outer planet, the first spacecraft to travel through the asteroid belt, the first spacecraft to make direct observations and obtain close-up images of Jupiter, and the first man-made object to
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United States launches its first experimental space station, the Skylab.
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Apollo-Soyuz Test Project is the first international manned space flight to test out cooperated space rescue and docking.
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Launch of Viking 1, the first orbiter and lander sent to Mars. Viking 2 would launch a few weeks later. Both landed safely on Mars and for six years sent back the first set of images and data from the Martian surface.
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Launch of Voyager 2, one of a pair of spacecraft sent by NASA on what was supposed to be a five-year mission to study Jupiter and Saturn. Voyagers 1 and 2 continue to send back pictures and data today, 30 years later from nearly 10 billion miles away.
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Launch of Voyager 1
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Launch of the first of two spacecraft called Pioneer Venus, which would study the Venusian atmosphere.
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Aboard the space shuttle Columbia, Robert L. Crippen and John W. Young make the first mission in NASA's space shuttle program.
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Sally Ride becomes first American woman in space with launch of shuttle mission STS-7 aboard the space shuttle Challenger.
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Guion S. Bluford, Jr., becomes first black man in space with launch of shuttle mission STS-8 aboard the space shuttle Challenger.
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First major catastrophe for NASA, when space shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after takeoff with seven crew members aboard
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Mir space station launches.
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Space shuttle Atlantis launches Galileo to study Jupiter and its moons. It took Galileo six years to reach Jupiter, and it finally disintegrated in Jupiter's atmosphere in September of 2003, 14 years after it began its collision course toward the giant pl
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Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev becomes the first Russian to fly aboard a U.S. space shuttle.
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Astronaut Norman Thagard launched with Cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Gennady Strekalov aboard a Russian Soyuz to spend 115 days on Mir.
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Launch of Mars Pathfinder
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Pathfinder lands on Mars. The rover Sojourner would go on to explore the Martian surface for more than 80 days.
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First piece of the International Space Station is launched.
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The crew of Expedition One, astronaut Bill Shepherd and cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev, dock at the International Space Station. They are the first people to take up residence at the ISS, staying there for several months.
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Launch of Genesis, which would collect samples of atoms from solar wind. Genesis would be the first attempt to return samples to Earth since the Apollo moon mission in 1972.
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Crew of seven astronauts, including the first Israeli astronaut, is lost after a 16-day mission when the Columbia space shuttle explodes on re-entry. The accident was later attributed to damage sustained to foam insulation and has led NASA to understand h
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Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity launch.
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Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity launch.
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Spirit and Opportunity arrive on the Martian surface. They continue to explore the Red Planet today.
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After capturing particles from the sun, Genesis makes a dramatic crash landing in Utah when its parachute fails to deploy. Despite the landing, scientists still managed to recover and study the samples.
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SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately built craft to reach outer space.
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Phoenix lander launches on its way to explore the northern pole of Mars.