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On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union sent the first unmanned mission into space. They launched a satellite called Sputnik 1, which successfully remained in outer space for 3 months. -
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The first Weather Satellite ever launched was TIROS-1 on April 1, 1960 -
Russian Lt. Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth in Vostok 1. His flight lasted 108 minutes, and Gagarin reached an altitude of 327 kilometers. -
Astronaut Alan B. Shepard made the first U.S. piloted spaceflight in the Mercury Freedom 7 spacecraft on May 5, 1961. During this suborbital mission lasting 15 minutes and 22 seconds, Shepard reached an altitude of 186 kilometers. -
The First successful Moon Mission -
On this day, July 31, 1971, Apollo 15 became the first mission to use the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV). The Apollo 15 LRV was driven by astronauts David Scott and Jim Irwin. The LRV was a lightweight, electric vehicle designed to operate in the low-gravity vacuum of the Moon. -
Launched in March 1972, Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to visit Jupiter when it flew by the gas giant in December 1973 on its way to the farthest regions of the Solar System. Its twin probe, Pioneer 11, made its closest approach to Jupiter on December 1974 -
The first space shuttle, named Enterprise, was rolled out in September 1976. Enterprise made some glide flights in 1977, but never reached space. However, the second orbiter to come off the line did. Columbia blasted off on April 12, 1981, and the rest is history. -
Voyager 2 is launched before Voyager 1 due to complications with power from Voyager 1 -
The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster was a fatal incident in the United States' space program that occurred on January 28, 1986, when the Space Shuttle Challenger (OV-099) broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members aboard. -
The Hubble Space Telescope is a large telescope in space. It was launched into orbit by space shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990. Hubble orbits about 547 kilometers (340 miles) above Earth. -
Mars Pathfinder was a U.S. spacecraft that landed a base station with a roving probe on Mars on July 4, 1997. It consisted of a lander and a small 10.6 kilograms (23 lb) wheeled robotic rover named Sojourner, which was the first rover to operate on the surface of Mars. -
Launch date of the International Space Station -
Elon Musk Creates the first private space company -
Voyager 1 exited the solar system's northern hemisphere in 2012.