Space Exploration Timeline

By kporter

  • Sputnik/Mercury/Gemini

    Sputnik 1 was launched on Oct. 4th, 1957. The Sputnik missions began the Space Age and started the race between the Soviets and the U.S. Gemini had 12 flights, and on February 20th, 1962, Mercury took off.

  • Pioneer Program

    Pioneer missions 0-4 all failed or were partially successful. Pioneer 5 was the first actual success and from then on 6, 7, 8, and 9 were successes. The last mission ended in 2001.

  • Vanera

    The mission went from 1961-1984 to collect data from Venus. It was launched from the Soviet Union, USSR. There were 16 probes launched and they were the first probes to be on Venus.

  • Mariner

    There were 10 missions, 7 were successful. The successful ones were 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, and 10. The program went from 1962 to 1973. Mariner 9 is orbiting Mars right now, and Mariner 11 and 12 never launched.

  • Viking Probes

    There were 2 missions; Viking 1 and 2. The first mission began in 1968.

  • Space Stations

    Skylab was launched on May 14th 1973, and was America's first space station. Salyut was the first space station in history and was launched on April 17th 1971. ISS was launched in 1998 and was a joint project between the U.S, Canada, Japan, and the European and Russian Space Agencies.

  • Voyager

    There were 5 Science Investigation Missions. On September 5th, 1977, Voyager 1 was launched. August 20th, 1977, Voyager 2 was launched.

  • Space Shuttles

    The first ever launch was on April 12th, 1981. There were 2 major American space shuttle disasters; Columbia and Challenger

  • Hubble

    The Hubble Telescope involved NASA and ESA (the European Space Agency). Hubble orbits just over Earth's atmosphere. In 1990, Hubble was launched into space.

  • Magellan

    The mission was to find out about other planets, especially Venus. U.S. was the only country involved. It was launched on May 4th, 1990, and landed on Venus on August 10th, 1990.

  • Cassini

    It involved NASA and the European and Italian Space Agencies. It was launched on October 15th 1997 and the planned completion of the mission is on September 15th 2017. Cassini was made to study Saturn and its moon Titan.

  • N.E.A.R.

    NEAR was a NASA mission and cost roughly anywhere between 150 and 250 million dollars. It was made to explore asteroid Eros, and landed there on February 12th, 2001.

  • Genesis

    It was a NASA mission and was the first spacecraft to get past the moon. It taught us unanswered questions about the Sun. The mission was from 2001-2004, and was launched on August 8th, 2001.

  • Mars Rover

    There were 2 rovers used to study the soil and rocks of Mars. One was called Opportunity, which was launched on July 7th 2003, and landed on Mars on January 24th 2004. The other rover was called Spirit and was launched on June 10th 2003 and landed on Mars January 4th 2004.