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Even before gunpowder, the Chinese were using the term rocket. In the year 228 the Ancient Chinese used arrows which were lit with fire to defend an area of the country from intruders. This created a new word which literally meant fire arrow; this is the same word in Chinese for rocket. These fire arrows were used as a way to set fires and defend from large numbers of invading troops
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First clear telescopic photograph of another world: the Moon.
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Russian rocket scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky publishesThe Exploration of Cosmic Space by Means of Reaction Devices. This is the first serious work to be published that shows space exploration to be theoretically possible.
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Russians launch the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1.
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Launch of the first US satellite, Explorer 1.
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NASA launches a chimpanzee named Ham into space aboard a Mercury rocket.
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Russian Yuri Gagarin becomes the first person in space in a 108-minute flight in Vostok 1
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US astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes the first person to walk on the moon.
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Launch of first Space Station (the Soviet Salyut 1)
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First Saturn fly-by (Pioneer 11)
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Twin Mars Exploration Rover missions Spirit and Opportunity land on Mars.
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Kepler Mission is launched, first space telescope designated to search for Earth-like exoplanets
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First flyby of dwarf planet (Pluto).
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Lettuce was the first food eaten that was grown in space.
