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Hans Lippershet was credited with the invention of the telescope.
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Galileo Galilei was the first to spot the moon and its craters through a telescope.
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Issac Newton built the first successful reflecting telescope.
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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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Robert H. Goddard launches the first multi-stage rocket and a rocket fueled with gasoline and liquid nitrous oxide.
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The Soviet Union launches their first rocket of there own
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The first research flight launched by the United States captured by the V-2 space rocket
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The U.S. military achieves its first high-altitude space flight using a rebuilt German V-2 rocket. Launched from the White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico, the flight reaches an altitude of 70 miles.
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The United States launches its first American-designed rocket. Known as the Wac Corporal, the rocket reaches the edge of space at an altitude of 50 miles after being launched from the White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico.
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The spacecraft contained a pressurized container that housed a dog named Laika. The capsule contained a controlled atmosphere, food supply, waste collection system and biological sensors. Laika lived 8 days until the food supply ran out, and proved that animals could survive in space.
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The United States and the Soviet Union compete to be the first to do things in space
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The launching of Sputnik 1 by the Soviet Union began the space war with the United States. It was the first artifical satellite that was put in to the Earth's orbit.
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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was formed by the United States during the space race. NASA controls all missions and launches to space.
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First plants return to Earth safely and alive from Earth's orbit.
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The Discoverer 14 was the first satellite into space by coming off a moving spacecraft in orbit and then reattached in mid-air. The satellite was successfully launched by the United States.
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Alan Shepard was on a tiny mercury capsule named Freedom 7 and was the first Amercian in space.
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Valentina Tereshkova was the first (Russian) women in space sent by the Soviets on the Vostok 6 spacecraft. She was chosen out of 400 other applicants.
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Ed White was the first American to complete a spacewalk. He was sent on mission Gemini 4. He was in space for 23 minutes and was over Hawaii and the Gulf of Mexico
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Apollo 8 was the first manned spacecraft to orbit the moon
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The first flight that took men to the moon. This was a great achievement because the United States had reached the moon before the Soviet Union.
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Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, and Michael Collins landed on the moon. Collins stayed in orbit around the moon to take pictures and do experiments. Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the moon for about 3 hours. They took samples, did expirements, and put the American flag on the moon.
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Apollo 17 was th most recent moon landing by the United States. The crew consisted of Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans, and Harrison Schmitt. The mission took about 12 days and no it's has returned to the moon since.
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The first manned mission of the Space Transportation System (STS-1), Columbia, is launched.
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The Voyager 2 spacecraft arrives at Saturn and begins sending back images of the planet and its moons.
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The Soviet Venera 13 spacecraft lands on the planet Venus and provides the first scientific analysis of Venus's soil.
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America's second Space Shuttle, Challenger, embarks on its first mission into space.
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Astronaut Sally K. Ride becomes the first American woman to travel into space on Space Shuttle Challenger mission STS-7.
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The third orbiter of the American Space Shuttle fleet, Discovery, lifts off for its maiden voyage into space.
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Atlantis, the forth orbiter in America's Space Shuttle fleet, begins its first mission in space.
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The first module of the Mir space station is successfully launched and placed into Earth orbit. Mir becomes the first modular space station in orbit. It hosts a number of successful Russian and American missions and remains in orbit until 2001 when it comes crashing down into the Pacific Ocean.
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The Voyager 2 spacecraft arrives at Neptune, giving us our first close-up views of the blue planet and its moons. Scientists expect the planet to be a blue, featureless sphere much like Uranus. Instead, they discover a curious blue spot and a number of dynamic cloud features.
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Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off for mission STS-31, carrying the Edwin P. Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The telescope is successfully deployed, but is found to contain a seriously flawed primary mirror resulting in fuzzy images.
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The Mars Pathfinder probe lands on the surface of Mars. A small robotic rover examines the nearby terrain, sending back amazingly detailed images of the planet's surface.
