SPACE EXPLORATION TIMELINE By Ryan 52 Mar 16, 1926 Robert Goddard launches 1st successful liquid fuel rocket Oct 4, 1957 Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 Nov 3, 1957 Sputnik 2 carried the first living being into space Jan 31, 1958 US launches Explorer 1 Apr 12, 1961 Yuri Gagarin (1st man launched into space) May 18, 1965 Alexei Leonov – 1st man to walk in space5 Oct 11, 1968 Apollo completes 1st manned mission for Apollo program Jul 20, 1969 Neil Armstrong – 1st man to walk on the moon Apr 19, 1971 Soviets were the first to successfully place a space station in orbit May 30, 1971 American space orbiter Mariner 9 surveys Mars May 14, 1973 NASA launches the first space station into space Jun 19, 1976 NASA lands the first spacecraft on Mars Period: Aug 20, 1977 to Sep 5, 1977 Voyager 1 & 2 deep space probes launched Apr 12, 1981 First Space Shuttle mission to space Jan 28, 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger Incident Jul 4, 1997 Mars Pathfinder landed on Mars and deployed the Sojourner rover Nov 20, 1998 International Space Station is launched into space Feb 1, 2003 Space shuttle Columbia Incident Feb 6, 2018 Space X launches Falcon Heavy 2022 Space X will launch 2 cargo drone ships to Mars 2024 Space X will launch first manned mission to Mars
