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May 10, 1946 First U.S. High Altitude FlightThe 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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May 22, 1946 The United States launches its first American-designed rocket.
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On August 2, 1955, when the Soviet Union responded to the US announcement four days earlier of intent to launch artificial satellites for the International Geophysical Year, by declaring they would also launch a satellite "in the near future".
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February 9, 1956 - Unmanned Manhigh test flight; thermal insulation test with mockup capsule; reached 85,000 feet.
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June 7, 1956 - Launch of two dogs, Albina and Kozyavka, from Kapustin Yar aboard R-1A rocket. Reached 62 miles. (USSR)
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October 4 - The Soviet Union launched the first satellite, Sputnik, into space.
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xplorer I was launched on January 31, 1958 and Vanguard 1 on March 17, 1958.
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September 12, 1959 -- Launch of Luna-2; first man-made object to strike the Moon. (USSR)
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On April 12, 1961, a Soviet cosmonaut became the first human in space and in orbit.
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Less than one month later — May 5, 1961 — the U.S. sent its first astronaut into space
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April 4 - The second Space Shuttle, Challenger, was launched.
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April 12 - Columbia became the first Space Shuttle to be launched.
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August 4 - NASA launched its Phoenix Mars Lander.
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March 6 - The NASA spacecraft Kepler was launched. Its mission is to search for planets outside our solar system, in a distant area of the Milky Way.
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September 7 - NASA launched the unmanned LADEE spacecraft from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. It was the U.S. space agency's third lunar probe in five years.
