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The Douglas A-20A completed 44 successive takeoffs using liquid-propellant. Douglas was developed by Cal Tech's Frank S. Malina.
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Chuck Yeager breaks sound barrier.
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The Soviet Union launched the first artificial satilliete.
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A modified R-7 two-stage ICBM launches the satellite Sputnik 1 from Tyuratam. The Space Race between the Soviet Union and the United States begins.
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The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2 with first living passenger, the dog Laika.
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A Vanguard TV-3 carrying a grapefruit-sized sateliilte explodes at launch.
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The U.S. first attempt at lauching a rocket into space. The rocket was the Vanguard.
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The United States launches Explorer 1. First satillite with an onboard telemetry system.
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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), was
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The U.S.S.R. launches Luna 1. It misses the moon, but becomes the first artificial object to leave Earth's orbit.
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NASA awards McDonnell Corp. the contract to manufacture the Mercury capsules.
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NASA launches Discover 1, the U.S. first spyt satillite.
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The United States launches the first primates into space, Able and Baker.
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NASA's Explorer 6 launches, and inproves the first photographs of the Earth from space.
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The start of Project Mercury. The perpose was to see how t oput people in orbit, and how people live and work in space.
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The Soviet Union's Luna 2 is lauched and two days later is intentionally crashed into the Moon.
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NASA's X-15 hypersonic research plane, capable of speeds to Mach 6.7, makes its first powered flight.
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The rush to launch of a Mars probe before Nov. 7th, makes a deadly launch and killes 126 when the probe explodes.
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The Soviet Union launches Venera to Venus, but the probe stops responding after a week.
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Yuri Gargarin become the first human in space.
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Alan B. Shepard became the first U.S. citizen in space.
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Predsident Kennedy announced to the nation the goal of sendig an American to the moon, by the end of the decade.
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The rocket Saturn 1 is tested for the first time.
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John Glenn becomes the first person to orbit the earth.
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Agreements are signed establishing the European Space Research Organisation.
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The United States launches Telstar 1, which enables the trans-Atlantic transmission of television signals.
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The U.S.S.R launches its first successful spy satellite, designated Cosmos 7.
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Mariner 2 launches and eventually performs the first successful interplanetary flyby when it passes by Venus.
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Canada's Alouette 1 launches aboard a NASA Thor-Agena B rocket, becoming the first satellite from a country other than the United States or Soviet Union.
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Valentina Tereshkova becomes first women in space.
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The Gemini 1 is launched into an unmanned flight.
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The Ranger 7 launches and takes photograghs of the Moon until it crashes into the surface four days later.
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NASA's Syncom 3 launches, becoming the first geostationary telecommunications satellite.
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The Soviet Union launches Voskhod 1, a modified Vostok orbiter with a three-person crew.
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Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov makes the first spacewalk from the Voskhod 2 orbiter.
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Gemini 3, the first of the manned Gemini missions, launches with a two-person crew on a Titan 2 rocket, making astronaut Gus Grissom the first man to travel in space twice.
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During Project Gemini 4 Edward H. White, Jr., became the first astronaut to conduct a spacewalk.
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Mariner 4 executes the first successful Mars flyby.
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Gemini 5 launches on an eight-day mission.
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The Soviet Union's Venera 3 probe becones the first spacecraft to land on planet Venus.
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Gemini 6 launches and performs a rendezvous with Gemini 7.
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The unmanned Soviet spacecraft Luna 9, lands on the moon.
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The Soviet Union's Venera 3 probe becomes the first spacecraft to land on the planetVenus, but its communications system failed before data could be returned.
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Gemini 8 launches on a Titan 2 rocket and later docks with a previously launched Agena rocket — the first docking between two orbiting spacecraft.
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The Soviet Luna 10 sapce probe enter lunar orbit, and becomes the first spacecraft to orbit the Moon.
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Surveyor 1, a lunar lander, performs the first successful U.S. soft landing on the Moon.
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A fire in the Apollo capsule on the ground took the lives of the three astrounauts abroad.
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Soyuz 1 launches but myriad problems surface. The solar panels do not unfold, there are stability problems and the parachute fails to open on descent causing the death of Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov.
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Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, launches on a Saturn 1 for an 11-day mission in Earth orbit. The mission also featured the first live TV broadcast of humans in space.
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The Apollo 8 mission becomes the first unmanned mission to orbit the Moon.
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Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 rendezvous and dock and perform the first in-orbit crew transfer.
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Apollo 9 launches. During the mission, tests of the lunar module are conducted in Earth orbit.
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Apollo 10's Lunar Module Snoopy comes within 8.6 miles (14 kilometers) of the moon's surface.
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The mission to the moon had be completed. The famous word of Neil Armstrong "That's one small for man, one gaint leap for mankind."
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Japan's Lambda 4 rocket launches a Japanese test satellite, Ohsumi into orbit.
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An explosion ruptures the command module of Apollo 13, after launching. Even though they were within reach of the Moon, abandoning the mission was the safe thing to do.
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The People's Republic of China launches its first satellite. Becomes the fifth nation, capable of launching own satillites.
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The Soviet Union launches Luna 16, the first successful automated lunar sample retrieval mission
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A proton rocket launches the first space station, Salyut 1.
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Soyuz 11 launches successfully, docking with Salyut 1. The three cosmonauts are killed during re-entry from a pressure leak in the cabin.
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Apollo 15 launches with a Boeing-built Lunar Roving Vehicle and better life-support equipment to explore the Moon.
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The United Kingdom successfully launches its Prospero satellite. Becoming the sixth nation capable of satillite launch.
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Mariner 9 becomes the first spacecraft to orbit Mars and provides the first complete map of the planet's surface.
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The U.S. president Richard Nixon announces that NASA is developing a resuable launch vehicle, the space shuttle.
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Pioneer 10, the first spacecraft to leave the solar system, launches from Cape Kennedy.
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Apollo 17, the last mission to the moon, returns to Earth.
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The U.S. launches Saturn V rocket, the United States first space station the Skylab.
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The Mariner 10 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Mercury.
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The Soviet Union launches India's first satellite, Aryabhata.
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The European Space Agency is formed.
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Soyuz-19 and Apollo 18 dock.
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ESA launches its first satellite
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Viking 2, composed of a lander and an orbiter, launches for Mars.
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The U.S. Viking 1 lands on Mars, becoming the first successful Mars lander.
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The Voyager 2 is launched on a course toward Uranus and Neptune.
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Voyager 1 is launched to perform flybys of Jupiter and Saturn.
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Salyut 6 reaches orbit. It is the first space station equipped with docking stations
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The Navstar 1, the first GPS satellite launches aboard an Atlas F rocket.
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The first American space station the Skylab, crashes back to Earth. It crashes in a populated grassland in western Austtralia.
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Pioneer 11 becomes the first spacecraft to fly past Saturn.
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The French-built Ariane rocket, Europe's first launch vehicle, launches successfully.
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India launches the Rohini 1 satillite. India becomes the seventh nation capable of sending objects into space.
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The Space Station Columbia lifts off from Cape Canaveral. The new artronaut transportation system begins.
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The first Space Shuttle mission. The STS-1, took off demonstrating that it could take off vertically and glide back like an airplane.
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French air force test pilot Jean-Loup Chrétien launches to the Soviet Union's Salyut 7 aboard Soyuz T-6.
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The Shuttle Columbia launches, and during the mission, launches two commercial communications satellites.
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Sally Ride becomes the first American women in space, while aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger.
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Astronauts Bruce McCandless and Robert Stewart maneuver as many as 328 feet (100 meters) from the Space Shuttle Challenger using the Manned Maneuvering Unit.
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The Challenger crews repairs the Solar Max satillite during a spacewalk.
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The International Cometary Explorer, launched by NASA in 1978, performs the first comet flyby.
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Voyager 2 completes the first and only spacecraft flyby of Uranus.
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Challenger explodes 73 seconds after launch, grounding the shuttle fleet for more than two years.
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The Soviet Union launches the Mir space station.
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A two-cosmonaut crew launches aboard Soyuz T-15 to power up the Mir space station.
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The supernova that was located in a Large Magellanic Cloud,finally reached Earth to shine in Southern Hemisphere skies on 24 February 1987.
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PanAmSat launches its first satellite
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Israel launches its first satellite
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The Soviet Union launches its Buran space shuttle on its only flight, an unpiloted test.
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The Space Shuttle Atlantis launches the Magellan space probe to use radar to map the surface of Venus.
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Shuttle Atlantis launches with Jupiter-bound Galileo space probe on board.
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China launches the Asiasat-1 communications satellite, completing its first commercial contract.
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The Space Shuttle Discovery releases the Hubble Space Telescope into Earth orbit.
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The U.S. Galileo spacecraft, on its way to Jupiter. Successfully, encounters the asteroid Gaspra. During the flyby, the Galileo captures pictures, and other data.
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The U.S. Cosmic Background Explorer spacecraft detects the first evidence of structure in the residual radiation.
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Lockheed and Khrunichev Enterprise announce plans to form Lockheed-Khrunichev-Energia International, a new company to market Proton rockets.
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Shuttle Endeavour launches carrying Spacehab, a privately owned laboratory that sits in the shuttle cargo bay.
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The Endeavour launches on a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
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DirecTV launches its first satellite.
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The first Milstar secure communications satellite launches.
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The nation of India launches its four-stage Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle for the first time.
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A Chinese Long March rocket carrying the Hughes-built Apstar-1 rocket fails.
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The Space Shuttle Discovery launches and docks with the Mir space station.
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Aerospace giants Lockheed Corp. and Martin Marietta Corp. merge.
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The Galileo releases its space probe. The probe is bound for Jupiter and its moons.
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NASA and Stanford University research a paper saying that a 4-billion-year-old Martian meteorite. Found in Antarctia in 1984, contains fossilized traces of materials, that suggest that there may have been life on Mars. It still remians controversial.
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Satellite mobile phone company Iridium launches its first five satellites on a Delta 2 rocket.
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The Mars Pathfinder lander and its accompanying Sojourner rover, touch down on the surface of Mars.
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An unmanned Russian Progress supply spacecraft collides with the Mir space station.
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The Boeing Co. and the McDonnell Douglas Corp. merge, keeping Boeing's name.
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The Globalstar, a satellite mobile telephone company, launches its first four satellites on a Delta 2 rocket.
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A Russian Zenit 2 rocket launches and subsequently crashes, destroying all 12 Loral-built Globalstar satellites aboard. The payload had an estimated value of about $180 million.
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The first segment of the International Space Station, launches into space and unfurls its solar arrays.
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The Sea Launch Co. launches a demonstration satellite, successfully completing its first launch.
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NASA's flagship mission for X-ray astronomy, launches aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia.
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Iridium files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
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China successfully test launches the unmanned Shenzhou 1.
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The Expedition One of the International Space Station launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome.
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Satellite Radio's XM-2 satellite becomes the company's first satellite in orbit when it is launched by Sea Launch Co.
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Mir descends into the Earth's atmosphere and breaks up over the Pacific Ocean.
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U.S. entrepreneur Dennis Tito returns to Earth aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to become the world's first paying tourist to visit the International Space Station.
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Japan's workhorse launch system, the two-stage H-2A rocket, launches for the first time.
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After having trouble selling its satellite mobile phone service, Globalstar voluntarily files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
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The Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates as it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere, killing the crew.
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The VLS-V03, a Brazilian prototype rocket, explodes on the launch pad at Alcántara killing 21 people.
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NASA launches the Spitzer Space Telescope aboard a Delta rocket.
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Japan's two space agencies, the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science and the National Space Development Agency of Japan, merge into the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
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Yang Liwei becomes China's first taikonaut
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The first Mars Exploration Rover, Spirit, lands on Mars
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President George W. Bush visited NASA Headquarters and annouced a new Vision for Space Exporation.
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India launches its three-stage Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle for the first time.
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Scaled Composites' Space Ship One piloted craft wins the X Prize.
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Discovery becomes the first shuttle to launch since the Columbia disaster more than two years before.
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A two-taikonaut crew launches aboard the Chinese Shenzhou 6.
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The last of the Martin Marietta-built Titan 4 heavy-lift rockets launches.
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New Horizons, NASA's first-ever mission to the dwarf planet Pluto and its moons, launches atop an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
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Intelsat acquires fellow fixed satellite service provider PanAmSat for $6.4 billion.
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NASA's second post-Columbia accident test flight, STS-121 aboard Discovery, begins a successful space station-bound mission, returning the U.S. orbiter fleet to flight status.
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NASA resumes construction of the International Space Station with the launch of the shuttle Atlantis
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Lockheed Martin completes the sale of its majority share in International Launch Services to Space Transport Inc. for $60 million.
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China downs one of its weather satellites
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The European Commission approves the French-Italian Alcatel Alenia, creating satellite manufacturer Thales Alenia Space.
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NASA's Space Shuttle Endeavour launches toward the International Space Station on the STS-118 construction mission.
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The first ion-powered probe to visit two celestial bodies in one go, launches on an eight-year mission to the asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres, the two largest space rocks in the solar system.
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NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, the first female commander of the International Space Station.
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The Space Age celebrated the 50th annivrary of the launch of Sputnik 1.
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The STS-126 was the 27th shuttle mission to the International Space Station.
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On the Launch Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, United Launch Alliance's Delta II rocket carrying NASA's Kepler spacecraft. Kepler will survey more than 100,000 stars in our galaxy.
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Became the 34th space shuttle mission to the International Space Station.
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The STS-135 mission, was the final flight of the Space Shuttle Program.
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The Blue Marble captures this composite image uses a number of swaths of the Earth's surface.
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The launch of TDRS-K began the replenishment of the fleet through the development and deployment of the next generation spacecraft.
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An exceptionally close stellar explosion discovered, occurred in the galaxy M82 and lies only about 12 million light-years away.
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Exposing Microorganisms in the Stratosphere (E-MIST) is an experiment that will study the survival of spore-forming bacteria.
