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Robert H. Goddard successfully launched the world's first liquid-fueled rocket at Auburn, Massachusetts, on March 16, 1926. He paved a path for the U.S. rocket program. The rocket was made out of thin pipes and 10 feet tall. It only was in flight for 2.5 seconds but it hit the altitude of 41 feet and 60 mph.
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In Nazi Germany they launched the V-2 which was the first man-made spacecraft to achieve sub-orbital spaceflight. The United States, Soviet Union, and United Kingdom used the V-2 during the post-war. The Peenemünde Army Research Center were the ones who designed the rocket.
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The United States lauched its first American designed rocket. Called the Wac Corporal. The rocket reached the edge of space at an altitude of 50 miles. It was launched at the White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico.
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Fruit flies became the first animals, insects in space. The V-2 rocket was the spacecraft that took them there. They were later retrived intact and alive.
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America launched its first satellite. It was called Explorer 1, it was launched into orbit by the Army on a Jupiter-C rocket. The satellite contained several scientific instruments. This mission discovered the radiation belts surrounding the Earth.
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The Russian satellite Luna 1 is launched in an attempt to hit the Moon. The spacecraft misses the Moon and is flung out into space by the Moon's gravity. It becomes the first man-made object to achieve an orbit around the Sun.
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The Soviet Union launched he first Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). Also known as the R-7 Semyorka. The modified version of this missile would be used later to launch the world's first artificial satellite.
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The Russian satellite Luna 2 is launched. On September 13, it becomes the first man-made object to hit the Moon. The spacecraft was sterilized to avoid contaminating the Moon with terrestrial bacteria.
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The Russian satellite Luna 3 luanched orbiting the Moon and photographing 70 percent of the Moon's far side.
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Tiros 1, the first successful weather satellite, is launched by the United States. Two television cameras in the satellite returned views of clouds above the Earth. Tiros 1 was only operational for 78 days, but proved that satellites could be useful tools for surveying weather conditions from space.
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Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin became the first human to venture into space. The Vostok 1 spacecraft made one complete orbit around Earth in 108 minutes, and reached altitudes of 112 to 203 miles. The flight lasted only one hour and 48 minutes.
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Mariner 4 arrived at Mars and gave scientists their first views of the planet at close range. The resulting photos showed no sign of the famous "canals" and no evidence of life.
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Apollo 11 makes the first successful soft landing on the Moon. Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, Jr. became the first human beings to set foot on another world. Many experts still consider this to be the single greatest technological achievement of 20th century.
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The Soviet Luna 16 is launched, conducting the first successful return of lunar soil samples by an automatic spacecraft.
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The Soviet Venera 7 is the first probe to soft-land on Venus, transmitting for 23 minutes. The spacecraft send back a few images of the planet's surface before succumbing to the extreme heat and pressure of Venusian atmosphere.
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Astronomers designate Cignus X-1 as the first probable black hole This binary star system emits strong bursts as X-rays as matter is crushed out of existence by the black hole.
