Timeline of space exploration

By bm18363
  • Period: to

    1609-1957

  • the moon

    The first spotting of the moon through a telescope by Galileo Galilei

  • Rocketry

    Robert H. Goddard launches first liquid fueled rockets

  • V2 rocket

    First research flight launched by the U.S. captured by the V-2 space rocket

  • Into space

    First animals launched into space (fruit flies) by the U.S.

  • Russians

    First artificial satellite put into space that brings back signals to earth launched by the USSR
  • Period: to

    1958-1980

  • Explorer

    Launch of Explorer 1

  • To the Moon

    Luna 1 was the first spacecraft to reach the Moon.

  • Seeing the moon

    U.S. Ranger 7 relays the first close-range photographs of the Moon.

  • walking in space

    The first space walk is made from Soviet Voskhod 2 by Cosmonaut Alexei A. Leonov. Duration is 12 minutes.

  • first death

    Soviet Soyuz 1 is launched, carrying Vladimir M. Komarov. On April 24 it crashed, killing Komarov, the first spaceflight fatality.

  • on the moon

    Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, Jr. make the first manned soft landing on the Moon, and the first moonwalk, using Apollo 11.

  • Apollo 13

    Apollo 13 is launched, suffering an explosion in its SM oxygen tanks. Its Moon landing is aborted, and the crew, James A. Lovell, Jr., John L. Swigert, Jr. and Fred W. Haise, Jr., return safely.
  • Period: to

    1980-present day

  • first space shuttle

    Columbia became the first Space Shuttle to be launched.

  • first woman in space

    Sally Ride became the first American woman in space on Challenger’s second mission.

  • first african american in space

    Guion Bluford became the first African-American in space.

  • space walk

    Astronaut Bruce McCandless became the first man to take an untethered space walk.