United States By DavidxD Jan 1, 1958 U.S launches an artificial satellite (Explorer 1) Jan 1, 1961 First American in space (Alan Shepard) Jan 1, 1962 First American orbits Earth (John Glenn, Jr) Mariner 2 flies past venus Jan 1, 1965 Mariner 4 space probe flies past mars Jan 1, 1969 Apollo 11 first manned moon landing (Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collin) Jan 1, 1973 Pioneer 7 sent toward Jupiter Jan 1, 1975 U.S and Soviet Union launch first joint space mission