Timeline of space exploration
This is for a timeline of space exploration including notable achievements and first accomplishments or major events in humanity's exploration of outer space.
1610–1951
Date | Event leading to space exploration | Country | Researcher(s) |
---|---|---|---|
1610 | First telescopic observation of the night sky: discovery of Jupiter's moons, lunar craters and the phases of Venus. | Galileo Galilei | |
1687 | Publication of the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica | Sir Isaac Newton | |
1813 | First exposition of the rocket equation based on Newton's third law of motion: Treatise on the Motion of Rockets | William Moore | |
1840 | First clear telescopic photograph of another world: the Moon. | John William Draper | |
1865 | From the Earth to the Moon published. | Jules Verne | |
1898 | The War of the Worlds published. This inspired Robert Goddard to investigate rocketry. | H. G. Wells | |
1903 | Inspired by the writings of Jules Verne, first serious work published that showed physical space exploration was theoretically possible: Исследование мировых пространств реактивными приборами (The Exploration of Cosmic Space by Means of Reaction Devices) | Konstantin Tsiolkovsky | |
1914 | Goddard files for and is subsequently awarded U.S. patents on multistage and liquid-fueled rockets | Robert H. Goddard | |
1919 | Goddard's widely influential paper "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes" discussed solid- and liquid-fueled rocketry | Robert H. Goddard | |
15 December 1923 | Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen ("By Rocket into Planetary Space") self-published after its rejection as a doctoral thesis. | Hermann Oberth | |
1924 | Society for Studies of Interplanetary Travel founded | Members include Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Friedrich Zander, Yuri Kondratyuk | |
16 March 1926 | Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket | Robert H. Goddard | |
1927 | Verein für Raumschiffahrt (Society for Space Travel) formed; it includes many top European rocket scientists. | ||
1927 | Завоевание межпланетных пространств (The Conquest of Interplanetary Space) discusses rocket mechanics and orbital effects including the gravitational slingshot | Yuri Kondratyuk | |
1928 | Das Problem der Befahrung des Weltraums – der Raketen-Motor (The Problem of Space Travel – The Rocket Motor) discusses space travel and its potential uses for scientific experiments. | Herman Potočnik | |
1929 | Oberth, with students including Wernher von Braun, launches his first liquid-fueled rocket | Hermann Oberth | |
1931 | First German military liquid-fueled rocket engines developed | Walter Riedel | |
1933 | Work begins on the Aggregate series of rockets which leads to the V-2 rocket. | Wernher von Braun | |
Group for the Study of Reactive Motion (GIRD) launches the first Soviet liquid-fueled rocket | Sergey Korolev (group leader), Friedrich Zander (designer) | ||
1935 | Graduate student Frank Malina under his professor Theodore von Kármán begins work on a sounding rocket | Frank Malina | |
11 November 1935 | The Explorer II balloon takes two people to 22,066 metres (72,395 ft), where they observe and photograph the curvature of the Earth. | Albert W. Stevens and Orvil A. Anderson | |
20 June 1944 | V-2 Rocket (MW 18014): First man-made object to cross what would later be defined as the Kármán line and hence first spaceflight in history. | Wehrmacht | |
10 May 1946 | First space research flight (cosmic radiation experiments) | captured and improved V-2 rocket | |
22 May 1946 | First U.S.-designed rocket to reach edge of space (80 km (49 mi)) | WAC Corporal | |
24 October 1946 | First pictures of Earth from 105 km (65 mi) [1][2] | V-2 | |
20 February 1947 | First animals in space (fruit flies) [1][3] | V-2 | |
22 July 1951 | First dogs in space (Dezik and Tsygan) [4] | R-1 |
1957–1959
Date | Mission achievements | Country/organization | Mission name |
---|---|---|---|
21 August 1957 | First intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) | R-7 Semyorka/SS-6 Sapwood | |
4 October 1957 | First artificial satellite First signals from space |
Sputnik 1 | |
3 November 1957 | First animal in orbit, the dog Laika | Sputnik 2 | |
31 January 1958 | Confirmed the existence of the Van Allen belts | Explorer 1 | |
2 January 1959 | First firing of a rocket in Earth orbit First reaching Earth escape velocity or Trans Lunar Injection First detection of solar wind |
Luna 1 | |
4 January 1959 | First artificial satellite to reach the Moon vicinity and first artificial satellite in heliocentric orbit | Luna 1 | |
7 August 1959 | First photograph of Earth from orbit | Explorer 6 | |
13 September 1959 | First impact into another world (the Moon) First delivery of national (USSR) pennants to a celestial body |
Luna 2 | |
4 October 1959 | First photos of another world from space: The far side of the Moon | Luna 3 | |
1960–1969
Date | Mission success | Country/organization | Mission name |
---|---|---|---|
March 1960 | First solar probe. | Pioneer 5 | |
19 August 1960 | First plants and animals to return alive from Earth orbit | Sputnik 5 | |
10 October 1960 | First probe launched to Mars (failed to reach target) | Mars 1M | |
31 January 1961 | First Hominidae in space, first tasks performed in space; Ham (chimpanzee). | M-R 2 | |
12 February 1961 | First launch from Earth orbit of upper stage into a heliocentric orbit First mid-course corrections First spin-stabilisation |
Venera 1 | |
12 April 1961 | First human spaceflight (Yuri Gagarin) First human-crewed orbital flight |
Vostok 1 | |
5 May 1961 | First human-piloted space flight (Alan Shepard) First human-crewed suborbital flight First human space mission that landed with pilot still in spacecraft, thus the first complete human spaceflight by FAI definitions.[5] |
Freedom 7 | |
19 May 1961 | First planetary flyby (within 100,000 km of Venus – no data returned) | Venera 1 | |
7 March 1962 | First orbital solar observatory | OSO-1 | |
26 April 1962 | First spacecraft to impact the far side of the Moon[6] | Ranger 4 | |
November 1962 | First Mars flyby (11,000 km) but contact was lost | Mars 1 | |
14 December 1962 | First successful planetary flyby (Venus closest approach 34,773 kilometers) | Mariner 2 | |
16 June 1963 | First woman in space (Valentina Tereshkova) | Vostok 6 | |
19 July 1963 | First reusable crewed spacecraft (suborbital) | X-15 Flight 90 | |
18 March 1965 | First extra-vehicular activity (Alexei Leonov) | Voskhod 2 | |
March 1965 | First crewed spacecraft to change orbit | Gemini 3 | |
14 July 1965 | First Mars flyby (closest approach 9,846 kilometers; returned pictures) | Mariner 4 | |
14 July 1965 | First close-up photographs of another planet: Mars | Mariner 4 | |
15 December 1965 | First orbital rendezvous (parallel flight, no docking) | Gemini 6A/Gemini 7 | |
3 February 1966 | First soft landing on another world (the Moon) First photos from another world |
Luna 9 | |
1 March 1966 | First impact into another planet (Venus) | Venera 3 | |
16 March 1966 | First orbital docking between two spacecraft | Gemini 8/Agena target vehicle | |
3 April 1966 | First artificial satellite around another world (the Moon) | Luna 10 | |
August 1966 | First probe to map the Moon | Lunar Orbiter 1 | |
30 October 1967 | First automated (crewless) docking | Cosmos 186/Cosmos 188 | |
September 1968 | First animals and plants to orbit moon, and the first to return safely to Earth | Zond 5 | |
7 December 1968 | First orbital ultraviolet observatory | OAO-2 | |
21 December 1968 | First piloted orbital mission of another celestial body (Moon), First-ever Trans-Earth injection First human space mission to escape Earth's influence (25 December) |
Apollo 8 | |
January 1969 | First docking between two crewed spacecraft in Earth orbit, also the first crew exchange in space | Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 | |
January 1969 | First to parachute in Venus's atmosphere, lost contact before landing. | Venera 5 | |
20 July 1969 | First human on the Moon, and first space launch from a celestial body other than the Earth First sample return from the Moon |
Apollo 11 | |
August 4, 1969 | First photograph of Phobos from Space | Mariner 7 | |
19 November 1969 | First rendezvous on the surface of a celestial body | Apollo 12/Surveyor 3 |
1970–1980
Date | Mission success | Country/organization | Mission name |
---|---|---|---|
24 September 1970 | First automatic sample return from the Moon | Luna 16 | |
17 November 1970 | First lunar rover | Lunokhod 1 | |
12 December 1970 | First X-ray orbital observatory | Uhuru (satellite) | |
15 December 1970 | First soft landing on another planet (Venus) First signals from another planet |
Venera 7 | |
19 April 1971 | First space station | Salyut 1 | |
June 1971 | First Manned orbital observatory | Orion 1 | |
14 November 1971 | First to maintain orbit around another planet (Mars) | Mariner 9 | |
27 November 1971 | First impact into Mars | Mars 2 | |
2 December 1971 | First soft Mars landing First signals from Mars surface |
Mars 3 | |
3 March 1972 | First human made object sent on escape trajectory away from the Sun | Pioneer 10 | |
15 July 1972 | First mission to enter the asteroid belt and leave inner Solar System | Pioneer 10 | |
15 November 1972 | First orbital gamma ray observatory | SAS 2 | |
3 December 1973 | First Jupiter flyby (at 130,000 km) | Pioneer 10 | |
5 February 1974 | Venus flyby at 5768 kilometers, first gravitational assist manoeuvre
First photograph of Venus from Space |
Mariner 10 | |
29 March 1974 | First Mercury flyby at 703 kilometers | Mariner 10 | |
15 July 1975 | First multinational manned mission | Apollo-Soyuz Test Project | |
20 October 1975 | First orbit around Venus | Venera 9 | |
22 October 1975 | First photos from the surface of another planet (Venus) | Venera 9 | |
17 April 1976 | Closest flyby of the Sun (43.432 million kilometers) Maximum speed record among spacecraft (252,792 km/h) |
Helios 2 | |
20 July 1976 | First photos and soil samples from the surface of Mars | Viking Lander | |
26 January 1978 | First real time remotely operated ultraviolet orbital observatory | International Ultraviolet Explorer | |
4 December 1978 | First extended (multi-year) orbital exploration of Venus from 1978 to 1992 | Pioneer Venus Orbiter | |
5 March 1979 | Jupiter flyby (closest approach 349,000 km) encounters with Five Jovian moons, discovery of volcanism on Io |
Voyager 1 | |
1 September 1979 | First Saturn flyby at 21,000 km, first photographs of Titan from Space | Pioneer 11 | |
12 November 1980 | Saturn flyby (closest approach 124,000 kilometers), close encounter of Titan and encounters with a dozen others. | Voyager 1 |
1981–present
Date | Mission success | Country/organization | Mission name |
---|---|---|---|
12 April 1981 | First Reusable manned spacecraft (orbital) | STS-1 | |
1 March 1982 | First Venus soil samples and sound recording of another world | Venera 13 | |
25 January 1983 | First Infrared orbital observatory | IRAS | |
13 June 1983 | First spacecraft beyond the orbit of Neptune (first spacecraft to pass beyond all Solar System planets) | Pioneer 10 | |
7 February 1984 | First untethered spacewalk, Bruce McCandless II | STS-41-B | |
24 January 1986 | First Uranus flyby (closest approach 81,500 kilometers (44,000 nmi) | Voyager 2 | |
28 January 1986 | First major American space loss, the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, an explosion soon after liftoff which killed, among others, Christa McAuliffe, a high school teacher | STS-51-L | |
19 February 1986 | First consistently inhabited long-term research space station | Mir | |
8 August 1989 | First astrometric satellite | Hipparcos | |
25 August 1989 | First Neptune flyby (closest approach at 29,240 km) | Voyager 2 | |
18 November 1989 | First orbital cosmic microwave observatory | COBE | |
14 February 1990 | First photograph of the whole Solar System[7] | Voyager 1 | |
24 April 1990 | Optical orbital observatory | Hubble Space Telescope | |
15 September 1990 | Extended (multi-year) orbital exploration of Venus | Magellan | |
21 October 1991 | First asteroid flyby (951 Gaspra closest approach 1,600 kilometers) | Galileo | |
8 February 1992 | First polar orbit around the Sun | Ulysses | |
22 March 1995 | Record longest duration spaceflight (437.7 days) set by Valeri Polyakov | Mir | |
7 December 1995 | First orbit of Jupiter | Galileo | |
7 December 1995 | First mission into the atmosphere of a gas giant (Jupiter) | Galileo's atmospheric entry probe | |
12 February 1997 | First orbital radio observatory | HALCA | |
4 July 1997 | First operational rover on another planet (Mars) | Mars Pathfinder | |
20 November 1998 | First multinational space station, Largest man-made object built in space to date |
International Space Station | |
14 February 2000 | First orbiting of an asteroid (433 Eros) | NEAR Shoemaker | |
12 February 2001 | First landing on an asteroid (433 Eros) | NEAR Shoemaker | |
1 July 2004 | First orbit of Saturn | Cassini–Huygens | |
8 September 2004 | First sample return beyond lunar orbit (solar wind) | Genesis | |
14 January 2005 | First soft landing on Titan | Cassini–Huygens | |
19 November 2005 | First asteroid ascent (25143 Itokawa) First interplanetary escape without undercarriage cutoff |
Hayabusa | |
15 January 2006 | First sample return from comet (81P/Wild) | Stardust | |
6 March 2009 | Kepler Mission is launched, first space telescope designated to search for Earth-like exoplanets[8] | Kepler Mission | |
13 June 2010 | First sample return from asteroid (25143 Itokawa) | Hayabusa | |
18 March 2011 | First orbit of Mercury | MESSENGER | |
16 July 2011 | First orbit of giant asteroid Vesta | Dawn | |
25 August 2012 | First manmade probe in interstellar space. | Voyager 1 | |
12 November 2014 | First man-made probe to make a planned and soft landing on a comet (67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko).[9] | Rosetta | |
6 March 2015 | First orbit of dwarf planet (Ceres). First spacecraft to orbit two separate celestial bodies. |
Dawn | |
July 2015 | First flyby of dwarf planet (Pluto). Last original encounter with one of the nine major planets recognized in 1981. |
New Horizons | |
10 August 2015 | Lettuce was the first food eaten that was grown in space.[10] | International Space Station | |
21 December 2015 | The first propulsive landing for an orbital rocket. | Falcon 9 first-stage landing tests |
1Project Vanguard was transferred from the NRL to NASA in late 1958.
See also
References
- 1 2 "Chronology: Cowboys to V-2s to the Space Shuttle to lasers". Wsmr.army.mil. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
- ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-02-21. Retrieved 2013-01-17.
- ↑ "Part 1". History.nasa.gov. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
- ↑ Asif Siddiqi, Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge, University Press of Florida, 2003, ISBN 081302627X, p. 96
- ↑ "Geek Trivia: A leap of fakes". Techrepublic.com. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
- ↑ "Discussion". Space Policy. 14 (1): 6. 1998-02-01. doi:10.1016/S0265-9646(97)00038-6.
- ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-03-31. Retrieved 2009-07-21.
- ↑ "NASA launches Kepler Mission: Search for Earth-like worlds". Spacechornology.com. Archived from the original on 22 January 2011. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
- ↑ Chang, Kenneth (November 12, 2014). "European Space Agency's Spacecraft Lands on Comet's Surface". The New York Times. Retrieved November 12, 2014.
- ↑ "Meals Ready to Eat: Expedition 44 Crew Members Sample Leafy Greens Grown on Space Station". Nasa. 7 July 2015.
External links
- Chronology of Space Exploration archive of important space exploration missions and events, including future planned and proposed endeavors
- Manned spaceflight 1961-1980
- Manned spaceflight chronology
- History of manned space missions
- Timeline of the Space Race/Moon Race
- Chronology: Moon Race at russianspaceweb.com
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