List of space exploration milestones, 1957-1969
Encyclopedia
Moon landing
A moon landing is the arrival of a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon. This includes both manned and unmanned missions. The first human-made object to reach the surface of the Moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 2 mission on 13 September 1959. The United States's Apollo 11 was the first manned...
. It focuses primarily on Space Race
Space Race
The Space Race was a mid-to-late 20th century competition between the Soviet Union and the United States for supremacy in space exploration. Between 1957 and 1975, Cold War rivalry between the two nations focused on attaining firsts in space exploration, which were seen as necessary for national...
accomplishments that led to the first manned landing on the Moon. Missions are given in order of launch date.
Miscellaneous milestones
| Milestone | Date | Country | Mission |
|---|---|---|---|
| First ICBM (used to launch Sputnik, etc.) | August 1957 | USSR Soviet Union The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991.... |
R-7 Semyorka R-7 Semyorka The R-7 was a Soviet missile developed during the Cold War, and the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile. The R-7 made 28 launches between 1957 and 1961, but was never deployed operationally. A derivative, the R-7A, was deployed from 1960 to 1968... |
| First artificial satellite Satellite In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon.... in Earth orbit |
October 1957 | USSR | Sputnik 1 Sputnik 1 Sputnik 1 ) was the first artificial satellite to be put into Earth's orbit. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957. The unanticipated announcement of Sputnik 1s success precipitated the Sputnik crisis in the United States and ignited the Space... |
| First animal in orbit (Laika Laika Laika was a Soviet space dog that became the first animal to orbit the Earth – as well as the first animal to die in orbit.As little was known about the impact of spaceflight on living creatures at the time of Laika's mission, and the technology to de-orbit had not yet been developed, there... ) |
November 1957 | USSR | Sputnik 2 Sputnik 2 Sputnik 2 , or Prosteyshiy Sputnik 2 ), was the second spacecraft launched into Earth orbit, on November 3, 1957, and the first to carry a living animal, a dog named Laika. Sputnik 2 was a 4-meter high cone-shaped capsule with a base diameter of 2 meters... |
| First communications satellite Communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite stationed in space for the purpose of telecommunications... (lasted 12 days) |
December 1958 | USA United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
SCORE Project SCORE Project SCORE was the world’s first communications satellite. Launched aboard an Atlas rocket on December 18, 1958, SCORE provided a first test of a communications relay system in space, as well as the first successful use of the Atlas as a launch vehicle... |
| First solar probe | March 1960 | USA | Pioneer 5 Pioneer 5 Pioneer 5 was a spin-stabilized space probe in the NASA Pioneer program used to investigate interplanetary space between the orbits of Earth and Venus. It was launched on March 11, 1960 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 17a at 13:00:00 UTC with an on-orbit dry mass of 43 kg... |
| First weather satellite Weather satellite The weather satellite is a type of satellite that is primarily used to monitor the weather and climate of the Earth. Satellites can be either polar orbiting, seeing the same swath of the Earth every 12 hours, or geostationary, hovering over the same spot on Earth by orbiting over the equator while... |
April 1960 | USA | TIROS-1 TIROS-1 TIROS I was the first successful weather satellite, and the first of a series of Television Infrared Observation Satellites... |
| First object successfully recovered from orbit | August 1960 | USA | Discoverer 13 |
| First animals returned safely from orbit | August 1960 | USSR | Sputnik 5 Sputnik 5 Korabl-Sputnik 2 , also known as Sputnik 5 in the West, was a Soviet artificial satellite, and the third test flight of the Vostok spacecraft. It was the first spaceflight to send animals into orbit and return them safely back to Earth... |
| First operational navigation satellite | 1960 | USA | Transit Transit (satellite) The TRANSIT system, also known as NAVSAT , was the first satellite navigation system to be used operationally. The system was primarily used by the U.S... |
| First person (and man) in space Yuri Gagarin Yuri Gagarin Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey into outer space, when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on April 12, 1961.... |
April 1961 | USSR | Vostok 1 Vostok 1 Vostok 1 was the first spaceflight in the Vostok program and the first human spaceflight in history. The Vostok 3KA spacecraft was launched on April 12, 1961. The flight took Yuri Gagarin, a cosmonaut from the Soviet Union, into space. The flight marked the first time that a human entered outer... |
| First crewed mission lasting a full day. Gherman Titov Gherman Titov Gherman Stepanovich Titov was a Soviet cosmonaut who, on August 6, 1961, became the second human to orbit the Earth aboard Vostok 2, preceded by Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1... |
August 1961 | USSR | Vostok 2 Vostok 2 Vostok 2 was a Soviet space mission which carried cosmonaut Gherman Titov into orbit for a full day in order to study the effects of a more prolonged period of weightlessness on the human body... |
| First commercially useful communications satellite | July 1962 | USA | Telstar Telstar Telstar is the name of various communications satellites, including the first such satellite to relay television signals.The first two Telstar satellites were experimental and nearly identical. Telstar 1 was launched on top of a Thor-Delta rocket on July 10, 1962... |
| First simultaneous flight of crewed spacecrafts. Andriyan Nikolayev and Pavel Popovich Pavel Popovich - Biography :He was born in Uzyn, Kiev Oblast of Soviet Union . to Roman Porfirievich Popovich and Theodosia Kasyanovna Semyonov. He had two sisters and two brothers .... |
August 1962 | USSR | Vostok 3 Vostok 3 Vostok 3 was a spaceflight of the Soviet space program intended to determine the ability of the human body to function in conditions of weightlessness and test the endurance of the Vostok 3KA spacecraft over longer flights... and Vostok 4 Vostok 4 Vostok 4 was a mission in the Soviet space program. It was launched a day after Vostok 3 with cosmonaut Pavel Popovich on board—the first time that more than one manned spacecraft were in orbit at the same time. The two Vostok capsules came within of one another and ship-to-ship radio contact was... |
| First woman in space. Valentina Tereshkova Valentina Tereshkova Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova is a retired Soviet cosmonaut, and was the first woman in space. She was selected out of more than four hundred applicants, and then out of five finalists, to pilot Vostok 6 on the 16 June, 1963, becoming both the first woman and the first civilian to fly in... |
August 1962 | USSR | Vostok 6 Vostok 6 -Backup crew:-Reserve crew:Vostok VI-Mission parameters:*Mass: *Apogee: *Perigee: *Inclination: 64.9°*Period: 87.8 minutes9090... |
| Longest crewed solo orbital flight. Valery Bykovsky | June 1963 | USSR | Vostok 5 Vostok 5 -Backup crew:-Reserve crew:-Mission parameters:*Mass *Apogee: *Perigee: *Inclination: 64.9°*Period: 88.4 minutes... |
| First geosynchronous satellite Geosynchronous orbit A geosynchronous orbit is an orbit around the Earth with an orbital period that matches the Earth's sidereal rotation period... |
July 1963 | USA | Syncom 2 Syncom Syncom started as a 1961 NASA program for active geosynchronous communication satellites, all of which were developed and manufactured by Hughes Space and Communications... |
| First successful rocket Rocket A rocket is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust from a rocket engine. In all rockets, the exhaust is formed entirely from propellants carried within the rocket before use. Rocket engines work by action and reaction... capable of sending a mission to land on the Moon (Saturn V Saturn V The Saturn V was an American human-rated expendable rocket used by NASA's Apollo and Skylab programs from 1967 until 1973. A multistage liquid-fueled launch vehicle, NASA launched 13 Saturn Vs from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida with no loss of crew or payload... ) |
November 1967 | USA | Apollo 4 Apollo 4 Apollo 4, , was the first unmanned test flight of the Saturn V launch vehicle, which was ultimately used by the Apollo program to send the first men to the Moon... |
Notable firsts
The Soviet space programSoviet space program
The Soviet space program is the rocketry and space exploration programs conducted by the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics from the 1930s until its dissolution in 1991...
pioneered many aspects of space exploration.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
announced its intention to launch an artificial satellite, on July 31, 1956, the Soviet Union announced its intention to do the same. Sputnik 1
Sputnik 1
Sputnik 1 ) was the first artificial satellite to be put into Earth's orbit. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957. The unanticipated announcement of Sputnik 1s success precipitated the Sputnik crisis in the United States and ignited the Space...
was launched on October 4, 1957, beating the United States and stunning people all over the world.
The Soviet space program pioneered many aspects of space EXPLORATION
- 1957: First intercontinental ballistic missile, the R-7 SemyorkaR-7 SemyorkaThe R-7 was a Soviet missile developed during the Cold War, and the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile. The R-7 made 28 launches between 1957 and 1961, but was never deployed operationally. A derivative, the R-7A, was deployed from 1960 to 1968...
- 1957: First satellite, Sputnik 1Sputnik 1Sputnik 1 ) was the first artificial satellite to be put into Earth's orbit. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957. The unanticipated announcement of Sputnik 1s success precipitated the Sputnik crisis in the United States and ignited the Space...
- 1957: First animal to enter Earth orbit, the dog LaikaLaikaLaika was a Soviet space dog that became the first animal to orbit the Earth – as well as the first animal to die in orbit.As little was known about the impact of spaceflight on living creatures at the time of Laika's mission, and the technology to de-orbit had not yet been developed, there...
on Sputnik 2Sputnik 2Sputnik 2 , or Prosteyshiy Sputnik 2 ), was the second spacecraft launched into Earth orbit, on November 3, 1957, and the first to carry a living animal, a dog named Laika. Sputnik 2 was a 4-meter high cone-shaped capsule with a base diameter of 2 meters... - 1959: First firing of a rocket in Earth orbit, first man-made object to escape Earth's orbit, Luna 1Luna 1Luna 1 , first known as First Cosmic Ship, then known as Mechta was the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and the first of the Luna program of Soviet automatic interplanetary stations successfully launched in the direction of the Moon.While traveling through the outer Van Allen...
- 1959: First data communications, or telemetryTelemetryTelemetry is a technology that allows measurements to be made at a distance, usually via radio wave transmission and reception of the information. The word is derived from Greek roots: tele = remote, and metron = measure...
, to and from outer spaceOuter spaceOuter space is the void that exists between celestial bodies, including the Earth. It is not completely empty, but consists of a hard vacuum containing a low density of particles: predominantly a plasma of hydrogen and helium, as well as electromagnetic radiation, magnetic fields, and neutrinos....
, Luna 1Luna 1Luna 1 , first known as First Cosmic Ship, then known as Mechta was the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and the first of the Luna program of Soviet automatic interplanetary stations successfully launched in the direction of the Moon.While traveling through the outer Van Allen...
. - 1959: First man-made object to pass near the MoonMoonThe Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
, first artificial satellite in Solar orbit, Luna 1Luna 1Luna 1 , first known as First Cosmic Ship, then known as Mechta was the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and the first of the Luna program of Soviet automatic interplanetary stations successfully launched in the direction of the Moon.While traveling through the outer Van Allen... - 1959: First probe to impact the Moon, Luna 2Luna 2Luna 2 was the second of the Soviet Union's Luna programme spacecraft launched to the Moon. It was the first spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon...
- 1959: First images of the moon's far side, Luna 3Luna 3The Soviet space probe Luna 3 of 1959 was the third space probe to be sent to the neighborhood of the Moon, and this mission was an early feat in the spaceborne exploration of outer space...
- 1960: First animals to safely return from Earth orbit, the dogs Belka and Strelka on Sputnik 5Sputnik 5Korabl-Sputnik 2 , also known as Sputnik 5 in the West, was a Soviet artificial satellite, and the third test flight of the Vostok spacecraft. It was the first spaceflight to send animals into orbit and return them safely back to Earth...
. - 1960: First probe launched to Mars, Marsnik 1 (failed to reach target)
- 1961: First probe launched to Venus, Venera 1Venera 1On February 12, 1961, 00:34:36 UTC, was the first planetary probe launched to Venus by the Soviet Union. The Venus-1 Automatic Interplanetary Station, or Venera 1, was a 643.5 kg probe consisting of a cylindrical body 1.05 metres in diameter topped by a dome, totalling 2.035 metres...
- 1961: First person in space (International definition) and in Earth orbit, Yuri GagarinYuri GagarinYuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey into outer space, when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on April 12, 1961....
on Vostok 1Vostok 1Vostok 1 was the first spaceflight in the Vostok program and the first human spaceflight in history. The Vostok 3KA spacecraft was launched on April 12, 1961. The flight took Yuri Gagarin, a cosmonaut from the Soviet Union, into space. The flight marked the first time that a human entered outer...
, Vostok programmeVostok programmeThe Vostok programme was a Soviet human spaceflight project that succeeded in putting a person into Earth's orbit for the first time. The programme developed the Vostok spacecraft from the Zenit spy satellite project and adapted the Vostok rocket from an existing ICBM design... - 1961: First person to spend over a day in space Gherman TitovGherman TitovGherman Stepanovich Titov was a Soviet cosmonaut who, on August 6, 1961, became the second human to orbit the Earth aboard Vostok 2, preceded by Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1...
, Vostok 2Vostok 2Vostok 2 was a Soviet space mission which carried cosmonaut Gherman Titov into orbit for a full day in order to study the effects of a more prolonged period of weightlessness on the human body...
(also first person to sleep in space). - 1962: First dual crewed spaceflight, Vostok 3Vostok 3Vostok 3 was a spaceflight of the Soviet space program intended to determine the ability of the human body to function in conditions of weightlessness and test the endurance of the Vostok 3KA spacecraft over longer flights...
and Vostok 4Vostok 4Vostok 4 was a mission in the Soviet space program. It was launched a day after Vostok 3 with cosmonaut Pavel Popovich on board—the first time that more than one manned spacecraft were in orbit at the same time. The two Vostok capsules came within of one another and ship-to-ship radio contact was... - 1963: First woman in space, Valentina TereshkovaValentina TereshkovaValentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova is a retired Soviet cosmonaut, and was the first woman in space. She was selected out of more than four hundred applicants, and then out of five finalists, to pilot Vostok 6 on the 16 June, 1963, becoming both the first woman and the first civilian to fly in...
, Vostok 6Vostok 6-Backup crew:-Reserve crew:Vostok VI-Mission parameters:*Mass: *Apogee: *Perigee: *Inclination: 64.9°*Period: 87.8 minutes9090... - 1964: First multi-person crew (3), Voskhod 1Voskhod 1Voskhod 1 was the seventh manned Soviet space flight. It achieved a number of "firsts" in the history of manned spaceflight, being the first space flight to carry more than one crewman into orbit, the first flight without the use of spacesuits, and the first to carry either an engineer or a...
- 1965: First EVAExtra-vehicular activityExtra-vehicular activity is work done by an astronaut away from the Earth, and outside of a spacecraft. The term most commonly applies to an EVA made outside a craft orbiting Earth , but also applies to an EVA made on the surface of the Moon...
, by Aleksei LeonovAleksei LeonovAlexey Arkhipovich Leonov is a retired Soviet/Russian cosmonaut and Air Force Major General who, on 18 March 1965, became the first human to conduct a space walk.-Biography:...
, Voskhod 2Voskhod 2Voskhod 2 was a Soviet manned space mission in March 1965. Vostok-based Voskhod 3KD spacecraft with two crew members on board, Pavel Belyaev and Alexei Leonov, was equipped with an inflatable airlock... - 1965: First probe to hit another planet (VenusVenusVenus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...
), Venera 3Venera 3Venera 3 was a Venera program space probe that was built and launched by the Soviet Union to explore the surface of Venus. It was launched on November 16, 1965 at 04:19 UTC from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.... - 1966: First probe to make a soft landing on and transmit from the surface of the moon, Luna 9Luna 9Luna 9 was an unmanned space mission of the Soviet Union's Luna program. On February 3, 1966 the Luna 9 spacecraft was the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on any planetary body other than Earth and to transmit photographic data to Earth.The automatic lunar station that achieved the...
- 1966: First probe in lunar orbit, Luna 10Luna 10Luna 10 was a Luna program, robotic spacecraft mission, also called Lunik 10.The Luna 10 spacecraft was launched towards the Moon from an Earth orbiting platform on March 31, 1966. It was the first artificial satellite of the Moon...
- 1967: First automated, crewless rendezvous and docking, Cosmos 186/Cosmos 188. (Until 2006, this had remained the only major space achievement that the US had not duplicated.)
- 1969: First docking between two crewed crafts in Earth orbit and exchange of crews, Soyuz 4Soyuz 4Soyuz 4 was launched on January 14, 1969. On board the Soyuz 7K-OK spacecraft was cosmonaut Vladimir Shatalov on his first flight. The aim of the mission was to dock with Soyuz 5, transfer two crew members from that spacecraft, and return to Earth...
and Soyuz 5Soyuz 5Soyuz 5 was a Soyuz mission using the Soyuz 7K-OK spacecraft launched by the Soviet Union on January 15, 1969, which docked with Soyuz 4 in orbit...
Robotic lunar missions
| Milestone | Date | Country | Mission |
|---|---|---|---|
| First probe to go near the Moon Moon The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more... (5995 km), went into heliocentric orbit Heliocentric orbit A heliocentric orbit is an orbit around the Sun. All planets, comets, and asteroids in our Solar System are in such orbits, as are many artificial probes and pieces of debris. The moons of planets in the Solar System, by contrast, are not in heliocentric orbits as they orbit their respective planet... |
January 1959 | USSR | Luna 1 Luna 1 Luna 1 , first known as First Cosmic Ship, then known as Mechta was the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and the first of the Luna program of Soviet automatic interplanetary stations successfully launched in the direction of the Moon.While traveling through the outer Van Allen... |
| First probe to impact the Moon | September 1959 | USSR | Luna 2 Luna 2 Luna 2 was the second of the Soviet Union's Luna programme spacecraft launched to the Moon. It was the first spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon... |
| First probe to photograph the far side of the Moon Far side of the Moon The far side of the Moon is the lunar hemisphere that is permanently turned away, and is not visible from the surface of the Earth. The far hemisphere was first photographed by the Soviet Luna 3 probe in 1959, and was first directly observed by human eyes when the Apollo 8 mission orbited the Moon... |
October 1959 | USSR | Luna 3 Luna 3 The Soviet space probe Luna 3 of 1959 was the third space probe to be sent to the neighborhood of the Moon, and this mission was an early feat in the spaceborne exploration of outer space... |
| First automated landing on the Moon, first to transmit from the Moon's surface | January 1966 | USSR | Luna 9 Luna 9 Luna 9 was an unmanned space mission of the Soviet Union's Luna program. On February 3, 1966 the Luna 9 spacecraft was the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on any planetary body other than Earth and to transmit photographic data to Earth.The automatic lunar station that achieved the... |
| First probe to orbit the Moon | March 1966 | USSR | Luna 10 Luna 10 Luna 10 was a Luna program, robotic spacecraft mission, also called Lunik 10.The Luna 10 spacecraft was launched towards the Moon from an Earth orbiting platform on March 31, 1966. It was the first artificial satellite of the Moon... |
| First probe to land using retrorocket Retrorocket A retrorocket is a rocket engine providing thrust opposing the motion of a spacecraft, thereby causing it to decelerate.-History:... s |
June 1966 | USA | Surveyor 1 Surveyor 1 Surveyor 1 was the first lunar soft-lander in the unmanned Surveyor program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration . This lunar soft-lander gathered data about the lunar surface that would be needed for the manned Apollo Moon landings that began in 1969... |
| First probe to map the Moon | August 1966 | USA | Lunar Orbiter 1 Lunar Orbiter 1 The Lunar Orbiter 1 robotic spacecraft, part of the Lunar Orbiter Program, was designed primarily to photograph smooth areas of the lunar surface for selection and verification of safe landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo missions... |
Human-crewed missions
| Milestone | Date | Country | Mission |
|---|---|---|---|
| First person in space, first person to orbit the Earth Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets... |
April 1961 | USSR | Vostok 1 Vostok 1 Vostok 1 was the first spaceflight in the Vostok program and the first human spaceflight in history. The Vostok 3KA spacecraft was launched on April 12, 1961. The flight took Yuri Gagarin, a cosmonaut from the Soviet Union, into space. The flight marked the first time that a human entered outer... |
| First manual control of a crewed spacecraft Spacecraft A spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo.... |
May 1961 | USA | Freedom 7 Mercury-Redstone 3 Mercury-Redstone 3 was the first manned space mission of the United States. Astronaut Alan Shepard piloted a 15-minute Project Mercury suborbital flight in the Freedom 7 spacecraft on May 5, 1961 to become the first American in space, three weeks after the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had carried... |
| First one-day flight | August 1961 | USSR | Vostok 2 Vostok 2 Vostok 2 was a Soviet space mission which carried cosmonaut Gherman Titov into orbit for a full day in order to study the effects of a more prolonged period of weightlessness on the human body... |
| Two spacecraft launched into nearly intersecting orbits. (Mistakenly reported as first rendezvous Space rendezvous A space rendezvous is an orbital maneuver during which two spacecraft, one of which is often a space station, arrive at the same orbit and approach to a very close distance . Rendezvous requires a precise match of the orbital velocities of the two spacecraft, allowing them to remain at a constant... .) |
August 1962 | USSR | Vostok 3 Vostok 3 Vostok 3 was a spaceflight of the Soviet space program intended to determine the ability of the human body to function in conditions of weightlessness and test the endurance of the Vostok 3KA spacecraft over longer flights... and Vostok 4 Vostok 4 Vostok 4 was a mission in the Soviet space program. It was launched a day after Vostok 3 with cosmonaut Pavel Popovich on board—the first time that more than one manned spacecraft were in orbit at the same time. The two Vostok capsules came within of one another and ship-to-ship radio contact was... |
| First flight over three days long | August 1962 | USSR | Vostok 3 Vostok 3 Vostok 3 was a spaceflight of the Soviet space program intended to determine the ability of the human body to function in conditions of weightlessness and test the endurance of the Vostok 3KA spacecraft over longer flights... |
| First woman in space | June 1963 | USSR | Vostok 6 Vostok 6 -Backup crew:-Reserve crew:Vostok VI-Mission parameters:*Mass: *Apogee: *Perigee: *Inclination: 64.9°*Period: 87.8 minutes9090... |
| First multi-person crew (3) on board one spacecraft | October 1964 | USSR | Voskhod 1 Voskhod 1 Voskhod 1 was the seventh manned Soviet space flight. It achieved a number of "firsts" in the history of manned spaceflight, being the first space flight to carry more than one crewman into orbit, the first flight without the use of spacesuits, and the first to carry either an engineer or a... |
| First spacewalk (EVA Extra-vehicular activity Extra-vehicular activity is work done by an astronaut away from the Earth, and outside of a spacecraft. The term most commonly applies to an EVA made outside a craft orbiting Earth , but also applies to an EVA made on the surface of the Moon... ) |
March 1965 | USSR | Voskhod 2 Voskhod 2 Voskhod 2 was a Soviet manned space mission in March 1965. Vostok-based Voskhod 3KD spacecraft with two crew members on board, Pavel Belyaev and Alexei Leonov, was equipped with an inflatable airlock... |
| First crewed spacecraft to change orbit | March 1965 | USA | Gemini 3 Gemini 3 Gemini 3 was the first manned mission in NASA's Gemini program, the second American manned space program. On March 23, 1965, the spacecraft, nicknamed The Molly Brown, performed the seventh manned US spaceflight, and the 17th manned spaceflight overall... |
| First crewed mission over seven days long (long enough for a mission to the Moon and back) | August 1965 | USA | Gemini 5 Gemini 5 Gemini 5 was a 1965 manned spaceflight in NASA's Gemini program. It was the third manned Gemini flight, the 11th manned American flight and the 19th spaceflight of all time... |
| Two spacecraft maneuvering to close proximity under fine control. The first rendezvous in space Space rendezvous A space rendezvous is an orbital maneuver during which two spacecraft, one of which is often a space station, arrive at the same orbit and approach to a very close distance . Rendezvous requires a precise match of the orbital velocities of the two spacecraft, allowing them to remain at a constant... . |
December 1965 | USA | Gemini 6A Gemini 6A -Backup crew:-Mission parameters:* Mass: * Perigee: * Apogee: * Inclination: 28.97°* Period: 88.7 min-Stationkeeping with GT-7:* Start: December 15, 1965 19:33 UTC* End: December 16, 1965 00:52 UTC-Objectives:... |
| Longest flight of the decade (13 days, 18 hours) | December 1965 | USA | Gemini 7 Gemini 7 Gemini 7 was a 1965 manned spaceflight in NASA's Gemini program. It was the 4th manned Gemini flight, the 12th manned American flight and the 20th spaceflight of all time . The crew of Frank F. Borman, II and James A... |
| First docking with another spacecraft | March 1966 | USA | Gemini 8 Gemini 8 -Backup crew:-Mission parameters:* Mass: * Perigee: * Apogee: * Inclination: 28.91°* Period: 88.83 min-Objectives:Gemini VIII had two major objectives, of which it achieved one... |
| First extended EVA | June 1966 | USA | Gemini 9A Gemini 9A - Backup crew :- Original primary crew :- Mission parameters :* Mass: * Perigee: * Apogee: * Inclination: 28.91°* Period: 88.78 min- 1st rendezvous :* June 3, 1966 - 17:45 - 18:00 UTC- Spacewalk :* Cernan... |
| First crewed mission to leave Earth orbit, first to orbit the Moon and first spacecraft of any type to perform Trans-Earth injection | December 1968 | USA | Apollo 8 Apollo 8 Apollo 8, the second manned mission in the American Apollo space program, was the first human spaceflight to leave Earth orbit; the first to be captured by and escape from the gravitational field of another celestial body; and the first crewed voyage to return to Earth from another celestial... |
| First docking between two crewed spacecrafts in Earth orbit, also the first crew exchange in space | January 1969 | USSR | Soyuz 4 Soyuz 4 Soyuz 4 was launched on January 14, 1969. On board the Soyuz 7K-OK spacecraft was cosmonaut Vladimir Shatalov on his first flight. The aim of the mission was to dock with Soyuz 5, transfer two crew members from that spacecraft, and return to Earth... and Soyuz 5 Soyuz 5 Soyuz 5 was a Soyuz mission using the Soyuz 7K-OK spacecraft launched by the Soviet Union on January 15, 1969, which docked with Soyuz 4 in orbit... |
| First successful crewed flight of a spacecraft capable of landing on the Moon (Apollo Lunar Module Apollo Lunar Module The Apollo Lunar Module was the lander portion of the Apollo spacecraft built for the US Apollo program by Grumman to carry a crew of two from lunar orbit to the surface and back... ) |
March 1969 | USA | Apollo 9 Apollo 9 Apollo 9, the third manned mission in the American Apollo space program, was the first flight of the Command/Service Module with the Lunar Module... |
| First crewed landing on the Moon Moon landing A moon landing is the arrival of a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon. This includes both manned and unmanned missions. The first human-made object to reach the surface of the Moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 2 mission on 13 September 1959. The United States's Apollo 11 was the first manned... |
July 1969 | USA | Apollo 11 Apollo 11 In early 1969, Bill Anders accepted a job with the National Space Council effective in August 1969 and announced his retirement as an astronaut. At that point Ken Mattingly was moved from the support crew into parallel training with Anders as backup Command Module Pilot in case Apollo 11 was... |
Robotic planetary missions
| Milestone | Date | Country | Mission |
|---|---|---|---|
| First flyby of Venus (< 100,000 km), but contact was lost | February 1961 | USSR | Venera 1 Venera 1 On February 12, 1961, 00:34:36 UTC, was the first planetary probe launched to Venus by the Soviet Union. The Venus-1 Automatic Interplanetary Station, or Venera 1, was a 643.5 kg probe consisting of a cylindrical body 1.05 metres in diameter topped by a dome, totalling 2.035 metres... |
| First successful flyby of Venus (less than 35,000 km) | August 1962 | USA | Mariner 2 Mariner 2 Mariner 2 , an American space probe to Venus, was the first space probe to conduct a successful planetary encounter . The first successful spacecraft in the NASA Mariner program, it was a simplified version of the Block I spacecraft of the Ranger program and an exact copy of Mariner 1... |
| First Mars flyby (11,000 km) but contact was lost | November 1962 | USSR | Mars 1 Mars 1 Mars 1, also known as 1962 Beta Nu 1, Mars 2MV-4 and Sputnik 23, was an automatic interplanetary station launched in the direction of Mars on November 1, 1962, the first of the Soviet Mars probe program, with the intent of flying by the planet at a distance of about 11,000 km... |
| First successful Mars flyby (returned pictures) | November 1964 | USA | Mariner 4 Mariner 4 Mariner 4 was the fourth in a series of spacecraft, launched on November 28, 1964, intended for planetary exploration in a flyby mode and performed the first successful flyby of the planet Mars, returning the first pictures of the Martian surface... |
| First impact of Venus (contact lost) | November 1965 | USSR | Venera 3 Venera 3 Venera 3 was a Venera program space probe that was built and launched by the Soviet Union to explore the surface of Venus. It was launched on November 16, 1965 at 04:19 UTC from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.... |
| First to enter Venus's atmosphere | June 1967 | USSR | Venera 4 Venera 4 Venera 4 ) was a probe in the Soviet Venera program for the exploration of Venus. Venera-4 was the first successful probe to perform in-place analysis of the environment of another planet. It was also the first probe to land on another planet... |
| First to parachute in Venus's atmosphere, lost contact before landing. (soft landing?) | January 1969 | USSR | Venera 5 Venera 5 Venera 5 was a probe in the Soviet space program Venera for the exploration of Venus.Venera 5 was launched from a Tyazheliy Sputnik towards Venus to obtain atmospheric data... |