Space Exploration
Information about the United States' space flight programs, including NASA missions and the astronauts who participate in the efforts to explore Earth's galaxy.Contents:
- NARA Resources
- General Space Resources
- Timeline
- NASA's Space Centers
- NASA's Space Programs
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Astronaut Biographies
- Women in Space History
1957
- October 4 - The Soviet Union launched the first satellite, Sputnik, into space.
- November 3 - The Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 2 was launched with a dog named Laika on board. Laika did not survive the voyage.
- August 19 - The Soviet craft Sputnik 5 was launched, carrying the dogs Strelka and Belka. They became the first living beings to survive a trip into space.
- April 12 - Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space.
- May 5 - Astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American in space.
- May 25 - President Kennedy challenged the country to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.
- February 20 - Astronaut John Glenn became the first American in orbit.
- June 16 - Valentina Nikolayeva Tereshkova became the first woman in space.
- March 18 - While tethered to his spacecraft, cosmonaut Alexi Leonov became the first man to walk in space.
- June 3 - Astronaut Ed White became the first American to walk in space.
- July 14 - The spacecraft, Mariner 4, transmitted the first pictures of Mars.
- February 3 - The Russian spacecraft Luna 9 became the first spacecraft to land on the moon.
- June 2 - Surveyor 1 became the first American spacecraft to land on the moon.
- January 27 - Astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee were killed in an accidental fire in a command module on the launch pad.
- April 24 - Cosmonaut Vladimir M. Komarov was killed in a crash when the parachute on his Soyuz 1 spacecraft failed to deploy.
- October 18 - A descent capsule from the Soviet probe Venera 4 collected data about the atmosphere of Venus.
- September 15 - The Soviet spacecraft Zond 5 was launched and later became the first spacecraft to orbit the moon and return to Earth.
- December 21 - Apollo 8 was launched, and later her crewmembers became the first men to orbit the moon.
- July 20 - Neil Armstrong and "Buzz" Aldrin became the first men on the moon.
- April 11 - Apollo 13 was launched.
- September 12 - The Soviet craft Luna 16 was launched and became the first automatic spacecraft to return soil samples of the moon.
- November 17 - The Soviet automatic robot Lunokhod 1 landed on the moon with Luna 17.
- December 15 - The Soviet Venera 7 became the first probe to land on Venus.
- April 19 - The Soviet space station Salyut 1 was launched.
- July 30 - The moon rover was driven on the moon for the first time.
- November 13 - The Mariner 9 probe became the first craft to orbit another world - Mars.
- December 11 - Eugene Cernan and Harrison "Jack" Schmitt became the last men to walk on the moon.
- May 14 - The U.S. launched its first space station, Skylab.
- July 17 - The American Apollo 18 and Soviet Soyuz 19 dock in the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.
- September - The American probe, Viking 2, discovered water frost on the Martian surface.
- August and September - Voyagers 1 and 2 were launched. (Voyager 2 was launched before Voyager 1, but Voyager 1 was on a faster trajectory.)
- March and August - Voyagers 1 and 2 began transmitting images of Jupiter and her moons.
- September - The U.S. probe, Pioneer 11, reached Saturn and began transmitting images.
- November 13 - Voyager 1 reached Saturn and began transmitting images.
- April 12 - Columbia became the first Space Shuttle to be launched.
- August 26 - Voyager 2 reached Saturn and began transmitting images.
- April 4 - The second Space Shuttle, Challenger, was launched.
- June 19 - Sally Ride became the first American woman in space on Challenger's second mission.
- August 30 - Guion Bluford became the first African-American in space.
- February 3 - Astronaut Bruce McCandless became the first man to take an untethered space walk.
- August 30 - The third Space Shuttle, Discovery, was launched.
- October - Kathryn Sullivan became the first American woman to walk in space.
- October 3 - Atlantis, the fourth Space Shuttle, was launched.
- January 24 - Voyager 2 began transmitting images from Uranus.
- January 28 - The Space Shuttle Challenger exploded seconds after liftoff.
- February 20 - The core section of the Space Station Mir was launched.
- August - Voyager 2 began transmitting images from Neptune.
- August 10 - The Magellan spacecraft began mapping the surface of Venus using radar equipment.
- August 24 - The Space Shuttle Discovery deployed the Hubble Space Telescope.
- May 7 - The Space Shuttle Endeavor was launched for her maiden voyage.
- September 12 - Mae Jemison became the first African-American woman in space.
- December - The Space Shuttle Endeavor made the first servicing mission of the Hubble Space Telescope.
- February 3 - Sergei Krikalev became the first Russian cosmonaut to fly on a Space Shuttle.
- February 2 - Eileen Collins became the first female Shuttle pilot.
- December - The Galileo probe began transmitting data on Jupiter.
- July 4 - The Mars Pathfinder arrived on Mars and later began transmitting images.
- October 29 - John Glenn became the oldest man in space.
- July 23 - Eileen Collins became the first female Shuttle Commander.
- February 14 - The U.S. Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft began transmitting images of the asteroid, Eros.
- February 12 - NEAR landed on the surface of Eros.
- April 28 - American Dennis Tito became the first tourist in space after paying the Russian space program $20,000,000.
- February 1 - The Space Shuttle Columbia exploded on re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.
This timeline is mainly compiled from the NASA Space Exploration Timeline: 1957 A.D.-Present and Sea and Sky's Space Exploration Timeline.
PDF files require the free Adobe Reader.
More information on Adobe Acrobat PDF files is available on our Accessibility page.
