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Timeline of space exploration

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This is a timeline of space exploration which includes notable achievements, first accomplishments and milestones in humanity's exploration of outer space.

This timeline generally does not distinguish achievements by a specific country or private company, as it considers humanity as a whole. See otherwise the timeline of private spaceflight or look for achievements by each space agency.

Pre-20th century

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Date Event leading to space exploration Country Researcher(s) Ref(s).
1610 First telescopic observation of the night sky: discovery of the Galilean moons, lunar craters and the phases of Venus. Venice Galileo Galilei
1668 First reflecting telescope. England Isaac Newton
1781 First telescopic discovery of planet (Uranus). Great Britain William Herschel
1801 First discovery of asteroid (Ceres). Sicily Giuseppe Piazzi
1813 First exposition of the rocket equation based on Newton's third law of motion: Treatise on the Motion of Rockets. UK William Moore
1840 First clear telescopic photograph of another world: the Moon. United States John William Draper
1845 First proper observation of other galaxies which are termed "whirlpool nebulae". UK William Parsons
1861 A Journey Through Space makes first proposal of using rockets for space flight. UK William Leitch
1895 First proposal of space elevator. Russia Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

1900–1956

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1957–1959

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Date Mission achievements Country/organization Mission name Ref(s).
4 October 1957 First artificial satellite.
First human-made signals from space.
USSR Sputnik 1
3 November 1957 First mammal in orbit, the dog Laika. USSR Sputnik 2
31 January 1958 Confirmed existence of the Van Allen radiation belt. USA (ABMA) Explorer 1
17 March 1958 First use of solar power in space.
The oldest artificial object still in space.
USA (NRL) Vanguard 1
4 January 1959 First rocket to reach Earth escape velocity.

First spacecraft to attempt to impact the Moon's surface.
First artificial object in heliocentric orbit.
First detection of solar wind.

USSR Luna 1
17 February 1959 First weather satellite. USA (NRL) Vanguard 2
7 August 1959 First photograph of Earth from Earth orbit. USA (NASA) Explorer 6
13 September 1959 First spacecraft to impact another celestial body (the Moon).
First delivery of national pennants to a celestial body.
USSR Luna 2
4 October 1959 First photos of another world from space: the far side of the Moon.

First gravity assist.

USSR Luna 3

1960–1969

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1970–1979

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1980–1989

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1990–1999

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Date Mission success Country/organization Mission name Ref(s).
14 February 1990 First photograph of the whole Solar System (Family Portrait). USA (NASA) Voyager 1 [36]
24 April 1990 First telescope designed to be repaired in space. USA (NASA)
ESA
Hubble Space Telescope [37]
2 July 1990 First time a spacecraft coming from deep space uses the Earth for a gravity-assist manoeuvre. ESA Giotto [38]
21 October 1991 First asteroid flyby (951 Gaspra closest approach 1,600 km). USA (NASA) Galileo
1992 First confirmed observation of an exoplanet. Canada
Poland
Aleksander Wolszczan & Dale Frail
8 February 1992 First polar orbit around the Sun.

First mission to survey the space environment above and below the poles of the Sun.

USA (NASA)
ESA
Ulysses [39]
13 September 1992 First spacecraft to map Venus in its entirety. USA (NASA) Magellan [40]
22 March 1995 Record longest duration spaceflight to date (437.7 day by Valeri Polyakov). Russia (FKA) Mir
7 December 1995 First orbit of Jupiter. USA (NASA) Galileo
7 December 1995 First spacecraft to enter the atmosphere of a gas giant (Jupiter). USA (NASA) Galileo's atmospheric entry probe [41]
1995 First laser communication from space. Japan (JAXA, NICT) ETS-VI [42]
12 February 1997 First orbital radio observatory. Japan (ISAS) HALCA
4 July 1997 First operational rover on another planet (Mars). USA (NASA) Mars Pathfinder / Sojourner
17 September 1997 First spacecraft to use aerobraking to enter orbit (Martian orbit). USA (NASA) Mars Global Surveyor [43]
20 November 1998 First multinational space station.
Largest artificial object built in space to date.
Russia (FKA)
USA (NASA)
Europe (ESA)
Japan (JAXA)
Canada (CSA)
International Space Station

2000–2009

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Date Mission success Country/organization Mission name Ref(s).
14 February 2000 First orbit of an asteroid (433 Eros). USA (NASA) ESA NEAR Shoemaker
12 February 2001 First landing on an asteroid (433 Eros). USA (NASA) NEAR Shoemaker
November 2001 First laser communication in space between two objects. ESA FranceFrance (CNES) Artemis, SPOT 4 [44]
17 May 2004 First amateur spaceflight. USA (CSXT) CSXT GoFast [45]
1 July 2004 First orbit of Saturn. USA (NASA) ESA Italy (ASI) Cassini–Huygens
8 September 2004 First sample return beyond lunar orbit (solar wind). USA (NASA) Genesis
14 January 2005 First landing in the outer Solar System (Titan).

First landing on a moon other than Earth's Moon.

ESA USA (NASA) Italy (ASI) Cassini–Huygens
January–February 2005 First confirmed cryovolcano (Enceladus). ESA USA (NASA) Italy (ASI) Cassini–Huygens [46]
4 July 2005 First spacecraft to impact a comet (Tempel 1). USA (NASA) Deep Impact
19 November 2005 First asteroid ascent (25143 Itokawa).
First interplanetary escape without separating and discarding the landing gear.
Japan (JAXA) Hayabusa
15 January 2006 First sample return from a comet (81P/Wild). USA (NASA) Stardust [47]
3 January 2007 First confirmed lakes on the surface of another celestial body (lakes of Titan). USA (NASA) ESA Italy (ASI) Cassini–Huygens [48][49]
25 May 2008 First spacecraft to photograph another spacecraft landing on another celestial body (Phoenix, on Mars). USA (NASA) Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter [50]
8 November 2008 First discovery of lunar water in the form of ice.[note 4] India (ISRO) Chandrayaan-1 [51][52]
6 March 2009 First space telescope designated to search for Earth-like exoplanets. USA (NASA) Kepler Mission [53]
August 2009 First images of the structures in the rings of a planet (rings of Saturn). USA (NASA) ESA Italy (ASI) Cassini–Huygens [54][55]

2010–2019

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Since 2020

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Notes

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  1. ^ The record was set because the Moon was nearly at its furthest from Earth during the mission. Apollo 13's unique free return trajectory caused it to go approximately 100 kilometers (60 mi) further from the lunar far side than other Apollo lunar missions, but this was a minor contribution to the record.[26] A reconstruction of the trajectory by astrodynamicist Daniel Adamo in 2009 records the furthest distance as 400,046 kilometers (248,577 mi) at 7:34 pm EST (00:34:13 UTC). Apollo 10 holds the record for second-furthest at a distance of 399,806 kilometers (248,428 mi).[27]
  2. ^ Soviet spacecraft Vega 1 and Vega 2 and ESA spacecraft Giotto all made a flyby of Halley's Comet the year after, in 1986.
  3. ^ Although the discovery was retracted in 1994, and not confirmed until 2002.
  4. ^ On December 3, 1996 (prior to 2008), the US Department of Defense announced that Clementine data suggested evidence of ice at the lunar south pole. However, the discovery was not confirmed and Clementine data might have been misinterpreted.
  5. ^ The reason why it is BEAM (2016) rather than Genesis I (2006) is that BEAM was specifically designed for human habitation and was attached to the ISS, while Genesis I and Genesis II (2007) were technology demonstration prototypes for future space habitats.

See also

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References

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