Human Spaceflight Programs

1961–1963

The Vostok program carried out the first human spaceflight, by Yuri Gagarin in 1961.

1964–1965

The Voskhod program achieved the first multi-crew flight and the first spacewalk.

1958–1963

Project Mercury was the first United States human spaceflight program, putting the first Americans into space and orbit.

1961–1966

Project Gemini developed the rendezvous, docking, and spacewalk techniques needed for Apollo.

1961–1972

The Apollo program landed the first humans on the Moon between 1969 and 1972.

1973–1979

Skylab was the first United States space station program, crewed by three missions in 1973–1974.

1972–2011

The Space Shuttle program flew a reusable crewed spaceplane on 135 missions and assembled much of the ISS.

2017–present

Artemis is NASA's program to return humans to the Moon and build a sustainable lunar presence.

1971–1986

The Soviet Salyut program operated the first generation of space stations, including the world's first station, Salyut 1.

1986–2001

The Mir program operated the first modular long-duration space station and pioneered international cooperation in orbit.

1998–present

The ISS program is the international partnership that builds and operates the continuously crewed International Space Station.

1999–present

Shenzhou is China's crewed spaceflight program, which first sent a Chinese astronaut to orbit in 2003 and now crews the Tiangong station.

2010–present

NASA's Commercial Crew Program partners with industry to provide crewed transport to the ISS aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon and Boeing's Starliner.

2011–present

China's space-station program, which flew the Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2 laboratories before assembling the modular Tiangong station.