Firsts & Milestones

Sputnik 1 was the first human-made object placed in orbit around the Earth, opening the space age.

Yuri Gagarin was the first person to travel into space and orbit the Earth, aboard Vostok 1.

Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman to fly in space, aboard Vostok 6.

Alexei Leonov made the first extravehicular activity, floating outside his Voskhod 2 capsule.

Apollo 11 landed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon, the first humans to walk on another world.

Venera 7 returned data from the surface of Venus, the first successful landing on another planet.

Salyut 1 was the first space station, the beginning of humans living and working in orbit.

Viking 1 was the first spacecraft to land and operate successfully on the surface of Mars.

The Space Shuttle was the first crewed spacecraft designed to fly to orbit and return to be flown again.

Sojourner, delivered by Mars Pathfinder, was the first wheeled rover to operate on another planet.

Hayabusa returned the first samples ever collected from an asteroid, from Itokawa, to Earth.

Rosetta's Philae lander made the first soft landing on the nucleus of a comet.

SpaceX's Crew Dragon Demo-2 was the first crewed orbital spaceflight launched by a private company.

The Ingenuity helicopter made the first powered, controlled flight by an aircraft on another planet.

DART was the first mission to change the orbit of an asteroid, demonstrating a technique for planetary defence.