The Master Timeline

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

The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, opening the space age and stunning the world with its steady radio beep from orbit.

The first successful United States satellite, Explorer 1, carries a Geiger counter that discovers the belts of trapped radiation now named for James Van Allen.

The Soviet Luna 2 becomes the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another world, impacting the Moon.

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

Yuri Gagarin orbits the Earth once aboard Vostok 1, becoming the first human in space and the first to orbit the planet.

Alan Shepard flies a 15-minute suborbital hop aboard Freedom 7, becoming the first American in space three weeks after Gagarin.

John Glenn circles the Earth three times aboard Friendship 7, the first American to orbit the planet.

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

Valentina Tereshkova spends nearly three days in orbit aboard Vostok 6, the first woman to fly in space.

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

Alexei Leonov leaves his Voskhod 2 capsule for about twelve minutes, the first human to walk in space.

The Soviet Luna 9 makes the first soft landing on the Moon and returns the first pictures from its surface.

The crew of Apollo 8 become the first humans to leave Earth orbit and circle the Moon, returning the famous Earthrise photograph.

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the Moon while Michael Collins orbits above — the first humans to set foot on another world.

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

An oxygen tank explodes on the way to the Moon; the crew and mission control improvise a safe return, turning a near-disaster into a triumph of ingenuity.

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

The Soviet Venera 7 transmits 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.

The Soviet Union launches Salyut 1, the world's first space station, beginning the long human effort to live and work in orbit.

The final Apollo landing; Eugene Cernan is, to date, the last person to walk on the Moon, and geologist Harrison Schmitt the only scientist to do so.

The United States launches Skylab, its first space station, where crews study the Sun and the effects of long-duration spaceflight on the human body.

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

Viking 1 becomes the first spacecraft to operate successfully on the surface of Mars, returning the first pictures from the Martian ground and searching for life.

Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 launch on a grand tour of the outer Solar System, exploiting a rare planetary alignment to visit the giant planets.

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

Columbia lifts off on STS-1, the first flight of the Space Shuttle — the first reusable crewed spacecraft, twenty years to the day after Gagarin's flight.

Aboard Challenger, Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space.

The Space Shuttle Challenger breaks apart 73 seconds after launch, killing all seven crew and grounding the shuttle fleet for nearly three years — a turning point for spaceflight safety.

Voyager 2 sweeps past Neptune, the first and only spacecraft to visit the ice giant, completing the reconnaissance of every planet from Mercury to Neptune.

The Space Shuttle deploys the Hubble Space Telescope; after a famous repair mission corrected its mirror, Hubble transformed astronomy and public views of the cosmos.

Galileo becomes the first spacecraft to orbit Jupiter and drops a probe into its atmosphere, beginning years of study of the giant planet and its moons.

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

Mars Pathfinder lands using airbags and deploys Sojourner, the first successful rover on another planet, proving a low-cost path back to the Martian surface.

The Zarya module launches, the first piece of the International Space Station — the largest structure ever assembled in space, built by fifteen nations.

The Space Shuttle Columbia breaks apart during re-entry, killing all seven crew and leading to the decision to retire the shuttle fleet.

Cassini enters orbit around Saturn and later delivers the Huygens probe to Titan, beginning thirteen years of discovery in the Saturn system.

Deep Impact fires a projectile into comet Tempel 1, excavating fresh material to reveal what a comet is made of.

Japan's Hayabusa touches down on the asteroid Itokawa; despite great difficulties it returns to Earth in 2010 with the first samples ever collected from an asteroid.

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

Atlantis flies STS-135, the 135th and final Space Shuttle mission, ending thirty years of shuttle flight and beginning a gap in American crewed launch.

The car-sized Curiosity rover lands in Gale Crater using the daring sky-crane manoeuvre, beginning a long study of Mars's ancient habitability.

Voyager 1 crosses the heliopause and becomes the first human-made object to enter interstellar space, still returning data from beyond the Sun's bubble.

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

ESA's Rosetta becomes the first spacecraft to orbit a comet and, with its Philae lander, the first to soft-land on one — comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

After a nine-year journey, New Horizons sweeps past Pluto, revealing an astonishingly varied world and completing the first reconnaissance of the classical Solar System.

SpaceX's Crew Dragon Demo-2 carries astronauts to the ISS, the first crewed orbital flight launched by a private company and the return of crewed launch to American soil.

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

Within months of each other, Japan's Hayabusa2 delivers samples of asteroid Ryugu to Earth and NASA's OSIRIS-REx collects a sample from asteroid Bennu, opening a new age of asteroid sample return.

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

The tiny Ingenuity helicopter, carried by the Perseverance rover, lifts off from the surface of Mars — the first powered, controlled flight on another planet.

The James Webb Space Telescope launches and unfolds a giant segmented mirror a million miles from Earth, opening the infrared universe and the era of studying the first galaxies.

The uncrewed Artemis I sends the Orion spacecraft around the Moon and back on the first flight of NASA's program to return humans to the lunar surface.

NASA's DART deliberately crashes into the moonlet Dimorphos and measurably changes its orbit — the first demonstration that humanity could deflect an asteroid.

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

India's Chandrayaan-3 makes a soft landing near the Moon's south pole, making India the fourth nation to land on the Moon and the first near the south-polar region.