Timeline of Space Exploration - Free Download
145 milestones in space exploration history, covering missions, dates, countries/organizations, and key events from the 1950s onward. Contains 145 records. Download in Excel, CSV, PDF formats.
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- Contains 145 records / 4 fields
- Available for free download in Excel, CSV, and PDF formats
- Data sourced from: https://github.com/sharmadhiraj/free-json-datasets
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Showing 145
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| Date | Event Or Success | Country Or Organization | Mission Or Researcher |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| 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 |
| March 1960 | First solar probe. | USA (NASA) | Pioneer 5 |
| 19 August 1960 | First plants and animals to return alive from Earth orbit. | USSR | Sputnik 5 |
| 25 September 1960 | First rocket engine fired in space. | USA (NASA) | Pioneer P-30 |
| 31 January 1961 | First hominidae in space (chimpanzee Ham). First tasks performed in space. | USA (NASA) | M-R 2 |
| 12 February 1961 | First launch from Earth orbit of upper stage into a heliocentric orbit.First mid-course corrections. First spin-stabilisation. | USSR | Venera 1 |
| 12 April 1961 | First human spaceflight (Yuri Gagarin).First human-crewed orbital flight. | USSR | Vostok 1 |
| 5 May 1961 | First human-piloted space flight (Alan Shepard).First human-crewed suborbital flight. | USA | Freedom 7 |
| 19 May 1961 | First planetary flyby (within 100,000 km of Venus – no data returned). | USSR | Venera 1 |
| 6 August 1961 | First crewed space flight lasting over twenty four hours by Gherman Titov, who is also the first to suffer from space sickness. | USSR | Vostok 2 |
| 7 March 1962 | First orbital solar observatory. | USA (NASA) | OSO-1 |
| 26 April 1962 | First spacecraft to impact the far side of the Moon. | USA (NASA) | Ranger 4 |
| 11 August 1962 | First dual crewed spaceflight.First communication between two crewed space vehicles in orbit.First person to float freely in microgravity. | USSR | Vostok 3 and Vostok 4 |
| 18 August 1962 | First auroral research rocket launched into the ionosphere. | Norway | Ferdinand 1 |
| November 1962 | First Mars flyby (11,000 km) but contact was lost. | USSR | Mars 1 |
| 14 December 1962 | First planetary flyby with data returned (Venus). First successful planetary science mission. | USA (NASA) | Mariner 2 |
| 16 June 1963 | First woman in space (Valentina Tereshkova). | USSR | Vostok 6 |
| 19 July 1963 | First reusable crewed spacecraft (suborbital). | USA (NASA) | X-15 Flight 90 |
| 12 October 1964 | First multi-person crew (3) in orbit. | USSR | Voskhod 1 |
| 18 March 1965 | First space walk/extra-vehicular activity (Alexei Leonov). | USSR | Voskhod 2 |
| March 1965 | First crewed spacecraft to change orbit. | USA (NASA) | Gemini 3 |
| 14 July 1965 | First flyby of Mars (returned pictures). | USA (NASA) | Mariner 4 |
| 14 July 1965 | First photographs of another planet from deep space (Mars). | USA (NASA) | Mariner 4 |
| 15 December 1965 | First orbital rendezvous (parallel flight, no docking). | USA (NASA) | Gemini 6A/Gemini 7 |
| 3 February 1966 | First soft landing on another world (the Moon). First photos from another world. | USSR | Luna 9 |
| 1 March 1966 | First impact into another planet (Venus). | USSR | Venera 3 |
| 16 March 1966 | First orbital docking between two spacecraft. | USA (NASA) | Gemini 8/Agena target vehicle |
| 3 April 1966 | First artificial satellite around another world (the Moon). | USSR | Luna 10 |
| 23 August 1966 | First picture of Earth from another astronomical object (the Moon). First probe to map the Moon. | USA | Lunar Orbiter 1 |
| 8 May 1967 | First polar orbit around the Moon. | USA | Lunar Orbiter 4 |
| July 1967 | First photos of the Lunar south pole. | USA | Lunar Orbiter 4 |
| 30 October 1967 | First automated (crewless) docking. | USSR | Cosmos 186/Cosmos 188 |
| 17 November 1967 | First liftoff from another celestial body (the Moon). | USA | Surveyor 6 |
| September 1968 | First animals and plants to leave Earth orbit and travel to and around the Moon. First lunar spacecraft to be recovered successfully. | USSR | Zond 5 |
| 7 December 1968 | First orbital ultraviolet observatory. | USA (NASA) | OAO-2 |
| 21 December 1968 | First human excursion beyond low Earth orbit. First in-person observations of Earth from a distance.First Trans-Earth injection. | USA (NASA) | Apollo 8 |
| 24 December 1968 | First human flight to another celestial body (the Moon) and to enter its gravitational influence. | USA (NASA) | Apollo 8 |
| January 1969 | First docking between two crewed spacecraft in Earth orbit. First crew exchange in space. | USSR | Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 |
| January 1969 | First spacecraft to parachute in Venus's atmosphere, lost contact before landing. | USSR | Venera 5 |
| 23 May 1969 | First docking of two crewed spacecraft around another celestial body. First lunar mission to include a lunar landing module. | USA (NASA) | Apollo 10 |
| 20 July 1969 | First human on another celestial body (the Moon). First words spoken from another world. | USA (NASA) | Apollo 11 |
| 21 July 1969 | First space launch from another celestial body. First sample return from another celestial body. | USA (NASA) | Apollo 11 |
| 19 November 1969 | First rendezvous on the surface of a celestial body. First meet up between human explorers and a robotic spacecraft in space (on the Moon). | USA (NASA) | Apollo 12/Surveyor 3 |
| 14 April 1970 | Farthest distance from Earth traveled by humans. | USA (NASA) | Apollo 13 |
| 24 September 1970 | First automatic sample return from the Moon. | USSR | Luna 16 |
| 17 November 1970 | First rover on another celestial body (the Moon). First lunar rover. | USSR | Lunokhod 1 |
| 12 December 1970 | First X-ray orbital observatory. | USA (NASA) | Uhuru |
| 15 December 1970 | First soft landing on another planet (Venus). First signals from another planet. | USSR | Venera 7 |
| 19 April 1971 | First space station. | USSR | Salyut 1 |
| June 1971 | First crewed orbital observatory. | USSR | Orion 1 |
| 30 July 1971 | First motor vehicle on another celestial body (Lunar Roving Vehicle). | USA (NASA) | Apollo 15 |
| 14 November 1971 | First spacecraft to orbit another planet (Mars). | USA (NASA) | Mariner 9 |
| 27 November 1971 | First spacecraft to impact another planet (Mars). | USSR | Mars 2 |
| 2 December 1971 | First soft landing on Mars. First signals from Martian surface.First photograph from Martian surface. | USSR | Mars 3 |
| 3 March 1972 | First spacecraft on a trajectory out of the Solar System. First spacecraft to use all-nuclear electrical power (SNAP-19 RTGs). | USA (NASA) | Pioneer 10 |
| 15 July 1972 | First spacecraft to enter the asteroid belt. First spacecraft beyond the orbit of Mars. | USA (NASA) | Pioneer 10 |
| 15 November 1972 | First orbital gamma ray observatory. | USA (NASA) | SAS 2 |
| 3 November 1973 | First mission sent to study Mercury. | USA (NASA) | Mariner 10 |
| 3 December 1973 | First flyby of Jupiter. First spacecraft beyond the Inner Solar System. | USA (NASA) | Pioneer 10 |
| January 1974 | First spacecraft to return data on a long-period comet. | USA (NASA) | Mariner 10 |
| 5 February 1974 | First mission to explore two planets in a single mission (Mercury and Venus).First photograph of Venus from space. First use of solar wind for spacecraft orientation. | USA (NASA) | Mariner 10 |
| 29 March 1974 | First flyby of Mercury. | USA (NASA) | Mariner 10 |
| 21 Sept. 1974 | First spacecraft to flyby the same planet multiple times (Mercury). | USA (NASA) | Mariner 10 |
| 15 July 1975 | First multinational crewed mission. | USSR USA (NASA) | Apollo-Soyuz Test Project |
| 20 October 1975 | First spacecraft to orbit Venus. | USSR | Venera 9 |
| 22 October 1975 | First successful photos from the surface of another planet (Venus). | USSR | Venera 9 |
| 20 July 1976 | First successful photos and soil samples from the surface of Mars. | USA (NASA) | Viking Lander |
| 26 January 1978 | First real time remotely operated ultraviolet orbital observatory. | USA (NASA) ESA UK (SERC) | International Ultraviolet Explorer |
| 20 November 1978 | First spacecraft to orbit the Sun at Lagrange 1. | USA (NASA) | ISEE-3/ICE |
| 4 December 1978 | First extended (multi-year) orbital exploration of Venus (from 1978 to 1992). | USA (NASA) | Pioneer Venus Orbiter |
| 5 March 1979 | Jupiter flyby (closest approach 349,000 km)Encounters with five Jovian moons.Discovery of volcanism on Io. | USA (NASA) | Voyager 1 |
| 1 September 1979 | First flyby of Saturn. First photograph of Titan from deep space. | USA (NASA) | Pioneer 11 |
| 12 November 1980 | Saturn flyby (closest approach 124,000 km), close encounter of Titan and encounters with a dozen other moons. | USA (NASA) | Voyager 1 |
| 12 April 1981 | First reusable crewed orbital spacecraft (Space Shuttle). | USA (NASA) | STS-1 |
| 1 March 1982 | First Venus soil samples First sound recording of another world (Venus). | USSR | Venera 13 |
| 10 June 1982 | First spacecraft to conduct a deep survey of Earth's magnetic tail. | USA (NASA) | ISEE-3/ICE |
| 19 August 1982 | First mixed gender crew aboard space station, and first woman, Svetlana Savitskaya, on space station. | USSR | Salyut 7 |
| 1982 | First plants grown in space (Arabidopsis). | USSR | Salyut 7 |
| 25 January 1983 | First Infrared orbital observatory. | USA (NASA) UK (SERC) Netherlands (NIVR) | IRAS |
| 13 June 1983 | First spacecraft beyond the orbit of Neptune. First spacecraft beyond all Solar System planets. | USA (NASA) | Pioneer 10 |
| 7 February 1984 | First untethered spacewalk (Bruce McCandless II). | USA (NASA) | STS-41-B |
| 25 July 1984 | First spacewalk by a woman (Svetlana Savitskaya). | USSR | Salyut 7 |
| 11 June 1985 | First balloon deployed on another planet (Venus). | USSR | Vega 1 |
| 11 September 1985 | First spacecraft to flyby a comet (21P/Giacobini-Zinner). | USA (NASA) | ISEE-3/ICE |
| 24 January 1986 | First spacecraft to flyby Uranus. | USA (NASA) | Voyager 2 |
| 19 February 1986 | First consistently inhabited long-term research space station. | USSR | Mir |
| 13 March 1986 | First close up observations of a comet (Halley's Comet, 596 kilometers). | ESA | Giotto |
| July 1988 | First suspected detection of an exoplanet (Gamma Cephei Ab). | Canada | Astronomers Bruce Campbell, Gordon Walker and Stephenson Yang. |
| 8 August 1989 | First astrometric satellite. | ESA | Hipparcos |
| 25 August 1989 | First spacecraft to flyby Neptune. First spacecraft to study all four of the Solar System's giant planets at close range. | USA (NASA) | Voyager 2 |
| 18 November 1989 | First orbital cosmic microwave observatory. | USA (NASA) | COBE |
| 20 May 2010 | First solar sail. | Japan (JAXA) | IKAROS |
| 13 June 2010 | First sample return from an asteroid (25143 Itokawa). | Japan (JAXA) | Hayabusa |
| 25 August 2010 | First spacecraft to orbit one of the Moon's Lagrange point (L2). | USA (NASA) | ARTEMIS-P1 |
| 22 October 2010 | First spacecraft to orbit the Moon's Lagrange 1 point. | USA (NASA) | ARTEMIS-P2 |
| 18 March 2011 | First orbit of Mercury. | USA (NASA) | MESSENGER |
| 16 July 2011 | First orbit of an object in the asteroid belt (4 Vesta). | USA (NASA) | Dawn |
| 6 August 2012 | First use of a sky crane to land on another celestial body (Mars). | USA (NASA) | Mars Science Laboratory |
| 25 August 2012 | First spacecraft to leave the heliosphere. First spacecraft in interstellar space. | USA (NASA) | Voyager 1 |
| January 2013 | First laser communication with a lunar satellite. | USA (NASA) | Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter |
| 10 September 2014 | First spacecraft to orbit a comet nucleus (67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko). | ESA | Rosetta |
| 12 November 2014 | First soft landing on a comet (67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko). | ESA | Philae |
| 6 March 2015 | First flyby and orbit of a dwarf planet (Ceres).First spacecraft to orbit two separate celestial bodies. | USA (NASA) | Dawn |
| July 2015 | First flyby of an object beyond Neptune (Pluto and its moons). First flyby in the Kuiper belt. First flyby of a trans-neptunian object.Last original encounter with one of the nine major planets recogn… | USA (NASA) | New Horizons |
| 10 August 2015 | First food grown in space eaten (lettuce). | USA (NASA) Japan (JAXA) | International Space Station |
| 14 September 2015 | First observation of gravitational waves. | LSC – EGO | LIGO – Virgo |
| 23 November 2015 | First propulsive landing of a rocket after sending something into space (suborbital). | USA (Blue Origin) | New Shepard 2 |
| 21 December 2015 | First propulsive landing of an orbital rocket. | USA (SpaceX) | Falcon 9 flight 20 |
| 16 April 2016 | First inflatable space habitat. | USA (Bigelow Aerospace) | BEAM |
| 15 September 2017 | First spacecraft to enter the atmosphere of Saturn. | USA (NASA) ESA Italy (ASI) | Cassini–Huygens |
| 19 October 2017 | First known interstellar object detected passing through the Solar System. | USA (Haleakalā Observatory) | Oumuamua |
| 21 September 2018 | First operational rover on an asteroid (162173 Ryugu). | Japan (JAXA) | Hayabusa2 |
| 1 December 2018 | First recorded sounds from Mars. | USA (NASA) | InSight |
| 1 January 2019 | First flyby of a classical Kuiper belt object (486958 Arrokoth). First flyby of a contact binary. First spacecraft to make two different flybys in the Kuiper belt. | USA (NASA) | New Horizons |
| 3 January 2019 | First soft landing on the far side of the Moon. First germination of seeds on another celestial body. | China (CNSA) | Chang'e 4 |
| 10 April 2019 | First direct photograph of a black hole and its vicinity. | USA (NASA) | Event Horizon Telescope |
| 6 April 2021 | First confirmed quake on another planet (marsquake). | USA (NASA) | InSight |
| 19 April 2021 | First aerodynamically powered flight on another celestial body (Mars). | USA (NASA) | Ingenuity |
| 20 April 2021 | First in situ resource utilization. First production of oxygen on another celestial body (Mars). | USA (NASA) | MOXIE |
| 14 December 2021 | First spacecraft to fly through the atmosphere of a star (the Sun's corona). | USA (NASA) | Parker Solar Probe |
| 25 December 2021 | Launch of the largest space telescope to date. | USA (NASA) ESA Canada (CSA) | James Webb Space Telescope |
| 26 September 2022 | First spacecraft to measurably deflect an asteroid. First spacecraft to make contact with an asteroid moon (impact on Dimorphos). | USA (NASA) | DART |
| 23 August 2023 | First landing at the lunar south polar region. | India (ISRO) | Chandrayaan-3 |
| 14 March 2024 | First successful demonstration of in space propellant transfer. | USA (SpaceX) | Starship flight test 3 |
| 6 June 2024 | First successful instance of both stages of a launch vehicle returned for a controlled landing. | USA (SpaceX) | Starship flight test 4 |
| 25 June 2024 | First samples returned from the far side of the Moon. | China (CNSA) | Chang'e 6 |
| 13 October 2024 | First catch of a rocket booster. | USA (SpaceX) | Starship flight test 5 |
| 1 April 2025 | First crewed spaceflight to enter a Polar orbit around Earth. | USA (SpaceX) | Fram2 |