TIME LINE OF SPACE EXPLORATION
October 4, 1957
Sputnik 1 becomes the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.
April 12, 1961
Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space aboard Vostok 1.
May 5, 1961
Alan Shepard, Jr. becomes the first American in space aboard Freedom 7.
February 20, 1962
John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth aboard Friendship 7.
June 16, 1963
Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space aboard Vostok 6.
July 20, 1969
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first humans to land and walk on the Moon.
April 12, 1981
The space shuttle Columbia is launched. It is the first reusable manned spacecraft.
June 13, 1983
Pioneer 10, an unmanned spacecraft, passes Neptune. It is the first craft to leave our solar system.
July 4, 1997
The unmanned Mars Pathfinder lands on Mars and conducts experiments.
August 15, 2006
Voyager 1, the most distant spacecraft in history, reaches 100 astronomical units from the Sun. That means that it has traveled 100 times as far from the Sun as the Earth is.
Additional topics
- Websites to Visit/Further Reading - Questions to Consider, Websites to Visit, Further Reading
- OTHER OBJECTS IN SPACE - Dwarf Planets, Comets, Asteroids, Meteoroids, Stars and Galaxies, Stars, Galaxies
- Other Free Encyclopedias