A connected encyclopedia
Humanity's journey
into space
It began with a beep in 1957. 209 missions later, a golden mirror in deep space is photographing the oldest galaxies we can see. Follow the record, launch by launch.
Carina Nebula · NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
- Missions
- 209
- Eras
- 6
- Countries & entities
- 15
- Years covered
- 70
Around this date in space history
No landmark launch on today's exact date. These are the launch anniversaries closest to it.
Viking 1
SuccessFirst successful long-lived Mars lander; returned extensive surface science.
Voyager 1 & 2
SuccessTransformative flybys of the giant planets; both later entered interstellar space.
70 years. One journey.
Every spacecraft below descends from an earlier one. The beep led to Laika, Laika to Gagarin, Gagarin to the Moon. Two machines kept going and have now left the Solar System. The newest, a gold mirror, photographs the first galaxies. Nine milestones tell the story.
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1957
Sputnik 1
First artificial satellite; began the space age.
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1957
Sputnik 2
Carried Laika, the first living creature to orbit Earth.
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1961
Vostok 1
Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space and in orbit.
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1969
Apollo 11
First humans landed on the Moon.
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1972
Pioneer 10
First spacecraft to traverse the asteroid belt and fly by Jupiter.
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1977
Voyager 1 & 2
Transformative flybys of the giant planets; both later entered interstellar space.
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1990
Hubble Space Telescope
Landmark optical/UV/near-IR observatory; transformed astronomy.
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1998
Zarya / International Space Station assembly begins
First ISS module; start of a continuously inhabited international laboratory.
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2021
James Webb Space Telescope
Flagship infrared observatory for early-universe, exoplanet and solar-system science.