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149

Pioneer craft

investigate Jupiter

First international space rendezvous

Apollo 15 mission

Hubble

Space

Telescope

launched

Columbia, the first space shuttle, takes off

Mars Pathfinder and its rover,

Sojourner, touch down on Mars

Giotto

craft

flies into

Halley’s

Comet

Lunar Roving Vehicle

had a maximum

speed of 18.6 km/h

(11.5 mph)

14 October 1957

Sputnik 1, the world’s

first artificial satellite,

is launched into Earth’s

orbit by Russia.

3 November 1957

Laika, a Russian dog

aboard Sputnik 2,

becomes the first

creature to orbit Earth.

2 January 1959

Russian spacecraft

Luna 1 is the first to

escape Earth’s gravity.

13 September 1959

Luna 2 is the first

craft to land on the

Moon when it crashes

onto its surface.

12 April 1961

Russian Yuri Gagarin

is the first person into

space. His flight lasts

108 minutes.

16 June 1963

Russian Valentina

Tereshkova is the

first woman in space.

18 March 1965

Russian Alexei Leonov

makes the first EVA

(extra vehicular

activity), or spacewalk.

3 February 1966

Luna 9 lands successfully

on the Moon.

24 December 1968

US spacecraft Apollo 8

is the first manned

mission to leave

Earth’s gravity and

orbit the Moon.

20 July 1969

Neil Armstrong and

Buzz Aldrin of Apollo

(^11) are the first humans
to walk on the Moon.
19 April 1971
The first space station,
Salyut 1, is launched
by the Russians.
3 December 1973
US craft Pioneer 10
is the first to fly by
Jupiter.
29 March 1974
US craft Mariner 10
is the first to fly
by Mercury.
17 July 1975
US craft Apollo 18 and
Russian Soyuz 19 make
the first international
space rendezvous.
22 October 1975
Russian craft Venera 9
transmits the first
images from the
surface of Venus.
20 July 1976
US craft Viking 1
is the first to land
successfully on Mars.
1 September 1979
Pioneer 11 is the first
to fly by Saturn.
12 April 1981
Columbia, the first
US space shuttle,
is launched.
24 January 1986
US craft Voyager 2
is the first to fly
by Uranus.
13 March 1986
European craft
Giotto takes the
first close-up look
at a comet.
24 August 1989
Voyager 2 is the first
craft to fly by Neptune.
24 April 1990
The Hubble Space
Telescope is launched.
15 September 1990
US craft Magellan starts
a three-year mapping
programme of Venus.
29 October 1991
US craft Galileo
makes the first flyby
of an asteroid as it
passes Gaspra.
13 July 1995
Galileo arrives at
Jupiter and releases
a probe to enter
its atmosphere.
4 July 1997
US craft Mars
Pathfinder and
its Sojourner rover
touch down on Mars.
20 November 1998
Zarya, the first module
of the International
Space Station (ISS),
is launched.
2 November 2000
The first crew arrives
to stay aboard the ISS.
12 February 2001
The NEAR craft lands
on asteroid Eros.
25 December 2003
Europe’s first
interplanetary
craft, Mars Express,
orbits Mars.
30 June 2004
US craft Cassini arrives
at Saturn to study the
planet and its moons.
It releases Huygens to
land on the moon Titan.
20 November 2005
Japanese craft
Hayabusa lands on
asteroid Itokawa.
4 August 2007
US craft Phoenix sets
off for Mars, arriving
in 2008.
18 March 2011
US Messenger
spacecraft becomes
the first vehicle to
orbit around Mercury.
6 August 2012
US Curiosity rover
lands in the Gale
Crater on Mars.
6 August 2014
European spacecraft
Rosetta, carrying the
lander Philae, enters
orbit around Comet
Churyumov-
Gerasimenko.
14 July 2015
US craft New Horizons
makes the first flyby of
the dwarf planet Pluto.
5 July 2016
US Juno spacecraft
enters orbit around
Jupiter to survey the
planet’s polar regions.
15 September 2017
Cassini ends its mission
with a deliberate
plunge into Saturn’s
atmosphere.
TIMELINE OF SPACE EXPLORATION
Soyuz 19 with
two Russian
cosmonauts
Viking craft land on Mars
Pioneer 10 flies by Jupiter in
1973, followed by its twin,
Pioneer 11, in 1974
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