The following is a list of Space Firsts – aka Space Milestones. It features a timeline features a list of first achievements from animals, space travel and exploration, NASA firsts, robotic missions, people and more.
1957:
Laika was the first animal to orbit the Earth.
The World’s First Artificial Satellite was Sputnik.
1959:
Luna 1 was the fist space probe to achieve Planet Earth escape velocity. The probe was launched on March 2, 1972.
1960:
Tiros 1 was the first weather satellite. It was launched on April 1, 1960 by a Thor-Able Rocket.
1961:
First Human in Space was Yuri Gagarin
1962:
First American in Earth Orbit was John Glenn.
1963:
First Woman in Space was Valentina Tereshkova
1965:
– First Space Walk was by Soviet Cosmonaunt Alexei Leonov on 18 March, 1965.
– Venera 3 was the first spacecraft to impact on another planet (Venus). It was launched on November 16, 1965.
1966:
– Luna 9 was the first successful lunar soft landing. It was launched on January 31, 1966.
– Luna 10 was the first spacecraft to be placed in Moon orbit. It was launched on March 31, 1966.
– Surveyor was the first US soft landing on the Moon. It televised photos of itself and the lunar surface. It was launched on May 30, 1966 by an Atlas-Centaur.
1969:
First Human Landing on the Moon-Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin
1972:
Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to explore the Asteroid Belt, fly by Jupiter and leave the Solar System. The probe was launched on March 2, 1972
1975:
Apollo-Soyuz Test Project: U.S.-USSR joint mission. Apollo 18 and Soyuz 19 docked.
1981:
First Piloted orbital test flight of U.S. Space Shuttle
1983:
First flight of U.S. Woman Astronaut was Sally Ride.
1984:
First Female Space Walker was Svetlana Savitskaya.
1990:
Hubble Space Telescope launched.
1997:
First Martian rover was Sojourner. It was part of NASA’s Mars Pathfinder mission and landed Planet Mars on 4 July 1997. It was also the first wheeled vehicle to operate on another planet.
2000:
The first commercially (privately) funded human spaceflight.
This was to Mir Space Station. The mission was funded by MirCorp, a western company that was leasing the station from Energia, the Russian company that operated Mir for the Russian government.
2001:
The first Space Tourist was Dennis Tito.
2004:
SpaceShipOne was the first manned private spaceflight. Mike Melvill the pilot was the first private astronaut in space.
2005:
First landing in the outer solar system was by ESA’s Huygens probe. It touched down on Saturn’s Titan moon on 14 January, 2005.
2006:
First comet sample return was on NASA’s Stardust mission.
2010:
First commercial spacecraft to return from low-Earth orbit was SpaceX’s Dragon capsule on 8 December 2010, after completing its COTS Demo Flight 1. This paved the way for private cargo and crew delivery.
2019:
First landing on the far side of the Moon was by China’s Chang’e 4 robotic lander and Yutu-2 rover touched down on the lunar far side on 3 January, 2019.
2021:
First all-civilian orbital space mission was Inspiration4. It was launched on 15 September 2021 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and used the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. It orbited Earth for three days with a completely non-professional crew.
2024:
First commercial spacewalk was the Polaris Mission operated by SpaceX on 12 September 2024. Jared Isaacman went out first, followed by SpaceX mission specialist Sarah Gillis.
2026:
First human deep-space travel since Apollo (2026) was Artemis II. It carried a four-astronaut crew (including the first woman and person of color) on a historic lunar flyby in April 2026.
