Aviation and space timeline
The milestones of aerospace history, from the pioneers to today.
- October 4, 1957
Launch of Sputnik 1
Space launch — On 4 October 1957 the Soviet Union placed Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite, into an elliptical low Earth orbit. It transmitted a radio signal back to Earth for three weeks until its three silver-zinc batteries ran flat. Aerodynamic drag brought it back into the atmosphere on 4 January 1958, by which time it had already set off the Space Race.
- September 5, 1977
Launch of Voyager 1
Space launch — NASA launched the Voyager 1 probe on 5 September 1977 as part of the Voyager programme, to study the outer Solar System and the interstellar space beyond the Sun's heliosphere. It lifted off 16 days after its twin, Voyager 2. It still communicates through NASA's Deep Space Network and is the most distant human-made object from Earth, at 172.59 astronomical units as of March 2026.
- April 12, 1981
STS-1: first orbital flight of the Space Shuttle
Space launch — On 12 April 1981 the orbiter Columbia lifted off on STS-1, the first orbital spaceflight of NASA's Space Shuttle programme. It returned on 14 April 1981 after 54.5 hours and 37 orbits of the Earth, with a crew of two: commander John W. Young and pilot Robert L. Crippen. It was the first American crewed flight since the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975 and the maiden flight of an entirely new crewed spacecraft.
- April 24, 1990
Deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope (STS-31)
Space launch — On 24 April 1990 the orbiter Discovery lifted off from Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on mission STS-31. Its primary purpose was to deploy the Hubble Space Telescope into low Earth orbit, an instrument named after astronomer Edwin Hubble and one of NASA's Great Observatories. It was the 35th mission of the Space Shuttle programme and the tenth flight of Discovery.
- November 20, 1998
Launch of Zarya, first module of the International Space Station
Space launch — On 20 November 1998 a Proton-K rocket placed Zarya, also known as the Functional Cargo Block, into orbit as the first module of the International Space Station. In the station's early years it supplied power, propulsion and guidance; as the ISS grew, its role shifted mainly to storage, including its external fuel tanks. A descendant of the TKS spacecraft from the Salyut programme, it was built in Russia but financed by the United States, and its name means "sunrise".