Aviation and space timeline
The milestones of aerospace history, from the pioneers to today.
- October 4, 1957
Sputnik 1 launch
Space milestone — On October 4, 1957 the USSR orbited the first artificial satellite in history from Baikonur, opening the Space Age.
- April 12, 1961
Vostok 1: first human spaceflight (Gagarin)
Space milestone — On 12 April 1961 the Vostok 3KA capsule lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome with Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin aboard. It was the first flight of the Vostok programme and the first human orbital spaceflight in history: Gagarin became the first person to reach orbital velocity and complete a full orbit of the Earth.
- June 16, 1963
Vostok 6: Valentina Tereshkova, first woman in space
Space milestone — On 16 June 1963 Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova flew a solo mission aboard Vostok 6 and became the first woman in space. She orbited the Earth 48 times and spent almost three days in orbit. Twenty-six years old at the time, she remains the youngest woman to orbit Earth and the only woman to have flown a solo space mission.
- March 18, 1965
First spacewalk in history (Leonov, Voskhod 2)
Space milestone — On 18 March 1965 Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov left the Voskhod 2 spacecraft and carried out the first spacewalk in history, lasting 12 minutes and 9 seconds. The Vostok-derived craft carried two crew members, Pavel Belyayev and Leonov, and was fitted with an inflatable airlock. It was a decisive step towards all later human work outside a spacecraft.
- July 20, 1969
Apollo 11: first crewed Moon landing
Space milestone — On 20 July 1969 the lunar module Eagle (LM-5) was flown down to the surface of the Moon by Neil Armstrong, with navigational assistance from Buzz Aldrin, on the Apollo 11 mission. The lander had travelled from Earth to lunar orbit attached to the command module Columbia, crewed by Michael Collins. The landing site was named Tranquility Base, announced by the astronauts themselves at touchdown.
- July 20, 1976
Viking 1 lands on Mars
Space milestone — On 20 July 1976 the Viking 1 lander touched down on Mars, becoming the first fully successful Mars lander in history. It was part of NASA's Viking programme, made up of two spacecraft each consisting of an orbiter and a lander. It operated for 2,307 days, or 2,245 Martian solar days, the longest extraterrestrial surface mission until the record was broken by the Opportunity rover on 19 May 2010.
- June 21, 2004
SpaceShipOne: first private crewed spaceflight
Space milestone — On 21 June 2004 pilot Mike Melvill took the experimental spaceplane SpaceShipOne past the edge of space on flight 15P, becoming the first commercial astronaut and the 435th person to reach space. The air-launched, hybrid-rocket-powered craft was developed by Mojave Aerospace Ventures, a joint venture between Paul Allen and Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites. Later that year SpaceShipOne won the US$10 million Ansari X Prize and was immediately retired from active service.