Aerospace history
Spaceflight milestones (1880-1961)
- 00-00-1880 Articles by Tsjolkowsky (1857-1935).
- 00-00-1923 Articles by Oberth (1894-1989).
- 16-03-1926 First liquid-fueled rocket by Goddard (1882-1945). Reached 13 meters.
- 00-00-1932 Gyroscopic rocket by Goddard (1882-1945).
- 00-00-1937 V1 and V2 by Wernher von Braun (1912-1977).
- 16-04-1946 First American V2 by Wernher von Braun (1912-1977).
- 00-00-1951 Total of 66 American V2’s launched.
- 00-08-1953 Upgraded V2 called Redstone.
- 00-00-1954 Atlas rocket.
- 04-10-1957 First satellite (Sputnik).
- 12-04-1961 First human in space (Yuri Gagarin).
NASA Rockets (1961-1972)
- Mercury Redstone (1952-1954)
- Thor Delta (Thor from airforce, Jupiter from army with Wernher von Braun)
- Mercury Atlas (1954)
- Atlas Agena
- Atlas Centaur
- Gemini Titan II
- Saturn I
- Apollo Saturn 1B
- Apollo Saturn V
Human spaceflight (1961-1972)
| Country | Spacecraft | Launching date | Astronauts | Revolutions | Flight time | Flight highlights |
| USSR | Vostok 1 | 12-4-1961 | Gagarin | 1 | 1 hr. 48 mins. | First manned flight. |
| US | Mercury-Redstone 3 | 5-5-1961 | Shepard | Sub-orbinal | 15 mins. | First American in space. |
| US | Mercury-Redstone 4 | 21-7-1961 | Grissom | Sub-orbinal | 16 mins. | Capsule sank. |
| USSR | Vostok 2 | 6-8-1961 | Titov | 16 | 25 hrs. 18 mins. | More than 24 hours in space |
| US | Mercury-Atlas 6 | 20-2-1962 | Glenn | 3 | 4 hrs. 55 mins. | First American in orbit. |
| US | Mercury-Atlas 7 | 24-5-1962 | Cartenter | 3 | 4 hrs. 56 mins. | Landed 250 miles from target. |
| USSR | Vostok 3 | 11-8-1962 | Nikolayev | 60 | 94 hrs. 22 mins. | First group flight. (Vostok 3 and 4) |
| USSR | Vostok 4 | 12-8-1962 | Popovich | 45 | 70 hrs. 57 mins. | Came within 3.1 miles of Vostok 3 on first orbit. |
| US | Mercury-Atlas 8 | 3-10-1962 | Schirra | 6 | 9 hrs. 13 mins. | Landed 5 miles from target. |
| US | Mercury-Atlas 9 | 15-5-1963 | Cooper | 22 | 34 hrs. 20 mins. | First long flight by an American. |
| USSR | Vostok 5 | 14-6-1963 | Bykovsky | 76 | 119 hrs. 06 mins. | Second group flight. (Vostok 5 and 6) |
| USSR | Vostok 6 | 16-6-1963 | Tereshkova | 45 | 7 hrs. 50 mins. | Passed within 3 miles of Vostok 5; first moman in space. |
| USSR | Voskhod 1 | 12-10-1964 | Komarov, Feoktiskov, Yegorov | 15 | 24 hrs. 17 mins. | First 3-man craft. |
| USSR | Voskhod 2 | 18-3-1965 | Leonov, Belyayev | 16 | 26 hrs. 02 mins. | First man outside spacecraft in 10-minute “walk”. (Leonov). |
| US | Gemini 3 | 23-3-1965 | Grissom, Young | 3 | 4 hrs. 53 mins. | First manned orbital maneuvers. |
| US | Gemini 4 | 3-6-1965 | McDivitt, White | 62 | 97 hrs. 48 mins. | 21-minute “spacewalk” (White). |
| US | Gemini 5 | 21-8-1965 | Cooper, Conrad | 120 | 190 hrs. 56 mins. | First extended manned flight. |
| US | Gemini 7 | 4-12-1965 | Borman, Lovell | 206 | 330 hrs. 35 mins. | Longest space flight. |
| US | Gemini 6-A | 15-12-1965 | Schirra, Stafford | 16 | 25 hrs. 52 mins. | Rendezvous within 1 foot of Gemini 7. |
| US | Gemini 8 | 16-3-1966 | Armstrong, Scott | 6,5 | 10 hrs. 42 mins. | First docking to Agena target; mission cut short. |
| US | Gemini 9-A | 3-6-1966 | Stafford, Cernan | 44 | 75 hrs. 21 mins. | Rendezvous, extra-vehicular activity, precision landing. |
| US | Gemini 10 | 18-7-1966 | Young, Collins | 43 | 70 hrs. 47 mins. | Rendezvous with 2 targets; Agena package retrieved. |
| US | Gemini 11 | 12-9-1966 | Conrad, Gordon | 44 | 74 hrs. 17 mins. | Rendezvous and docking. |
| US | Gemini 12 | 11-11-1966 | Lovell, Aldrin | 59 | 94 hrs. 33 mins. | 3 successful extra-vehicular trips. |
| USSR | Soyuz 1 | 23-4-1967 | Kamarov | 17 | 26 hrs. 40 mins. | Heaviest manned craft; crashed killing Kamarov. |
| US | Apollo 7 | 11-10-1968 | Schirra, Eisele, Walter | 163 | 260 hrs. 09 mins. | First manned flight of Apollo spacecraft. |
| USSR | Soyuz 3 | 26-10-1968 | Beragovoi | 60 | 94 hrs. 51 mins. | Rendezvous with manned Soyuz 2 |
| US | Apollo 8 | 21-12-1968 | Borman, Lovell, Anders | Lunar orbital 10 | 147 hrs. 00 mins. | First manned voyage around the moon. |
| USSR | Soyuz 4 | 15-1-1969 | Shatalov | 45 | 71 hrs. 14 mins. | Rendezvous with Soyuz 5. |
| USSR | Soyuz 5 | 15-1-1969 | Volynov, Teliseyev, Khrunov | 46 | 72 hrs. 46 mins. | Rendezvous with Soyuz 4; Yeliseyev and Khrunov trandfer to Soyuz 4. |
| US | Apollo 9 | 3-3-1969 | McDivitt, Scott, Schweickart | 151 | 241 hrs. 01 mins. | Low earth orbit, docking with Lunar Module (LM). |
| US | Apollo 10 | 18-5-1969 | Stafford, Cernan, Young | Lunar orbital 31 | 192 hrs. 03 mins. | Descent to within 9 miles of moon. |
| US | Apollo 11 | 16-7-1969 | Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins | Lunar orbital 31 | 195 hrs. 18 mins. | Armstrong and Aldrin on the moon. Time spent on moon 21 hrs. 38 mins. |
| US | Apollo 12 | 14-11-1969 | Conrad, Bean, Gordon | Lunar orbital 45 | 244 hrs. 36 mins. | Living and working on the moon. ALSEP station instruments. |
| US | Apollo 13 | 11-4-1970 | Lovell, Haise, Swigert | Lunar orbital 01 | 142 hrs. 54 mins. | Blast oxygen tank, did not land on the moon. |
| US | Apollo 14 | 31-1-1971 | Shepard, Mitchell, Roosa | Lunar orbital 34 | 216 hrs. 02 mins. | Long walk on the moon, wheelbarrow. |
| US | Apollo 15 | 25-7-1971 | Scott, Irwin, Worden | Lunar orbital 74 | 295 hrs. 11 mins. | Focus on science, lunar vehicle. |
| US | Apollo 16 | 16-4-1972 | Young, Duke, Mattingly | Lunar orbital 64 | 265 hrs. 51 mins. | Extended stay on the moon, lunar vehicle. |
| US | Apollo 17 | 7-12-1972 | Cernan, Schmitt, Evans | Lunar orbital 75 | 301 hrs. 51 mins. | Longest crewed lunar landing mission (12 days 14 hours), greatest distance from a spacecraft during an extravehicular activity of any type (7.6 kilometers (4.7 mi)), longest total lunar surface extravehicular activities (22 hours 4 minutes), largest lunar sample return (approximately 115 kg or 254 lb), longest time in lunar orbit (6 days 4 hours), and most lunar orbits (75). Cernan last Apollo astronaut on the moon (14-12-1972). |
Artemis related spaceflight (1965-2011)
- 00-00-1965 Start of the Deep Space Network (DSN) (used for Rover, New Horizons, Voyager etc.).
- 08-02-1974 Last Skylab flight (SL-4, SLM-3).
- 17-07-1975 Last Apollo-Soyuz flight (one mission only).
- 03-05-1998 Last Spacelab flight (Neurolab, STS-90).
- 20-11-1998 First module International Space Station (ISS) (Zarya, launched by a Proton rocket).
- 02-11-2000 ISS is permanently occupied (ongoing).
- 08-07-2011 Last Space Shuttle mission (STS-135).
Human spaceflight (also referred to as manned spaceflight or crewed spaceflight) is spaceflight with a crew or passengers aboard a spacecraft, often with the spacecraft being operated directly by the onboard human crew. Spacecraft can also be remotely operated from ground stations on Earth, or autonomously, without any direct human involvement. People trained for spaceflight are called astronauts (American or other), cosmonauts (Russian), or taikonauts (Chinese); and non-professionals are referred to as spaceflight participants or spacefarers.
The first human in space was Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who launched as part of the Soviet Union’s Vostok program on 12 April 1961 at the beginning of the Space Race. On 5 May 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American in space, as part of Project Mercury. Humans traveled to the Moon nine times between 1968 and 1972 as part of the United States’ Apollo program, and have had a continuous presence in space for 21 years and 364 days on the International Space Station (ISS). On 15 October 2003, the first Chinese taikonaut, Yang Liwei, went to space as part of Shenzhou 5, the first Chinese human spaceflight. As of 2021, humans have not traveled beyond low Earth orbit since the Apollo 17 lunar mission in December 1972.
Footnote
- Sources: Aerospace dashboard, Artemis astronauts, funkystuff.org,
- Outgoing: NASA
- Keywords: