Space Age

The Space Age is the time period in human history related to the space race, space exploration, and space technology. Most people say this started when Sputnik 1 was launched in 1957, and continues to today. This has influenced culture such as in movies, television, music, art, and architecture.^[1]

The launch of the Sputnik 1 satellite marked the start of the Space Age.^[1]

The signals of Sputnik 1 continued for 22 days.

The Space Shuttle lifts off on a crewed mission to space.

Chronology

See also: Timeline of space exploration

Date	First ...	Mission	Person(s)	Country
June 20, 1944	Artificial object in outer space, i.e. beyond the Kármán line	V-2 rocket, test flight[2]	– N/A	Germany
October 24, 1946	Pictures from space (105 km)[3][4][5]	U.S.-launched V-2 rocket from White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.	– N/A	United States
February 20, 1947	Animals in space	U.S.-launched V-2 rocket on 20 February 1947 from White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.[6][7][8]	- fruit flies	United States
October 4, 1957	Artificial satellite	Sputnik 1[9]	– N/A	Soviet Union
November 3, 1957[10]	Animal in orbit	Sputnik 2[11]	Laika the dog	Soviet Union
January 2, 1959	Lunar flyby, and first spacecraft to achieve a heliocentric orbit	Luna 1[12]	– N/A	Soviet Union
September 12, 1959	Impacted on the Lunar surface; thereby becoming the first human object to reach another celestial body	Luna 2[13]	– N/A	Soviet Union
October 7, 1959	Pictures of the far side of the Moon	Luna 3[14]	– N/A	Soviet Union
April 12, 1961	Human in space	Vostok 1[15]	Yuri Gagarin	Soviet Union
May 5, 1961	Manual orientation of crewed spacecraft and first human space mission that landed with pilot still in spacecraft, thus the first complete human spaceflight by FAI definitions[16][17]	Freedom 7[18]	Alan Shepard	United States
December 14, 1962	Successful flyby of another planet (Venus closest approach 34,773 kilometers)	Mariner 2[19]	– N/A	United States
March 18, 1965	Spacewalk	Voskhod 2[20][21]	Alexei Leonov	Soviet Union
December 15, 1965	Space rendezvous	Gemini 6A[22] and Gemini 7[22]	Schirra, Stafford, Borman, Lovell	United States
February 3, 1966	Soft landing on the Moon by a spacecraft	Luna 9[23][24]	– N/A	Soviet Union
March 1, 1966	First human-made object to impact another planet	Venera 3[25][26]	– N/A	Soviet Union
March 16, 1966	Orbital docking between two spacecraft	Gemini 8[27] & Agena Target Vehicle[28]	Neil Armstrong, David Scott	United States
April 3, 1966	Artificial satellite of another celestial body (other than the Sun)	Luna 10[29]	– N/A	Soviet Union
October 18, 1967	First spacecraft to perform transmit data from the atmosphere of another planet	Venera 4[30]	– N/A	Soviet Union
December 21–27, 1968	First humans to enter the gravitational influence of another celestial body (the Moon) and orbit it	Apollo 8	Borman, Lovell, Anders	United States
July 20, 1969	Humans land and walk on another celestial body (Moon)	Apollo 11[31]	Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin	United States
December 15, 1970	First telemetry from the surface of another planet	Venera 7[32]	– N/A	Soviet Union
April 19, 1971	Operational space station	Salyut 1[33][34]	– N/A	Soviet Union
June 7, 1971	Resident crew	Soyuz 11 (Salyut 1)	Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, Viktor Patsayev	Soviet Union
July 20, 1976	Pictures from the surface of Mars	Viking 1[35]	– N/A	United States
April 12, 1981	Reusable orbital spaceship	STS-1[36]	Young, Crippen	United States
February 19, 1986	Long-duration space station	Mir[37]	– N/A	Soviet Union
February 14, 1990	Photograph of the whole Solar System[38]	Voyager 1[39]	– N/A	United States
November 20, 1998	Current space station	International Space Station[40]	– N/A	Russia
August 25, 2012	Artificial space probe in interstellar space	Voyager 1[41]	– N/A	United States
November 12, 2014	Artificial probe to make a planned and soft landing on a comet (67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko)[42]	Rosetta[43]	– N/A	European Space Agency
July 14, 2015	Nation to have its space probes to explore all of the nine major planets recognized in 1981[44]	New Horizons[45]	– N/A	United States
December 20, 2015	Vertical landing of an orbital rocket booster on a ground pad.[46]	Falcon 9 flight 20[47]	– N/A	United States
April 8, 2016	Vertical landing of an orbital rocket booster on a floating platform at sea.[48]	SpaceX CRS-8[49]	– N/A	United States
March 30, 2017	Relaunch and second landing of a used orbital rocket booster.[50]	SES-10[51]	– N/A	United States
January 3, 2019	Soft landing on the lunar far side by a spacecraft.	Chang'e 4[52][53]	– N/A	China
May 30, 2020	First human orbital spaceflight launched by a private company.	Crew Dragon Demo-2/Crew Demo-2/SpaceX Demo-2/Dragon Crew Demo-2[54]	Bob Behnken, Doug Hurley	United States