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.

## Chronology

|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|–        N/A|Germany|
|October 24, 1946|Pictures from space (105 km)|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.|- fruit flies|United States|
|October 4, 1957|Artificial satellite|Sputnik 1|–        N/A|Soviet Union|
|November 3, 1957|Animal in orbit|Sputnik 2|Laika the dog|Soviet Union|
|January 2, 1959|Lunar flyby, and first spacecraft to achieve a heliocentric orbit|Luna 1|–        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|–        N/A|Soviet Union|
|October 7, 1959|Pictures of the far side of the Moon|Luna 3|–        N/A|Soviet Union|
|April 12, 1961|Human in space|Vostok 1|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|Freedom 7|Alan Shepard|United States|
|December 14, 1962|Successful flyby of another planet (Venus closest approach 34,773 kilometers)|Mariner 2|–        N/A|United States|
|March 18, 1965|Spacewalk|Voskhod 2|Alexei Leonov|Soviet Union|
|December 15, 1965|Space rendezvous|Gemini 6A and Gemini 7|Schirra, Stafford, Borman, Lovell|United States|
|February 3, 1966|Soft landing on the Moon by a spacecraft|Luna 9|–        N/A|Soviet Union|
|March 1, 1966|First human-made object to impact another planet|Venera 3|–        N/A|Soviet Union|
|March 16, 1966|Orbital docking between two spacecraft|Gemini 8 & Agena Target Vehicle|Neil Armstrong, David Scott|United States|
|April 3, 1966|Artificial satellite of another celestial body (other than the Sun)|Luna 10|–        N/A|Soviet Union|
|October 18, 1967|First spacecraft to perform transmit data from the atmosphere of another planet|Venera 4|–        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|Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin|United States|
|December 15, 1970|First telemetry from the surface of another planet|Venera 7|–        N/A|Soviet Union|
|April 19, 1971|Operational space station|Salyut 1|–        N/A|Soviet Union|
|June 7, 1971|Resident crew|Soyuz 11 ()|Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, Viktor Patsayev|Soviet Union|
|July 20, 1976|Pictures from the surface of Mars|Viking 1|–        N/A|United States|
|April 12, 1981|Reusable orbital spaceship|STS-1|Young, Crippen|United States|
|February 19, 1986|Long-duration space station|Mir|–        N/A|Soviet Union|
|February 14, 1990|Photograph of the whole Solar System|Voyager 1|–        N/A|United States|
|November 20, 1998|Current space station|International Space Station|–        N/A|Russia|
|August 25, 2012|Artificial space probe in interstellar space|Voyager 1|–        N/A|United States|
|November 12, 2014|Artificial probe to make a planned and soft landing on a comet (67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko)|Rosetta|–        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|New Horizons|–        N/A|United States|
|December 20, 2015|Vertical landing of an orbital rocket booster on a ground pad.|Falcon 9 flight 20|–        N/A|United States|
|April 8, 2016|Vertical landing of an orbital rocket booster on a floating platform at sea.|SpaceX CRS-8|–        N/A|United States|
|March 30, 2017|Relaunch and second landing of a used orbital rocket booster.|SES-10|–        N/A|United States|
|January 3, 2019|Soft landing on the lunar far side by a spacecraft.|Chang'e 4|–        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|Bob Behnken, Doug Hurley|United States|