The document summarizes key events in space exploration from the 1950s to the 2000s. It describes the launch of Sputnik in 1957 kicking off the space race. The first human in space was Yuri Gagarin in 1961, and the first moon landing was Apollo 11 in 1969. Significant events in following decades included the first Venus and Jupiter flybys in the 1970s, the first space shuttle mission in 1981, confirmation of an exoplanet in 1992, and Mars rover landings in the 2000s.

1. Space Exploration – 1950s The end of the 1950s was when the space race began. It began when Sputnik was launched on October 4, 1957. Later that year Sputnik II launched the first living creature into space, a dog, however it had not survived the return flight.

2. Space Exploration – 1960s The first human into space was Yuri Gagarin, who was sent into space in Vostok 1 (East 1) on April 12, 1961. The spacecraft completed one orbit around the Earth, lasting about 1 hour and 48 minutes. The US launched it’s first man into space within a month of Vostok 1, and succeeded with full orbit on February 20, 1962 with John Glenn’s flight. Later, Apollo 11 was the first flight to land on the moon on July 20, 1969.

3. Space Exploration – 1970s The first mission to Venus to return actual data was Venera 7 in 1970, which streamed data for 23 minutes. In 1973, Pioneer 10 did a flyby of the planet Jupiter. Mariner 4 also did a flyby of Mercury in 1974, and in 1979 Pioneer 11 did a flyby of Saturn.

4. Space Exploration – 1980s On April 12, 1981, the first space shuttle mission was launched and landed safely on Earth on April 14, 1981. A year after that in 1982, Venera 13 flew to Venus and streamed two hours of data, the longest Soviet transmission to that date. Viking 1 also provided a large amount of footage from the planet Mars between 1975 and 1982.

5. Space Exploration – 1990s On April 24, 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched in orbit around the Earth. In 1992, the first confirmation of a planet outside our solar system was made, it was named PSR B1257+12 B. On July 4, 1997, NASA’s pathfinder lands on the surface of Mars.

6. Space Exploation -2000s In 2004, the Spirit and Opportunity rovers land on Mars. On January 14, 2005 the EAS probe Huygens lands on Saturn’s moon, Titan. On May 25, 2008 the spacecraft Phoenix landed on the Arctic region of Mars for the first time.