2. 1950s First successful test of ICBM R 7 rocket August 21, 1957 First Earth satellite Sputnik October 4, 1957 First animal in space (the dog Laika) Sputnik 2 November 3, 1957 First U.S. Satellite Explorer 1 January 31, 1958
3. 50s continued First spacecraft to reach lunar distance Luna 1 January 2, 1959 First spacecraft to strike moon Luna 2 September 12, 1959 First photographs of lunar far side Luna 3 October 4, 1959
4. 1960s First human in space Vostok1 April 12, 1961 First American in space Freedom 7 May 5, 1961 First daylong spaceflight Vostok2 August 6, 1961 First woman in space Vostok6 June 16, 1963
5. 60s continued First multi-person spaceflight Voskhod1 October 12, 1964 First spacewalk Voskhod2 March 18, 1965 First 8-day space mission Gemini 5 August 21, 1965
6. 1970s First space station Soyuz 11, Salyut 1 June 6, 1971 First visit to lunar mountains; first lunar rover Apollo 15 July 26, 1971 First one-month mission Skylab 2 May 25, 1973 First two-month mission Skylab 3 July 28, 1973
7. 70s continued First three-month mission Skylab 4 November 16, 1973 First operational military space station Salyut 3 (Almaz) June 25, 1974 First international piloted space mission Apollo-Soyuz July 15, 1975
8. 1980s First re-usable spacecraft lauched Columba April 12 1981 First American woman in space Challenger June 18 1983 First black man in space Challenger August 30 1983 Challenger explodes Challenger (Duh) January 28 1986
9. 1990s Atlantic works with Mir Atlantic June-July 1995 Craft lands on Mars Pathfinder July 4 1997 International Space station assembled on ground X-38 1990s
10. 2000-Today NASA working on Discovery's fuel tank Discovery 2000s Columbia disaster Columbia 2003 First tourist in space TM-31 2001
