| October 4, 1957 - Using a modified German V-2 rocket to launch, The Soviet Union succesfully launches Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite. |
| January 31, 1958 - Under pressure to keep up with the Soviets, the United States launches Explorer 1, the first American satellite. |
| On January 2, 1959 - The Soviet Union began a massive campaign to the Moon with the launch of Luna 1. Although it missed the Moon by approximately 6,000 kilometers, it became the first man-made object to escape Earth's gravitation and orbit the Sun. Other notable Luna launches were Luna 2, which impacted the moon, becoming the first man-made object to impact another world, and Luna 3, which circumnavigated the moon, and took the first pictures of its farside. |
| August 27, 1962 - NASA launches the Mariner 2 spacecraft to Venus. This is the world's first successful interplanetary probe. |
| July 14, 1964 - Mariner 4 encounters Mars, and becomes the first spacecraft to fly by the Red Planet. |
| July 28, 1964 - NASA sends the Ranger 7 spacecraft to the Moon. Before crashing onto its surface, it transmitted more than 4,000 images of the lunar surface. Ranger 7, 8, and 9 greatly advanced scientific knowledge of the lunar surface, and help prepare the way for the Apollo missions. Click here to view a picture of a Ranger spacecraft. |
| May 30, 1966 - NASA sends Surveyor 1 to the Moon. The versatile spcaesraft successfully lands on the lunar surface, becoming the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on another celestial body. |
| August 17, 1970 - The Soviet Union launches Venera 7 to Venus. When it arrives, it ejected a capsule that transmitted data back to Earth. It was the first successful transmission of data from the surface of another planet. |
| November 10, 1970 - The Soviet Union launchs Luna 17 to the Moon, where it achieves the first successful use of a mobile, remotely controled vehicle in the exploration of a planetary body. |
| March 2, 1972 - NASA launches the Pioneer 10 space probe. This robotic explorer is the first to transit the main asteroid belt, and the first to encounter Jupiter.
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| April 5, 1973 - NASA launches Pioneer 11. It departs on a trajectory that will send it through the asteroid belt, and onward to Jupiter and Saturn. |
| November 3, 1973 - NASA launches Mariner 10 on a trajectory to Venus and Mercury. It is the first spacecraft to use a planetary gravity-assist maneuver to reach another planet. |
| August 20, 1975 - NASA begins a major scientific endevour on Mars with the launch on Viking 1 and 2. They reach the Red Planet a year later and become the first American spacecraft to soft-land on another planet. Their prinary objective was to determine whether microbial life ever existed on Mars. They evidence they returned was inconclusive. Click here to view a model of the Viking lander. |
| August 20, 1977 - NASA launches the Voyager 1 and 2 space probes on an epic "grand tour" in which they successfully encounter all four gas giant planets in our outer solar system. They continued on a course that took them outside the solar system. Click here for a picture of the Voyager space probe, and here for a picture of the probe's course through our solar system. |
| August 8, 1978 - NASA launches Pioneer 12, and 13 to explore the Venusian surface and atmosphere. |
| June 13, 1983 - The Pioneer 10 space probe crosses the orbit of Neptune (which at the time is the farthest planet from the Sun) and becomes the first man-made object to leave the boundry of our solar system |
| March 14, 1986 - An international armada of spacecraft encounter Halley's Comet. Two Japenese probes, two Soviet probes, and one probe from The European Space Agency all conduct analysis of the comet at distances between 610 and 1,000 kilometers. |
| May 4, 1989 - The space shuttle Atlantis deploys the Magellan spacecraft on a mission to extensivly study Venus. Magellan is the first spacecraft to be deployed from a space shuttle on an interplanetary trajectory. |
| October 18, 1989 - NASA launchs the space shuttle Atlantis to deploy the Galileo spacecraft on a mission to study Jupiter. |
| September 25, 1992 - NASA launches the Mars Observor spacecraft. This sophisticated spacecraft is the first in NASA's new Observor series of planetary misions. Unfortunately, for reasons unknown, contact was lost with the observor on August 22, 1993, right before it was to get into orbit of the planet |
| December 7, 1995 - The Galileo spacecraft arrives at Jupiter. The spacecraft did analysis of the planets atmosphere, and preformed numerous flybys of the planets many moons. After orbiting Jupiter for eight years, and transmitting more than 14,000 images back to NASA, the probe was sent on an intentional plunge into Jupiter's atmosphere on September 21, 2003, with the last piece of data being transmitted at 3:57 PM. |
| November 7, 1996 - NASA launches the Mars Global Surveyor mission. This is the first of many misions intended to fully explore Mars with a variety of orbiter and lander/rover spacecraft. It is closely followed on December 11 of the same year with the Mars Pathfinder mission. This mission used a teloperated minirover to conduct an array of scientific experiments. |
| October 15, 1997 - NASA launches the space probe Cassini towards Saturn. During September, 2004, the probe get close enough to Saturn and it's moons to begin conducting valuable research. |
| January, 2004 - The twin Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars. As of right now they are still conducting valuable scientific research on different areas of the planets surface. Click here to see a detailed picture of Mars exploration rovers. |
This page lists by date most of the important unmanned space missions. It will focus mainly on American achevments, but some of the more remarkable Soviet and other international achievments are also listed.
