Famous launches

The first artificial satellite — opened the space age, 4 October 1957.

Carried Laika, the first animal to orbit Earth.

America's first satellite; discovered the Van Allen radiation belts.

First spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon (12 September 1959).

Returned the first photographs of the far side of the Moon (4 October 1959).

Yuri Gagarin — the first human in space and to orbit Earth, 12 April 1961.

Alan Shepard — first American in space (Freedom 7 / Mercury-Redstone 3).

John Glenn — first American to orbit Earth (Friendship 7 / Mercury-Atlas 6).

Valentina Tereshkova — the first woman in space.

Alexei Leonov performed the first spacewalk.

First crewed flight to orbit the Moon; "Earthrise."

First crewed Moon landing, 20 July 1969.

The "successful failure" — a crippled mission brought safely home.

The last crewed mission to the Moon, December 1972.

First successful Mars landing and surface operations.

The only spacecraft to visit all four giant planets.

The most distant human-made object; now in interstellar space.

Launched on STS-31; redefined astronomy.

Saturn orbiter; the Huygens Titan landing.

The largest space telescope ever launched.

America's first space station.

Columbia — the Space Shuttle's first flight.

The first module of the International Space Station.

Falcon 1 Flight 4 — first privately developed liquid-fuel rocket to reach orbit (28 September 2008).

Maiden Falcon Heavy flight — the Tesla Roadster.

Crew Dragon Demo-2 — first crewed flight from US soil since the Shuttle (2020).