NASA timeline

  • Soviet Union Launches Sputnik 2

    The Soviet Union went on to launch a series of additional Sputnik satellites. Sputnik 2, for example, carried a dog into space, named Laika.... Read more

  • NASA Established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act

    The National Aeronautics and Space Act (Pub.L. 85-568) is the United States federal statute that created the National Aeronautics and Space... Read more

  • NASA's Apollo Program

    The Apollo Program was a human spaceflight program undertaken by NASA during the years 1961–1975 with the goal of conducting manned moon landing... Read more

  • First American to Orbit Earth

    On February 20, 1962, John H. Glenn, Jr., became the first American to orbit Earth. An Atlas launch vehicle propelled a Mercury spacecraft into... Read more

  • Launch of Mariner 2 Space Probe

    Mariner 2 was the first successful mission to another planet by any country. Launched just 36 days after the failure of its twin, Mariner 1, it... Read more

  • President Johnson Announces Renaming of Station Number 1 of the Atlantic Missile Range and the NASA Launch Operations Center as JFK Space Center

    I have today determined that Station Number 1 of the Atlantic Missile Range and the NASA Launch Operations Center in Florida shall hereafter be... Read more

  • Apollo 2 Mission

    Apollo 2 is the informal name of the launch of AS-203. The main purpose of the AS-203 flight was to investigate the effects of weightlessness on... Read more

  • Apollo 3 Mission

    AS-202 (or SA-202) was a sub-orbital test flight of the Saturn IB and Command and Service Module. It is sometimes informally called Apollo... Read more

  • Apollo 1 Catches Fire, Three Astronauts Die

    Apollo 1 is the official name that was later given to the never-flown Apollo/Saturn 204 (AS-204) mission. Its command module (CM-012) was destroyed... Read more

  • Apollo 4 Mission

    Apollo 4 was the first flight of the Saturn V launch vehicle, carrying no crew. It was also the first flight of the S-IC and S-II stages of the... Read more

  • Apollo 5 Mission

    Apollo 5 was the first unmanned flight of the Apollo Lunar Module, which would later carry astronauts to the lunar surface. It lifted off on... Read more

  • Apollo 6 Mission

    Apollo 6, launched on April 4, 1968, was the Apollo program's second and last unmanned test flight of its Saturn V launch vehicle. While the... Read more

  • Apollo 7 Mission

    Apollo 7 (October 11-22, 1968) was the first manned mission in the Apollo program to be launched. It was an eleven-day Earth-orbital mission, the... Read more

  • Apollo 11 Mission

    The Apollo 11 mission was the first manned mission to land on the Moon. It was the fifth human spaceflight of Project Apollo and the third human... Read more

  • Man Walks on Moon

    The Apollo 11 Lunar Module (LM) "Eagle" was the first crewed vehicle to land on the Moon. It carried two astronauts, Commander Neil A. Armstrong... Read more

  • Apollo 12 Mission

    Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me. Read more

  • Apollo 13 Mission

    Apollo 13 was the third manned mission by NASA intended to land on the moon, but a mid-mission technical malfunction forced the lunar landing to be... Read more

  • Apollo 14 Mission

    Apollo 14 was the eighth manned mission in the Apollo program and the third mission to land on the Moon. The nine-day mission was launched on... Read more

  • Apollo 15

    Apollo 15 was the ninth manned mission in the Apollo program and the fourth mission to land on the Moon. It was the first of what were termed "J... Read more

  • Apollo 16 Mission

    Apollo 16 was the tenth manned mission in the Apollo program, the fifth mission to land on the Moon and the first to land in a highlands area. The... Read more

  • Apollo 17 Mission

    Apollo 17 was the eleventh manned space mission in the NASA Apollo program. It was the first night launch of a U.S. human spaceflight and the sixth... Read more

  • NASA Launches Mars Probe Viking 1

    Viking 1 was the first of two spacecraft sent to Mars as part of NASA's Viking program. It was the first spacecraft to successfully land on Mars... Read more

  • NASA Launches Voyager 2

    The Voyager 2 spacecraft is an unmanned interplanetary space probe launched on August 20, 1977. Both the Voyager 2 and the Voyager 1 space probes... Read more

  • First Orbital Space Shuttle Flight

    The first launch of the Space Shuttle occurred on 12 April 1981, exactly 20 years after the first manned space flight, when the orbiter Columbia,... Read more

  • Sally Ride Becomes First American Woman in Space

    Ride was one of 8,000 people to answer an advertisement in a newspaper seeking applicants for the space program. As a result, Ride joined NASA in... Read more