{ "id": "timeline-of-space-exploration", "name": "Timeline of Space Exploration", "title": "Timeline of Space Exploration", "description": "A chronological record of major space exploration milestones from early telescopic observations to missions in 2025, including key events, countries/organizations involved, and missions or researchers.", "category": "science", "source": "https://github.com/sharmadhiraj/free-json-datasets", "source_url": "https://github.com/sharmadhiraj/free-json-datasets", "updated": "2026-04", "record_count": 145, "columns": [ { "key": "date", "label": "Date", "type": "number" }, { "key": "event_or_success", "label": "Event Or Success", "type": "string" }, { "key": "country_or_organization", "label": "Country Or Organization", "type": "string" }, { "key": "mission_or_researcher", "label": "Mission Or Researcher", "type": "string" } ], "rows": [ { "date": "1610", "event_or_success": "First telescopic observation of the night sky: discovery of the Galilean moons, lunar craters and the phases of Venus.", "country_or_organization": "Venice", "mission_or_researcher": "Galileo Galilei" }, { "date": "1668", "event_or_success": "First reflecting telescope.", "country_or_organization": "England", "mission_or_researcher": "Isaac Newton" }, { "date": "1781", "event_or_success": "First telescopic discovery of planet (Uranus).", "country_or_organization": "Great Britain", "mission_or_researcher": "William Herschel" }, { "date": "1801", "event_or_success": "First discovery of asteroid (Ceres).", "country_or_organization": "Sicily", "mission_or_researcher": "Giuseppe Piazzi" }, { "date": "1813", "event_or_success": "First exposition of the rocket equation based on Newton's third law of motion: Treatise on the Motion of Rockets.", "country_or_organization": "UK", "mission_or_researcher": "William Moore" }, { "date": "1840", "event_or_success": "First clear telescopic photograph of another world: the Moon.", "country_or_organization": "United States", "mission_or_researcher": "John William Draper" }, { "date": "1845", "event_or_success": "First proper observation of other galaxies which are termed \"whirlpool nebulae\".", "country_or_organization": "UK", "mission_or_researcher": "William Parsons" }, { "date": "1861", "event_or_success": "A Journey Through Space makes first proposal of using rockets for space flight.", "country_or_organization": "UK", "mission_or_researcher": "William Leitch" }, { "date": "1895", "event_or_success": "First proposal of space elevator.", "country_or_organization": "Russia", "mission_or_researcher": "Konstantin Tsiolkovsky" }, { "date": "4 October 1957", "event_or_success": "First artificial satellite. First human-made signals from space.", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Sputnik 1" }, { "date": "3 November 1957", "event_or_success": "First mammal in orbit, the dog Laika.", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Sputnik 2" }, { "date": "31 January 1958", "event_or_success": "Confirmed existence of the Van Allen radiation belt.", "country_or_organization": "USA (ABMA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Explorer 1" }, { "date": "17 March 1958", "event_or_success": "First use of solar power in space.The oldest artificial object still in space.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NRL)", "mission_or_researcher": "Vanguard 1" }, { "date": "4 January 1959", "event_or_success": "First rocket to reach Earth escape velocity. First spacecraft to attempt to impact the Moon's surface. First artificial object in heliocentric orbit. First detection of solar wind.", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Luna 1" }, { "date": "17 February 1959", "event_or_success": "First weather satellite.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NRL)", "mission_or_researcher": "Vanguard 2" }, { "date": "7 August 1959", "event_or_success": "First photograph of Earth from Earth orbit.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Explorer 6" }, { "date": "13 September 1959", "event_or_success": "First spacecraft to impact another celestial body (the Moon).First delivery of national pennants to a celestial body.", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Luna 2" }, { "date": "4 October 1959", "event_or_success": "First photos of another world from space: the far side of the Moon. First gravity assist.", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Luna 3" }, { "date": "March 1960", "event_or_success": "First solar probe.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Pioneer 5" }, { "date": "19 August 1960", "event_or_success": "First plants and animals to return alive from Earth orbit.", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Sputnik 5" }, { "date": "25 September 1960", "event_or_success": "First rocket engine fired in space.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Pioneer P-30" }, { "date": "31 January 1961", "event_or_success": "First hominidae in space (chimpanzee Ham). First tasks performed in space.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "M-R 2" }, { "date": "12 February 1961", "event_or_success": "First launch from Earth orbit of upper stage into a heliocentric orbit.First mid-course corrections. First spin-stabilisation.", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Venera 1" }, { "date": "12 April 1961", "event_or_success": "First human spaceflight (Yuri Gagarin).First human-crewed orbital flight.", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Vostok 1" }, { "date": "5 May 1961", "event_or_success": "First human-piloted space flight (Alan Shepard).First human-crewed suborbital flight.", "country_or_organization": "USA", "mission_or_researcher": "Freedom 7" }, { "date": "19 May 1961", "event_or_success": "First planetary flyby (within 100,000 km of Venus – no data returned).", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Venera 1" }, { "date": "6 August 1961", "event_or_success": "First crewed space flight lasting over twenty four hours by Gherman Titov, who is also the first to suffer from space sickness.", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Vostok 2" }, { "date": "7 March 1962", "event_or_success": "First orbital solar observatory.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "OSO-1" }, { "date": "26 April 1962", "event_or_success": "First spacecraft to impact the far side of the Moon.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Ranger 4" }, { "date": "11 August 1962", "event_or_success": "First dual crewed spaceflight.First communication between two crewed space vehicles in orbit.First person to float freely in microgravity.", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Vostok 3 and Vostok 4" }, { "date": "18 August 1962", "event_or_success": "First auroral research rocket launched into the ionosphere.", "country_or_organization": "Norway", "mission_or_researcher": "Ferdinand 1" }, { "date": "November 1962", "event_or_success": "First Mars flyby (11,000 km) but contact was lost.", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Mars 1" }, { "date": "14 December 1962", "event_or_success": "First planetary flyby with data returned (Venus). First successful planetary science mission.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Mariner 2" }, { "date": "16 June 1963", "event_or_success": "First woman in space (Valentina Tereshkova).", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Vostok 6" }, { "date": "19 July 1963", "event_or_success": "First reusable crewed spacecraft (suborbital).", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "X-15 Flight 90" }, { "date": "12 October 1964", "event_or_success": "First multi-person crew (3) in orbit.", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Voskhod 1" }, { "date": "18 March 1965", "event_or_success": "First space walk/extra-vehicular activity (Alexei Leonov).", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Voskhod 2" }, { "date": "March 1965", "event_or_success": "First crewed spacecraft to change orbit.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Gemini 3" }, { "date": "14 July 1965", "event_or_success": "First flyby of Mars (returned pictures).", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Mariner 4" }, { "date": "14 July 1965", "event_or_success": "First photographs of another planet from deep space (Mars).", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Mariner 4" }, { "date": "15 December 1965", "event_or_success": "First orbital rendezvous (parallel flight, no docking).", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Gemini 6A/Gemini 7" }, { "date": "3 February 1966", "event_or_success": "First soft landing on another world (the Moon). First photos from another world.", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Luna 9" }, { "date": "1 March 1966", "event_or_success": "First impact into another planet (Venus).", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Venera 3" }, { "date": "16 March 1966", "event_or_success": "First orbital docking between two spacecraft.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Gemini 8/Agena target vehicle" }, { "date": "3 April 1966", "event_or_success": "First artificial satellite around another world (the Moon).", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Luna 10" }, { "date": "23 August 1966", "event_or_success": "First picture of Earth from another astronomical object (the Moon). First probe to map the Moon.", "country_or_organization": "USA", "mission_or_researcher": "Lunar Orbiter 1" }, { "date": "8 May 1967", "event_or_success": "First polar orbit around the Moon.", "country_or_organization": "USA", "mission_or_researcher": "Lunar Orbiter 4" }, { "date": "July 1967", "event_or_success": "First photos of the Lunar south pole.", "country_or_organization": "USA", "mission_or_researcher": "Lunar Orbiter 4" }, { "date": "30 October 1967", "event_or_success": "First automated (crewless) docking.", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Cosmos 186/Cosmos 188" }, { "date": "17 November 1967", "event_or_success": "First liftoff from another celestial body (the Moon).", "country_or_organization": "USA", "mission_or_researcher": "Surveyor 6" }, { "date": "September 1968", "event_or_success": "First animals and plants to leave Earth orbit and travel to and around the Moon. First lunar spacecraft to be recovered successfully.", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Zond 5" }, { "date": "7 December 1968", "event_or_success": "First orbital ultraviolet observatory.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "OAO-2" }, { "date": "21 December 1968", "event_or_success": "First human excursion beyond low Earth orbit. First in-person observations of Earth from a distance.First Trans-Earth injection.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Apollo 8" }, { "date": "24 December 1968", "event_or_success": "First human flight to another celestial body (the Moon) and to enter its gravitational influence.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Apollo 8" }, { "date": "January 1969", "event_or_success": "First docking between two crewed spacecraft in Earth orbit. First crew exchange in space.", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5" }, { "date": "January 1969", "event_or_success": "First spacecraft to parachute in Venus's atmosphere, lost contact before landing.", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Venera 5" }, { "date": "23 May 1969", "event_or_success": "First docking of two crewed spacecraft around another celestial body. First lunar mission to include a lunar landing module.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Apollo 10" }, { "date": "20 July 1969", "event_or_success": "First human on another celestial body (the Moon). First words spoken from another world.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Apollo 11" }, { "date": "21 July 1969", "event_or_success": "First space launch from another celestial body. First sample return from another celestial body.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Apollo 11" }, { "date": "19 November 1969", "event_or_success": "First rendezvous on the surface of a celestial body. First meet up between human explorers and a robotic spacecraft in space (on the Moon).", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Apollo 12/Surveyor 3" }, { "date": "14 April 1970", "event_or_success": "Farthest distance from Earth traveled by humans.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Apollo 13" }, { "date": "24 September 1970", "event_or_success": "First automatic sample return from the Moon.", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Luna 16" }, { "date": "17 November 1970", "event_or_success": "First rover on another celestial body (the Moon). First lunar rover.", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Lunokhod 1" }, { "date": "12 December 1970", "event_or_success": "First X-ray orbital observatory.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Uhuru" }, { "date": "15 December 1970", "event_or_success": "First soft landing on another planet (Venus). First signals from another planet.", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Venera 7" }, { "date": "19 April 1971", "event_or_success": "First space station.", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Salyut 1" }, { "date": "June 1971", "event_or_success": "First crewed orbital observatory.", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Orion 1" }, { "date": "30 July 1971", "event_or_success": "First motor vehicle on another celestial body (Lunar Roving Vehicle).", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Apollo 15" }, { "date": "14 November 1971", "event_or_success": "First spacecraft to orbit another planet (Mars).", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Mariner 9" }, { "date": "27 November 1971", "event_or_success": "First spacecraft to impact another planet (Mars).", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Mars 2" }, { "date": "2 December 1971", "event_or_success": "First soft landing on Mars. First signals from Martian surface.First photograph from Martian surface.", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Mars 3" }, { "date": "3 March 1972", "event_or_success": "First spacecraft on a trajectory out of the Solar System. First spacecraft to use all-nuclear electrical power (SNAP-19 RTGs).", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Pioneer 10" }, { "date": "15 July 1972", "event_or_success": "First spacecraft to enter the asteroid belt. First spacecraft beyond the orbit of Mars.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Pioneer 10" }, { "date": "15 November 1972", "event_or_success": "First orbital gamma ray observatory.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "SAS 2" }, { "date": "3 November 1973", "event_or_success": "First mission sent to study Mercury.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Mariner 10" }, { "date": "3 December 1973", "event_or_success": "First flyby of Jupiter. First spacecraft beyond the Inner Solar System.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Pioneer 10" }, { "date": "January 1974", "event_or_success": "First spacecraft to return data on a long-period comet.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Mariner 10" }, { "date": "5 February 1974", "event_or_success": "First mission to explore two planets in a single mission (Mercury and Venus).First photograph of Venus from space. First use of solar wind for spacecraft orientation.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Mariner 10" }, { "date": "29 March 1974", "event_or_success": "First flyby of Mercury.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Mariner 10" }, { "date": "21 Sept. 1974", "event_or_success": "First spacecraft to flyby the same planet multiple times (Mercury).", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Mariner 10" }, { "date": "15 July 1975", "event_or_success": "First multinational crewed mission.", "country_or_organization": "USSR USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Apollo-Soyuz Test Project" }, { "date": "20 October 1975", "event_or_success": "First spacecraft to orbit Venus.", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Venera 9" }, { "date": "22 October 1975", "event_or_success": "First successful photos from the surface of another planet (Venus).", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Venera 9" }, { "date": "20 July 1976", "event_or_success": "First successful photos and soil samples from the surface of Mars.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Viking Lander" }, { "date": "26 January 1978", "event_or_success": "First real time remotely operated ultraviolet orbital observatory.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA) ESA UK (SERC)", "mission_or_researcher": "International Ultraviolet Explorer" }, { "date": "20 November 1978", "event_or_success": "First spacecraft to orbit the Sun at Lagrange 1.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "ISEE-3/ICE" }, { "date": "4 December 1978", "event_or_success": "First extended (multi-year) orbital exploration of Venus (from 1978 to 1992).", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Pioneer Venus Orbiter" }, { "date": "5 March 1979", "event_or_success": "Jupiter flyby (closest approach 349,000 km)Encounters with five Jovian moons.Discovery of volcanism on Io.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Voyager 1" }, { "date": "1 September 1979", "event_or_success": "First flyby of Saturn. First photograph of Titan from deep space.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Pioneer 11" }, { "date": "12 November 1980", "event_or_success": "Saturn flyby (closest approach 124,000 km), close encounter of Titan and encounters with a dozen other moons.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Voyager 1" }, { "date": "12 April 1981", "event_or_success": "First reusable crewed orbital spacecraft (Space Shuttle).", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "STS-1" }, { "date": "1 March 1982", "event_or_success": "First Venus soil samples First sound recording of another world (Venus).", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Venera 13" }, { "date": "10 June 1982", "event_or_success": "First spacecraft to conduct a deep survey of Earth's magnetic tail.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "ISEE-3/ICE" }, { "date": "19 August 1982", "event_or_success": "First mixed gender crew aboard space station, and first woman, Svetlana Savitskaya, on space station.", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Salyut 7" }, { "date": "1982", "event_or_success": "First plants grown in space (Arabidopsis).", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Salyut 7" }, { "date": "25 January 1983", "event_or_success": "First Infrared orbital observatory.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA) UK (SERC) Netherlands (NIVR)", "mission_or_researcher": "IRAS" }, { "date": "13 June 1983", "event_or_success": "First spacecraft beyond the orbit of Neptune. First spacecraft beyond all Solar System planets.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Pioneer 10" }, { "date": "7 February 1984", "event_or_success": "First untethered spacewalk (Bruce McCandless II).", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "STS-41-B" }, { "date": "25 July 1984", "event_or_success": "First spacewalk by a woman (Svetlana Savitskaya).", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Salyut 7" }, { "date": "11 June 1985", "event_or_success": "First balloon deployed on another planet (Venus).", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Vega 1" }, { "date": "11 September 1985", "event_or_success": "First spacecraft to flyby a comet (21P/Giacobini-Zinner).", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "ISEE-3/ICE" }, { "date": "24 January 1986", "event_or_success": "First spacecraft to flyby Uranus.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Voyager 2" }, { "date": "19 February 1986", "event_or_success": "First consistently inhabited long-term research space station.", "country_or_organization": "USSR", "mission_or_researcher": "Mir" }, { "date": "13 March 1986", "event_or_success": "First close up observations of a comet (Halley's Comet, 596 kilometers).", "country_or_organization": "ESA", "mission_or_researcher": "Giotto" }, { "date": "July 1988", "event_or_success": "First suspected detection of an exoplanet (Gamma Cephei Ab).", "country_or_organization": "Canada", "mission_or_researcher": "Astronomers Bruce Campbell, Gordon Walker and Stephenson Yang." }, { "date": "8 August 1989", "event_or_success": "First astrometric satellite.", "country_or_organization": "ESA", "mission_or_researcher": "Hipparcos" }, { "date": "25 August 1989", "event_or_success": "First spacecraft to flyby Neptune. First spacecraft to study all four of the Solar System's giant planets at close range.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Voyager 2" }, { "date": "18 November 1989", "event_or_success": "First orbital cosmic microwave observatory.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "COBE" }, { "date": "20 May 2010", "event_or_success": "First solar sail.", "country_or_organization": "Japan (JAXA)", "mission_or_researcher": "IKAROS" }, { "date": "13 June 2010", "event_or_success": "First sample return from an asteroid (25143 Itokawa).", "country_or_organization": "Japan (JAXA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Hayabusa" }, { "date": "25 August 2010", "event_or_success": "First spacecraft to orbit one of the Moon's Lagrange point (L2).", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "ARTEMIS-P1" }, { "date": "22 October 2010", "event_or_success": "First spacecraft to orbit the Moon's Lagrange 1 point.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "ARTEMIS-P2" }, { "date": "18 March 2011", "event_or_success": "First orbit of Mercury.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "MESSENGER" }, { "date": "16 July 2011", "event_or_success": "First orbit of an object in the asteroid belt (4 Vesta).", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Dawn" }, { "date": "6 August 2012", "event_or_success": "First use of a sky crane to land on another celestial body (Mars).", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Mars Science Laboratory" }, { "date": "25 August 2012", "event_or_success": "First spacecraft to leave the heliosphere. First spacecraft in interstellar space.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Voyager 1" }, { "date": "January 2013", "event_or_success": "First laser communication with a lunar satellite.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter" }, { "date": "10 September 2014", "event_or_success": "First spacecraft to orbit a comet nucleus (67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko).", "country_or_organization": "ESA", "mission_or_researcher": "Rosetta" }, { "date": "12 November 2014", "event_or_success": "First soft landing on a comet (67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko).", "country_or_organization": "ESA", "mission_or_researcher": "Philae" }, { "date": "6 March 2015", "event_or_success": "First flyby and orbit of a dwarf planet (Ceres).First spacecraft to orbit two separate celestial bodies.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Dawn" }, { "date": "July 2015", "event_or_success": "First flyby of an object beyond Neptune (Pluto and its moons). First flyby in the Kuiper belt. First flyby of a trans-neptunian object.Last original encounter with one of the nine major planets recognized before 2006.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "New Horizons" }, { "date": "10 August 2015", "event_or_success": "First food grown in space eaten (lettuce).", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA) Japan (JAXA)", "mission_or_researcher": "International Space Station" }, { "date": "14 September 2015", "event_or_success": "First observation of gravitational waves.", "country_or_organization": "LSC – EGO", "mission_or_researcher": "LIGO – Virgo" }, { "date": "23 November 2015", "event_or_success": "First propulsive landing of a rocket after sending something into space (suborbital).", "country_or_organization": "USA (Blue Origin)", "mission_or_researcher": "New Shepard 2" }, { "date": "21 December 2015", "event_or_success": "First propulsive landing of an orbital rocket.", "country_or_organization": "USA (SpaceX)", "mission_or_researcher": "Falcon 9 flight 20" }, { "date": "16 April 2016", "event_or_success": "First inflatable space habitat.", "country_or_organization": "USA (Bigelow Aerospace)", "mission_or_researcher": "BEAM" }, { "date": "15 September 2017", "event_or_success": "First spacecraft to enter the atmosphere of Saturn.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA) ESA Italy (ASI)", "mission_or_researcher": "Cassini–Huygens" }, { "date": "19 October 2017", "event_or_success": "First known interstellar object detected passing through the Solar System.", "country_or_organization": "USA (Haleakalā Observatory)", "mission_or_researcher": "Oumuamua" }, { "date": "21 September 2018", "event_or_success": "First operational rover on an asteroid (162173 Ryugu).", "country_or_organization": "Japan (JAXA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Hayabusa2" }, { "date": "1 December 2018", "event_or_success": "First recorded sounds from Mars.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "InSight" }, { "date": "1 January 2019", "event_or_success": "First flyby of a classical Kuiper belt object (486958 Arrokoth). First flyby of a contact binary. First spacecraft to make two different flybys in the Kuiper belt.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "New Horizons" }, { "date": "3 January 2019", "event_or_success": "First soft landing on the far side of the Moon. First germination of seeds on another celestial body.", "country_or_organization": "China (CNSA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Chang'e 4" }, { "date": "10 April 2019", "event_or_success": "First direct photograph of a black hole and its vicinity.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Event Horizon Telescope" }, { "date": "6 April 2021", "event_or_success": "First confirmed quake on another planet (marsquake).", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "InSight" }, { "date": "19 April 2021", "event_or_success": "First aerodynamically powered flight on another celestial body (Mars).", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Ingenuity" }, { "date": "20 April 2021", "event_or_success": "First in situ resource utilization. First production of oxygen on another celestial body (Mars).", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "MOXIE" }, { "date": "14 December 2021", "event_or_success": "First spacecraft to fly through the atmosphere of a star (the Sun's corona).", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Parker Solar Probe" }, { "date": "25 December 2021", "event_or_success": "Launch of the largest space telescope to date.", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA) ESA Canada (CSA)", "mission_or_researcher": "James Webb Space Telescope" }, { "date": "26 September 2022", "event_or_success": "First spacecraft to measurably deflect an asteroid. First spacecraft to make contact with an asteroid moon (impact on Dimorphos).", "country_or_organization": "USA (NASA)", "mission_or_researcher": "DART" }, { "date": "23 August 2023", "event_or_success": "First landing at the lunar south polar region.", "country_or_organization": "India (ISRO)", "mission_or_researcher": "Chandrayaan-3" }, { "date": "14 March 2024", "event_or_success": "First successful demonstration of in space propellant transfer.", "country_or_organization": "USA (SpaceX)", "mission_or_researcher": "Starship flight test 3" }, { "date": "6 June 2024", "event_or_success": "First successful instance of both stages of a launch vehicle returned for a controlled landing.", "country_or_organization": "USA (SpaceX)", "mission_or_researcher": "Starship flight test 4" }, { "date": "25 June 2024", "event_or_success": "First samples returned from the far side of the Moon.", "country_or_organization": "China (CNSA)", "mission_or_researcher": "Chang'e 6" }, { "date": "13 October 2024", "event_or_success": "First catch of a rocket booster.", "country_or_organization": "USA (SpaceX)", "mission_or_researcher": "Starship flight test 5" }, { "date": "1 April 2025", "event_or_success": "First crewed spaceflight to enter a Polar orbit around Earth.", "country_or_organization": "USA (SpaceX)", "mission_or_researcher": "Fram2" } ], "meta": { "title": "Timeline of Space Exploration - Free Download", "description": "A chronological record of major space exploration milestones from early telescopic observations to missions in 2025, including key events, countries/organizations involved, and missions or researchers. Contains 145 records. Download in Excel, CSV, PDF formats.", "seo_title": "Timeline of Space Exploration | ListBase", "seo_description": "Download Timeline of Space Exploration — 145 records. Available in Excel, CSV, PDF formats.", "key_takeaways": [ "Contains 145 records / 4 fields", "Available for free download in Excel, CSV, and PDF formats", "Data sourced from: https://github.com/sharmadhiraj/free-json-datasets" ] } }