Notable Unmanned Spaceflights
In reference to: | Spacecraft | Event | Country | Date |
---|---|---|---|---|
Earth | A-4(V-2) | First rocket to reach space (suborbital flight) | Germany | June 1944 |
Earth | V-2 No. 20 | First living organisms (fruit flies) in space (suborbital flight) | USA | 20 February 1947 |
Earth | R-1V | First animals (dogs) in space (suborbital flight) successfully recovered | USSR | 22 July 1951 |
Earth | Sputnik 1 | First satellite in orbit | USSR | 4 October 1957 |
Earth | Sputnik 2 | First animal in orbit, Laika the dog | USSR | 3 November 1957 |
Earth | Vanguard 1 | Oldest satellite still in orbit— expected to stay in orbit 240 years. Ceased transmission in May 1964 | USA | 17 March 1958 |
Earth | Jupiter AM-13 | First monkey in space | USA | 13 December 1958 |
Earth | Luna 1 | First spacecraft to reach Earth's escape velocity | USSR | 4 January 1959 |
Moon | Luna 1 | First flyby, dist. of 5,995 km | USSR | 4 January 1959 |
Sun | Luna 1 | First spacecraft in heliocentric orbit | USSR | 4 January 1959 |
Moon | Luna 2 | First impact | USSR | 14 September 1959 |
Moon | Luna 3 | First image of lunar far-side | USSR | 7 October 1959 |
Earth | Discoverer 13 | First satellite recovered from orbit | USA | 11 August 1960 |
Earth | Korabl-Sputnik 2 | First living beings recovered from orbit. | USSR | 19 August 1960 |
Venus | Venera 1 | First flyby, dist. of 100,000 km (lost communication contact before) | USSR | 19 May 1961 |
Venus | Mariner 2 | First planetary flyby, dist. of 34,762 km (with communication contact) | USA | 14 December 1962 |
Mars | Mariner 4 | First Mars flyby, first planetary imaging, dist. of 9,846 km | USA | 14 July 1965 |
Moon | Luna 9 | First soft landing, first pictures from lunar surface | USSR | 31 January 1966 |
Venus | Venera 3 | First impact | USSR | 1 March 1966 |
Moon | Luna 10 | First orbiter | USSR | 3 April 1966 |
Moon | Zond 5 | First to circle the Moon and return to land on Earth First animals to circle the Moon |
USSR | 15 September 1968 |
Venus | Venera 7 | First soft landing | USSR | 1 August 1970 |
Moon | Luna 16 | First automated sample return | USSR | 24 September 1970 |
Moon | Luna 17 | First automated roving vehicle – Lunokhod 1 | USSR | 17 November 1970 |
Mars | Mariner 9 | First orbiter | USA | 14 November 1971 |
Mars | Mars 2 | First impact | USSR | 27 November 1971 |
Mars | Mars 3 | First soft landing, telemetry signal for 20 seconds before transmissions ceased |
USSR | 2 December 1971 |
Sun | Pioneer 10 | First spacecraft to reach Sun's escape velocity | USA | 3 December 1973 |
Jupiter | Pioneer 10 | First flyby, dist. of 130,000 km | USA | 3 December 1973 |
Mercury | Mariner 10 | First flyby, dist. of 703 km | USA | 29 March 1974 |
Venus | Venera 9 | First orbiter First surface-level imaging of another planet |
USSR | 22 October 1975 |
Sun | Helios 2 |
|
West Germany | 17 April 1976 |
Mars | Viking 1 | First surface-level imaging of Mars | USA | 20 July 1976 |
Saturn | Pioneer 11 | First flyby, dist. of 21,000 km | USA | 1 September 1979 |
Venus | Venera 13 | First sound record on another planet | USSR | 1 March 1982 |
Interstellar space | Pioneer 10 | First extra-solar spacecraft (disputed because only according to some definitions) | USA | 13 June 1983 |
Venus | Vega 1 | First helium balloon atmospheric probe | USSR | 11 June 1985 |
Comet Giacobini-Zinner | International Cometary Explorer (ICE) | First flyby through comet tail, dist. of 7,800 km, no pictures. | USA | 11 September 1985 |
Uranus | Voyager 2 | First flyby, dist. of 81,500 km | USA | 24 January 1986 |
Comet Halley | Vega 1 | First comet flyby with pictures returned, dist. of 8,890 km | USSR | 6 March 1986 |
Orbital Spaceplane | Buran | First fully automated orbital flight of a spaceplane (with airstrip landing) | USSR | 15 November 1988 |
Neptune | Voyager 2 | First flyby, dist. of 40,000 km | USA | 25 August 1989 |
951 Gaspra | Galileo probe | First asteroid flyby, dist. of 1,600 km | USA | 29 October 1991 |
Jupiter | Galileo probe | First impact | USA | 21 September 2003 |
Jupiter | Galileo probe | First orbiter | USA | 7 December 1995 |
Mars | Mars Pathfinder | First automated roving vehicle – Sojourner | USA | 4 July 1997 |
433 Eros | NEAR Shoemaker | First asteroid orbiter | USA | 14 February 2000 |
433 Eros | NEAR Shoemaker | First asteroid soft landing | USA | 12 February 2001 |
Saturn | Cassini orbiter | First orbiter | ESA USA |
1 July 2004 |
Solar wind | Genesis | First sample return from farther than the Moon | USA | 8 September 2004 |
Titan | Huygens probe | First soft landing | ESA USA |
14 January 2005 |
Comet Tempel 1 | Deep Impact | First comet impact | USA | 4 July 2005 |
25143 Itokawa | Hayabusa | First asteroid ascent First interplanetary escape without undercarriage cutoff |
JPN | 19 November 2005 |
81P/Wild | Stardust | First sample return from comet | USA | 15 January 2006 |
Farthest distance from Earth | Voyager 1 | At greatest distance from Earth, 17.4 billion km | USA | As of December 2010 |
Longest time in operation | Pioneer 6 | Longest operating space probe, brief contact was reestablished on 8 December 2000, after nearly 35 years in space. |
USA | As of 2005 |
Earth to Venus trajectory | IKAROS | First interplanetary solar sail | JPN | set sail on 10 June 2010 |
25143 Itokawa | Hayabusa | First sample return from asteroid | JPN | 13 June 2010 |
Mercury | MESSENGER | First orbiter | USA | 17 March 2011 |
Earth–Sun L2 Lagrangian point | Chang'e 2 | First object to reach the L2 Lagrangian point directly from lunar orbit. | China | August 25, 2011 |
International Space Station | SpaceX Dragon | First commercial spacecraft to berth with the International Space Station. | SpaceX | May 25, 2012 |
Read more about this topic: List Of Spaceflight Records
Famous quotes containing the word notable:
“Every notable advance in technique or organization has to be paid for, and in most cases the debit is more or less equivalent to the credit. Except of course when its more than equivalent, as it has been with universal education, for example, or wireless, or these damned aeroplanes. In which case, of course, your progress is a step backwards and downwards.”
—Aldous Huxley (18941963)