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This is a timeline of achievements in Soviet and United States spaceflight, spanning the Cold War era of nationalistic competition known as the Space Race.
This list is limited to first achievements by the USSR and USA which were important during the Space Race in terms of public perception and/or technical innovation. This excludes first uses of specific on-board equipment and new scientific discoveries, or achievements by other countries.
Date | Country | Achievement | Mission / Vehicle |
---|---|---|---|
1955 July 29 | ![]() | The United States announces their intention to launch an artificial satellite [1] during the International Geophysical Year (1 July 1957 to 31 December 1958). | / |
1955 August 30 | ![]() | In the Soviet Union, the commission approved launching a 1 ton satellite using the R-7 ICBM. [1] | / |
Date | Country | Achievement | Mission / Vehicle |
---|---|---|---|
1957 August 21 | ![]() | First intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM); fully operational September 1957 | R-7 Semyorka |
1957 October 4 | ![]() | First artificial satellite First man-made signals from orbit | Sputnik 1 |
1957 November 3 | ![]() | First mammal (the dog Laika) in orbit around Earth. | Sputnik 2 |
1958 March 17 | ![]() | First solar-powered satellite | Vanguard 1 |
1959 January 2 | ![]() | First lunar spacecraft (fly-by) First rocket engine restart in Earth orbit First spacecraft to leave Earth's orbit First spacecraft on an escape trajectory from Earth | Luna 1 |
1959 January 4 | ![]() | First spacecraft in heliocentric orbit | Luna 1 |
1959 February 28 | ![]() | First satellite in a polar orbit | Discoverer 1 |
1959 August 7 | ![]() | First photograph of Earth from orbit | Explorer 6 |
1959 September 14 | ![]() | First hard landing on another celestial body (the Moon) | Luna 2 |
1959 October 7 | ![]() | First three-axis stabilised spacecraft First photos of far side of the Moon, covering 70% of the surface invisible from Earth First automated on board development of photographic film and conversion to radio signals First gravity assist ('sling shot'), returning the spacecraft to Earth to retrieve the photos | Luna 3 |
Date | Country | Achievement | Mission / Vehicle |
---|---|---|---|
1960 August 11 | ![]() | First satellite recovered intact from orbit | Discoverer 13 |
1960 August 18 | ![]() | First spy photography from space First aerial recovery of an object (the film) returning from Earth orbit | Discoverer 14 |
1960 August 19 | ![]() | First animals and plants returned alive from space (the dogs Belka and Strelka) First capsule recovered from orbit | Korabl-Sputnik 2 (aka Sputnik 5) |
1961 January 31 | ![]() | First great ape or Hominidae in space, Ham, a chimpanzee | Mercury-Redstone 2 |
1961 February 12 | ![]() | First launch from Earth orbit of upper stage into a heliocentric orbit First mid-course corrections First spin-stabilisation | Venera 1 |
1961 April 12 | ![]() | First human spaceflight mission (Yuri Gagarin) [2] First orbital flight of a manned vehicle | Vostok 1 |
1961 May 5 | ![]() | First pilot-controlled space flight (Alan Shepard) | Freedom 7 |
1961 May 19 | ![]() | First planetary flyby (Venus), although contact was lost | Venera 1 |
1961 August 6 | ![]() | First crewed mission lasting a full day (Gherman Titov). | Vostok 2 |
1962 August 12 | ![]() | First dual crewed spaceflight (Andriyan Nikolayev and Pavel Popovich) First spacecraft-to-spacecraft radio contact First simultaneous flight of crewed spacecraft. First person to float freely in microgravity. | Vostok 3 / Vostok 4 |
1962 December 14 | ![]() | First successful planetary flyby mission (Venus). | Mariner 2 |
1963 June 16 | ![]() | First woman in space (Valentina Tereshkova) First civilian in space | Vostok 6 |
1963 June 19 | ![]() | First Mars flyby, although contact was lost | Mars 1 |
1963 July 19 | ![]() | First reusable piloted spacecraft First spaceplane (suborbital) | X-15 Flight 90 |
1963 July 26 | ![]() | First geosynchronous satellite | Syncom 2 |
1964 August 19 | ![]() | First geostationary satellite | Syncom 3 |
1964 October 12 | ![]() | First spaceflight to carry more than one crewman into orbit (3) | Voskhod 1 |
1965 March 18 | ![]() | First extra-vehicular activity ("space walk") | Voskhod 2 |
1965 March 23 | ![]() | First piloted spacecraft orbit change | Gemini 3 |
1965 July 14 | ![]() | First successful Mars flyby mission | Mariner 4 |
1965 December 15 | ![]() | First rendezvous of manned spacecraft | Gemini 6A & Gemini 7 |
1966 February 3 | ![]() | First soft landing on another celestial body (the Moon) First photos from another celestial body | Luna 9 |
1966 March 1 | ![]() | First hard landing on another planet (Venus) | Venera 3 |
1966 March 16 | ![]() | First spacecraft docking | Gemini 8 / ATV |
1966 April 3 | ![]() | First artificial satellite to orbit another celestial body (the Moon) | Luna 10 |
1966 September 12 | ![]() | First direct-ascent (first orbit) rendezvous | Gemini 11 / ATV |
1967 October 18 | ![]() | First in situ analysis of the atmosphere of another planet (Venus) | Venera 4 |
1967 October 30 | ![]() | First docking of two remote-controlled spacecraft | Cosmos 186 / Cosmos 188 |
1968 September 14–21 | ![]() | First return to Earth after circling the Moon First life forms to circle the Moon (returned safely) | Zond 5 |
1968 December 21 | ![]() | First return to Earth after orbiting the Moon First human spaceflight mission to enter the gravitational influence of another celestial body | Apollo 8 |
1969 January | ![]() | First parachute to be deployed on another planet (Venus) | Venera 5 |
1969 January 16 | ![]() | First crew exchange in space First docking of two manned spacecraft | Soyuz 4 / |
1969 July 20 | ![]() | First humans on the Moon First space launch from another celestial body First sample return from the Moon | Apollo 11 |
1969 November 19 | ![]() | First precisely targeted piloted landing on the Moon (Surveyor 3 site) | Apollo 12 |
Date | Country | Achievement | Mission / Vehicle |
---|---|---|---|
1970 September 24 | ![]() | First robotic automatic sample return from another celestial body (the Moon) | Luna 16 |
1970 November 23 | ![]() | First lunar rover (remote-controlled) First rover on another celestial body (the Moon) | Lunokhod 1 |
1970 December 15 | ![]() | First soft landing on another planet (Venus) First signals from another planet | Venera 7 |
1971 April 19 | ![]() | First human-crewed space station launched | Salyut 1 |
1971 June 29 | ![]() | First human-crewed orbital observatory (Orion 1) | Soyuz 11 / Salyut 1 |
1971 July 31 | ![]() | First human-driven lunar rover, the Lunar Roving Vehicle | Apollo 15 |
1971 November 14 | ![]() | First spacecraft to orbit Mars | Mariner 9 |
1971 November 27 | ![]() | First hard landing on Mars | Mars 2 |
1971 December 2 | ![]() | First soft Mars landing First signals from Mars surface | Mars 3 |
1972 March 3 | ![]() | First spacecraft sent on escape trajectory away from the Sun | Pioneer 10 |
1972 July 15 | ![]() | First mission to enter the asteroid belt and leave inner Solar System | Pioneer 10 |
1973 December 3 | ![]() | First Jupiter flyby | Pioneer 10 |
1974 March 29 | ![]() | First Mercury flyby | Mariner 10 |
1975 July 15 | ![]() ![]() | First multinational human-crewed mission [lower-alpha 1] | Soyuz 19 Apollo–Soyuz Test Project |
1975 October 20 | ![]() | First spacecraft to orbit Venus (the orbiter) First view and clear photograph from and of the surface of another planet (the lander) | Venera 9 |
1979 September 1 | ![]() | First Saturn flyby | Pioneer 11 |
Date | Country | Achievement | Mission / Vehicle |
---|---|---|---|
1981 April 12 | ![]() | First spaceplane in orbit, the Space Shuttle (test flight) | STS-1 |
1984 February 7 | ![]() | First untethered spacewalk, Bruce McCandless II | STS-41-B |
1985 June 11 | ![]() | First aerostat balloon in the atmosphere of Venus | Vega 1 probe |
1986 January 24 | ![]() | First Uranus flyby | Voyager 2 |
1986 February 19 | ![]() | First module of the first modular space station launched, marking the start of the orbital assembly | Mir Core Module |
1989 August 25 | ![]() | First Neptune flyby | Voyager 2 |
1990 February 11 | ![]() | First consistently inhabited long-term research space station | Mir |
On 1991 December 31, the United Nations accepted the dissolution of the USSR, which meant the end of the space race.
Sputnik 1 was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program. It sent a radio signal back to Earth for three weeks before its three silver-zinc batteries became depleted. Aerodynamic drag caused it to fall back into the atmosphere on 4 January 1958. The world's first observation was made at the school observatory in Rodewisch (Saxony).
Vostok 1 was the first spaceflight of the Vostok programme and the first human orbital spaceflight in history. The Vostok 3KA space capsule was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 12 April 1961, with Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin aboard, making him the first human to reach orbital velocity around the Earth and to complete a full orbit around the Earth.
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who, aboard the first successful crewed spaceflight, became the first human to journey into outer space. Travelling on Vostok 1, Gagarin completed one orbit of Earth on 12 April 1961, with his flight taking 108 minutes. By achieving this major milestone for the Soviet Union amidst the Space Race, he became an international celebrity and was awarded many medals and titles, including the nation's highest distinction: Hero of the Soviet Union.
Luna 1, also known as Mechta, E-1 No.4 and First Lunar Rover, was the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of Earth's Moon, the first spacecraft to leave Earth's orbit, and the first to be placed in heliocentric orbit. Intended as a Moon impactor, Luna 1 was launched as part of the Soviet Luna programme in 1959.
The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the two nations following World War II and had its peak with the more particular Moon Race to land on the Moon between the US moonshot and Soviet moonshot programs. The technological advantage demonstrated by spaceflight achievement was seen as necessary for national security and became part of the symbolism and ideology of the time. The Space Race brought pioneering launches of artificial satellites, robotic space probes to the Moon, Venus, and Mars, and human spaceflight in low Earth orbit and ultimately to the Moon.
Sergei Pavlovich Korolev was the lead Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer during the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1950s and 1960s. He invented the R-7 Rocket, Sputnik 1, and was involved in the launching of Laika, Sputnik 3, the first human-made object to make contact with another celestial body, Belka and Strelka, the first human being, Yuri Gagarin, into space, Voskhod 1, and the first person, Alexei Leonov, to conduct a spacewalk.
Soyuz 1 was a crewed spaceflight of the Soviet space program. Launched into orbit on 23 April 1967 carrying cosmonaut colonel Vladimir Komarov, Soyuz 1 was the first crewed flight of the Soyuz spacecraft. The flight was plagued with technical issues, and Komarov was killed when the descent module crashed into the ground due to a parachute failure. This was the first in-flight fatality in the history of spaceflight.
Luna 15 was a robotic space mission of the Soviet Luna programme, that was in lunar orbit together with the Apollo 11 Command module Columbia.
Luna 23 was an uncrewed space mission of the Luna program developed by the Soviet Union.
Zond 5 was a spacecraft of the Soviet Zond program. In September 1968 it became the first spaceship to travel to and circle the Moon in a circumlunar trajectory, the first Moon mission to include animals, and the first to return safely to Earth. Zond 5 carried the first terrestrial organisms to the vicinity of the Moon, including two tortoises, fruit fly eggs, and plants. The Russian tortoises underwent biological changes during the flight, but it was concluded that the changes were primarily due to starvation and that they were little affected by space travel.
The Zond 7 spacecraft, part of the Soviet Zond program, was launched towards the Moon on a Proton-K D rocket on August 7, 1969. Its mission was to support studies of the Moon and circumlunar space, to obtain color photography of Earth and the Moon from varying distances, and to flight test the spacecraft systems. It was an unpiloted version of the Soyuz 7K-L1, a crewed Moon-flyby spacecraft.
Venera 3 was a Venera program space probe that was built and launched by the Soviet Union to explore the surface of Venus. It was launched on 16 November 1965 at 04:19 UTC from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, USSR. The probe comprised an entry probe, designed to enter the Venus atmosphere and parachute to the surface, and a carrier/flyby spacecraft, which carried the entry probe to Venus and also served as a communications relay for the entry probe.
The Vostok programme was a Soviet human spaceflight project to put the first Soviet cosmonauts into low Earth orbit and return them safely. Competing with the United States Project Mercury, it succeeded in placing the first human into space, Yuri Gagarin, in a single orbit in Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961. The Vostok capsule was developed from the Zenit spy satellite project, and its launch vehicle was adapted from the existing R-7 Semyorka intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) design. The name "Vostok" was treated as classified information until Gagarin's flight was first publicly disclosed to the world press.
Sputnik 3 was a Soviet satellite launched on 15 May 1958 from Baikonur Cosmodrome by a modified R-7/SS-6 ICBM. The scientific satellite carried a large array of instruments for geophysical research of the upper atmosphere and near space.
The Space Age is a period encompassing the activities related to the space race, space exploration, space technology, and the cultural developments influenced by these events, beginning with the launch of Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957, and continuing to the present.
The Soviet space program was the state space program of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), active from 1955 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Contrary to its American, European, and Chinese competitors, which had their programs run under single coordinating agencies, the Soviet space program was divided between several internally competing design bureaus led by Korolev, Kerimov, Keldysh, Yangel, Glushko, Chelomey, Makeyev, Chertok and Reshetnev. Several of these bureaus were subordinated to the Ministry of General Machine-Building. The Soviet space program served as an important marker of claims by the Soviet Union to its superpower status.
The Soviet crewed lunar programs were a series of programs pursued by the Soviet Union to land humans on the Moon, in competition with the United States Apollo program. The Soviet government publicly denied participating in such a competition, but secretly pursued two programs in the 1960s: crewed lunar flyby missions using Soyuz 7K-L1 (Zond) spacecraft launched with the Proton-K rocket, and a crewed lunar landing using Soyuz 7K-LOK and LK spacecraft launched with the N1 rocket. Following the dual American successes of the first crewed lunar orbit on 24–25 December 1968 and the first Moon landing on July 20, 1969, and a series of catastrophic N1 failures, both Soviet programs were eventually brought to an end. The Proton-based Zond program was canceled in 1970, and the N1-L3 program was de facto terminated in 1974 and officially canceled in 1976. Details of both Soviet programs were kept secret until 1990 when the government allowed them to be published under the policy of glasnost.
Asif Azam Siddiqi is a Bangladeshi American space historian and a Guggenheim Fellowship winner. He is a professor of history at Fordham University. He specializes in the history of science and technology and modern Russian history. He has written several books on the history of space exploration.
Boris Yevseyevich Chertok was a Russian engineer in the former Soviet space program, mainly working in control systems, and later found employment in Roscosmos.
Leonid Alexandrovich Voskresensky was a Soviet engineer in the Soviet space program, and long-time associate of Chief Designer Sergei Korolev. He served as launch director for Sputnik and for the first crewed space flight, Vostok 1. The lunar crater Voskresenskiy is named in his honor.