WildMaven’s World

Here in the U.S., we tend to be very “Americancentric”, which isn’t fair to the countries who have made great strides before us. Below, I will only show achievements that are the first of their kind, not, for example, the “first U.S. landing”.

October 4, 1957 - Sputnik 1 (U.S.S.R.) launches. Status: success.
November 3, 1957 - Sputnik 2 (U.S.S.R.) Achievement: first dog in space, Laika. The poor pooch died only hours into the trip from stress and overheating. Status: success.
January 31, 1958 - Explorer 1 (U.S.). Achievement: Discovered Earth’s radiation belt.
March 5, 1958 - Explorer 2 (U.S.) Achievement: None. Failed to achieve orbit.
March 17, 1958 - Vanguard 1 satellite (U.S.) Achievement: transmitted for 3 years.
May 15, 1958 - Sputnik 3 (U.S.S.R.)
October 11, 1958 - Pioneer 1 (U.S.) Achievement: launched the IGY space probe.
January 2, 1959 - Luna 1 (U.S.S.R.) Achievement: first solar satellite
March 3, 1959 - Pioneer 4 (U.S.)
September 12, 1959 - Luna 2 (U.S.S.R.) Achievement: first man-made object on the moon
October 4, 1959 - Luna 3 (U.S.S.R.) Achievement: obtained photos of the far side of the moon
April 1, 1960 - Tiros 1 (U.S.) Achievement: First weather satellite.
August 18, 1960 - Discoverer XIV (U.S.) spy satellite
April 12, 1961 - Vostok 1 (U.S.S.R.) Achievement: Yuri A. Gargarin becomes the first man in space.
May 5, 1961 - Mercury Freedom 7 (U.S.)
August 6, 1961 - Vostok 2 (U.S.S.R.) Achievement: first day-long space flight.
February 20, 1962 - Mercury Friendship 7 (U.S.)
May 24, 1962 - Mercury Aurora 7 (U.S.)
July 10, 1962 - Telstar 1 (U.S.) Achievement: satellite transmits first transatlantic telecast.
December 14, 1962 - U.S. Mariner 2 (U.S.) Achievement: first to fly past Venus.
June 16, 1963 - Vostok 6 (U.S.S.R.) Achievement: Valentia Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space (orbits 48 times).
July 31, 1964 - U.S. Ranger 7 (U.S.) Achievement: first close-range Moon photos.
March 8, 1965 - Soviet Voskhod 2 (U.S.S.R.) Achievement: Alexei A. Leonov becomes the first to walk in space.
March 23, 1965 - Gemini 3 (U.S.)
March 24, 1965 - Ranger 9 (U.S.) Achievement: spectacular Moon photos.
June 3, 1965 - Gemini 4 (U.S.)
July 14, 1965 - Mariner 4 (U.S.) Achievement: first close-range images about Mars.
November 16, 1965 - Venus 3 (U.S.S.R.) Achievement: first craft to impact Venus
December 4, 1965 - Gemini 7 (U.S.) Achievement: Makes 206 Earth orbits
December 15, 1965 - Gemini 6 and 7: Achievement: Gemini 6 rendezvous with Gemini 7.
February 3, 1966 - Luna 9, (U.S.S.R.) Achievement: first spacecraft to “soft-land” on the Moon.
March 1, 1966 - Venera 3 (U.S.S.R.) Achievement: first spacecraft to reach another planet (Venus).
March, 1966 - Luna 10 (U.S.S.R.) Achievement: first spacecraft to orbit the Moon.
August 14, 1966 - Lunar Orbiter 1 (U.S.) Achievement: enters first picture of the Earth from the Moon.
April 23, 1967 - Soyuz 1 (U.S.S.R.) Failure: Vladimir M. Komarov becomes the first human fatality.
October 18, 1967 - Venera 4 (U.S.S.R.) Achievement: sends data about the composition of Venus.
September 15, 1968 - Zond 5 (U.S.S.R.) Achievement: first spacecraft to orbit the Moon and return.
October 11, 1968 - Apollo 7 (U.S.) Achievement: one Earth orbit.
December 21, 1968 - Apollo 8 (U.S.) Achievement: first manned spacecraft to orbit the Moon.
January, 1969 - Soyuz 4 and 5 (U.S.S.R.) Achievement: spaceship docking, transfer Cosmonauts between ships.
July 20, 1969 - Apollo 11 (U.S.) Achievement: Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, Jr. become the first to make a soft landing and walk on the Moon.
July 31, 1969 - Mariner 6 (U.S.) Achievement: high-resolution images of
August 5, 1969 - Mariner 7 (U.S.) Achievement: more high-res images of Mars
April 11, 1970 - Apollo 13 (U.S.) Failure: an explosion in the oxygen tanks forces the crew, James A. Lovell, Jr., John L. Swigert, Jr. and Fred W. Haise, Jr., to return.
September 12, 1970 - Luna 16 (U.S.S.R.) Achievement: first lunar soil samples
November 17, 1970 - Luna 17 (U.S.S.R.) Achievement: first automatic robot to travel on the Moon
December 15, 1970 - Venera 7 (U.S.S.R.) Achievement: first probe to soft-land on Venus.
January 31, 1971 - Apollo 14 (U.S.) Achievement: first use of a two-wheeled cart to collect samples. Shepard becomes the first man to hit a golf ball on the Moon.
April 19, 1971 - Salyut 1 space station (U.S.S.R.) Achievement: first space station.
May 30, 1971 - Mariner 9 (U.S.) Achievement: first spacecraft to survey Mars from orbit.
June 6, 1971 - Soyuz 11 (U.S.S.R.) Achievement: Cosmonauts G.T. Dobrovolsky, V.N. Volkov, and V.I. Patsayev enter Salyut 1 and which becomes the first manned station. Failure: All die, however, when they try to return to Earth.
July 30, 1971 - Apollo 15 (U.S.) Achievement: first moon rover.
November 13, 1971 - Mariner 9 (U.S.) Achievement: first spacecraft to orbit Mars.
March 2, 1972 - Pioneer 10 (U.S.) Achievement: first close-up images of Jupiter.
July 15, 1972 - Pioneer 10 (U.S.) Achievement: first to travel through the asteroid belt.
April 5, 1973 - Pioneer 11 (U.S.) Achievement: discovers new rings on Saturn.
May 14, 1973 - Skylab (U.S.)
May 25, 1973 - Skylab 2 (U.S.) Achievement: repairs damage to Skylab.
November 3, 1973 - Mariner 10 (U.S.) Achievement: first dual-planet mission. Photographs Venus and Mercury.
June 24, 1974 - Salyut 3 (U.S.S.R.) space station (military)
December 26, 1974 - Salyut 4 (U.S.S.R.) space station (civilian
July, 1975 - Apollo 18 (U.S.) and Soyuz 19 (U.S.S.R.) Achievement: first international spacecraft rendezvous.
October, 1975 - Venera 9 and 10 (U.S.S.R.) Achievement: first pictures of Venus.
June 22, 1976 - Salyut 5 (U.S.S.R.) space station (military)
July 20, 1976 - Viking 1 (U.S.)
September 3, 1976 - Viking 2 (U.S.) Achievement: discovery of water frost on Mars.
August 1977 - Voyagers 1 and 2 (U.S.) Mission: Jupiter in 1979 and Saturn in 1980.
September 29, 1977 - Salyut 6 (U.S.S.R.) Achievement: First international crew
September 1, 1979 - Pioneer 11 (U.S.) Achievement: first close-up photographs of Saturn.
April 12, 1981 - Space Shuttle Columbia (U.S.)
March 1, 1982 - Venera 13 (U.S.S.R.) Achievement: first soil samples of Venus.
April 19, 1982 - Salyut 7 (U.S.S.R.) space station.
April 4, 1983 - Space shuttle Challenger (U.S.)
October 10, 1983 - Venera 15 (U.S.S.R.) Achievement: first high-res images of the Venus polar area.
November 28, 1983 - Space shuttle Columbia (U.S.) Achievement: puts Spacelab-1 into orbit.
February 3, 1984 - Space shuttle Challenger STS-14B (U.S.) Bruce McCandless becomes the first to take an untethered space walk in space.
July 17, 1984 - Soyuz-T 12 (U.S.S.R.) Achievement: Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to walk in space.
August 30, 1984 - Space shuttle Discovery (U.S.) Achievement: maiden voyage
October 5, 1984 - Space Shuttle Challenger STS-41G (U.S.) Achievement: first crew with two women aboard
December, 1984 - Vega 1 and 2 (U.S.S.R./International) Achievement: dropped probes to test the atmosphere on Venus.
January 8, 1985 - The Sakigake probe (Japan) Achievement: first interplanetary probe.
April 29, 1985 - Space Shuttle Challenger STS-51B (U.S.) Achievement: carries Spacelab-3 into orbit.
July 2, 1985 - Giotto spacecraft (European Space Agency - ESA) Mission: comet exploration.
October 3, 1985 - Space Shuttle Atlantis (U.S.) Achievement: maiden voyage.
October 1985 - Spacelab D1 Achievement: the first joint German/ESA mission
January 28, 1986 - Space shuttle Challenger STS-51L (U.S.) Failure: explodes shortly after liftoff, killing all onboard.

After the Challenger disaster, many started to question the necessity of the space program. Years later, the space program still struggles to regain the glory of the past.