AIA | A Celebration of 50 Years of America in Space

	Timeline of American Space History: 50 Milestones
	Remembering Those Who Have Been Lost
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Timeline of American Space History

For many of us, it's hard to imagine lifestyles from 50 years ago — 2008 marks the 50th anniversary of the United States in space. Investments made by the United States in civil and military space programs have been an impetus for our unrivaled global technological and economic advances over the last five decades. Continuing our commitment to remain the world leader in space is essential to maintaining our cutting edge in education, discovery, and innovation. In honor of these 50 years we have selected 50 space milestones by the United States.

	March 16, 1926 Robert H. Goddard flies first successful liquid-fueled rocket.
	January 31, 1958 Explorer 1 becomes the first U.S. satellite to orbit around the Earth, discovering the Van Allen Radiation Belt.
	October 1, 1958 NASA is born.
	May 28, 1959 A Jupiter rocket launches Able, a rhesus monkey, and Miss Baker, a squirrel monkey, to become the first living beings to successfully return to Earth after traveling in space on a suborbital flight.
	September 8, 1959 Atlas, the first U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile, becomes operational in the U.S. Air Force.
	September 17, 1959 First flight of North American X-15 hypersonic research aircraft. The series of X-15 research flights set ultimate records for speed and altitude, pioneering the way for NASA's manned space program.
	April 1, 1960 Tiros1, the first weather satellite, is launched by the U.S.
	August 12, 1960 NASA launches the first Delta I rocket, built by Douglas Aircraft. It boosted Echo I, first passive communications satellite, into space.
	August 18, 1960 U.S. launches its first successful reconnaissance satellite, Discoverer, as part of the Corona project.
	May 5, 1961 Alan Shepard makes a suborbital flight to become the first American in space.
	May 25, 1961 President John F. Kennedy's Speech announcing the U.S. decision to go to the Moon before a Joint Session of Congress.
	February 20, 1962 John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the earth to begin the series of orbital flights of NASA's Project Mercury.
	July 10, 1962 Telstar 1, the first commercial satellite designed to transmit television and data communications, is launched. Telstar 1 was developed by AT & T, which NASA agreed to launch on a cost reimbursable basis.
	December 14, 1962 NASA's Mariner 2 spacecraft visits the planet Venus. It was the first spacecraft to encounter another planet.
	June 3, 1965 Ed White is the first American to walk in space, spending 22 minutes outside his Gemini 4 spacecraft as it passed over North America. Crew: James McDivitt, Edward White.
	December 4-18, 1965 Gemini 7/Gemini 6A missions. Gemini 7 spends a two week marathon in orbit and is visited by Gemini 6A which flies within a two feet of Gemini 7. These missions demonstrated people could withstand weightlessness for the duration of a trip to the moon and the first ever space rendezvous. Crews: Frank Borman, James Lovell, Wally Schirra, Thomas Stafford.
	August 14, 1966 Lunar Orbiter I is the first U.S. spacecraft to orbit the Moon.
	April 25, 1967 The U.S. Senate ratifies the Outer Space Treaty banning nations from placing nuclear weapons or any other weapons of mass destruction in orbit of Earth, installing them on the Moon or any other celestial body, or to otherwise station them in outer space. The treaty also exclusively limits the use of the Moon and other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes.
	December 24, 1968 Apollo 8 makes ten orbits around the moon. The famous Earthrise photo is taken and the astronauts spontaneously read from Genesis to the world. Crew: Frank Borman, James Lovell, Bill Anders.
	July 20, 1969 Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to walk on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission. As he steps onto the surface of the moon he says "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. Crew: Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Michael Collins.
	April 11, 1970 Apollo 13 suffers an oxygen tank explosion losing fuel, air, water, and power. While they do not land on the moon, the crew returns safely to the Earth. Crew: James Lovell, Fred Haise, Jack Swigert.
	November 15, 1971 Intel team led by Marcian E. (Ted) Hoff develops the first microprocessor, the Intel 4004. TRW installed the 4004 on the Pioneer 10 spacecraft, launched on March 3, 1972.
	July 23, 1972 NASA launches America's first environmental sensing satellite, Landsat 1, aboard a Delta rocket.
	December 3, 1973 Pioneer 10 takes first close up pictures of Jupiter.
	March 29, 1974 Mariner 10 becomes the first spacecraft to fly past the planet Mercury.
	July 17, 1975 A U.S. Apollo spacecraft and a Soyuz spacecraft (of the U.S.S.R.) join in orbit over the Atlantic Ocean. Crews: Tom Stafford, Deke Slayton, Vance Brand, Aleksei Leonov, Valeri Kubasov.
	July 20, 1976 Viking 1 Lander is the first spacecraft from Earth to land on Mars. Viking 2 Lander followed on September 3, 1976. Each mission consisted of a Viking Orbiter and a Viking Lander.
	February 22, 1978 Launch of first satellite in the initial NAVSTAR Global Positioning System (GPS). All 24 second-generation GPS satellites were in orbit by March 1994.
	December 9, 1978 Pioneer Venus 2 space probes reach Venus, dropping four probes to the planet's surface.
	April 12, 1981 The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, is launched. Crew: John Young, Robert Crippen.
	November 11, 1982 Space Shuttle Columbia deploys two commercial communications satellites. Crew: Vance Brand, Joseph Allen, Robert Overmyer, William Lenior.
	June 13, 1983 Pioneer 10 passes the orbit of Neptune and becomes the first human made object to leave the solar system.
	June 19, 1983 Sally Ride becomes first American woman to fly in space. Crew: Robert Crippen, Frederick Hauck, John Fabian, Sally Ride, Norman Thagard.
	October 5, 1984 Kathryn Sullivan becomes the first American woman to walk in Space. Crew: Robert Crippen, Jon McBride, Kathryn Sullivan, Sally Ride, David Leestma, Marc Garneau, Paul Scully-Power.
	January 24, 1986 Voyager 2 visits its third planet during its flyby of Uranus.
	August 25, 1989 Voyager 2 visits its fourth planet during its flyby of Neptune.
	April 24, 1990 Space Shuttle Discovery launches to deploy the Hubble Space Telescope. Crew: Loren Shriver, Charles Bolden, Steven Hawley, Bruce McCandless, Kathryn Sullivan.
	December 2, 1993 Space Shuttle Endeavour conducts first service on the Hubble Space Telescope. Crew: Richard Covey, Kenneth Bowersox, Story Musgrave, Kathryn Thornton, Claude Nicollier, Jeffrey Hoffman, Thomas D. Akers.
	June 29, 1995 Twenty years after the Apollo-Soyuz flight allows an U.S./U.S.S.R. handshake in space, the Space Shuttle Atlantis makes the first U.S. rendezvous with Russian Space Station Mir. Crew: Robert Gibson, Charles Precourt, Ellen Baker, Bonnie Dunbar, Gregory Harbaugh. Flight from Earth to Mir: Anatoly Solovyev, Nikolai Budarin. Flight from Mir to Earth: Norm Thagard, Vladmir Dezhurov, Gennady Strekalov.
	July 4, 1997 The Mars Pathfinder successfully lands on the Mars surface. This is the first probe to land on Mars since Viking 2.
	October 29, 1998 Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off with John Glenn aboard. Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, now becomes the oldest man to fly in space at the age of 77. Crew: Curtis Brown, Steven Lindsey, Stephen Robinson, Scott Parazynski, Pedro Duque, Chiaki Mukai, John Glenn.
	December 4, 1998 Space Shuttle Endeavor makes first assembly trip to the International Space Station. Crew: Robert Cabana, Frederick Sturckow, Nancie Currie, Jerry Ross, James Newman, Sergei Krikalev.
	May 1, 2000 GPS Selective Availability is switched off allowing the world to take advantage of precise GPS signals.
	November 2, 2000 Start of first manned expedition to the International Space Station and the beginning of the permanent presence of humans in space. Crew: William Shepard, Yuri Gidzenko, Sergei Krikalev.
	January 4, 2004 The Mars Rover Spirit lands in Gusev crater followed by the Rover Opportunity landing in the Meridiani Planum on the opposite side of Mars from Spirit, on January 25, 2004.
	January 14, 2004 President Bush proposes a new vision for space exploration, to return to the Moon and then to travel to Mars and beyond.
	June 21, 2004 SpaceShipOne completes the first privately funded human spaceflight. It goes on to win the X Prize on October 4.
	July 1, 2004 The Cassini–Huygens joint NASA/European Space Agency (ESA) mission reaches the planet Saturn. While the NASA Cassini spacecraft orbits Saturn, the ESA Huygens probe lands on Saturn's moon Titan on January 14, 2005.
	January 19, 2006 New Horizons probe was launched and will arrive at Pluto in July 2015.
	August 8, 2007 Space Shuttle Endeavour launches teacher Barbara Morgan into space. Crew: Scott Kelly, Charlie Hobaugh, Tracy Caldwell, Rick Mastracchio, Dave Williams, Barbara Morgan, Benjamin Drew.

Images courtesy of NASA.