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1942-1975

Date	First Success	Country	Mission Name
1944	Rocket to reach 100km (boundary to space)	Nazi Germany	V2 rocket, military program
July 1946	Animals in space (fruit flies)	USA-ABMA	V2
October 10, 1946	First pictures of earth from 100 km	USA at WSMR	V2
August 21, 1957	Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)	USSR	R-7 Semyorka/SS-6 Sapwood
October 4, 1957	Artificial satellite Signals from space	USSR	Sputnik 1
November 3, 1957	First animal in orbit, the dog Laika	USSR	Sputnik 2
January 31, 1958	Detection of Van Allen belts	USA-ABMA	Explorer I
December 18, 1958	Communications satellite	USA-ABMA	Project SCORE
January 2, 1959	Firing of a rocket in Earth orbit Reaching escape velocity Detection of solar wind	USSR	Luna 1
January 4, 1959	Orbit around the Sun	USSR	Luna 1
February 17, 1959	Weather satellite	USA-NASA (NRL)	Vanguard 2
August 7, 1959	Photo of Earth from space	USA-NASA	Explorer 6
September 13, 1959	Landing on another world (the Moon)	USSR	Luna 2
October 4, 1959	Photos of far side of the Moon	USSR	Luna 3
August 18, 1960	Reconnaissance satellite	USA-Air Force	KH-1 9009
1961	Launch from orbit Mid-course corrections Spin-stabilisation Venus fly-by	USSR	Venera 1
April 12, 1961	Human in space Human in orbit	USSR	Vostok 1
November 1, 1962	Mars flyby	USSR	Mars 1
June 16, 1963	Woman in space	USSR	Vostok 6
July 19, 1963	Reusable Manned Spacecraft (suborbital)	USA-NASA	X-15 Flight 90
October 12, 1964	Multi-man crew (3)	USSR	Voskhod 1
March 18, 1965	Extra-vehicular activity	USSR	Voskhod 2
April 6, 1965	Commercial communications satellite	Intelsat	Intelsat 1
December 15, 1965	Orbital rendezvous (parallel flight, no docking)	USA-NASA	Gemini 6A/Gemini 7
February 3, 1966	Soft landing on another world (the Moon) Photos from another world	USSR	Luna 9
March 1, 1966	Landing on another planet (Venus)	USSR	Venera 3
April 3, 1966	Artificial satellite around another world (the Moon)	USSR	Luna 10
April 23, 1967	Spaceflight casualty	USSR	Soyuz 1
October 30, 1967	Unmanned rendezvous with docking	USSR	Cosmos 186/Cosmos 188
January 16, 1969	Manned docking and exchange of crew	USSR	Soyuz 4/Soyuz 5
July 21, 1969	Human on the Moon	USA-NASA	Apollo 11
September 24, 1970	Automatic sample return from the Moon	USSR	Luna 16
November 23, 1970	Lunar rover	USSR	Lunokhod 1
December 15, 1970	Soft landing on another planet (Venus) Signals from another planet	USSR	Venera 7
April 23, 1971	Space station	USSR	Salyut 1
December 1971	Orbit around Mars	USSR	Mars 2
November 27, 1971	Mars landing	USSR	Mars 2
December 2, 1971	Soft Mars landing signals from Mars surface	USSR	Mars 2
July 15, 1975	Multinational manned mission	USSR USA-NASA	Apollo-Soyuz Test Project
October 20, 1975	Orbit around another planet (Venus)	USSR	Venera 9
October 22, 1975	Photos from the surface of another planet (Venus)	USSR	Venera 9

Project Vanguard was transferred from the NRL to NASA immediately before launch.

Post-1975

Date	First Success	Country	Mission Name
March 2 1978	Non-American and non-Soviet in space	USSR Czechoslovakia	Soyuz 28
April 12 1981	Reusable manned spacecraft (orbital)	USA-NASA	Columbia
March 1 1982	Venus soil samples & sound recording of another world	USSR	Venera 13
June 13 1983	Spacecraft beyond the orbit of Neptune	USA-NASA	Pioneer 10
July 25 1984	Extra-vehicular activity by a woman	USSR	Salyut 7
December 2 1990	Commercial manned-spaceflight	USSR Japan	Soyuz TM-11
July 7 1998	Submarine-launched spacecraft	Russia	K-407
April 28 2001	Space tourist	Russia USA	Soyuz TM-32
October 15 2003	Third nation to achieve manned spaceflight	China	Shenzhou 5
June 21 2004	Private human spaceflight / spacecraft (suborbital)	USA-MAV	SpaceShipOne 15P

In addition, virtually all manned duration records have been set by the USSR, due largely to their Salyut/Mir series of space stations.

• Space exploration