Records and firsts in spaceflight are broadly divided into crewed and uncrewed categories. Records involving animal spaceflight have also been noted in earlier experimental flights, typically to establish the feasibility of sending humans to outer space.
The notion of "firsts" in spaceflight follows a long tradition of firsts in aviation, but is also closely tied to the Space Race. During the 1950s and 1960s, the Soviet Union and the United States competed to be the first countries to accomplish various feats. In 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial orbital satellite. In 1961, Soviet Vostok 1 cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to enter space and orbit the Earth, and in 1969 American Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the Moon. No human has traveled beyond low Earth orbit since 1972, when the Apollo program ended.
During the 1970s, the Soviet Union directed its energies to human habitation of space stations of increasingly long durations. In the 1980s, the United States began launching its Space Shuttles, which carried larger crews and thus could increase the number of people in space at a given time. Following their first mission of détente on the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the Soviet Union and the United States again collaborated with each other on the Shuttle-Mir initiative, efforts which led to the International Space Station (ISS), which has been continuously inhabited by humans for over 20 years.
Other firsts in spaceflight involve demographics, private enterprise, and distance. Dozens of countries have sent at least one traveler to space. In 1963, Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space, aboard Vostok 6. In the early 21st century, private companies joined government agencies in crewed spaceflight: in 2004, the sub-orbital spaceplane SpaceShipOne became the first privately funded crewed craft to enter space; in 2020, SpaceX's Dragon 2 became the first privately developed crewed vehicle to reach orbit when it ferried a crew to the ISS. As of, the uncrewed probe Voyager 1 is the most distant artificial object from the Earth, part of a small class of vehicles that are leaving the Solar System.
| Country | Mission | Crew | Spacecraft | Launch vehicle | Date | Type | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| USSR[1] | Vostok 1 | Yuri Gagarin | Vostok 3KA | Vostok-K | 12 April 1961 | Orbital | |
| USA[2] | Mercury-Redstone 3 (Freedom 7) | Alan Shepard | Mercury Spacecraft No.7 | Mercury-Redstone | 5 May 1961 | Sub-orbital | |
| USA[3] | Mercury-Atlas 6 (Friendship 7) | John Glenn | Mercury Spacecraft No.13 | Atlas LV-3B | 20 February 1962 | Orbital | |
| USSR | Soyuz 18A | Vasily Lazarev, Oleg Makarov | Soyuz 7K-T | Soyuz 11A511 | 5 April 1975 | Sub-orbital | |
| Russia | Soyuz TM-14 | Aleksandr Viktorenko, Aleksandr Kaleri, Klaus-Dietrich Flade | Soyuz-TM | Soyuz-U2 | 17 March 1992 | Orbital | |
| China[4] | Shenzhou 5 | Yang Liwei | Shenzhou spacecraft | Long March 2F | 15 October 2003 | Orbital |
Note: Some space records are disputed as a result of ambiguities surrounding the border of space. Most records follow the FAI definition of the space border which the FAI sets at an altitude of 100 km (62.14 mi). By contrast, US agencies define the border of space at 50 mi (80.47 km).
| First | Person(s) | Mission | Country | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vostok 1[5] | USSR | 12 April 1961 | |||
| Alan Shepard | Freedom 7 | USA | 5 May 1961 | ||
| Gherman Titov | Vostok 2 | USSR | 6 August 1961 – 7 August 1961 | ||
| USSR | 12 August 1962 – 15 August 1962 | ||||
| Valentina Tereshkova | Vostok 6[6] | USSR | 16 June 1963 – 19 June 1963 | ||
| Joe Walker | X-15 Flight 90 | USA | 19 July 1963 | ||
| Person to enter space twice (suborbital flights above 100km (100miles)) | Joe Walker | X-15 Flights 90 and 91 | USA | 22 August 1963 | |
| Voskhod 1 | USSR | 12 October 1964 – 13 October 1964 | |||
| Spacewalk | Alexei Leonov | Voskhod 2 | USSR | 18 March 1965 | |
| Orbital maneuvers (change orbit) | Gus Grissom, John W. Young | Gemini 3 | USA | 23 March 1965 | |
| Person to fly two orbital spaceflights | Gordon Cooper | USA | |||
| Persons to spend one week in space | Gemini 5 | USA | 21 August 1965 – 29 August 1965 | ||
| USA | 15 December 1965 – 16 December 1965 | ||||
| Civilian in orbit (at the time of flight) | Neil Armstrong | Gemini 8 | USA | 16 March 1966 – 17 March 1966 | |
| Space docking | Gemini 8 and Agena | USA | 16 March 1966 | ||
| Multiple (dual) rendezvous (with Agena 10, then Agena 8)[7] | Gemini 10 | USA | |||
| Persons to exceed 1,000 km above Earth | Gemini 11 | USA | 12 September 1966 –15 September 1966 | ||
| Spaceflight death (during landing) | Vladimir Komarov | Soyuz 1 | USSR | 23 April 1967 – 24 April 1967 | |
| Walter Schirra | USA | 22 October 1968 | |||
| Apollo 8 | USA | 24 December 1968 – 25 December 1968 | |||
| USSR | 16 January 1969 | ||||
| Solo flight around the Moon | John Young | Apollo 10 | USA | 22 May 1969 | |
| Apollo 11 | USA | 20 July 1969 | |||
| Five people in space at the same time | USSR | 12 October 1969 – 13 October 1969 | |||
| USSR | 13 October 1969 – 16 October 1969 | ||||
| Person to complete four spaceflights | James A. Lovell | USA | 17 April 1970 | ||
| James A. Lovell | USA | 11 April 1970 – 17 April 1970 | |||
| USA | 11 April 1970 – 17 April 1970 | ||||
| Soyuz 9 | USSR | 1 June 1970 – 19 June 1970 | |||
| People to EVA out of sight of their spacecraft | Apollo 14 | USA | 6 February 1971 | ||
| USSR | 22 April 1971 – 24 April 1971 | ||||
| USSR | 7 June 1971 – 29 June 1971 | ||||
| Person to use a telescope in space | Viktor Patsayev | USSR | 7 June 1971 – 29 June 1971 | ||
| People to travel in a wheeled vehicle on a planetary body other than Earth | Apollo 15 | USA | 31 July 1971– 2 August 1971 | ||
| Deep space EVA (trans-Earth trajectory) | Alfred Worden | Apollo 15 | USA | 5 August 1971 | |
| Person to be in lunar orbit twice (during separate lunar expeditions) | John W. Young | USA | 16 April 1972 – 27 April 1972 | ||
| People in orbit for four weeks | Skylab 2 | USA | 25 May 1973 – 22 June 1973 | ||
| People in orbit for eight weeks | Skylab 3 | USA | 28 July 1973 – 25 September 1973 | ||
| People in orbit for 12 weeks | Skylab 4 | USA | 16 November 1973 – 8 February 1974 | ||
| Vasily Lazarev, Oleg Makarov | Soyuz 7K-T No.39 | USSR | 5 April 1975 | ||
| International docking | Thomas P. Stafford, Vance D. Brand, Donald K. Slayton – USAAlexei Leonov, Valeri Kubasov – USSR | Apollo–Soyuz | USAUSSR | 17 July 1975 | |
| Crew to visit occupied space station | Vladimir Dzhanibekov, Oleg Makarov | Soyuz 27 visits Salyut 6 EO-1 crew | USSR | 10 January 1978 – 16 January 1978 | |
| People in orbit 19 weeks (4 months) | Vladimir Kovalyonok, Aleksandr Ivanchenkov | Salyut 6 EO-2, Soyuz 29-Soyuz 31 | USSR | 15 June 1978 – 2 November 1978 | |
| People in orbit 26 weeks (6 months) | Leonid Popov, Valery Ryumin | Salyut 6 EO-4, Soyuz 35-Soyuz 37 | USSR | 9 April 1980 – 11 October 1980 | |
| STS-1 | USA | 12 April 1981 | ||
| Person to fly four different types of spacecraft | John W. Young | USA | 12 April 1981 | ||
| Person to complete five spaceflights | John W. Young | USA | 14 April 1981 | ||
| Re-use of previously flown spacecraft (orbital) | STS-2 | USA | 12 November 1981 | ||
| Woman to visit a space station | Svetlana Savitskaya | Salyut 7, Soyuz T-7 | USSR | 20 August 1982 | |
| Four-person spaceflight in a single spacecraft | STS-5 | USA | 11 November 1982 – 16 November 1982 | ||
| Five-person spaceflight in a single spacecraft | STS-7 | USA | 18 June 1983 – 24 June 1983 | ||
| Use of a launch escape system in an emergency | Vladimir Titov, Gennady Strekalov | Soyuz 7K-ST No.16L | USSR | 26 September 1983 | |
| Six-person spaceflight in a single spacecraft | STS-9 | 28 November 1983 – 8 December 1983 | |||
| Person to complete six spaceflights | John W. Young | USA | 8 December 1983 | ||
| Untethered spacewalk | Bruce McCandless II | STS-41-B[8] | USA | 7 February 1984 | |
| Eight people in space at the same time (no docking) | Salyut 7 EO-3, Soyuz T-10, STS-41-B | 8 February 1984 – 11 February 1984 | |||
| 11 people in space at the same time (no docking) | STS-41-C, Salyut 7 EO-3, Soyuz T-10-Soyuz T-11 | 6 April 1984 – 11 April 1984 | |||
| People to complete four spacewalks during the same mission | Leonid Kizim, Vladimir Solovyov | Salyut 7 | USSR | 26 April – 18 May 1984 | |
| Woman to enter space twice | Svetlana Savitskaya | Soyuz T-7, Soyuz T-12 | USSR | 17 July 1984 | |
| Spacewalk by a woman | Svetlana Savitskaya | Soyuz T-12 | USSR | 25 July 1984 | |
| Welding in space | Vladimir Dzhanibekov, Svetlana Savitskaya | Salyut 7, Soyuz T-12 | USSR | 25 July 1984 | |
| People in orbit 33 weeks (7 months) | Leonid Kizim, Vladimir Solovyov, Oleg Atkov | Salyut 7 EO-3, Soyuz T-10-Soyuz T-11 | USSR | 8 February 1984 – 2 October 1984 | |
| Seven-person spaceflight in a single spacecraft | STS-41-G | 5 October 1984 – 13 October 1984 | |||
| Two women in space at the same time | Kathryn D. Sullivan, Sally K. Ride | STS-41-G | USA | 5 October 1984 – 13 October 1984 | |
| Partial crew exchange at a space station | Alexander Volkov, Vladimir Vasyutin replace Vladimir Dzhanibekov | Soyuz T-14, Salyut 7 | USSR | 17 September 1985 – 26 September 1985 | |
| Eight-person spaceflight in a single spacecraft | STS-61-A | 30 October 1985 – 6 November 1985 | |||
| Deaths during launch | STS-51-L | USA | 28 January 1986 | ||
| Soyuz T-15 from Mir to Salyut 7 back to Mir[9] | USSR | 15 March 1986 – 16 July 1986 | |||
| Person to accumulate 1 year in space | Leonid Kizim | Soyuz T-3Soyuz T-15 visiting Mir and Salyut 7 | USSR | 28 June 1986 | |
| Complete crew exchange at a space station | Vladimir Titov, Musa Manarov replace Yuri Romanenko, Alexander Alexandrov | Soyuz TM-4-Soyuz TM-2, Soyuz TM-3, at Mir | USSR | 21 December 1987 – 29 December 1987 | |
| People in orbit 52 weeks (one year) | Vladimir Titov, Musa Manarov | Mir EO-3, Soyuz TM-4-Soyuz TM-6 | USSR | 21 December 1987 – 21 December 1988 | |
| 12 people in space at the same time (no docking) | STS-35, Mir EO-7, Soyuz TM-10Soyuz TM-11 | 2 December 1990 – 10 December 1990 | |||
| Civilian to use a commercial space flight, and journalist to report on space from outer space | Toyohiro Akiyama – Japan | Soyuz TM-10, Soyuz TM-11 | Japan | 2 December 1990 – 10 December 1990 | |
| Three women in space at the same time | Millie Hughes-Fulford, Tamara E. Jernigan, M. Rhea Seddon | STS-40 | USA | 5 June 1991 – 14 June 1991 | |
| Three-person spacewalk | STS-49 | USA | 13 May 1992 | ||
| Married couple in space | Mark C. Lee, Jan Davis | STS-47 | USA | 12 September 1992 – 20 September 1992 | |
| 13 people in space at the same time (no docking) | STS-67, Mir, Soyuz TM-20, Soyuz TM-21 | 14 March 1995 – 18 March 1995 | |||
| Ten people in a single spacecraft (docking) | STS-71, Mir, Soyuz TM-21 | 29 June 1995 – 4 July 1995 | |||
| Person to accumulate 2 years in space | Sergey Avdeev | Soyuz TM-15 (Mir EO-12)Soyuz TM-22 (Mir EO-20)Soyuz TM-28/Soyuz TM-29 Mir EO 27 | Russia | 10 July 1999 | |
| Space tourist | Dennis Tito | Soyuz TM-32/31, ISS EP-1 | April 28, 2001 – May 6, 2001 | ||
| Person to complete seven trips to space | Jerry L. Ross | USA | 19 April 2002 | ||
| Deaths during re-entry | STS-107 | USA | 1 February 2003 | ||
| Privately funded human space flight (suborbital) | Mike Melvill | SpaceShipOne flight 15P | USA | 21 June 2004 | |
| 13 people in a single spacecraft (docking) | ISS, Soyuz TMA-14, Soyuz TMA-15, STS-127 | 17 July 2009 | |||
| Four women in space at the same time (docking) | 5 April 2010 – 20 April 2010 | ||||
| Six spacecraft docked to a space station | 9 July 2018 | ||||
| | 18 October 2019 | ||||
| [10] [11] | 30 May 2020 – 31 May 2020 | ||||
| 16 people in space (50 miles) at the same time (no docking) | 11 July 2021 | ||||
| 14 people in space (100 km) at the same time (no docking) | 20 July 2021 | ||||
| | Inspiration4 | USA | 16 September 2021 – 18 September 2021 | ||
| | Inspiration4 | USA | 16 September 2021 – 18 September 2021 | ||
| | Inspiration4 | USA | 16 September 2021 – 18 September 2021 | ||
| 14 people in orbit at the same time (no docking) | 16 September 2021 – 17 September 2021 | ||||
| 19 people in space (100 km) at the same time (no docking) | 11 December 2021 | ||||
| | Axiom Mission 1 To ISS | 8 April 2022 – 18 April 2022 | |||
| | 5 June 2022 – | ||||
| 5 women in space at the same time (no docking) | 5 October 2022 – 14 October 2022 | ||||
| 20 people in space (50 miles) at the same time (no docking) | 25 May 2023 | ||||
| 17 people in orbit at the same time (no docking) | 30 May 2023 – 31 May 2023 | ||||
| Seven spacecraft docked to a space station[12] | 25 March 2024 | ||||
| Person to accumulate 1000 days in space | Oleg Kononenko | Expedition 71 | Russia | 5 June 2024 | |
| Woman to fly on the maiden crewed flight of an orbital spacecraft | Sunita Williams | Boeing CFT | USA | 5 June 2024 | |
| Person to accumulate 3 years in space | Oleg Kononenko | Soyuz TMA-12 (Expedition 17)Soyuz TMA-03M (Expedition 30/31)Soyuz TMA-17M (Expedition 44/45)Soyuz MS-11 (Expedition 57/58/59)Soyuz MS-24/MS-25 (Expedition 69/70/71) Expedition 71 | Russia | 9 September 2024 | |
| 19 people in orbit at the same time (no docking) | 11 September 2024 – 15 September 2024 | ||||
| Jared Isaacman Scott Poteet Sarah Gillis Anna Menon | Polaris Dawn | USA | 12 September 2024 |
Note: The six SpaceShipTwo flights surpass the U.S. definition of spaceflight (502NaN2), but fall short of the Kármán line (1002NaN2), the definition used for FAI space recordkeeping.
Note: SpaceShipTwo flights are suborbital. SpaceShipTwo flights surpass the U.S. definition of spaceflight (502NaN2), but fall short of the Kármán line (1002NaN2), the FAI definition used for most space recordkeeping.
The record for most time in space is held by Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, who has spent 1,111 days in space over five missions. He broke the record of Gennady Padalka on 4 February 2024 at 07:30:08 UTC during his fifth spaceflight aboard Soyuz MS-24/25 for a one year long-duration mission on the ISS.[14] He later became the first person to stay 900, 1,000, and 1,100 days in space on 25 February 2024, 4 June 2024, and 12 September 2024 respectively.[15] [16] Gennady Padalka is currently second, having spent 878 days in space. He himself had broken the all-time duration record on 28 June 2015 when he surpassed the previous record holder, cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, who spent 803 days, 9 hours and 39 minutes (about 2.2 years) during six spaceflights on Soyuz, the Space Shuttle, Mir, and the International Space Station.[17] [18] [19]
,[20] the 50 space travelers with the most total time in space are:
Color key:
| Rank | Person | Days | Flights | Status | Nationality |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oleg Kononenko | 1110.623 | 5 | Active | |
| 2 | Gennady Padalka | 878.480 | 5 | Retired | |
| 3 | 827.389 | 6 | Retired | ||
| 4 | Sergei Krikalev | 803.371 | 6 | Retired | / |
| 5 | Aleksandr Kaleri | 769.276 | 5 | Retired | |
| 6 | Sergei Avdeev | 747.593 | 3 | Retired | / |
| 7 | Anton Shkaplerov | 709.336 | 4 | Retired | |
| 8 | Valeri Polyakov | 678.690 | 2 | Deceased | / |
| 9 | Peggy Whitson | 675.158 | 4 | Active | |
| 10 | Fyodor Yurchikhin | 672.860 | 5 | Retired | |
| 11 | Anatoly Solovyev | 651.117 | 5 | Retired | / |
| 12 | Sergey Prokopyev | 567.633 | 2 | Active | |
| 13 | Oleg Artemyev | 560.614 | 3 | Active | |
| 14 | Viktor Afanasyev | 555.772 | 4 | Retired | / |
| 15 | Yury Usachov | 552.773 | 4 | Retired | |
| 16 | Sergey Volkov | 547.931 | 3 | Retired | |
| 17 | Pavel Vinogradov | 546.939 | 3 | Retired | |
| 18 | Aleksandr Skvortsov | 545.964 | 3 | Retired | |
| 19 | Oleg Novitsky | 545.068 | 4 | Active | |
| 20 | Musa Manarov | 541.021 | 2 | Retired | / |
| 21 | Oleg Skripochka | 536.159 | 3 | Retired | |
| 22 | Jeffrey Williams | 534.116 | 4 | Retired | |
| 23 | Mikhail Tyurin | 532.118 | 3 | Retired | |
| 24 | Oleg Kotov | 526.211 | 3 | Retired | |
| 25 | Mark T. Vande Hei | 523.374 | 2 | Active | |
| 26 | Scott Kelly | 520.440 | 4 | Retired[21] | |
| 27 | Mikhail Kornienko | 516.417 | 2 | Retired | |
| 28 | Koichi Wakata | 504.773 | 5 | Active | |
| 29 | Sunita Williams | 3 | Active | ||
| 30 | Aleksandr Viktorenko | 489.066 | 4 | Deceased | / |
| 31 | Anatoli Ivanishin | 476.195 | 3 | Retired | |
| 32 | Aleksey Ovchinin | 3 | Active | ||
| 33 | Donald Pettit | 4 | Active | ||
| 34 | Michael Barratt | 446.640 | 3 | Active | |
| 35 | Nikolai Budarin | 444.060 | 3 | Retired | |
| 36 | Yuri Romanenko | 430.765 | 3 | Retired | |
| 37 | Thomas Pesquet | 396.482 | 2 | Active | |
| 38 | Aleksandr Volkov | 391.495 | 3 | Retired | / |
| 39 | Yury Onufriyenko | 389.282 | 2 | Retired | |
| 40 | Shane Kimbrough | 388.728 | 3 | Retired | |
| 41 | Vladimir Titov | 387.036 | 4 | Retired | / |
| 42 | Vasily Tsibliyev | 381.662 | 2 | Retired | |
| 43 | Valery Korzun | 381.653 | 2 | Retired | |
| 44 | Michael Fincke | 381.633 | 3 | Active | |
| 45 | Christopher Cassidy | 377.742 | 3 | Retired | |
| 46 | Leonid Kizim | 374.749 | 3 | Deceased | |
| 47 | Ye Guangfu | 374.582 | 2 | Active | |
| 48 | Nikolai Chub | 373.843 | 1 | Active | |
| 49 | Michael Foale | 373.763 | 6 | Retired | / |
| 50 | Aleksandr Serebrov | 372.954 | 4 | Deceased | / |
| 51 | Barry E. Wilmore | 3 | Active | ||
| 52 | Ivan Vagner | 3 | Active | ||
NASA astronaut Christina Koch holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman (328 days), returning on February 6, 2020.[26] During Expedition 61, she surpassed NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson's 289 days from 2016-17. In third place is American astronaut Anne McClain with 204 days.[29]
An international partnership consisting of Russia, the United States, Canada, Japan, and the member states of the European Space Agency have jointly maintained a continuous human presence in space since 31 October 2000 when Soyuz TM-31 was launched. Two days later, it docked with the International Space Station.[30] Since then space has been continuously occupied for .
The International Space Station has been continuously occupied by a Russian and US crew member since 2 November 2000 .[30] It broke the record of 9 years and 358 days of the Soviet/Russian Space Station Mir on 23 October 2010.[30]
Valery Bykovsky flew solo for 4 days, 23 hours in Vostok 5 from 14 to 19 June 1963.[31] The flight set a space endurance record which was broken in 1965 by the (non-solo) Gemini 5 flight. The Apollo program included long solo spaceflight, and during the Apollo 16 mission, Ken Mattingly orbited solo around the Moon for more than 3 days and 9 hours.
Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt of the Apollo 17 mission stayed for 74 hours 59 minutes and 40 seconds (over 3 days) on the lunar surface after they landed on 11 December 1972.[32] They performed three EVAs (extra-vehicular activity) totaling 22 hours 3 minutes, 57 seconds. As Apollo commanders were the first to leave the LM and the last to get back in, Cernan's EVA time was slightly longer.[32]
Ronald Evans of Apollo 17 mission stayed in lunar orbit for 6 days and 4 hours (148 hours)[33] along with five mice. For the solo portion of a flight around the Moon, Ken Mattingly on Apollo 16 spent 1 hour 38 minutes longer than Evans' solo duration.
The Apollo 13 crew (Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert), while passing over the far side of the Moon at an altitude of 254km (158miles) from the lunar surface, were 400171km (248,655miles) from Earth.[34] This record-breaking distance was reached at 00:21 UTC on 15 April 1970.[34]
Polaris Dawn crew Jared Isaacman, Scott Poteet, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon fired their Crew Dragon Resilience's Draco thrusters on 11 September 2024 at 00:27 UTC, at 15 hours and 4 minutes after liftoff and achieved a record apogee altitude of 874.95miles.[35]
The Apollo 10 crew (Thomas Stafford, John W. Young and Eugene Cernan) achieved the highest speed relative to Earth ever attained by humans: 39,897 kilometers per hour (11,082 meters per second or 24,791 miles per hour, about 32 times the speed of sound and 0.0037% of the speed of light).[36] The record was set 26 May 1969.[36]
The record for uncrewed spacecraft is held by the Parker Solar Probe at 176 km/s, about 1/1700 (or 0.06%) the speed of light, relative to the Sun. This speed was first reached in September 2023.
See also: List of cumulative spacewalk records.
Both of these are the record for the largest total number of spacewalks by a male and a female, and the most cumulative time spent on spacewalks by a male and a female.
The first animals to enter space were fruit flies launched by the United States in 1947 aboard a V-2 rocket to an altitude of . They were also the first animals to safely return from space.[49] Albert II, a rhesus monkey, became the first mammal in space aboard a U.S. V-2 rocket on June 14, 1949, and died on reentry due to a parachute failure. The first dogs in space were launched 22 July 1951 aboard a Soviet R-1V. "Tsygin" and "Dezik" reached a height of and safely parachuted back to Earth. This flight preceded the first American canine space mission by two weeks.[50]
Laika was a Soviet female canine launched on 3 November 1957 on Sputnik 2. The technology to de-orbit had not yet been developed, so there was no expectation for survival. She died several hours into flight. Belka and Strelka became the first canines to safely return to Earth from orbit on 19 August 1960.
On 31 January 1961, through NASA's Mercury-Redstone 2 mission the chimpanzee Ham became the first great ape in space.[51]
Soviet space dogs Russian: [[Soviet space dogs#Veterok and Ugolyok|Veterok]] (Russian: Ветерок, "Light Wind") and Russian: Ugolyok (Russian: Уголёк, "Ember") were launched on 22 February 1966 on board Cosmos 110 and spent 22 days in orbit before landing on 16 March.
An assortment of animals including a pair of Russian tortoises, as well as wine flies and mealworms flew around the Moon with a number of other biological specimens including seeds and bacteria on a circumlunar mission aboard the Soviet Zond 5 spacecraft on 18 September 1968. It had been launched by a Proton-K rocket on 14 September.
Zond 5 came within 2000km (1,000miles) of the Moon and then successfully returned to Earth, the first spacecraft in history to return safely to Earth from the Moon.
| In reference to: | Spacecraft | Event | Origin | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Earth | MW 18014 (A-4(V-2)) | First rocket to reach space (suborbital flight). | Germany | 20 June 1944 | |
| Earth | V-2 No. 20 | First living organisms (fruit flies) in space (suborbital flight). Successfully recovered. |  USA | 20 February 1947 | |
| Earth | V-2 No. 47 | First mammal in space, Albert II, a rhesus monkey (suborbital flight). Died in capsule parachute failure. | USA | 14 June 1949 | |
| Earth | R-1V[52] | First 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, a dog. | USSR | 3 November 1957 | |
| Earth | Vanguard 1 | Oldest satellite still in orbit, in addition to its upper launch stage. Expected to stay in orbit 240 years. Ceased transmission in May 1964. | USA | 17 March 1958 | |
| Earth | Pioneer 1 | Failed to reach the Moon as intended, but reached a record–setting distance of 113800km (70,700miles) from Earth. | USA | 11 October 1958 | |
| Earth | Luna 1 | First spacecraft to achieve Earth's escape velocity. | USSR | 4 January 1959 | |
| Moon | Luna 1 | First flyby. Distance of 5995km (3,725miles). | USSR | 4 January 1959 | |
| Sun | Luna 1 | First spacecraft in heliocentric orbit. | USSR | 4 January 1959 | |
| Moon | Luna 2 | First impact on another celestial body. | 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.[53] | USSR | 19 August 1960 | |
| Earth | Mercury-Redstone 2 | First great ape or Hominidae in space, Ham, a chimpanzee (suborbital flight). | USA | 31 January 1961 | |
| Venus | Venera 1 | First flyby. Distance of 100000km (100,000miles) (lost communication contact before). | USSR | 19 May 1961 | |
| Moon | Ranger 4 | First spacecraft to impact the far side of the Moon.[54] | USA | 26 April 1962 | |
| Earth | Alouette 1 | First satellite designed and constructed by a country other than the USA or USSR (the British satellite Ariel 1, launched five months earlier, was designed and constructed by the USA).[55] | Canada | 29 September 1962 | |
| Venus | Mariner 2 | First planetary flyby with communication contact. Distance of 34762km (21,600miles). | USA | 14 December 1962 | |
| Earth | Lincoln Calibration Sphere 1 | Oldest spacecraft still in use (59 years). | USA | 6 May 1965 | |
| Mars | Mariner 4 | First flyby and first planetary imaging. Distance of 9846km (6,118miles). | USA | 14 July 1965 | |
| Earth | Astérix | First satellite launched independently by a nation other than the USA or USSR (other nations had previously flown satellites launched on American rockets). | France | 26 November 1965 | |
| Moon | Luna 9 | First soft landing and first pictures from the lunar surface. | USSR | 3 February 1966 | |
| Earth | Kosmos 110 | First seeds to germinate in space. | USSR | 22 February 1966 | |
| Venus | Venera 3 | First impact. | USSR | 1 March 1966 | |
| Moon | Luna 10 | First orbiter. | USSR | 3 April 1966 | |
| Docking | Cosmos 186, Cosmos 188 | First automated docking of uncrewed spacecraft. | USSR | 30 October 1967 | |
| Moon | Surveyor 6 | First planned, controlled, powered flight from the surface of another body. | USA | 17 November 1967 | |
| Moon | Zond 5 | USSR | 15 September 1968 | ||
| Moon | Luna 16 | First automated sample return. | USSR | 24 September 1970 | |
| Moon | Luna 17 | First robotic roving vehicle, Lunokhod 1. | USSR | 17 November 1970 | |
| Venus | Venera 7 | First soft landing on another planet. | USSR | 15 December 1970 | |
| Earth | Salyut 1 | First space station. | USSR | 19 April 1971 | |
| Mars | Mariner 9 | First orbiter. | USA | 14 November 1971 | |
| Mars | Mars 2 | First impact. | USSR | 27 November 1971 | |
| Mars | Mars 3 | First soft landing. Maintained telemetry signal for 20 seconds before transmissions ceased. | USSR | 2 December 1971 | |
| Sun | Pioneer 10 | First spacecraft to achieve the Sun's escape velocity. | USA | 3 March 1972 | |
| Jupiter | Pioneer 10 | First flyby. Distance of 132000km (82,000miles). | USA | 4 December 1973 | |
| Mercury | Mariner 10 | First flyby. Distance of 703km (437miles). | USA | 29 March 1974 | |
| Venus | Venera 9 | USSR | 22 October 1975 | ||
| Mars | Viking 1 | First surface-level imaging of Mars. | USA | 20 July 1976 | |
| Saturn | Pioneer 11 | First flyby. Distance of 21000km (13,000miles). | USA | 1 September 1979 | |
| Venus | Venera 13 | First sound recording made on another planet. | USSR | 1 March 1982 | |
| Orbital Space Station | Soyuz T-5, Salyut 7 | First species of plant to flower in space.[56] Arabidopsis thaliana Valentin Lebedev. | USSR | 1 July 1982 | |
| Trans-Neptunian region | Pioneer 10 | First to travel past the orbit of Neptune, the furthest major planet from the Sun. | USA | 13 June 1983 | |
| Venus | Vega 1 | First helium balloon atmospheric probe. First flight (as opposed to atmospheric entry) in another planet's atmosphere. | USSR | 11 June 1985 | |
| Comet Giacobini-Zinner | International Cometary Explorer (ICE) | First flyby through a comet tail (no pictures). Distance of 7800km (4,800miles). | USA | 11 September 1985 | |
| Uranus | Voyager 2 | First flyby. Distance of 81500km (50,600miles). | USA | 24 January 1986 | |
| Comet Halley | Vega 1 | First comet flyby (with pictures returned). Distance of 8890km (5,520miles). | USSR | 6 March 1986 | |
| Earth | Mir Core Module, Kvant-1 | First modular space station. | USSR | 9 April 1987 | |
| Orbital Spaceplane | Buran | First fully automated orbital flight of a spaceplane (with airstrip landing). | USSR | 15 November 1988 | |
| Phobos | Phobos 2 | First flyby. Distance of 860km (530miles). | USSR | 21 February 1989 | |
| Neptune | Voyager 2 | First flyby. Distance of 40000km (20,000miles). | USA | 25 August 1989 | |
| Moon | Hiten | First lunar probe launched by a country other than the USA or USSR. | Japan | 18 March 1990 | |
| 951 Gaspra | Galileo | First asteroid flyby. Distance of 1600km (1,000miles). | USA | 29 October 1991 | |
| Jupiter | Galileo probe | First impact. | USA | 7 December 1995 | |
| Jupiter | Galileo | First orbiter. | USA | 8 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. | 1 July 2004 | ||
| Solar wind | Genesis | First sample return from farther than the Moon. | USA | 8 September 2004 | |
| Titan | Huygens probe | First soft landing. | 14 January 2005 | ||
| Comet Tempel 1 | Deep Impact | First comet impact. | USA | 4 July 2005 | |
| 25143 Itokawa | Hayabusa | Japan | 19 November 2005 | ||
| 81P/Wild | Stardust | First sample return from comet. | USA | 15 January 2006 | |
| Earth | Voyager 1 | USA | [57] | ||
| Longest time in operation | Voyager 2 | Longest continually operating space probe (since August 1977). | USA | ||
| Moon | Moon Impact Probe | First impact on Lunar south pole and discovery of water on Moon.[58] |  India | 14 November 2008 | |
| Earth to Venus trajectory | IKAROS | First interplanetary solar sail. | Japan | Set sail on 10 June 2010 | |
| 25143 Itokawa | Hayabusa | First sample return from an asteroid. | Japan | 13 June 2010 | |
| Mercury | MESSENGER | First orbiter. | USA | 17 March 2011 | |
| Earth–Sun L2 Lagrange point | Chang'e 2 | First spacecraft to reach the L2 Lagrangian point directly from lunar orbit.[59] | China | 25 August 2011 | |
| International Space Station | SpaceX Dragon 1 | First commercial spacecraft to berth with the International Space Station. | USA | 25 May 2012 | |
| Interstellar medium | Voyager 1 | First spacecraft to cross the heliopause, thereby exiting the heliosphere and entering interstellar space. | USA | 25 August 2012 | |
| 4179 Toutatis | Chang'e 2 | China | 13 December 2012 | ||
| 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko | Rosetta | First comet orbiter.[60] | ESA | 6 August 2014 | |
| Mars | MOM | First Asian nation to achieve Mars orbit and first in the world to do so in first attempt.[61] | India | 24 September 2014 | |
| 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko | Philae | First comet soft landing.[62] | ESA | 12 November 2014 | |
| Ceres | Dawn | First dwarf planet orbiter.[63] | USA | 6 March 2015 | |
| Mars | Opportunity | Longest distance traveled on surface of another world (26.219miles, marathon-length).[64] | USA | 23 March 2015 | |
| Mercury | MESSENGER | First impact.[65] | USA | 30 April 2015 | |
| Pluto | New Horizons | USA | 14 July 2015 | ||
| All 9 planets in the pre-IAU redefinition version of the Solar System | All United States spacecraft including New Horizons | With the New Horizons flyby of Pluto, the United States is the first nation to have its space probes explore all nine planets in the pre-2006 IAU redefinition version of the Solar System. | USA | 14 July 2015 | |
| Earth | Falcon 9 (B1021) | First re-flight of an orbital class rocket stage.[66] | USA | 30 March 2017 | |
| Earth | Shortest period between orbital launches (launched 72[67] [68] [69] [70] [71] seconds apart). | 23 December 2017 | |||
| 1.66 au heliocentric orbit | Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster on Falcon Heavy Test Flight | First successful Deep Space mission launched successfully on a rocket's maiden flight | USA | 6 February 2018 | |
| Moon | Chang'e 4 | First soft landing at the far side of the Moon. | China | 3 January 2019 | |
| Moon | Yutu-2 | First lunar rover traversing the far side of the Moon. | China | 3 January 2019 | |
| Moon | Beresheet | First commercial/privately funded spacecraft to enter lunar orbit. | Israel | 4 April 2019 | |
| 101955 Bennu | OSIRIS-REx | Smallest body to be orbited by spacecraft (diameter) and closest ever orbit (altitude).[72] [73] | USA | 12 June 2019 | |
| Moon | Yutu-2 | Longest operational lunar rover after breaking the longevity record of 321 Earth days held by Soviet Union's Lunokhod 1 rover.[74] | China | 20 November 2019 | |
| Moon | Chang'e 5 | First robotic rendezvous and docking by two spacecraft (lunar orbiter attached with reentry-capsule and lunar ascent vehicle) in lunar orbit or any orbit other than Earth's.[75] | China | 5 December 2020 | |
| Moon | Chang'e 5 | First robotic transfer of payload (lunar samples from lunar ascent vehicle to reentry capsule) between two docked spacecraft in lunar orbit or any orbit other than Earth's.[76] | China | 5 December 2020 | |
| Mars | Ingenuity | First controlled, powered flight by a rotary wing aircraft on another planet.[77] | USA | 19 April 2021 | |
| Earth | First methane-fueled rocket to reach orbit[78] | China | 12 July 2023 | ||
| Moon | Chandrayaan-3 | First soft landing at Lunar south polar region. | India | 23 August 2023 | |
| Sun | Parker Solar Probe | Highest velocity of a spacecraft relative to the Sun: 176 km/s (635,000 km/h; 395,000 mph). Closest approach to the Sun: distance of 0.049 AU (7,260,000 kilometres; 4,510,000 mi).[79] Spacecraft will continue to lower its perihelion with one more Venus gravity assist before its closest approach in 2024, which is expected to bring the probe within 9.86 solar radii (6,900,000 km; 4,300,000 mi) of the Sun's surface at a velocity of 191.7 km/s (690,000 km/h; 430,000 mph),[80] by which point it will have become the fastest object in the Solar System apart from comets (overtaking asteroid 2005 HC4). | 27 September 2023 | ||
| Moon | IM-1 Odysseus | First successful commercial and first cryogenic propelled lunar landing.[81] First soft landing within the lunar south pole region at [82] | USA | 22 February 2024 | |
| Moon | First sample collection and return from the far side of the Moon. | China | 3 June, 25 June 2024 | ||
| Earth | Most consecutive launch successes of a single type of rocket: 365. | USA | 14 january 2017 – 8 July 2024 | ||
| Earth | Most consecutive landing successes of a single type of rocket: 267. | USA | 4 March 2021 – 20 August 2024 | ||
| Earth | Falcon 9 (B1062) | Most flights of a single orbital rocket stage: 23. | USA | 28 August 2024 | |
| Falcon 9 (B1067) | Most landings of a single orbital rocket stage: 23. | 11 November 2024 | |||
| Earth | Falcon 9 (B1080) | Shortest time between two flights of the same orbital rocket stage: 13 days, 12 hours, 34 minutes | USA | 25 November 2024 |