Human Spaceflight Fast Facts
CNN Editorial Research
(CNN) — Here’s a look at human spaceflight programs in the United States and around the world.
Facts
The United States ended its crewed space shuttle program with the launch of Atlantis on July 8, 2011, and landing on July 21, 2011.
China and Russia are the only other countries to have independent spaceflight capabilities.
India and Iran have both announced their plans to send a crewed spacecraft into space.
Timeline
October 1, 1958 – The official start of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
May 25, 1961 – US President John F. Kennedy addresses Congress: “First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.”
1958-1963 – NASA’s Project Mercury. The program’s objectives include orbiting a crewed spacecraft around Earth, investigating man’s ability to function in space and recovering both man and spacecraft safely.
April 12, 1961 – Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin is the first human in space aboard Vostok 1. He spends 108 minutes in space and makes one orbit around the earth.
May 5, 1961 – Project Mercury astronaut Alan B. Shepard is the first American in space aboard Freedom 7. He spends 15 minutes in sub-orbital flight.
February 20, 1962 – Project Mercury astronaut John Glenn is the first American to orbit the Earth, aboard Friendship 7. He spends four hours and 55 minutes in space and orbits the earth three times.
1962-1966 – The goals of NASA’s Gemini program include subjecting man and equipment to space flight up to two weeks in duration, docking with orbiting vehicles and gaining additional information concerning the effects of weightlessness on crew members.
June 16, 1963 – Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova is the first woman in space, aboard Vostok 6. She spends 70 hours in space and orbits the earth 48 times.
1963-1972 – NASA’s Apollo program seeks to establish the technology to meet other national interests in space, to carry out a program of scientific exploration of the Moon and to develop man’s capability to work in the lunar environment.
March 18, 1965 – Soviet Alexei Leonov is the first man to walk in space.
June 3, 1965 – Ed White becomes the first American to walk in space.
December 24, 1968 – Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders become the first humans to orbit the moon.
July 20, 1969 – Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin Jr. and Michael Collins are the first humans to land on the moon. Armstrong and Aldrin are the first to walk on the moon.
April 1971 – Salyut, a crewed orbiting space lab, is launched by the Soviet Union.
1972 – NASA’s Space Shuttle program formally begins in 1972, under President Richard Nixon.
1973-1974 – NASA’s Skylab program. Three missions are completed, with astronauts spending a total of 171 days in space. Its objective was to prove that humans could live and work in space for extended periods.
April 12-14, 1981 – The first space shuttle mission. Space Shuttle Columbia, the first reusable spacecraft, orbits Earth 37 times before landing.
June 18-24, 1983 – Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space.
January 28, 1986 – The Space Shuttle Challenger explodes, killing the seven astronauts onboard, including teacher Christa McAuliffe, chosen for NASA’s “Teacher in Space” program.
March 1995 – Cosmonaut Valery Polyakov completes a 437-day stay aboard the Mir space station, setting the record for the longest single stay in space.
October 29, 1998 – John Glenn, at 77, becomes the oldest human to go into space, aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery.
April 28, 2001 – Dennis Tito becomes the first “space tourist,” paying $20 million to ride on a Russian rocket to the International Space Station (ISS).
February 1, 2003 – The Columbia breaks up upon reentry during mission STS-107, killing all seven crew members. It is the second loss of a shuttle in 113 shuttle flights.
October 15, 2003 – Yang Liwei is the first Chinese man in space aboard Shenzhou 5.
July 21, 2011 – With the landing of the 135th and final space shuttle mission, the US space shuttle program ends.
July 29, 2016 – NASA places an order with SpaceX for a crewed mission to the ISS. It’s the fourth and final order under a government-funded program that contracts with private companies with the goal of launching astronauts from US soil again. SpaceX has received two orders, and Boeing the other two.
May 30, 2020 – SpaceX and NASA launch Falcon 9, a rocket carrying the Crew Dragon spacecraft with two astronauts on board. This is the first launch from US soil since 2011.
August 2, 2020 – SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft splashes down into the Gulf of Mexico, ending a historic two-month mission. This is the first time in history that a commercially developed spacecraft carried humans into Earth’s orbit.
November 15, 2020 – A SpaceX spacecraft launches from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. This is a landmark mission for NASA and the company because it is the first fully operational crewed mission for SpaceX.
May 2, 2021 – The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule returns from outer space and makes a parachute landing in the Gulf of Mexico, returning four astronauts from a record-setting mission to the ISS. The astronauts’ safe return marks the end to NASA and SpaceX’s mission, dubbed Crew-1, which set a record as the longest time in space – over 5 months – by a crew that launched aboard an American-built spacecraft.
July 11, 2021 – Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity space plane, carrying founder Richard Branson of Virgin Group, Ltd. and three colleagues, launches from Spaceport America in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. After a successful detachment from its mothership WhiteKnightTwo, the space plane makes a return landing at Spaceport America.
July 20, 2021 – Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, travels to the edge of space and back on an 11-minute ride aboard the rocket and capsule system developed by his space company, Blue Origin. Riding alongside are Bezos’ brother, Mark Bezos; Wally Funk, an 82-year-old pilot and one of the “Mercury 13” women who trained to go to space in the 20th century but never got to fly; and an 18-year old named Oliver Daemen who was Blue Origin’s first paying customer and whose father, an investor, purchased his ticket. Daemen becomes the youngest person to travel to space.
September 18, 2021 – Four people return to Earth from a three-day extraterrestrial excursion aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, marking the end of the first-ever flight to Earth’s orbit flown entirely by tourists or otherwise non-astronauts. The passengers include 38-year-old Jared Isaacman, who personally financed and arranged the trip with SpaceX and its CEO, Elon Musk; Hayley Arceneaux, 29, a childhood cancer survivor and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital physician assistant; Sian Proctor, 51, a geologist and community college teacher; and Chris Sembroski, a 42-year-old Lockheed Martin employee and lifelong space fan who claimed his seat through an online raffle.
October 13, 2021 – Ninety-year-old actor William Shatner blasts off onboard a Blue Origin suborbital spacecraft, before parachuting to a landing, making Shatner the oldest person ever to travel to space.
April 3, 2023 – NASA announces the four astronauts who will helm the first crewed moon mission in five decades. The crew includes NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency. Artemis II is set to take off in November 2024.
June 5, 2024 – The first crewed flight test aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft launches from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
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