Spacecraft

A V-2 /A4-rocket became the first man-made object to reach space on June 20, 1944. Launched at Peenemünde, Germany, the MW 18014 crossed the Kármán line reaching an altitude of 189 km (117 miles).

Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 1 became the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth, when it was launched in 1957 by an R-7 rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome near Tyuratam, Kazakh SSR.

The first manned spacecraft was Vostok 1, which carried Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into space in 1961, and completed a full Earth orbit.

The Soviet Union launched Voskhod 1 on October 12, 1964, becoming the first spacecraft to carry a multi-person crew. It was also the first flight without the use of spacesuits, and the first to carry either an engineer or a physician into outer space. Voshkod 1 also set a manned spacecraft altitude record of 336 km (209 mi).

Surveyor 1 landed in Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon, in 1966 becoming the first U.S. spacecraft to soft land on another world.

Surveyor NASA lunar lander

The Soviet space probe Venera 3 crashed on Venus in 1966 becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet's surface.

In 1967 the Soviet space probe Venera 4 performed in-place analysis of the environment of Venus and became the first spacecraft to land (rather than crash land) on another planet, although it stopped working before that.

The Soviet Zond 5 spacecraft landed in the Indian Ocean on September 21, 1968, after circling the Moon. It was the first spacecraft to safely return to Earth after completing a lunar flyby. The Zond 5 spacecraft was carrying a variety of scientific instruments, including cameras, telescopes, and dosimeters. It also carried a biological payload that included two tortoises, fruit fly eggs, and plants. The tortoises and the other biological organisms survived the flight and were returned to Earth safely.

The American space probe, Mariner 9, becomes the first spacecraft to orbit another planet successfully in 1971, swinging into its planned trajectory around Mars.

NASA's spacecraft Mariner 10 went into the record books for two distinct feats. It was the first spacecraft to use interplanetary gravity fields as a sort of gravitational slingshot. It was also the first space mission to visit two planets. Launched in late 1973, Mariner 10 first flew to Venus and then, using Venus' gravity to modify its trajectory, swung around to visit Mercury.

Launch of Mariner 10

Helios 2, a venture between NASA and the West German space agency which was launched in 1976, is the fastest ever spacecraft, having reached 252,792 km/h (157,078 mph). Helios 2 is no longer functional, but still orbits the sun. .

The International Cometary Explorer (ICE) spacecraft was launched August 12, 1978, into a heliocentric orbit. Thought to be shut down in 1997, it was actually discovered in 2008 still be fully operational with plenty of fuel. Through efforts of crowd funding and approval from NASA, a group successfully established contact and fired the engines for the first time since 1987.

The space shuttle embarked on its first mission in 1981. The first partially reusable orbital spacecraft, it was launched by the USA on the 20th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's flight, on April 12, 1981.

Japan launched the Hiten spacecraft on January 24, 1990, the first lunar probe launched by a country other than the Soviet Union or the United States.

NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey is currently the longest-surviving continually active spacecraft in orbit around a planet other than Earth. It launched from Cape Canaveral on April 7, 2001, on a Delta II rocket and reached Mars orbit on October 24, 2001. By December 15, 2010, it broke the record for longest serving spacecraft at Mars, with 3,340 days of operation. The spacecraft is currently in a polar orbit around Mars with an altitude of about 3,800 km or 2,400 miles. It has enough propellant to function until 2025.

Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne was a reusable suborbital spaceplane that carried pilots Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie on consecutive flights in 2004. It won the Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight, by being the first private craft to fly into space.

In 2002, PayPal co-founder Elon Musk established the California-based space transportation company SpaceX. Six years later SpaceX launched its first ever private spacecraft, the Falcon 1 into orbit.

With the second launch of the SpaceX Dragon, in 2010 SpaceX became the first privately held company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft. Dragon, was launched on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral.

The area code for Cape Canaveral in Florida is 321 to mimic the countdown sequence of space craft launches.

The Russian Soyuz series of spacecraft has been in continual use with the same basic design since the launch of Soyuz 1 on April 23, 1967. It is widely considered the world's safest, most cost-effective human spaceflight vehicle. At least one is always docked at the ISS at all times for use as an escape craft.

ESA's Gaia spacecraft, which is mapping the locations of roughly one billion stars, observes on average around 5,000 stars each second.

Spacecraft cemetery is the oceanic dumping ground where spaceships go to die. The area is roughly centered on Point Nemo in the South Pacific — the location farthest from any land. The defunct space station Mir and six Salyut stations are among those that have been ditched there.