Past Capabilities

From NASA's first manned spaceflight program, known as Project Mercury, to the retirement of the shuttle program, there have been many firsts and lasts in the history of spaceflight. Some of the major events include the launch of the first man-made object to orbit the Earth on October 4, 1957, the first man in space on May 5, 1961, the first man on the Moon on July 20, 1969, the first shuttle launch on April 12, 1981, and the last shuttle landing on July 21, 2011. Over the course of the past 55 years, governmental and commercial agencies have revolutionized space travel.

The timeline shows dates ranging from the date of the first NASA launch, October 11, 1958, to the day a current project, Juno, will arrive at Jupiter, 2016. Hover over the satellite thumbnails to find out what date each one represents and click on them to learn more about each date.

Click on the timeline thumbnail to the right to use our interactive timeline! If you have a slow internet connection, please be patient when waiting for the timeline to come up. It may take a moment. Note: The timeline was created using Adobe Edge Preview 4, which uses HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. It is only compatible in IE9 and the latest versions of Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, and Safari.