The 1960s
16 missions
Apollo 11
First humans on the Moon. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed the Eagle on July 20, 1969 while Mic...
Vostok 1
Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space on April 12, 1961. The flight lasted 108 minutes, one o...
Mercury-Atlas 6
John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth on February 20, 1962. Completed three orbits in ...
Gemini 4
Ed White performed the first American spacewalk on June 3, 1965. He was so reluctant to return that ...
Apollo 1
A cabin fire during a launch rehearsal killed astronauts Grissom, White, and Chaffee on January 27, ...
Soyuz
The longest-serving spacecraft in history, flying since 1966. After the shuttle retired in 2011, it ...
Mariner 4
Returned the first close-up images of Mars, 22 photos. Shattered hopes of finding canals or civiliza...
Luna 9
First successful soft landing on the Moon, February 3, 1966. The first photos from the lunar surface...
Ranger 7
Returned the first close-up photographs of the Moon, 4,316 images in 17 minutes before impact. The p...
Surveyor 1
First American soft landing on the Moon, June 2, 1966, just 4 months after Luna 9. Returned over 11,...
Apollo 8
The first crewed mission to leave Earth orbit and reach the Moon. Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill...
Apollo 12
The second crewed Moon landing, in November 1969. Pete Conrad and Alan Bean landed within walking di...
Mercury-Redstone 3
Alan Shepard became the first American in space on May 5, 1961, just 23 days after Gagarin. The flig...
Gemini 8
Neil Armstrong and David Scott performed the first docking in orbit, linking with an Agena target ve...
Voskhod 2
Alexei Leonov performed the first spacewalk on March 18, 1965. His suit ballooned in the vacuum and ...
Zond 5
Flew tortoises, flies, and other organisms around the Moon and back, the first living things to make...