| 1957 | Sputnik-I and Sputnik-II of Russia, first two earth-orbiting satellites; USA's Vanguard TV3 fails. |
| 1959 | Russia launches Luna-I, first lunar fly-by and Luna-II, first lunar impact. |
| 1961 | Russia's first manned Earth orbiter Vostok-I carrying Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. |
| 1962 | Mariner-II, first Venus fly-by of USA. |
| 1964 | Mariner-IV, first Mars fly-by of USA. |
| 1965 | Russia's Venera-III, first spacecraft to impact another planet. |
| 1966 | Russia's Luna-IX, first spacecraft to land on the moon and Luna-X, first man-made satellite of the moon. |
| 1967 | Russia's Venera-IV, first spacecraft to transmit data from Venus's atmosphere. |
| 1968 | USA's Apollo-VIII, first manned lunar orbiter. |
| 1969 | USA's Apollo-X, manned lunar orbiter and Apollo-XL first manned lunar landing; Neil .Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin become the first cosmonauts to land on moon. |
| 1970 | USA's ApolIo-XIII, spacecraft returns after malfunctioning; Russia's Venera-Vll, first Venus lander and Luna- XVII (Lunokhod-I), first lunar rover. |
| 1971 | Russia's Mars-II, first Mars orbiter and first mission to impact Mars;.Mars-III, first Mars lander. |
| 1972 | USA's Pioneer -X first Jupiter fly-by |
| 1973 | USA's Pioneer-XI, first Saturn fly-by; Mariner-X uses the gravitational pull of Venus to reach Mercury. |
| 1975 | Russia's Venera-IX, first Venus orbiter and USA's Viking-I, Mars orbiter and lander. |
| 1976 | USA's Helios-II reaches closest to Sun. |
| 1977 | Voyager-II of USA flies by Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. 1981 ; USA's space shuttle STS-1,' first space shuttle flight. |
| 1985 | Japan's Sakigakc, Comet Bailey fly-by. |
| 1989 | USA's Galileo, first Jupiter orbiter and first atmospheric probe of the planet. |
| 1990 | USA's Bubble Space Telescope Observatory in space 600 km above Earth's surface. |
| 1995 | ESA's SOHO (Solar Heliospheric Observatory), Solar Obse |
| 1996 | USA's NEAR, first near-Earth asteroid rendezvous mission; Mars Pathfinder, first Mars rover. |
| 2001 | USA's Genesis, first mission to collect solar wind sample. |
| 2005 | USA's MESSENGER, Mercury orbiter, expected to return in 2011. |
| 2006 | USA's New Horizons and Pluto - Kupito Belt Probe; Stereo Solar orbiter. |
| 2007 | USA's Phoenix, Mars polar lander; Japan's Selene, lunar orbiter and USAs Dawn, Asteroids |