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This is a timeline of known
spaceflight Spaceflight (or space flight) is an application of astronautics to fly objects, usually spacecraft, into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such ...
s, both crewed and uncrewed, sorted chronologically by launch date. Due to its large size, the timeline has been split into smaller articles, one for each year since 1951. There is a separate list for all flights that occurred before 1951. The list for the year and for its subsequent years may contain planned launches, but the statistics will only include past launches. For the purpose of these lists, a spaceflight is defined as any flight that crosses the
Kármán line The Kármán line (or von Kármán line ) is a conventional definition of the Outer space#Boundary, edge of space; it is widely but not universally accepted. The international record-keeping body Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, FAI ( ...
, the FAI-recognized edge of space, which is above mean sea level (AMSL). The timeline contains all the flights which have either crossed the edge of space, were intended to do so but failed, or are planned in the near future. Notable test flights of spaceflight systems may be listed even if they were not planned to reach space. Some lists are further divided into orbital launches (sending a payload into orbit, whether successful or not) and suborbital flights (e.g. ballistic missiles, sounding rockets, experimental spacecraft).


Launch Statistics (1957-2025)


Orbital and Suborbital launches by year


Before 1951

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Spaceflight before 1951 Spaceflight as a practical endeavor began during World War II with the development of operational liquid-fueled rockets. Beginning life as a weapon, the V-2 rocket, V-2 was pressed into peaceful service after the war at the United States' Whi ...


1951-1959

* 1951 in spaceflight * 1952 in spaceflight *
1953 in spaceflight The year 1953 saw the rockoon join the stable of sounding rockets capable of reaching beyond the boundary of space (as defined by the World Air Sports Federation). Employed by both the University of Iowa and the Naval Research Laboratory, ...
* 1954 in spaceflight * 1955 in spaceflight *
1956 in spaceflight Preparation for the 18-month International Geophysical Year (IGY), scheduled to begin July 1957, became a truly international endeavor in 1956. The American IGY satellite program, Project Vanguard, saw its first test launch at the end of th ...
*
1957 in spaceflight The first orbital flight of an artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched in October 1957, by the Soviet Union. In November, the second orbital flight took place. The Soviet Union launched the Sputnik 2, first animal to orbit the Earth, a ...
(First Orbital launch) * 1958 in spaceflight ** 1958 in spaceflight (January–June) ** 1958 in spaceflight (July–December) *
1959 in spaceflight Luna 1 was the first spacecraft to leave the gravitational influence of Earth. Also in 1959, Luna 2 was the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another celestial body, impacting the Moon, and Luna 3 returned the first images of the far si ...
** 1959 in spaceflight (January–June) ** 1959 in spaceflight (July-December)


1960-1969

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1960 in spaceflight Orbital and Suborbital launches Orbital launch statistics By country By rocket By family By orbit References Footnotes {{Orbital launches in 1960 Spaceflight by year ...
** 1960 in spaceflight (January–April) ** 1960 in spaceflight (May–August) ** 1960 in spaceflight (September–December) *
1961 in spaceflight Orbital and Suborbital launches Deep Space Rendezvous Notable creations of orbital debris Orbital launch statistics By rocket By orbit References Footnotes {{Orbital launches in 1961 Spaceflight by year ...
** 1961 in spaceflight (January–June) ** 1961 in spaceflight (July–December) *
1962 in spaceflight Orbital and Suborbital launches Deep space rendezvous Orbital launch statistics By country By rocket By orbit References Footnotes {{Orbital launches in 1962 Spaceflight by year ...
** 1962 in spaceflight (January–March) ** 1962 in spaceflight (April–June) ** 1962 in spaceflight (July–September) ** 1962 in spaceflight (October–December) *
1963 in spaceflight Orbital and Suborbital launches Deep space rendezvous Notable creations of orbital debris Orbital launch statistics By country By rocket By orbit References Footnotes {{DEFAULTSORT:1963 In Spaceflight Spac ...
** 1963 in spaceflight (January–March) ** 1963 in spaceflight (April-June) ** 1963 in spaceflight (July–September) ** 1963 in spaceflight (October-December) *
1964 in spaceflight Orbital and Suborbital launches Deep Space Rendezvous Orbital launch statistics By country By rocket By orbit References Footnotes {{Orbital launches in 1964 Spaceflight by year ...
** 1964 in spaceflight (January–March) ** 1964 in spaceflight (April–June) ** 1964 in spaceflight (July–September) ** 1964 in spaceflight (October–December) *
1965 in spaceflight Orbital and Suborbital launches Deep Space Rendezvous EVAs Orbital launch statistics By country By rocket By orbit References U.S. ''Aeronautics and Space Report 1965'' Footnotes
{{Orbital launches in 1965 1965 ...
** 1965 in spaceflight (January–March) ** 1965 in spaceflight (April–June) ** 1965 in spaceflight (July–September) ** 1965 in spaceflight (October–December) *
1966 in spaceflight The year 1966 saw the peak and the end of the Gemini program. The program proved that docking in space and human EVA's could be done safely. It saw the first launch of the Saturn IB rocket, an important step in the Apollo program, and t ...
* 1967 in spaceflight * 1968 in spaceflight *
1969 in spaceflight 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1969th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 2nd millennium, the 69th year of the 20th century, and the ...


1970-1979

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1970 in spaceflight Japan and China each launched their first satellites in 1970, bringing the total number of nations with independent launch capability to five. Apollo 13 was launched; after suffering an explosion in deep space it had to circumnavigate the mo ...
*
1971 in spaceflight 1971 saw the last three known deaths of cosmonauts of the Soviet space program and the only deaths in space. Their mission was to man humanity's first space station. The experimental bay door failed to separate so the first crew failed to do ...
*
1972 in spaceflight 1972 saw humanity's last crewed mission to the Moon of the 20th century, Apollo 17. Launches , colspan=8, January , - , colspan=8, February , - , colspan=8, March , - , colspan=8, April , - , colspan=8, May , - ...
*
1973 in spaceflight 1973 saw the launch of the first American Space station known as Skylab on a Saturn V rocket. Launches , colspan=8, January , - , colspan=8, February , - , colspan=8, March , - , colspan=8, April , - , ...
*
1974 in spaceflight On 29 March 1974 Mariner 10 ''Mariner 10'' was an American Robotic spacecraft, robotic space probe launched by NASA on 3 November 1973, to fly by the planets Mercury (planet), Mercury and Venus. It was the first spacecraft to perfo ...
* 1975 in spaceflight *
1976 in spaceflight The following is an outline of 1976 in spaceflight. Launches , colspan=8, January , - , colspan=8, February , - , colspan=8, March , - , colspan=8, April , - , colspan=8, May , - ...
*
1977 in spaceflight Spaceflight in 1977 included some important events such as the roll out of the Space Shuttle orbiter, ''Voyager 1'' and Voyager space probes were launched. NASA received the Space Shuttle orbiter later named , on 14 January. This unpowered s ...
*
1978 in spaceflight 1978 saw the launch of the Pioneer Venus missions launched by the United States, on 20 May and 8 August. The Pioneer Venus Multiprobe landed four spacecraft on the planet, one of which transmitted data for 67 minutes before being destroyed ...
* 1979 in spaceflight


1980-1989

* 1980 in spaceflight * 1981 in spaceflight *
1982 in spaceflight The following is an outline of 1982 in spaceflight. Launches , colspan="8", January , - , colspan="8", February , - , colspan="8", March , - , colspan="8", April , - , colspan ...
* 1983 in spaceflight *
1984 in spaceflight The following is an outline of 1984 in spaceflight. Launches , colspan="8", January , - , colspan="8", February , - , colspan="8", March , - , colspan="8", April , - , colspan="8", May , - , col ...
*
1985 in spaceflight The following is an outline of 1985 in spaceflight. Overview First ''Atlantis'' flight Orbital launches , colspan=8 style="background:white;", January , - , colspan=8 style="background:white;", Feb ...
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1986 in spaceflight The year 1986 saw the destruction of Space Shuttle Challenger shortly after lift-off, killing all seven aboard, the first in-flight deaths of American astronauts. This accident followed the successful flight of Space Shuttle Columbia, Colu ...
*
1987 in spaceflight The following is an outline of 1987 in spaceflight. Launches Deep-space rendezvous There were no deep-space rendezvous in 1987. References Footnotes
{{Orbital launches in 1987 1987 in spaceflight, Spacefli ...
* 1988 in spaceflight * 1989 in spaceflight


1990-1999

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1990 in spaceflight The following is an outline of 1990 in spaceflight. Launch of Hubble Space Telescope Launches , colspan="8", January , - , colspan="8", February , - , colspan="8", March , - , colspan="8", ...
* 1991 in spaceflight * 1992 in spaceflight * 1993 in spaceflight * 1994 in spaceflight * 1995 in spaceflight *
1996 in spaceflight This article outlines notable events occurring in 1996 in spaceflight, including major launches and Extravehicular activity, EVAs. Intelsat 708 launch failure Orbital launches , colspan="8", January , - , colspan="8", F ...
* 1997 in spaceflight * 1998 in spaceflight *
1999 in spaceflight Launch of Chandra X-ray Observatory Table The table below shows 208 satellite launches were made in 1999. 81 ''(39%)'' of these launches were communications satellites. Orbital launches , colspan=8, January , - , colspan=8, ...


2000-2009

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2000 in spaceflight This article outlines notable events occurring in 2000 in spaceflight Spaceflight (or space flight) is an application of astronautics to fly objects, usually spacecraft, into or through outer space, either with or without humans on ...
*
2001 in spaceflight This article outlines notable events occurring in 2001 in spaceflight, including major launches and Extravehicular activity, EVAs. Deorbit of ''Mir'' Launches , colspan=8, January , - , colspan=8, February , - , ...
*
2002 in spaceflight This article outlines notable events occurring in 2002 in spaceflight, including major launches and Extravehicular activity, EVAs. Launches , colspan=8, January , - , colspan=8, February , - , colspan=8, March , - ...
* 2003 in spaceflight * 2004 in spaceflight * 2005 in spaceflight * 2006 in spaceflight *
2007 in spaceflight 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has symbolic associations in religion, mythology, supers ...
*
2008 in spaceflight 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. Etymology English ''eight'', from Old English '', æhta'', Proto-Germanic ''*ahto'' is a direct continuation of Proto-Indo-European '' *oḱtṓ(w)-'', and as such cognate wi ...
*
2009 in spaceflight Several significant events in spaceflight occurred in 2009, including Iran conducting its first indigenous orbital launch, the first Switzerland, Swiss satellite being launched and New Zealand launching its first sounding rocket. The H-IIB ...


2010-2019

* 2010 in spaceflight *
2011 in spaceflight The year 2011 saw a number of significant events in spaceflight, including the retirement of NASA's Space Shuttle after its final flight in July 2011, and the launch of China's first space station module, Tiangong-1, in September. A total ...
*
2012 in spaceflight The year 2012 saw a number of significant events in spaceflight. In May and October, the first Commercial Orbital Transportation Services resupply missions took place, during which the SpaceX Dragon became the first private spaceflight, priv ...
*
2013 in spaceflight In 2013, the maiden spaceflight of the Orbital Sciences' Antares launch vehicle, designated ''A-ONE'', took place on 13 April. Orbital Science also launched its first spacecraft, Cygnus, that docked with the International Space Station in ...
*
2014 in spaceflight In 2014, the maiden flight of the Angara A5, Antares 120 and Antares 130 took place. A total of 92 orbital launches were attempted in 2014, of which 88 were successful, two were partially successful and two were failures. The year also ...
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2015 in spaceflight In 2015, the maiden spaceflights of the Chinese Long March 6 and Long March 11 launch vehicles took place. A total of 87 orbital launches were attempted in 2015, of which 82 were successful, one was partially successful and four were fai ...
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2016 in spaceflight Several new rockets and spaceports began operations in 2016. Overview Russia inaugurated the far-Eastern Vostochny Cosmodrome on 28 April 2016 with a traditional Soyuz-2.1a flight, before expanding it for the Angara (rocket family), Angar ...
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2017 in spaceflight Notable spaceflight activities in 2017 included the maiden flight, maiden orbital flight of India's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (also called LVM3) on 5 June and the first suborbital test of Rocket Lab's Electron rocket, ...
*
2018 in spaceflight This article documents notable spaceflight events during the year 2018. For the first time since 1990 in spaceflight, 1990, more than 100 orbital launches were performed globally. Overview Planetary exploration The NASA InSight seismo ...
** List of spaceflight launches in January–June 2018 ** List of spaceflight launches in July–December 2018 * 2019 in spaceflight ** List of spaceflight launches in January–June 2019 ** List of spaceflight launches in July–December 2019


2020-2029

* 2020 in spaceflight * 2021 in spaceflight ** List of spaceflight launches in January–June 2021 ** List of spaceflight launches in July–December 2021 * 2022 in spaceflight ** List of spaceflight launches in January–June 2022 ** List of spaceflight launches in July–December 2022 *
2023 in spaceflight The year 2023 saw rapid growth and significant technical achievements in spaceflight. For the third year in a row, new world records were set for both orbital launch attempts (223) and successful orbital launches (211). The growth in orbit ...
** List of spaceflight launches in January–June 2023 ** List of spaceflight launches in July–December 2023 * 2024 in spaceflight ** List of spaceflight launches in January–June 2024 ** List of spaceflight launches in July–December 2024 *
2025 in spaceflight Spaceflight in 2025 promises to follow the 2020s trend of record-breaking orbital launches (with at least 300 expected) and increased developments in lunar, Mars, and low-earth orbit exploration. Spaceflight in 2025 will include more priva ...
** List of spaceflight launches in January–March 2025 ** List of spaceflight launches in April–June 2025 ** List of spaceflight launches in July–September 2025 ** List of spaceflight launches in October–December 2025 *
2026 in spaceflight This article documents expected notable spaceflight events during the year 2026. NASA plans to launch the Artemis 2 mission on the Space Launch System, sending astronauts around the Moon on a ten-day lunar flyby. Vast (company), Vast pla ...
* 2027 in spaceflight *
2028 in spaceflight This article documents expected notable spaceflight events during the year 2028. NASA plans to launch Dragonfly (Titan space probe), Dragonfly, a robotic rotorcraft probe which will explore Saturn's moon Titan (moon), Titan. NASA plans t ...
*
2029 in spaceflight This article documents expected notable spaceflight events during the year 2029. The China National Space Administration (CNSA) plans to launch Tianwen-4, a Jupiter orbiter and Uranus flyby mission, in 2029. ESA plans to launch the ARIEL ...


Spaceflight after 2029

* List of planned future spaceflight launches


Deep-space rendezvous after 2029


See also

*
Discovery and exploration of the Solar System Discovery and exploration of the Solar System is observation, visitation, and increase in knowledge and understanding of Earth's "cosmic neighborhood". This includes the Sun, Earth and the Moon, the major planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, S ...
*
Launch vehicle A launch vehicle is typically a rocket-powered vehicle designed to carry a payload (a crewed spacecraft or satellites) from Earth's surface or lower atmosphere to outer space. The most common form is the ballistic missile-shaped multistage ...
*
List of crewed spacecraft This is a list of all crewed spacecraft types that have flown into space, including sub-orbital flights above 80 km, space stations that have been visited by at least one crew member, and spacecraft currently planned to operate with crews ...
* Outer space *
Space exploration Space exploration is the process of utilizing astronomy and space technology to investigate outer space. While the exploration of space is currently carried out mainly by astronomers with telescopes, its physical exploration is conducted bo ...
* Space launch market competition * Timeline of private spaceflight * Timeline of Solar System exploration *
Timeline of space exploration This is a timeline of space exploration which includes notable achievements, first accomplishments and milestones in humanity's exploration of outer space. This timeline generally does not distinguish achievements by a specific country or privat ...
* History of spaceflight


References


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Timeline Of Spaceflight