Since 1957, when Sputnik 1 shot into orbit,
humans have been launching all sorts of space machines into the heavens.

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First spacecraft launched into space - Sputnik 1 satellite (USSR) on 4 October 1957.

First spacecraft to escape Earth's gravity - Luna 1 (USSR), 2 June 1959.

First spacecraft to land on Venus - Venera 3 (USSR), 1 March 1966.

First unmanned space docking (USSR) - 30 October 1967 between Cosmos 186 and Cosmos 188.

More Fast Facts About Space History

First spacecraft to land on Mars - probe from Mars 2 mission (USSR), 19 April, 1971.

First spacecraft to leave the solar system (according to some theories) - Pioneer 10 (USA), 1972.

Most distant probe - Voyager 1 (USA), launched in 1977, is about 16 000 000 000 km from the Sun, as at 1 February 2009.

Fastest spacecraft speed - over 252 000 kph, the speed reached by the Helios space probes (West Germany/USA) in orbit of the sun, 1974 and 1976.

First spacecraft to get close to Halley's Comet - Giotto (European Space Agency), 1986.

First space station - Salyut 1 (USSR), launched 19 April 1971.

First space-based telescope - Hubble Space Telescope (USA), launched 24 April 1990.

Deep Impact probe's impactor section collides with the comet 9P/Tempel, and gathers data about the composition of the comet's interior, 4 July 2005.