Pioneers of Space Exploration

Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon on July 20, 1969, during the Apollo 11 mission.

Yuri Gagarin was the first person to travel into space on April 12, 1961, aboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft.

John Glenn became the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth on February 20, 1962, aboard the Friendship 7 spacecraft.

Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to travel into space on June 16, 1963, aboard the Vostok 6 spacecraft.

Apollo 11 was the first space mission to land humans on the moon, with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin becoming the first people to walk on the lunar surface.

Alexei Leonov became the first person to perform a spacewalk on March 18, 1965, during the Voskhod 2 mission.

Mariner 4 was the first space probe to reach Mars, flying by the planet on July 14, 1965, and sending back the first close-up images of the Martian surface.

Guion Bluford became the first African American astronaut to travel into space on August 30, 1983, aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger.

Expedition 1 was the first space mission to send humans to the International Space Station (ISS), with the crew of three astronauts arriving on the station on November 2, 2000.

Yang Liwei became the first Chinese astronaut to travel into space on October 15, 2003, aboard the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft.

Philae, a lander carried by the Rosetta spacecraft, became the first spacecraft to land on a comet on November 12, 2014, touching down on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian astronaut to travel into space on April 2, 1984, aboard the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz T-11.

Perseverance is the first space mission to send humans to the surface of Mars, with the rover landing on the planet on February 18, 2021.

Mamoru Mohri became the first Japanese astronaut to travel into space on September 12, 1992, aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour.

New Horizons is the first space probe to reach Pluto, flying by the dwarf planet on July 14, 2015, and sending back the first close-up images of its surface.