- 1903:Orville Wright launches first powered flight in history, flying at Kitty Hawk for 12 seconds - 4 flights were made on 17 December. Earlier that year, Russian physicist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky claimed, with complex mathematical theories that man will one day travel in space and occupy planets. Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky publishes The Investigation of Outer Space by Means of Reaction Apparatus.
- 1904:Discovery of interstellar matter by Johannes Hartmann.
- 1905:Albert Einstein publishes "theory of relativity."
- 1906:An explosion at Tunguska, Siberia, is attributed to comet fragments.
- 1915:Discovery of Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the Earth (except the Sun).
- 1919:International Astronomical Union founded.
- 1924:Edwin Hubble proves that galaxies are systems independent of the Milky Way.
- 1930:Clyde Tombaugh discovers the 9th planet, Pluto.
- 1931:Karl Jansky invents radio astronomy
- 1939:Frank J Whittle invents the jet engine. Robert Watson-Watt invents radar.
- 1945: Radar contact is established with the Moon. Arthur C Clarke proposes communications satellites in geosynchronous orbit above the Earth - by 1965 his visionary ideas become reality.
- 1947: Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier in the Bell X-1 rocket plane.
- 1948:The Hale reflector telescope is installed at the Mount Palomar observatory in California.
- 1949:Rocket testing ground is established at Cape Canaveral.
- 1951:First space flight by living creatures when US sends 4 monkeys into the stratosphere.
- 1955:The Jodrell Bank telescope is completed.
- 1957:USSR launches the Sputnik 1 satellite into space.
- 1958 NASA founded.
- 1959:First pictures of far side of the moon by Luna III.
- 1961: Yuri Gagarin the first man in space. Alan B. Shephard Jr is the first American in space.
- 1962:John Glenn becomes first American to orbit earth in space. The first X-ray source is discovered in Scorpius.
- 1963:Velentina Tereshklova becomes first woman in space in Vostok 6. First quasar discovered.
- 1965:Soviet astronaut Alexei Leonov makes the first space walk.
- 1966: Star Trek debuts on NBC. Neil Armstrong and David Scott makes the first space docking in Gemini 8. Luna IX probe lands on the Moon, while Venera III makes a landing on Venus.
- 1967:Bell and Hewish discover the first pulsar
- 1969:Neil Armstrong is the first man on the moon followed by Buzz Aldrin.
- 1970:Apollo 13 forced to abort Lunar Mission when oxygen tank explodes. Crew managed safe return to Earth.
- 1971:The Russians launch Salyut I, the first orbital space station.
- 1975:Soviet Soyuz 19 docks with Apollo 18. Venera IX makes a landing on Venus and relays pictures of the planet back to the Earth
- 1976:Viking I lands on Mars.
- 1977:Star Wars debuts. Rings around Uranus discovered. The Voyager deep space probes are launched.
- 1978:Pioneer 1 and 2 reach Venus 1978 James Christy discovers Charon, a moon of Pluto.
- 1979-1981:The Voyager spacecraft pass Jupiter and Saturn, relaying an enormous amount of information back.
- 1981:Shuttle Columbia launched.
- 1982: Rings around Neptune discovered.
- 1983:Sally Ride is first US woman in space. Pioneer 10 becomes the first man-made object to travel beyond the solar system.
- 1986:Soviet Union launches Mir space station. Space Shuttle Challenger explodes, killing all aboard. Voyager 2 reaches Uranus, finding 6 new moons.
- 1987:Supernova SN1987A flares up, becoming the first supernova visible to the naked eye since 1604.
- 1989:Voyager 2 reaches Neptune, discovering a ring system and 8 moons.
- 1990:Hubble space telescope launched.
- 1991:Helen Sharman becomes the first British astronaut, on Soyuz TM-12.
- 1992: COBE satellite discovers ripples from the Big Bang. NASA launches the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) program.
- 1994: An asteroid passes earth at only 160 000km (100,000 miles). Hubble Space Telescope finds evidence for a black hole at the centre of the M87 galaxy..
- 1996:NASA scientist announce the discovery of proof of living organisms on a Mars meteorite in Antarctica.
- 1997:First ever space funeral when Timothy Leary's ashes is launched into space. US space probe pathfinder lands on Mars. World's first university, where Aristotle and Socrates taught, is discovered in Athens.
- 1998:Construction started on the International Space Station. Supernova observations suggest that the universe is expanding at an increased rate.
This timeline is a work in progress.
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