FIRST SPACECRAFTS IN SPACE

1. Luna 2---Luna 2 was first spacecraft
to make a landing on the moon.
Launched by the USSR on 12 Sep
1959 it impacted the surface of the
moon on 14.09.1959

2. Luna 3---Luna 3 was first space
probe to photograph the far side or
the dark side of the moon. It was
launched by the USSR on 04 Oct 1959

3. Apollo 11---Apollo 11 was first
spacecraft which landed the first
humans, Neil Armstrong and Buzz
Aldrin on the moon.

4. Mariner 4---Mariner 4 was the first
spacecraft to flyby Mars and also the
first to return images of another
planet. It was launched by the USA
on 28.11.1964

5. Mariner 9 It was the first
spacecraft to orbit another planet -
Mars. It was launched by the USA on
30.05.1971

6. Pioneer 10---Pioneer 10 was the
first spacecraft to reach the planet
Jupiter. It was launched by the USA
on 02.03.1972 and reached closest to
Jupiter on 04.12.1973. In 1983,
Pioneer 10 became the first spacecraft
to travel past the orbit of the most
distant planet, Neptune.

7. Galileo---Galileo launched by the
USA on 18.10.1989 was the first
spacecraft to flyby an asteroid, 951
Gaspra. It also discovered Dactyl, a
moon of the asteroid Ida. The
spacecraft was the first to orbit
Jupiter in December 1995.

8. Mariner 10--- Launched on
03.11.1973, Mariner 10 was the first
spacecraft to flyby Mercury.

9. Messenger---Messenger was the
first spacecraft to orbit Mercury. It
was launched by the USA on
03.08.2004, it entered the orbit of
Mercury on 18.03.2011

10. Helios 2---Helios 2 launched on
15.01.1976 was a joint venture of the
United States and West Germany. It
set the record for being closest
spacecraft to the Sun, at a distance of
43.432 million kilometers on 17 April
1976.

11. Voyager 1---Voyager 1 launched on
05.09.1977 by NASA, to study solar
system and interstellar medium,
became the first man-made object to
enter the interstellar space on 25
August 2012. (This was confirmed by
NASA in Sep 2013).