1961

April 12: Soviet cosmonaut Yury Gagarin becomes first man in space, completing a single, 108-minute orbit aboard Vostok 1

May 5: US launches a Mercury spacecraft, carrying astronaut Alan Shepard in a sub-orbital flight. First American in orbit is John Glenn, in February 1962

1963: First space flight by a woman, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova

1965: Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov undertakes first-ever spacewalk

1967: Launchpad blaze kills all three astronauts, Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee, aboard Apollo 1 (January). Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov killed when Soyuz 1 parachute fails (April)

1968: Apollo 8 becomes first manned spaceship to fly around the Moon

1969: Man lands on the Moon (Apollo 11)

1972: Last manned flight to the Moon (Apollo 17)

1975: A US Apollo spacecraft docks with a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft while in Earth orbit on 18 July, in first international co-operative space flight

1981: Maiden voyage of the US space shuttle Columbia, the first reusable manned spacecraft

1986: Loss of US space shuttle Challenger. Seven astronauts killed

1998: International Space Station (ISS) starts to take shape

1999: China carries out first unmanned flight of its own spacecraft

2001: Soviet-Russian space station Mir is destroyed after 15 years in service. World's first space tourist, US millionaire Dennis Tito taken to ISS

2003:

Feb 1: Lost of space shuttle Columbia. All seven astronauts killed

Oct 15: China becomes third country to launch a man into space as Lieutenant Colonel Yang Liwei, 38, enters into orbit onboard the Shenzhou V capsule

SPACE.WIRE