1990

• August 10 - The Magellan Spacecraft, launched in 1989, began to map the surface of Venus using radar equipment.

 

• August 24 - The Space Shuttle Discovery deployed the Hubble Space Telescope.

       1992

• May 7 - The Space Shuttle Endeavor was launched on her maiden voyage.

 

• September 12 - Mae Jemison became the first African-American woman in space.

 

• September 25 - Mars Observer spacecraft was launched. Its purpose was to map Mars' surface.

       1993

• August 21- Communication with Mars Observer was lost just before it was inserted into orbit coming back.

 

• December - The Space Shuttle Endeavor made the first servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.

       1994

• February 3 - Sergei Krikalev became the first Russian cosmonaut to fly on a Space Shuttle.

       1995

• February 2 - Eileen Collins became the first female Shuttle pilot.

 

 

• December - The Galileo probe began transmitting data on Jupiter.

       1996

• November 7 - Mars Global Surveyor launched due to the loss of Mars Observer for the same reason; to map Mars' surface.

 

• November 16 - Mars 96 was launched by the Russians in hopes to explore Mars, but during its launch, it fell somewhere close to the Chilean coast.

 

• December - A mission by NASA to prove that you could send rovers to space with a cheap cost. The mission included landing a rover on Mars, then to use it to explore Mars.

 

 

         1997

• July 4 - The Mars Pathfinder arrived on Mars and later began transmitting images.

       1998

• October 29 - John Glenn became the oldest man in space.

       1999

• July 23 - Eileen Collins became the first female Shuttle Commander.

       2000

• February 14 - The U.S. Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft began transmitting images of the asteroid Eros.

       2001

• February 12 - NEAR landed on the surface of Eros.

 

 

• April 28 - American Dennis Tito became the first tourist in space after paying the Russian space program $20,000,000.

       2003

• February 1 - The Space Shuttle Columbia broke up on re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.

 

 

• February 13 - An investigative panel found that super heated air almost certainly seeped through a breach in the space shuttle Columbia’s left wing and possibly its wheel compartment during the craft’s fiery descent, resulting in the deaths of all seven astronauts.

 

 

• August 25 - NASA launched the largest-diameter infrared telescope ever in space, the Spitzer Space Telescope.

 

 

• September 21 - NASA’s Galileo mission ended a 14-year exploration of the solar system’s largest planet and its moons with the spacecraft crashing by design into Jupiter at 108,000 mph.

 

 

       2004

• January 14 - President Bush proposed a new space program that would send humans back to the moon by 2015 and establish a base to Mars and beyond.

 

 

• July 1 - The Cassini spacecraft sent back photographs of Saturn’s shimmering rings.

       2005

• July 3 - A NASA spacecraft collided with a comet half the size of Manhattan, creating a brilliant cosmic smashup designed to help scientists study the building blocks of life on Earth.

 

 

• July 26 - Space Shuttle Discovery was launched with seven astronauts aboard; this was America’s first manned space shot since the 2003 Columbia disaster.

      2006

• January 15 - NASA spacecraft Stardust returned safely to Earth in a desert near Salt Lake City with the first dust ever collected from a comet.

      2007

• August 4 - NASA launched its Phoenix Mars Lander.

 

 

• August 8 - Space Shuttle Endeavour and a crew of seven blasted off with teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan aboard as a crew member. Morgan was the first teacher in space since the Challenger disaster in 1986.

       2008

• January 14 - The NASA space probe Messenger skimmed 124 miles above Mercury.

 

 

• May 25 - NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander landed safely and began sending images home after a 10-month, 422 million-mile journey. Scientists later reported that Phoenix discovered chunks of ice.

      2009

• March 6 - The NASA spacecraft Kepler was launched. Its mission is to search for planets outside our solar system, in a distant area of the Milky Way.

 

 

• June 18 - NASA launched the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, also known as LCROSS. The mission is to confirm the presence or absence of ice on the moon. On November 13, 2009, NASA scientists announced the discovery of a "significant amount" of ice in a crater near the South Pole of the Moon.

      2010

• October 10 - Virgin Galactic, a private company, announced the successful first manned glide flight of the VSS Enterprise. This vehicle is a suborbital plane designed to take private citizens on suborbital space flights.

 

 

• October 11 - President Barack Obama signed legislation focusing NASA’s efforts on exploring Mars and the asteroids.

 

 

• December 8 - A private company named SpaceX launched a spacecraft into orbit and returned it to earth safely. It was the first non-government organization to accomplish this.

      2011

• July 8 - The space shuttle Atlantis became the last American space shuttle to be launched into space. Mission STS-135 and its 4-member crew brought much-needed supplies and equipment to the International Space Station (ISS).

 

 

• July 16 - NASA's Dawn spacecraft became the first man-made craft to orbit an asteroid.

 

 

• November 26 - NASA launched Curiosity, the biggest, best-equipped robot ever sent to explore another planet. It will reach Mars in 2012.

 

 

     2012

• May 22 - SpaceX, a commercial space company, launched its Dragon C2+ mission to resupply the International Space Station (ISS).

 

 

• August - NASA Voyager 1 probe, launched in 1977, entered interstellar space.

 

 

• August 6 - NASA's Curiosity rover successfully landed on Mars. As large as a car, it carried an array of advanced new instruments and experiments.

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     2013

• September 7 - NASA launched the unmanned LADEE spacecraft from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. It was the U.S. space agency's third lunar probe in five years.

 

 

• December 24 - NASA astronauts wrapped up successful repairs at the International Space Station after a rare Christmas Eve spacewalk to fix an equipment cooling system.

 

      2014

• August 6, 2014-First Spacecraft to Orbit a Comet: The European Space Agency's Rosetta space probe becomes the first spacecraft to enter orbit around a comet. After a 10-year and 4 billion-mile journey, Rosetta enters orbit around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The spacecraft sends back amazing high-resolution images of the comet's surface showing steep 490-foot (150-meter) cliffs and boulders the size of houses. Rosetta will follow the comet as it approaches the Sun and will provide the first close-up images of as it heats up and changes to form the classic coma and tail.

 

• November 12, 2014-First Spacecraft to land on a Comet. The European Space Agency's Philae lander becomes the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on a comet. Philae is released from the Rosetta space probe and makes a perilous seven-hour descent to the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Harpoons designed to attach the lander to the comet have failed to operate, and Philae bounces twice before finally coming to rest on the comet's surface. The spacecraft sends back valuable information about the composition of the comet.

 

      2015

• March 6, 2015-First Spacecraft to Orbit a Dwarf Planet. NASA's Dawn spacecraft enters orbit around dwarf planet Ceres. Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt located between Mars and Jupiter. At 590 miles (950 kilometers) in diameter, it contains 25% of the entire mass of the asteroid belt. Ceres is the only object in the asteroid belt massive enough to have a round shape due to gravity.   Dawn will spend the next year in orbit around the dwarf planet studying its composition and features.

 

• July 14, 2015-New Horizons Arrives at Pluto NASA's New Horizons spacecraft arrives at Pluto after a journey of more than 9 years and 4.6 billion miles. As the spacecraft makes its closest approach, it passes only 7,750 miles (12,472 km) from the surface of the dwarf planet and captures amazing high-resolution images of Pluto and its largest moon Charon. New data shows that Pluto is about         50 miles (80 km) larger than previously thought and that it has a nitrogen atmosphere extending tens of thousands of miles out into space.