The Space Age in Middle Age

TIME's Jeffrey Kluger examines the high and low points of space exploration in the half-century since the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik, launched on Oct. 4, 1957

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Top 50 Highs and Lows Since Sputnik

  1. High Point: Sputnik Launched
  2. High Point: Sputnik 2 Launched
  3. Low Point: Vanguard Booster Blows Up
  4. High Point: Explorer 1 Launched
  5. High Point: NASA Created
  6. High Point: Pioneer 4 Passes the Moon
  7. High Point: NASA Names Its First Seven Astronauts
  8. High Point: Primates in Space!
  9. High Point: Lunik 2 Strikes Moon
  10. High Point: Venera 1 Flies by Venus
  11. High Point: Yuri Gagarin Orbits the Earth
  12. High Point: Alan Shepard Becomes the First American in Space
  13. High Point: President Kennedy Commits the U.S. to Landing on the Moon
  14. Low Point: Gus Grissom Nearly Drowns on Splashdown
  15. Low Point: The Ranger Lunar Probes Fail — Repeatedly
  16. High Point: John Glenn Orbits the Earth
  17. High Point: Vostoks 3 and 4 Orbit Earth Simultaneously
  18. High Point: Rangers 7, 8 and 9 Succeed
  19. High Point: Alexei Leonov Conducts First Spacewalk
  20. High Point: Ed White, Aboard Gemini 4, Conducts First U.S. Spacewalk
  21. High Point: Geminis 6 and 7 Rendezvous Over the Earth
  22. High Point: Luna 9 Conducts First Soft Landing on the Moon
  23. Low Point: Gemini 8 Spins Out
  24. Low Point: Apollo 1 Crew Dies in Launchpad Fire
  25. High Point: First Launch of a Saturn 5
  26. Low Point: Vladimir Komarov Dies on Re-Entry
  27. High Point: Zond 5 Makes Lunar Round-Trip
  28. High Point: Apollo 8 Orbits the Moon
  29. High Point: Apollo 9 Flies
  30. High Point: Apollo 11 Lands on the Moon
  31. High Point: Apollo 13 Explodes
  32. High Point: Venera 7 Lands on Venus
  33. High Point: Salyut 1 Launched
  34. Low Point: Soyuz 11 Astronauts Die on Re-Entry
  35. Low Point: President Nixon Commits the U.S. to the Space Shuttle
  36. High Point: Pioneers 10 and 11 Launched to Jupiter and Saturn
  37. High Point: Apollo and Soyuz Dock in Earth Orbit
  38. High Point: Vikings 1 and 2 Land on Mars
  39. High Point: Voyagers 2 and 1 Launched
  40. Low Point: Skylab Crashes Back to Earth
  41. Low Point: First Space Shuttle Mission
  42. Low Point: Ronald Reagan Calls for a Permanently Manned Space Station
  43. Low Point: Senator Jake Garn Flies in Space
  44. Low Point: Challenger Explodes
  45. High Point: Galileo Jupiter Probe Launched
  46. High Point: Hubble Space Telescope Launched
  47. High Point: Mars Pathfinder Lands
  48. High Point: John Glenn Returns to Space
  49. Low Point: Columbia Explodes
  50. High Point: George W. Bush Commits the U.S. to Return to the Moon

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