<Li> 1861 - William Leitch publishes an essay "A Journey Through Space" (later published in his book God's Glory in the Heavens (1862)), introducing the concept of using rockets to propel a vehicle carrying people into space, to visit the Moon and other planets . </Li> <Li> 1865 - Jules Verne publishes From the Earth to the Moon as a humorous science fantasy story about a space gun launching a manned spacecraft equipped with rockets for landing on the Moon, but eventually used for another orbital maneuver . </Li> <Ul> <Li> 1902 - French cinema pioneer Georges Méliès directs A Trip to the Moon, the first film about space travel . </Li> <Li> 1903 - Konstantin Tsiolkovsky begins a series of papers discussing the use of rocketry to reach outer space, space suits, and colonization of the solar system . Two key points discussed in his works are liquid fuels and staging . </Li> <Li> 1913 - Without knowing the work of Russian mathematician Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, French engineer Robert Esnault - Pelterie derived the equations for space flight, produced a paper that presented the rocket equation and calculated the energies required to reach the Moon and nearby planets . </Li> <Li> 1922 - Hermann Oberth publishes his scientific work about rocketry and space exploration: Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen ("By Rocket into Planetary Space"). </Li> <Li> 1924 - Society for Studies of Interplanetary Travel founded in Moscow by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Friedrich Zander and 200 other space and rocket experts </Li> <Li> 1926 - Robert Goddard launches the first liquid fuel rocket . </Li> <Li> 1927 - Verein für Raumschiffahrt (VfR - "Spaceflight Society") founded in Germany . </Li> <Li> 1929 - Woman in the Moon, considered to be one of the first "serious" science fiction films . </Li> <Li> 1931 - Friedrich Schmiedl attempts the first rocket mail service in Austria </Li> <Li> 1935 - Emilio Herrera Linares from Spain designed and made the first full - pressured astronaut suit, called the escafandra estratonáutica . The Russians then used a model of Herrera's suit when first flying into space of which the Americans would then later adopt when creating their own space program . </Li> <Li> 1937 - Peenemünde Army Research Center founded in Germany </Li> <Li> 1938 - The Projectile Development Establishment founded at Fort Halstead for the United Kingdom's research into military solid - fuel rockets . </Li> <Li> 1939 - Katyusha multiple rocket launchers (Russian: Катюша) are a type of rocket artillery first built and fielded by the Soviet Union . </Li> <Li> 1941 - French rocket EA - 41 is launched, being the first European liquid propellant working rocket </Li> <Li> 1941 - Jet Assisted Take Off JATO installed on US Army Air Corp Ercoupe aircraft occurred on 12 August in March Field, California . </Li> <Li> 1942 - Wernher von Braun and Walter Dornberger launch the first V - 2 rocket at Peenemünde in northern Germany . </Li> <Li> 1942 - A V - 2 rocket reaches an altitude of 85 km . </Li> <Li> 1944 - The V - 2 rocket MW 18014 reaches an altitude of 176 km, becoming the first man - made object in space . </Li> <Li> 1945 - Lothar Sieber dies after the first vertical take - off manned rocket flight in a Bachem Ba 349 "Natter" </Li> <Li> 1945 - Operation Paperclip takes 1,600 German rocket scientists and technicians to the United States </Li> <Li> 1945 - Operation Osoaviakhim takes 2,000 German rocket scientists and technicians to the Soviet Union </Li> <Li> 1946 - First flight of the Nike missile, later the first operational surface - to - air guided missile </Li> <Li> 1947 - Chuck Yeager achieves the first manned supersonic flight in a Bell X-1 rocket - powered aircraft </Li> <Li> 1949 - Willy Ley publishes The Conquest of Space </Li> <Li> 1952 - 22 May, French Véronique 1 rocket is launched from the Algerian desert . </Li> <Li> 1952 - Wernher von Braun discusses the technical details of a manned exploration of Mars in Das Marsprojekt . </Li> <Li> 1953 - Colliers Magazine publishes a series of articles on man's future in space, igniting the interest of people around the world . The series includes numerous articles by Ley and von Braun, illustrated by Chesley Bonestell . </Li> <Li> 1956 - First launch of PGM - 17 Thor, the first US ballistic missile and forerunner of the Delta space launch rockets </Li> <Li> 1957 - Launch of the first ICBM, the USSR's R - 7 (8K71), known to NATO as the SS - 6 Sapwood . </Li> <Li> 1957 - The USSR launches Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite . </Li> <Li> 1958 - The U.S. launches Explorer 1, the first American artificial satellite, on a Jupiter - C rocket . </Li> <Li> 1958 - US launches their first ICBM, the Atlas - B (the Atlas - A was a test article only). </Li> <Li> 1961 - the USSR launches Vostok 1, Yuri Gagarin reached a height of 327 km above Earth and was the first man to orbit Earth . </Li> <Li> 1961 - US, a Mercury capsule named Freedom 7 with Alan B. Shepard, spacecraft was launched by a Redstone rocket on a ballistic trajectory suborbital flight . </Li> <Li> 1962 - The US launches Mercury MA - 6 (Friendship 7) on an Atlas D booster, John Glenn finally puts America in orbit . </Li> <Li> 1963 - The USSR launches Vostok 6, Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman (and first civilian) to orbit Earth . She remained in space for nearly three days and orbited the Earth 48 times . </Li> <Li> 1963 - US X-15 rocket - plane, the first reusable manned spacecraft (suborbital) reaches space, pioneering reusability, carried launch and glide landings . </Li> <Li> 1965 - USSR Proton rocket, highly successful launch vehicle with notable payloads, Salyut 6 & Salyut 7, Mir & ISS components </Li> <Li> 1965 - Robert Salked investigates various single stage to orbit spaceplane concepts </Li> <Li> 1966 - USSR Luna 9, the first soft landing on the Moon </Li> <Li> 1966 - USSR launches Soyuz spacecraft, longest - running series of spacecraft, eventually serving Soviet, Russian and International space missions . </Li> <Li> 1969 - US Apollo 11, first men on the Moon, first lunar surface extravehicular activity . </Li> <Li> 1981 - US space shuttle pioneers reusability and glide landings </Li> <Li> 1998 - US Deep Space 1 is first deep space mission to use an ion thruster for propulsion . </Li> <Li> 1998 - Russia launch Zarya module which is the first part of the International Space Station . </Li> </Ul> <Li> 1902 - French cinema pioneer Georges Méliès directs A Trip to the Moon, the first film about space travel . </Li>

When was the first rocket sent into space