Space Exploration for Experts

The only Mercury astronaut who did not fly a Mercury mission

Instead, that astronaut flew on this mission (1975)

Performed history's first spacewalk (USSR 1965)

Performed history's second spacewalk (USA 1965)

Apollo 12 astronauts landed within 200 meters (657 feet) of this earlier, unmanned lander (1969)

The only astronaut to fly Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions*

The only astronaut to fly Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle missions

The only Mercury astronaut to walk on the moon (1971)

The only astronaut to fly both Mercury and Space Shuttle missions

Three astronauts have flown to the Moon twice. Only one did not walk on its surface

First female cosmonaut (1963)

First female astronaut (1983)

In lunar orbit since 2009, this satellite has photographed all of the Apollo landing sites and much more

First successful Mars landers (1976)**

First robotic rover deployed on Mars (1997)

These twin Mars rovers operated for years beyond their original 90-day mission plans (2004 - )

This Soviet program returned photos (and sound!) from the surface of Venus

Soviet robotic lunar rover and soil sample return program

China's unmanned Chang'e-4 mission was the first to land here (2019) ***

This nuclear powered Mars rover has been operating there since 2012

Mariner 10 flew by Mercury in 1974. This spacecraft was the first to go into orbit around that planet (2011)

These twin spacecraft performed the first Jupiter flyby missions (1973, 1974)

This mission was the first to flyby an asteroid (1991) and later orbited Jupiter and its moons for 8 years

Launched in 1977, this spacecraft visited Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune and is still sending back data from interstellar space

This spacecraft flew by Pluto and its moons in 2015 and the ancient Kuiper Belt object, Ultima Thule, in 2018

This joint NASA-European Space Agency (ESA) mission was the first to orbit Saturn (2004)

That mission delivered this ESA-built lander to the surface of Titan, Saturn's largest moon

This spacecraft used its ion engine to orbit the asteroids Vesta (2011) and Ceres (2015)

Neil Armstrong was the first man on the Moon. This astronaut was the last... so far (1972)

Named for a Peanuts cartoon character, the ascent stage of Apollo 10's Lunar Module has been orbiting the Sun since 1969