From Sputnik to Artemis: almost 70 years of human adventures in space!
Robots can travel very far, survive dangerous places and work for years. They take pictures and measure their surroundings before humans can sometimes follow them.
A space robot is like a scout sent ahead of the group to check the path.
Every mission starts with a science question.
Probes, satellites and rovers each have a different job.
A mission can take years to prepare.
Engineers choose the instruments according to the question being studied. They also have to plan for power, communication, temperature and the time needed to reach the destination.
Choose a mission. Find its main question, its destination and one instrument it uses.
Answer two questions about the lesson to stamp your passport.
Question 1 of 2
Since the first satellite, Sputnik, in 1957, humans have never stopped exploring space. From the first steps on the Moon to rovers on Mars and telescopes that see the Universe’s first light, every mission pushes back the limits of what we know.
Live data provided by The Space Devs
14 missions
1957 · USSR
The very first artificial satellite! It sent out its “beep-beep” for 21 days while circling Earth.
Sputnik means “travelling companion” in Russian.
1961 · USSR
Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space! His flight lasted 108 minutes.
At lift-off, Gagarin said “Poyekhali!”: “Let’s go!”
1969 · USA
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first humans to walk on the Moon.
Armstrong flew the end of the landing himself to avoid an area covered in boulders.
1977 · USA
The farthest spacecraft humans have ever sent. It travels through interstellar space, more than 25 billion km away!
Voyager 1 carries a golden record with sounds of Earth, in case someone finds it one day.
1990 · USA/ESA
The space telescope that changed how we see the Universe. It observes stars, nebulae and very distant galaxies.
Hubble goes around Earth in about 95 minutes.
1998 · International
A laboratory as big as a football pitch, orbiting 400 km up. Astronauts have lived there without a break since 2000.
You can see the ISS with the naked eye! It looks like a bright moving star.
2012 · USA
A car-sized rover exploring Gale Crater on Mars. It found that this place could once have suited tiny forms of life.
For its first birthday on Mars, its SAM instrument played the tune of “Happy Birthday”.
2014 · ESA
The first probe to orbit a comet and put a lander (Philae) on it.
It took a 10-year journey to reach comet Churi!
2015 · USA
The first probe to fly past Pluto! It revealed a world with ice mountains and a large heart-shaped region.
New Horizons carries some of the ashes of Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto.
2021 · USA/ESA/CSA
The most powerful space telescope ever built. It observes the Universe in infrared and sees some of the very first galaxies.
Its mirror is 6.5 metres wide, and its surface is polished to within a few tens of nanometres.
2021 · USA
The rover explores Jezero Crater and keeps rock samples. It carried Ingenuity, the first helicopter to fly on another planet.
Ingenuity ended its mission in 2024 after 72 flights, far more than the five planned.
2022 · USA
The first flight of the Artemis programme. The Orion capsule flew around the Moon with no crew.
This mission tested the SLS rocket and the Orion spacecraft before the first flight with astronauts.
2023 · ESA
A mission to Jupiter and its icy moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, to study their possible oceans.
JUICE should reach Jupiter in 2031, after about eight years of travel.
2026 · USA/CSA
The first crewed flight of the Artemis programme. Orion took four astronauts around the Moon from 1 to 10 April 2026.
The crew beat Apollo 13’s distance record before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.