To Infinity and Beyond
- High Point: Sputnik Launched
- High Point: Sputnik 2 Launched
- Low Point: Vanguard Booster Blows Up
- High Point: Explorer 1 Launched
- High Point: NASA Created
- High Point: Pioneer 4 Passes the Moon
- High Point: NASA Names Its First Seven Astronauts
- High Point: Primates in Space!
- High Point: Lunik 2 Strikes Moon
- High Point: Venera 1 Flies by Venus
- High Point: Yuri Gagarin Orbits the Earth
- High Point: Alan Shepard Becomes the First American in Space
- High Point: President Kennedy Commits the U.S. to Landing on the Moon
- Low Point: Gus Grissom Nearly Drowns on Splashdown
- Low Point: The Ranger Lunar Probes Fail — Repeatedly
- High Point: John Glenn Orbits the Earth
- High Point: Vostoks 3 and 4 Orbit Earth Simultaneously
- High Point: Rangers 7, 8 and 9 Succeed
- High Point: Alexei Leonov Conducts First Spacewalk
- High Point: Ed White, Aboard Gemini 4, Conducts First U.S. Spacewalk
- High Point: Geminis 6 and 7 Rendezvous Over the Earth
- High Point: Luna 9 Conducts First Soft Landing on the Moon
- Low Point: Gemini 8 Spins Out
- Low Point: Apollo 1 Crew Dies in Launchpad Fire
- High Point: First Launch of a Saturn 5
- Low Point: Vladimir Komarov Dies on Re-Entry
- High Point: Zond 5 Makes Lunar Round-Trip
- High Point: Apollo 8 Orbits the Moon
- High Point: Apollo 9 Flies
- High Point: Apollo 11 Lands on the Moon
- High Point: Apollo 13 Explodes
- High Point: Venera 7 Lands on Venus
- High Point: Salyut 1 Launched
- Low Point: Soyuz 11 Astronauts Die on Re-Entry
- Low Point: President Nixon Commits the U.S. to the Space Shuttle
- High Point: Pioneers 10 and 11 Launched to Jupiter and Saturn
- High Point: Apollo and Soyuz Dock in Earth Orbit
- High Point: Vikings 1 and 2 Land on Mars
- High Point: Voyagers 2 and 1 Launched
- Low Point: Skylab Crashes Back to Earth
- Low Point: First Space Shuttle Mission
- Low Point: Ronald Reagan Calls for a Permanently Manned Space Station
- Low Point: Senator Jake Garn Flies in Space
- Low Point: Challenger Explodes
- High Point: Galileo Jupiter Probe Launched
- High Point: Hubble Space Telescope Launched
- High Point: Mars Pathfinder Lands
- High Point: John Glenn Returns to Space
- Low Point: Columbia Explodes
- High Point: George W. Bush Commits the U.S. to Return to the Moon
Gagarin's Great Feat: 50 Space-Race Highs and Lows
TIME's Jeffrey Kluger examines the high and low points of space exploration in the years before and since Yuri Gagarin went into orbit