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Manned Space Firsts
- 1961 April 12 - Vostok 1. Flight Time: 0.0750 days. First man in space. Record flight duration. Speed (7,844 m-s) and altitude (315 km) records.
- 1961 May 5 - Mercury MR-3. Flight Time: 0.0107 days. First American in space. First manual orientation of a manned spacecraft.
- 1961 August 6 - Vostok 2. Flight Time: 1.05 days. Record flight duration. First astronaut to experience space sickness.
- 1962 July 17 - X-15 Flight 62. Flight Time: 0.0072 days. First rocketplane to reach space (USAF definition).
- 1962 August 11 - Vostok 3. Flight Time: 3.93 days. Record flight duration. First simultaneous flight of two manned spacecraft.
- 1963 July 19 - X-15 Flight 90. Flight Time: 0.0079 days. First rocketplane to reach space (FAI definition).
- 1964 October 12 - Voskhod 1. Flight Time: 1.01 days. First multi-crew spaceflight. Altitude record (336 km). First crew to fly without spacesuits.
- 1965 March 18 - Voskhod 2. Flight Time: 1.08 days. First space walk. Speed (7,892 m-s) and altitude (475 km) records.
- 1965 March 23 - Gemini 3. Flight Time: 0.20 days. First spacecraft to maneuver in orbit. First flight of Gemini spacecraft. First American to fly twice into space.
- 1965 June 3 - Gemini 4. Flight Time: 4.08 days. First American space walk. First American long-duration spaceflight.
- 1965 August 21 - Gemini 5. Flight Time: 7.96 days. First American flight to seize duration record from Soviet Union.
- 1966 March 16 - Gemini 8. Flight Time: 0.45 days. First docking of two spacecraft. First American emergency landing.
- 1966 July 18 - Gemini 10. Flight Time: 2.95 days. First free space walk from one spacecraft to another. First rendezvous with two different spacecraft in one flight. Altitude (763 km) record.
- 1966 September 12 - Gemini 11. Flight Time: 2.97 days. Speed (8,003 m-s) and altitude (1,372 km) records. First docking with another spacecraft on first orbit after launch. First test of tethered spacecraft.
- 1968 December 21 - Apollo 8. Flight Time: 6.13 days. First manned flight to lunar orbit. Speed (10,807 m-s) and altitude (378,504 km) records.
- 1969 March 3 - Apollo 9. Flight Time: 10.04 days. First manned test of the Lunar Module. First test of the Apollo space suits. First manned flight of a spacecraft incapable of returning to earth.
- 1969 October 11 - Soyuz 6. Flight Time: 4.95 days. First simultaneous flight of three manned spacecraft. First vacuum welding in space.
- 1969 October 12 - Soyuz 7. Flight Time: 4.94 days. First simultaneous flight of three manned spacecraft.
- 1969 October 13 - Soyuz 8. Flight Time: 4.95 days. First simultaneous flight of three manned spacecraft.
- 1971 June 6 - Soyuz 11. Flight Time: 23.77 days. First space station mission. Record flight duration.
- 1973 December 18 - Soyuz 13. Flight Time: 7.87 days. First Byelorussian astronaut. First space mission devoted to a single scientific instrument.
- 1975 January 11 - Soyuz 17. Flight Time: 29.56 days. First successful Russian civilian space station mission.
- 1975 July 15 - Soyuz 19 (ASTP). Flight Time: 5.94 days. First docking between two spacecraft launched from different nations.
- 1975 July 15 - Apollo (ASTP). Flight Time: 9.06 days. First international joint manned space mission; first docking between two spacecraft launched from different countries.
- 1977 February 7 - Soyuz 24. Flight Time: 17.73 days. First complete change of cabin atmosphere for a space station.
- 1977 December 10 - Salyut 6 EO-1. Flight Time: 96.42 days. Record flight duration. First mission to receive visiting crews launched aboard another spacecraft, and to be resupplied by a logistics spacecraft. First Soviet EVA since Voskhod 2.
- 1978 January 10 - Salyut 6 EP-1. Flight Time: 5.96 days. First docking to a space station of two manned spacecraft at one time. First station 'lifeboat' swap.
- 1980 September 18 - Salyut 6 EP-8. Flight Time: 7.86 days. First Cuban astronaut. First person of African descent to fly in space.
- 1981 April 12 - STS-1. Flight Time: 2.26 days. First rocketplane flight to orbit. First flight of space shuttle.
- 1981 November 12 - STS-2. Flight Time: 2.26 days. First reuse of a manned space vehicle. First use of a remote manipulator in space.
- 1982 November 11 - STS-5. Flight Time: 5.09 days. Record crew size aboard a single spacecraft. First operational STS mission, first satellite deployment, first four-person spacecraft crew.
- 1983 April 4 - STS-6. Flight Time: 5.02 days. First flight of space shuttle Challenger. First space walk of Shuttle program
- 1983 June 18 - STS-7. Flight Time: 6.10 days. First US woman in space. Record crew size aboard a single spacecraft to that date. Thagard flew ahead of his class because NASA desperately wanted a physician to study space sickness, which had severely impacted STS-5 operations.
- 1983 August 30 - STS-8. Flight Time: 6.05 days. First African-American in space. First shuttle night launch and night landing.
- 1983 November 28 - STS-9. Flight Time: 10.32 days. First West German to fly in space. First Spacelab mission. Record crew size (six) in a single spacecraft.
- 1984 February 3 - STS-41-B. Flight Time: 7.97 days. First untethered space walk. First shuttle landing at Kennedy Space Center.
- 1984 October 5 - STS-41-G. Flight Time: 8.22 days. First spaceflight to include two women. First American woman to walk in space. First Canadian astronaut. Record crew size aboard a single spacecraft.
- 1984 November 8 - STS-51-A. Flight Time: 7.99 days. First retrieval and return to earth of a satellite for repair and relaunch.
- 1985 June 6 - Salyut 7 EO-4-1a. Flight Time: 168.16 days. First manned operations in a second space station module.
- 1985 June 6 - Salyut 7 EO-4-1b. Flight Time: 112.13 days. First docking with and repair of dead-in-space station.
- 1985 August 27 - STS-51-I. Flight Time: 7.10 days. First retrieval, repair, and relaunch of a satellite in orbit.
- 1985 October 30 - STS-61-A. Flight Time: 7.03 days. Record crew size aboard a single spacecraft. First Dutch astronaut.
- 1986 March 13 - Mir EO-1. Flight Time: 125.00 days. First spacecraft to fly between two space stations.
- 1991 October 2 - Mir Austromir. Flight Time: 7.93 days. First Austrian astronaut. First Kazakh astronaut.
- 1992 May 7 - STS-49. Flight Time: 8.89 days. First flight of shuttle Endeavour. First three-person spacewalk.
- 1992 September 12 - STS-47. Flight Time: 7.94 days. First on-time Shuttle launch since November 1985. First Japanese astronaut. First African-American woman to fly in space. First married couple to fly on the same space mission
- 1993 April 8 - STS-56. Flight Time: 9.26 days. First radio contact between Shuttle and Mir space station.
- 1994 February 3 - STS-60. Flight Time: 8.30 days. First flight of a Russian cosmonaut aboard an American spacecraft.
- 1995 February 3 - STS-63. Flight Time: 8.27 days. First African-American to walk in space. First female shuttle pilot. First rendezvous of a shuttle with the Mir space station.
- 1995 March 14 - Mir EO-18. Flight Time: 115.36 days. First American to fly aboard a Russian spacecraft.
- 1995 June 27 - Mir EO-19. Flight Time: 75.47 days. First docking of US spacecraft with the Mir space station.
- 1995 June 27 - STS-71. Flight Time: 9.81 days. First docking of a US spacecraft with the Mir space station.
- 1997 July 1 - STS-94. Flight Time: 15.70 days. First shuttle mission reflight (same vehicle, crew, and payload as STS-83 mission).
- 1998 January 23 - STS-89. Flight Time: 8.82 days. First Uzbek astronaut. First flight of Block IIA SSME engines.
- 1998 June 2 - STS-91. Flight Time: 9.83 days. First shuttle flight with super light-weight external tank.
- 1998 October 29 - STS-95. Flight Time: 8.91 days. First Spanish astronaut. Oldest man in space, longest gap between two flights for an astronaut.
- 2001 February 7 - STS-98. Flight Time: 12.89 days. Delivered Destiny module, making the ISS heavier than Mir.
- 2002 November 24 - ISS EO-6. Flight Time: 161.05 days. First station crew to have to return in a lifeboat spacecraft.
- 2004 October 4 - SpaceShipOne Flight 17P. Flight Time: 0.0167 days. Suborbital altitude record for a manned spaceplane
- 2006 September 18 - ISS EP-11. Flight Time: 10.88 days. First female space tourist. First Iranian astronaut.
- 2008 April 8 - Soyuz TMA-12 ISS EP-14 - Flight Time: 10.88402778 Ko San;Yi Soyeon First Korean astronaut mission. Mission to swap Soyuz lifeboats docked to station.
- 2008 September 25 - Shenzhou 7 Flight Time: 2.85 days - First Chinese EVA. First Chinese three-crew spaceflight.
- 2009 March 26 - Soyuz TMA-14 ISS EP-16 Flight Time: 12.81 days - First space tourist to fly to space twice.
- 2012 June 16 - Shenzhou 9 - Flight Time: 12.64 days - First Chinese space station mission. First Chinese woman in space.
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