Space Exploration Timeline, 1609–2030: From Kepler's Laws to Artemis

A liquid-fuelled rocket flies — 12.5 metres high

The V-2 — the first human-made object to reach space was a weapon

The 23-centimetre Pencil rocket — where Japanese rocketry began

Sputnik 1 — the first human-made object in orbit

Gagarin circles the Earth in 108 minutes

Apollo's guidance computer keeps the infant integrated-circuit industry afloat

Apollo 11 — people land on the Moon and bring rocks home

Ohsumi — Japan's first satellite, put into orbit without a guidance system

Voyager — riding a planetary alignment that comes once in 175 years

A spacecraft is parked at a Lagrange point for the first time

The Space Shuttle — reuse was supposed to make it cheap

The ion engine becomes a spacecraft's main propulsion in deep space

IKAROS — a sail pushed by sunlight

Hayabusa — battered, but home with grains from an asteroid

An orbital rocket's first stage comes back and lands upright

DART — hitting an asteroid shows its orbit can be changed

SLIM — landing within 10 metres of the target

Chang'e 6 — the first rocks brought back from the far side of the Moon

Artemis II — people go to the Moon's vicinity for the first time in 53 years