On April 12, 1961, a human went to space for the first time! Yuri Gagarin was the first Soviet cosmonaut and the first person to orbit the Earth. This was the Soviet Union's next big move in the "space race" after it launched the first...

On April 13, 1969, NASA launched a new weather satellite called Nimbus 3. This was the third in a series of second-generation research and development satellites NASA launched to test new technologies for weather forecasting. Nimbus 3...

NOAA's GOES-18 satellite captured time-lapsed footage of the Palisades wildfire in southern California. The Eaton wildfire can also be seen in this view. Credit: CIRA/NOAA | edited by Space.com's Steve Spaleta

On April 10, 1982, India launched its first multipurpose satellite, INSAT-1. This satellite was used for both communications and weather forecasting. The Indian Space Research Organization contracted NASA to launch it, and it was built...

Chinese astronauts aboard the Tiangong space station tested an "intelligent flight robot," checked on a fruit fly experiment and more. Credit: Space.com | footage courtesy: China Central Television (CCTV) | edited by Steve Spaleta

On April 9, 1959, NASA introduced its very first astronaut class. This dashing group of young men is known as the Mercury 7. They were all military test pilots before they were chosen for the job, and they had all "the right stuff" to...

The Academy of Aerospace Propulsion Technology in China "conducted tests on four types of engines, including a new hydrogen-oxygen engine," according to China Central Television.



Credit: Space.com | footage courtesy: China...

On April 8, 1964, NASA launched the first uncrewed test flight of the new Gemini spacecraft. This was the very first mission of Project Gemini, which would later send crews of two into orbit. NASA flew a total of 12 Gemini missions, 10...

The Solar Orbiter's Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument captured imagery of the sun over the last few years. The solar flares (blue circles) are shown using data from the spacecraft's Spectrometer/Telescope for Imaging X-rays...

On April 7, 1983, astronauts took the first spacewalk outside of a space shuttle during mission STS-6. This was the maiden voyage of the space shuttle Challenger. The goal of this mission was to deploy the first Tracking and Data Relay...

On April 6, 1965, NASA launched the world's first commercial communications satellite into orbit. The satellite was named Intelsat 1 and nicknamed the "Early Bird." It was built by Hughes Aircraft Company for a telecommunications company...

On April 5, 1973, NASA launched the Pioneer 11 mission into the outer solar system. Pioneer 11 would become the first spacecraft to fly by Saturn, and it flew by Jupiter and the asteroid belt along the way. It launched about a month...

On April 4, 1968, NASA launched the final un-crewed test flight of its Saturn V rocket. The Apollo 6 mission demonstrated that the Saturn V rocket and the Apollo spacecraft were ready to send astronauts into space. On top of the rocket...

On April 3, 1973, the Soviet Union launched a small space station called Salyut 2. This was the second space station ever launched and the first military space station. The Soviet Union told the rest of the world that Salyut 2 was a...

NASA tested the Orion spacecraft forward bay cover's ejection mechanism at the Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio. Credit: NASA/Jordan Salkin and Quentin Schwinn | edited by Space.com

Watch how a single engine on the flight 7 SpaceX Starship was test fired to simulate an in-space burn. Credit: Space.com | footage courtesy: SpaceX | edited by Steve Spaleta

On March 30, 2017, SpaceX launched and landed a used rocket for the first time. This was a huge step forward in SpaceX's plight to develop fully reusable rockets and reduce launch costs. The Falcon 9 rocket had completed a previous...

The investigation into the Mars helicopter Ingenuity accident has found that the "lack of surface texture gave the navigation system too little information to work with,” likely causing the rotors blades to hit the surface of the Mars...

China's Wentian lab module's robotic arm to support the astronauts extravehicular activities, delivering goods, and maintaining and repairing the exterior of the space station. Credit: Space.com | footage courtesy: China Central...

NASA Juno spacecraft data has been used to create an animation of "Steeple Mountain" and a lava lake known as Loki Patera on Jupiter's moon Io. Credit: Space.com | NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS | edited by Steve Spaleta

The Philae lander from European Space Agency's Rosetta mission's landed on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Credit: ESA - European Space Agency

China's new Haolong space cargo shuttle. See it launch in this animation. Credit: Space.com | footage courtesy: China Central Television (CCTV) | edited by Steve Spaleta

ESA’s Hera mission is two-year flight to the Didymos binary asteroid system. See its trajectory here. Credit: ESA - European Space Agency

The SpaceX Crew-9 astronauts, including two crew members formerly aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, moved their Crew Dragon capsule to another docking port to make way for a new cargo Dragon arrival. Credit: SpaceX