On June 2, 1966, NASA's Surveyor 1 landed on the lunar surface to become the first American spacecraft to land on the moon. Surveyor 1 took more than 11,000 photos of the moon along with other measurements, but, more importantly, proved...

On June 1, 2011, NASA's space shuttle Endeavor touched down safely for the final time at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida after spending 299 days in space throughout the course of its 25 flights. Endeavour was built as a replacement...

On May 31, 1990, the Soviet Union launched a new module to the Mir space station. The new component was named Kristall, and it was the third addition sent to Mir since the core module launched in 1986. Including the core module, Mir...

On May 30, 1975, the European Space Agency officially opened for business. The European Space Agency was created as a merger of the European Launcher Development Organization, or ELDO, and the European Space Research Organisation, ESRO....

On May 28, 1959, two monkeys named Able and Baker became the first monkeys to go to space and make it back alive. Miss Able was a rhesus monkey from Kansas, and her crewmate Miss Baker was a squirrel monkey from Peru. They were tucked...

On May 29, 1919, a total solar eclipse helped to prove Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity. Einstein's theory suggested that gravity could bend light by curving the fabric of spacetime. To prove it, he thought it would be a...

On May 27, 2009, three astronauts launched to the International Space Station to complete the crew of Expedition 20. Expedition 20 was the first six-person crew to live and work at the space station for a long-duration stay. Russian...

On May 26, 1983, the European Space Agency launched its first X-ray Observatory into space. The spacecraft was called EXOSAT, which stands for European X-ray Observatory SATellite. The mission was entirely devoted to studying the...

On May 25, 2008, NASA's Phoenix lander arrived on Mars. [‘On This Day in Space’ Phoenix was NASA's sixth mission to successfully land on Mars, and it was the first mission to touch down near the planet's north pole. The objective for...

On May 24, 1962, NASA astronaut Scott Carpenter became the fourth American to go to space and the second American to orbit the Earth. Carpenter was one of NASA’s first group of astronauts known as the "Mercury Seven.” He was the backup...

On May 23, 2017, NASA astronauts Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer took an urgent and unplanned spacewalk to replace a broken data relay box outside of the International Space Station. The problematic device, known as a...

On Oct. 18, 1963, a cat went to space! Félicette was a French "catstronaut" who became the first and only feline to fly to space. ‘On This Day in Space’ Video Series on Space.com



While the U.S. and Soviet Union were busy...

On July 13, 1969, the Soviet Union launched its Luna 15 spacecraft on a mission to the moon. Luna 15 was a robotic sample return mission sent to retrieve some lunar soil and bring it back to Earth. It launched just three days before...

On July 12, 1989, the European Space Agency launched an experimental communications satellite named Olympus-1. It was the largest civilian telecommunication satellite ever built, and some nicknamed it "LargeSat." It malfunctioned in 1991...