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top spaceflight achievements?

top 16 space achievements: 16) USA Mariner 9 - First orbit of another planet(Mars). November 13, 1971. 15) USA STS 1 Columbia - First Semi-Reuseable space vehicle. April 14, 1981. 14) USA/ESA/Russia/Japan - International Space Station. First occupied October 31, 2000. 13) USA Skylab 1 - First Semi-perminent space habitat. occupied from 25 May 1973 to 8 February 1974. 12) USA Mars Exploration Rover - seven years of driving around another planet and counting! 11) USA/ESA/ASI Casssini Huygens- First to orbit Saturn, first to land on titan. 5 years in orbit around Saturn and counting! 10) USSR Vega 1 - The Venus balloon floated for over 10 hours and intercepted Halleys Comet to boot! 11 June 1985. 9) USA Viking 1/2 - First unmanned soft landing on Mars. Landed 20 July 1976/3 September 1976. 8) USSR Verena 7 - the first man-made probe to transmit data from the surface of Venus, 15 December 1970. 7) USA Voyager 1/2 - First to flyby uranus and neptune, First to reach the Heliosphere. 6) USA/ESA - Great Observatories. Hubble Space Telescope, Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, Chandra X-ray Observatory,Spitzer Space Telescope. Contribution to our view of the universe. 5) USA Surveyor 1 - First unmanned soft landing on another celestial body. Landed june 2, 1966. 4) USA Pioneer 10/11 - First to leave terrestrial space, first to leave the solar system, first to flyby jupiter and saturn. 3) USSR Vostok 1 - First man in space/ First man to orbit, YUri Gagarin. April 12 1961. 2) USSR Sputnik 1 - First artificial satellite. Reached orbit october 4, 1957. 1) USA Apollo 11 - First manned landing on another celestial body. Landed july 20, 1969. Additional Details David A, thanks for the correction on the first soft landing on the moon, and incidentally, of course Im biased, ITS MY LIST, MY OPINION! opinions by nature are biased. My criteria for achievement is a combination of results, success, and innovation in relation to contemporary programs of the same time period. Dr Goddards liquid fuel rocket is a key milestone in rocketry but at the time spaceflight did not exist, therefore its not an achievement in spaceflight. Spaceship one is a great technological achevement for a non government entity, however the real hurdle to spaceflight is velocity, not altitude. going mach 25 at 200mi alt (like vostok 1) is an exponentially more difficult achievement than going 60miles vertical at mach 3. granted its a private company but its almost half a century later! and not close in altitude and velocity. Incedintally the second flight was very close to departure. Binnie admitted that he couldn't control the roll rate until he ent decent config. 2 hours ago Cassini-Huygens. well, thats an opinion. as a modern probe its definately a "GREAT" program, but do really think it surpasses voyager, the great observatories, the first spacecraft, the first to reach the gas giants. consider the time period. sure cassini-huygens is more impressive than pioneer but you have to factor in the expectations of the time. 2 hours ago Mars Pathfinder- great mission considering the time since we were on mars prior. Sojourner wasnt the first unmanned rover. I gave the MER the nod because of the amount of data returned and the length of the research mission. 2 hours ago Gimini- an evolution of mercury. hammered out essensial spacefaring methods and tehniques required for the moon landing. Evolutionary but not revolutionary. 2 hours ago X-15- Absolutely awesome aerospace program. Produced the "immortal" Neil Armstrong. Just like Spaceship 1 it barely qualifies as spacefaring. 62 miles up at mach 6 is amazing but it dosnt compare to 200 miles at mach 25. theres a reason why alan shepherd isnt on the list. Its barely spaceflight! it qualifies as spaceflight but barely, how is this a great spaceflight achievemt? 2 hours ago Tiros-1 - kind onf obscure. imo i would go with Syncom 2 (1963) as one of the greatest achievements in launch percision. the first sattellite to reach geosynchronus orbit. In my opinion mounting a camera on a payload 450mi alt dosn't really match the achievement of stationing one at 26000mi. Although milestones of spaceflight, i didnt include either because i consider them both evelutionary developments.. 2 hours ago A really cool thing about the STS if that id could land at almost any major airport in the world (depending on orbital inclination). Not that it would, but it could. (and roll up to the terminal) :-P You gotta admit, thats pretty cool! 2 hours ago Dave A, maybe you should make your own list before criticising mine. Once you make your list then we can debate. ;-) 1 second

Public Comments

1. I suggest you do not abuse this website as you did with this post. This is a website for asking questions, not for posting ideas or opinions.
2. You have limited your list to "human" achievements in the region of the human occupied planet "Earth" and its planetary system. That is a bit provincial, don't you think? Try broadening the scope.