On February 6, 2018, SpaceX successfully tested the Falcon Heavy rocket, the largest spacecraft launched since the Saturn V, which took Apollo astronauts to the moon. To celebrate the return of large rockets, here’s a video featuring 24 of the most famous space launches ever. Watch the video or continue reading for a list of notable rockets that have been launched.
1. V-2 Rocket launched on (October 1946): The first image of Earth taken from space by this rocket.
2. Bumper 2 launched on (July 1950): The first rocket launched from Cape Canaveral. Its second stage reached an altitude of 250 miles, higher than the International Space Station's orbit.
3. Sputnik-1 launched on (October 4, 1957): The world's first artificial satellite. It was the size of a beach ball.
4. Sputnik-2 launched on (November 1957): This rocket was different from its predecessor as it carried a living creature into space:
Inside this rocket was Laika, a stray dog from the Soviet Union who became the first animal to orbit the Earth.
5. Vostok 1 launched on (April 1961): The rocket that carried the first human into space, making Yuri Gagarin the first person in space.
6. Mariner 2 launched on (August 1962): The first successful planetary flyby of Venus.
7. Vostok 6 launched on (June 16-19, 1963): The rocket that carried the first woman into space, Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space.
8. Voskhod 2 launched on (March 18-19, 1965): The rocket that carried the first human to walk in space, Alexey Leonov became the first person to walk in space.
9. Apollo 8 launched on (December 21-27, 1968): Frank F. Borman II, James A. Lovell Jr., and William A. Anders became the first humans to leave Earth's orbit and orbit another celestial body, celebrating Christmas on the moon.
10. Apollo 11 launched on (July 16-24, 1969): Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr became the first humans to land and walk on the moon.
11. Apollo 13 launched on (April 11-17, 1970): Due to an oxygen tank explosion en route to the moon, Apollo 13 did not land on the moon. Instead, it orbited Earth's only natural satellite and safely returned to Earth.
12. Pioneer 10 launched on (March 2, 1972): The first spacecraft to travel through all the planets in our solar system.
13. Apollo-Soyuz launched on (July 17-19, 1975): This mission included the first joint mission between the United States and the Soviet Union.
14. Viking 1 launched on (July 20, 1976): The first successful landing on the surface of Mars.
15. STS-1 launched on (April 12-14, 1981): The first reusable spacecraft.
16. STS-41B launched on (February 3-11, 1984): Bruce McCandless II became the first person to perform an untethered spacewalk.
17. STS-31 launched on (April 24-29, 1990): Launched the Hubble Space Telescope.
18. Mars Pathfinder launched on (December 4, 1996): The first rover to successfully land on Mars.
19. International Space Station launched on (November 20, 1998): The first module (Zarya) was launched aboard a Russian Proton rocket.
20. New Horizons launched on (January 19, 2006): The first spacecraft to fly by Pluto.
21. Juno launched on (August 5, 2011): Launched for a scientific exploration of Jupiter.
22. Blue Origin New Shepard launched on (November 23, 2015): The first reusable rocket landing.
23. SpaceX Falcon 9 launched on (April 8, 2016): The first reusable rocket to land on an autonomous droneship.
24. SpaceX Falcon Heavy launched on (February 6, 2018): The first simultaneous rocket landing.
