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Space Exploration Timeline
Get information, facts, photos, news, videos, and more about space exploration and missions from National Geographic.
From the dawn of man until very recently, humans have been Earthbound, unable to reach even the clouds—let alone space. It's only within the last hundred years or so that the advent of manned flight and rocket ships has made the heavens attainable. In that time, we've sent people to the moon, rovers to Mars, and space probes deep into the reaches of our solar system. And advanced telescopes that orbit Earth are bringing even the most remote edges of the universe closer to home. See where space travel started, and where it's going.