The first true rocket was fired by China in 1232, during a war with the Mongols. But by the time the Soviet Union and the United States pioneered modern space exploration in the 1950s and ’60s, China was largely out of the game. When the United States landed a man on the moon almost half a century ago, China was mired in political turmoil. The country didn’t send an astronaut into space until 2003.
But now it’s catching up.
Last year, for the first time, China launched more rockets than Russia. The nation also embarked on its longest crewed mission and completed the world’s largest radio telescope. It plans to land a rover on the far side of the moon next year, the first for any country, and put a probe on Mars by 2020.
Here’s a look at what China has done and how it compares with the U.S. space program. (This timeline is not intended to be comprehensive and does not include the substantial accomplishments of the Soviet and European space programs.)
CHINA
1956
China develops its first rocket and missile research institute.
National flag of CHINA (Note: open high–res in Photoshop for best display)
(handout / handout)
Source: Handout
UNITED STATES
1958
Jan. 31: Explorer 1, designed and built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Caltech, is sent aloft from Cape Canaveral, Fla., aboard a Jupiter C rocket. It is the first satellite launched by the United States.
July 29: Spurred by the Soviet launch of Sputnik the year before, the United States creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA.
This photo made on Monday, March 20, 2017, shows an American flag flying over the Fort Pitt Block House at Point State Park in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)
(Keith Srakocic / AP)
Source: Keith Srakocic / Associated Press
1960
China launches its first missile, the DF-1, a licensed copy of a Soviet short-range ballistic missile.
1961
May 5: Astronaut Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space.
May 25: President Kennedy challenges the country to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.
1962
Feb. 20: Astronaut John Glenn becomes the first American in orbit.
FILE - In this Feb. 23, 1962 file photo, astronaut John Glenn and President John F. Kennedy inspect the Friendship 7, the Mercury capsule in which Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth. Kennedy presented Distinguished Service medal to Glenn at Cape Canaveral, Fla. At right is Vice President Lyndon Johnson. Glenn, who later spent 24 years representing Ohio in the Senate, has died at 95. (AP Photo/Vincent P. Connolly, File)
(Vincent P. Connolly / AP)
Source: Vincent P. Connolly / Associated Press
1964
China launches its first biological rocket, carrying white mice into space.
1965
June 3: Astronaut Ed White becomes the first American to walk in space.
SUBSTITUTES FOR NY344ñADV. FOR MON. PMS, JULY 11ññFILEññAstronaut Ed White is the first American to walk in space as he is tethered to the Gemini 4 spacecraft in 1965. “Moon Shotâ€, a comprehensive survey of the U.S. space program, is a twoñ part series beginning at 8:05 p.m. EDT Monday on TBS. (AP Photo/NASAñfiles)
(AP)
Source: Associated Press
1966
June 2: Surveyor 1 becomes the first American spacecraft to land on the moon.
1967
Jan. 27: Astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee are killed in an accidental fire in a command module on the launchpad.
In this undated photo made available by NASA, from left, veteran astronaut Virgil Grissom, first American spacewalker Ed White and rookie Roger Chaffee, stand for a photograph in Cape Kennedy, Fla. During a launch pad test on Jan. 27, 1967, a flash fire erupted inside their capsule killing the three Apollo crew members. (NASA via AP)
(AP)
Source: NASA via Associated Press
1968
Dec. 21: Apollo 8 is launched; its crew would become the first men to orbit the moon.
1969
July 20: Neil Armstrong and "Buzz" Aldrin become the first men on the moon.
AS11-40-5874 (20 July 1969) --- Astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot of the first lunar landing mission, poses for a photograph beside the deployed United States flag during Apollo 11 extravehicular activity (EVA) on the lunar surface. The Lunar Module (LM) is on the left, and the footprints of the astronauts are clearly visible in the soil of the moon. Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, commander, took this picture with a 70mm Hasselblad lunar surface camera. While astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin descended in the LM the “Eagle†to explore the Sea of Tranquility region of the moon, astronaut Michael Collins, command module pilot, remained with the Command and Service Modules (CSM) “Columbia†in lunar orbit.
(NASA)
Source: NASA
1970
China launches its first artificial Earth satellite, making it the fifth country to send a satellite into orbit.
1971
Nov. 13: The Mariner 9 probe orbits Mars. It is the first craft to orbit another planet.
1972
Dec. 11: Eugene Cernan and Harrison "Jack" Schmitt become the last men to walk — and drive — on the moon.
Astronaut Eugene A. Cernan, Apollo 17 mission commander, makes a short checkout of the Lunar Roving Vehicle during the early part of the first Apollo 17 extravehicular activity at the Taurus-Littrow landing site on Dec. 11, 1972. This view of the “stripped down†Rover is prior to loadup. This photograph was taken by Geologist-Astronaut Harrison H. Schmitt, Lunar Module pilot. The mountain in the right background is the East end of South Massif.
(Harrison H. Schmitt /)
Source: Harrison H. Schmitt
1973
May 14: The U.S. launches its first space station, Skylab.
1975
China becomes the third country to launch and retrieve a recoverable satellite.
1975
July 17: The American Apollo 18 and Soviet Soyuz 19 dock in the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.
1977
August and September: Voyagers 1 and 2 are launched.
This artist rendering released by NASA shows NASAÂ’s Voyager 1 spacecraft in space. The space agency announced Thursday, Sept. 12, 2013 that Voyager 1 has become the first spacecraft to enter interstellar space, or the space between stars, more than three decades after launching from Earth. (AP Photo/NASA) ** Usable by LA and DC Only **
(HOPD / AP)
Source: Associated Press / NASA
1980
Nov. 12: Voyager 1 reaches Saturn and begins transmitting images.
1981
April 12: Columbia becomes the first space shuttle to be launched.
1983
April 4: The second space shuttle, Challenger, is launched.
June 18: Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space on Challenger’s second mission.
(FILES) This NASA file photo dated June 1983 shows America’s first woman astronaut Sally Ride, as she communicates with ground controllers from the flight deck during the six-day space mission of the Challenger. Ride, the first US woman to fly in space, died on July 23, 2012 after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer, her foundation announced. She was 61. Ride first launched into space in 1983, on the seventh US space shuttle mission. AFP PHOTO/NASA/HO ++RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE- NOT FOR ADVERSTISING OR MARKETING CAMPAIGNS - MANDATORY CREDIT: AFP PHOTO/NASA - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS++-/AFP/GettyImages ORG XMIT: -
(- / AFP/Getty Images)
Source: NASA via AFP/Getty Images
1984
Jan. 25: President Reagan directs NASA to build an International Space Station within 10 years.
1984
April 8: China launches its first geostationary communications satellite.
1986
Jan. 24: Voyager 2 begins transmitting images from Uranus.
Jan. 28: The space shuttle Challenger explodes seconds after liftoff, killing all aboard.
FILE - In this Jan. 28, 1986 file photo, the space shuttle Challenger explodes shortly after lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Bruce Weaver, File) ORG XMIT: NY593
(Bruce Weaver / Associated Press)
Source: Bruce Weaver / Associated Press
1989
August: Voyager 2 begins transmitting images from Neptune.
1990
China’s Long March 3 rocket successfully launches the first foreign satellite.
1990
April 24: The space shuttle Discovery deploys the Hubble Space Telescope.
The Hubble Space Telescope is shown following its release from the space shuttle Discovery Wednesday, Feb. 19, 1997. Astronauts made five spacewalks to install two $100-million-plus science instruments and new electronics and data recorders, and to hang homemade patches over tears and cracks discovered in Hubble’s insulation. (AP Photo/NASA)
(Associated Press)
Source: Associated Press / NASA
1994
Feb. 3: Sergei Krikalev becomes the first cosmonaut to fly on a space shuttle.
1995
A Long March 2E rocket carrying a telecommunications satellite explodes after liftoff, killing six people.
1997
July 4: The Mars Pathfinder arrives on Mars and later begins transmitting images.
FILE--The Mars Pathfinder rover vehicle and an impact-stopping airbag is shown on the surface of Mars in this image transmitted to Earth from the Mars Pathfinder probe July 4, 1997. A section of the airbags on the right has blocked the path of the rover’s exit ramp, delaying the deployment of the rover. (AP Photo/JPL)
(ANN JOHANSSON / Associated Press)
Source: Associated Press /JPL
1998
Dec. 4: Unity, the first U.S. segment of the International Space Station, launches.
1999
China launches its first unmanned spacecraft, Shenzhou 1.
2003
China sends its first astronaut into space.
Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei waves vefore emerging from the Shenzhou V capsule in Inner Mongolia 16 October 2003. China succesfully completed its manned space flight after Yang safely returned to earth. AFP PHOTO
(AFP / AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
Source: AFP/Getty Images)
2003
Feb. 1: The space shuttle Columbia breaks up on reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven aboard.
Sept. 21: NASA’s Galileo mission ends a 14-year exploration of the solar system’s largest planet and its moons with the spacecraft crashing by design into Jupiter at 108,000 mph.
2007
Oct. 24: China launches its Chang’e 1 spacecraft, its first to successfully orbit the moon.
Chinese spectators gather to watch the launch of the Chang’e I, China’s first lunar orbiter, from the Xichang Satellite Launching Centre in southwestern China’s Sichuan province 24 October 2007. Chang’e I took off around 6:05 pm (1005 GMT) for what is slated to be a one–year expedition to explore and map the moon, and costing 1.4 billion yuan (184 million dollars), kicking off a programme that aims to land an unmanned rover on the moon’s surface by 2012 and put a man on the moon by about 2020. CHINA OUT GETTY OUT AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read STR/AFP/Getty Images)
(STR / AFP/Getty Images)
Source: AFP/Getty Images
2007
Aug. 4: NASA launches its Phoenix Mars Lander.
2008
Chinese astronauts conduct the country’s first spacewalk, known as the Shenzhou 7 mission.
In this video grab taken at the Beijing Space Command and Control Center released by China’s Xinhua News Agency, Saturday, Sept. 27, 2008, Chinese astronaut Zhai Zhigang walks outside the orbit module of the Shenzhou–7 spacecraft for a spacewalk. (AP Photo/Xinhua)
(AP)
Source: New China News Agency
2009
March 6: The NASA spacecraft Kepler is launched, with a goal of searching for planets outside our solar system, in a distant area of the Milky Way.
2010
Oct. 10: Virgin Galactic, a private company, launches the first manned glide flight of the VSS Enterprise, a suborbital plane designed to take private citizens on suborbital spaceflights.
Dec. 8: The private SpaceX company launches a spacecraft into orbit and returns it to Earth safely.
Space X Falcon 9 Vertical at launch site at Cape Canaveral. Credit: SpaceX
Source: John Smith / Associated Press
2011
China launches its first space laboratory, Tiangong-1.
People gather to look at China’s Long March 2-F rocket, which will take the Tiangong-1 space module into space, as it is rolled out onto a launch platform at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the northwestern province of Gansu on September 20, 2011. China said it will launch its Tiangong-1 space module later September, marking its first step towards building a Chinese space station, as the Asian giant sees its space programme as a symbol of its global stature, growing technical expertise, and the Communist Party’s success in turning around the fortunes of the formerly poverty-stricken nation. CHINA OUT AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read STR/AFP/Getty Images) ORG XMIT:
(STR / AFP/Getty Images)
Source: AFP/Getty Images
2011
July 8: The space shuttle Atlantis becomes the last American space shuttle to be launched into space.
Nov. 26: NASA launches Curiosity, the biggest, best-equipped robot sent to explore another planet. It will reach Mars in 2012.
2012
Aug. 6: NASA's Curiosity rover successfully lands on Mars.
Pasadena, CA, United States: Sunday, August 5, 2012 – Peter Ilott, center, and his colleagues celebrate a successful landing inside the Spaceflight Operations Facility for NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, USA on Sunday, August 5, 2012. The Curiosity robot is equipped with a nuclear–powered lab capable of vaporizing rocks and ingesting soil, measuring habitability, and potentially paving the way for human exploration. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times–POOL)
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
Source: Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times
2013
China lands a rover on the moon. The Jade Rabbit became a social media phenomenon.
This screen grab taken from a CCTV footage shows a photo of the Jade Rabbit moon rover taken by the Chang’e-3 probe lander on December 15, 2013. China’s Jade Rabbit rover vehicle sent back photos from the moon after the first lunar soft landing in nearly four decades marked a huge advance in the country’s ambitious space programme. The Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, was deployed at 4:35 am (2035 GMT Saturday), several hours after the Chang’e-3 probe landed on the moon, said the official news agency Xinhua. CHINA OUT AFP PHOTO / CCTV ----EDITORS NOTE---- RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT “AFP PHOTO / CCTV “ - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTSCCTV/AFP/Getty Images ** OUTS - ELSENT, FPG, TCN - OUTS * NM, PH, VA if sourced by CT, LA or MoD **
(CCTV / AFP/Getty Images)
Source: CCTV / AFP/Getty Images
2015
China launches its first homemade, solid-fuel carrier rocket, known as the Long March 11.
2016
China completes the world’s largest radio telescope, which will scan for alien life and search for black holes.
September: Launches China’s second space lab, Tiangong-2.
October: Launches Shenzhou 11, China’s sixth manned space mission.
November: Launches the Long March 5, one of the world's most powerful rockets.
2017
April 20: China launches its first cargo spacecraft, Tianzhou-1, an essential step for building its own space station by 2022.
In this photo released by China’s Xinhua News Agency, China’s Tianzhou-1 cargo spacecraft moves towards the Tiangong-2 space lab for docking, as seen on a screen at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center in Beijing, Saturday, April 22, 2017. China launched its first unmanned cargo spacecraft Thursday on a mission to dock with the country’s space station. (Wang Sijang/Xinhua via AP)
(Wang Sijang / AP)
Source: New China News Agency
2017
April 26: NASA's Cassini spacecraft sends word that it successfully completed its first pass through the uncharted territory between Saturn and its rings.
epa05928282 (FILE) - An undated handout photo made available by NASA shows an illustration of NASA’s Cassini spacecraft above Saturn’s northern hemisphere prior to one of its 22 grand finale dives, in Space (reissued 26 April 2017). On 26 April 2017, the spacecraft will make the first in a series of 22 dives through the 2,400km gap between Saturn and its rings as part of its mission’s grand finale. The spacecraft will then end its expedition on 15 September 2017, with a final plunge into the gas giant. The operation aims at gaining insights into the planet’s structure and atmosphere as well as at capturing views of its inner rings. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is in orbit around Saturn since 2004. EPA/NASA/JPL-Caltech HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES ** Usable by LA, CT and MoD ONLY **
(NASA/JPL-Caltech HANDOUT / EPA)
Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech handout / European Pressphoto Agency
Times graphics/data journalist Priya Krishnakumar contributed to this report.
Sources: New China News Agency, U.S. National Archives, the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space and Los Angeles Times research
