Soviet manned launches in Bold Red; unmanned in red
United States launches in Blue; unmanned in blue
1959
| Date | Spacecraft | Event |
| Jan 2 - 4 | Luna 1 | Moon probe; plan was to hit the moon; missed and flew by |
| Sep 12 - 14 | Luna 2 | Moon probe; first probe to hit the moon |
| Oct 4 - 7 | Luna 3 | Moon probe; first probe to return images from back side of the moon |
1960
| Date | Spacecraft | Event |
| May 15 | Sputnik 4 | Unmanned Vostok prototype |
| July 29 | Mercury-Atlas 1 (MA-1) | Unmanned |
| Aug 19 - 20 | Sputnik 5 | Unmanned Vostok, carried two dogs |
| Nov 21 | Mercury-Redstone 1 (MR-1) | Unmanned |
| Dec 1 | Sputnik 6 | Unmanned Vostok |
| Dec 19 | Mercury-Redstone 1A | Unmanned, 15 minute sub-orbital flight |
1961
| Date | Spacecraft | Event |
| Jan 31 | Mercury-Redstone 2 (MR-2) | Unmanned |
| Mar 9 | Sputnik 9 | Unmanned Vostock, carried one dog |
| Mar 25 | Sputnik 10 | Last unmanned Vostock, carried one dog |
| April 12 | Vostok 1 | First person in space: Yuri Gagarin |
| Apr 25 | Mercury-Atlas 3 (MA-3) | Unmanned |
| May 5 | Mercury-Redstone 3 (Freedom 7) (MR-3) |
First US person in space: Alan Shepard |
| July 21 | Mercury-Redstone 4 (Liberty Bell 7, MR-4) |
Second US person in space: Virgil (Gus) Grissom |
| Aug 6 - 7 | Vostok 2 | First flight more than 24 hours: Gherman Titov |
| Sep 13 | Mercury-Atlas 4 (MA-4) | Unmanned, first Mercury spacecraft to reach orbit |
| Nov 29 | Mercury-Atlas 5 (MA-5) | Unmanned: chimpanze Enos |
1962
| Date | Spacecraft | Event |
| Feb 20 | Mercury-Atlas 6 (Friendship 7, MA-6) |
First US person to orbit the Earth: John Glenn |
| May 24 | Mercury-Atlas 7 (Aurora 7, MA-7) |
Scott Carpenter |
| Aug 11 | Vostok 3 | First mission with another spacecraft Vostok 4: Andrian Nikolayev |
| Aug 12 | Vostok 4 | First mission with another spacecraft Vostok 3: Pavel Popovich |
| Oct 3 | Mercury-Atlas 8 (Sigma 8, MA-8) |
Walter Schirra |
1963
| Date | Spacecraft | Event |
| May 15 | Mercury-Atlas 9 (Faith 7, MA-9) |
Last Mercury mission: Gordon Cooper |
| Jun 14 - 19 | Vostok 5 | First long-duration mission: Valery Bykovsky |
| Jun 16 - 19 | Vostok 6 | First woman in space: Valentina Tereshkova |
1964
| Date | Spacecraft | Event |
| Apr 8 | Gemini 1 | Unmanned |
| Oct 6 | Kosmos 47 | Unmanned Voskhod |
| Oct 12 | Voskhod 1 | First three-person crew: Vladimir Komarov, Boris Yegorov and Konstantin Feoktistov |
1965
| Date | Spacecraft | Event |
| Jan 19 | Gemini 2 | Unmanned |
| Feb 22 | Kosmos 57 | Unmanned Voskhod |
| Mar 7 | Kosmos 59 | Unmanned Voskhod |
| Mar 18 | Voskhod 2 | First space walk (EVA, extravehicular activity) by Aleksei Leonov; Pavel Belyayev |
| Mar 23 | Gemini 3 | Virgil (Gus) Grissom and John Young |
| Jun 3 - 7 | Gemini 4 | James McDivitt and Edward White. First US person to walk in space: Ed White. |
| Aug 21 - 29 | Gemini 5 | Gordon Cooper and Charles Conrad |
| Dec 4 - 18 | Gemini 7 | Frank Borman and James Lovell |
| Dec 15 - 16 | Gemini 6A | Walter Schirra and Tom Stafford |
1966
| Date | Spacecraft | Event |
| Feb 22 | Kosmos 110 | Unmanned Voskhod |
| Feb 26 | Saturn 1B AS-201 | Unmanned, suborbital test of Saturn 1B |
| Mar 16 | Gemini 8 | Neil Armstrong and David Scott |
| Jun 3 - 6 | Gemini 9 | Tom Stafford and Eugene Cernan |
| Jul 5 | Saturn 1B AS-203 | Unmanned |
| Jul 18 - 21 | Gemini 10 | John Young and Michael Collins |
| Aug 25 | Saturn 1B AS-202 | Unmanned |
| Sep 12 - 15 | Gemini 11 | Charles Conrad and Richard Gordon |
| Nov 11 - 15 | Gemini 12 | Final Gemini mission: James Lovell and Buzz Aldrin |
1967
| Date | Spacecraft | Event |
| Jan 27 | Apollo 1 | Fire on during testing kills three astronauts: Virgil (Gus) Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee |
| Feb 7 | Kosmos 140 | Unmanned Voskhod |
| Mar 10 | Kosmos 146 | Unmanned Voskhod |
| Apr 8 | Kosmos 154 | Unmanned Voskhod |
| Apr 23 - 24 | Soyuz 1 | Cosmonaut Valdimir Komarov dies during landing; first person lost during a space flight |
| Oct 27 | Kosmos 186 | Unmanned Voskhod |
| Nov 9 | Apollo 4 (SA-501) | Unmanned, first launch of Saturn V rocket |
1968
| Date | Spacecraft | Event |
| Jan 22 | Apollo 5 (Saturn 1B) | Unmanned, first launch of Lunar Module spacecraft |
| Mar 2 | Zond 4 | Unmanned |
| Apr 4 | Apollo 6 (SA-502) | Unmanned, second test flight of Saturn V |
| Sep 15 | Zond 5 | Unmanned, flew around moon |
| Oct 25 | Soyuz 2 | Unmanned |
| Oct 11 - 22 | Apollo 7 (Saturn IB) | First manned Apollo flight: Walter Schirra, Donn Eisele, and Walter Cunningham |
| Oct 26 - 30 | Soyuz 3 | Docking attempt failed with Soyuz 2: George Beregovoi |
| Nov 10 | Zond 6 | Unmanned, flew around moon, destroyed during re-entry |
| Dec 21 - 27 | Apollo 8 (SA-503) | First people to orbit the moon: Frank Borman, James Lovell, William Anders |
1969
| Date | Spacecraft | Event |
| Jan 14 - 17 | Soyuz 4 | Successful EVA crew transfer with Soyuz 5 |
| Jan 15 - 18 | Soyuz 5 | Successful EVA crew transfer with Soyuz 4 |
| Feb 21 | N1 | Unmanned, launch fails, destroyed after 70 seconds of flight |
| Mar 3 - 13 | Apollo 9 (SA-504) | First manned test of Lunar module: James McDivitt,David Scott, and Russell Schweickart |
| May 18 - 26 | Apollo 10 (SA-505) | Full dress rehearsel of lunar landing: Tom Stafford, John Young and Eugene Cernan. |
| Jul 3 | N2 | Unmanned, launch fails |
| Jul 16 - 24 | Apollo 11 (SA-506) | First people to land on the moon: Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin; Michael Collins remains in command module. |
| Aug 8 | Zond 7 | Unmanned, flew around the moon |
1970
| Date | Spacecraft | Event |
| Nov 10-17 | Lunokhod 1 | First automated rover on the moon |
Soviet manned launches in Bold Red; unmanned in red
United States launches in Blue; unmanned in blue