Timeline of Solar System exploration

This is a timeline of Solar System exploration ordering events in the exploration of the Solar System by date of spacecraft launch.

It includes: It does not include: The dates listed are launch dates, but the achievements noted may have occurred some time later—in some cases, a considerable time later (for example, Voyager 2, launched 20 August 1977, did not reach Neptune until 1989).

Solar System → Local Interstellar Cloud → Local Bubble → Gould Belt → Orion Arm → Milky Way → Milky Way subgroup → Local Group → Local Sheet → Virgo Supercluster → Laniakea Supercluster → Local Hole → Observable universe → UniverseEach arrow (→) may be read as "within" or "part of".

Charted timeline of Solar System exploration, as of December 2014
Sputnik 1 – First Earth orbiter
Vostok 1 – First crewed Earth orbiter
Mariner 2 – First successful Venus flyby
Mariner 4 – First successful Mars flyby
Luna 9 – First successful lunar lander
Zond 5 – First lunar flyby and return to Earth, first terrestrials to circle the Moon
Apollo 8 – First crewed lunar orbiter
Apollo 11 – First crewed lunar landing
Mars 3 – First Mars lander
Pioneer 10 – First Jupiter flyby
Mariner 10 – First Mercury flyby
Voyager 2 – First Uranus/first Neptune flyby
Giotto – Comet Halley flyby
Galileo – Mission to Jupiter
Mars Pathfinder – Mars lander and the first successful Mars rover , Sojourner
Cassini–Huygens – First Saturn orbiter and first Titan lander
Mars Express / Beagle 2 – First planetary mission by the ESA
MESSENGER – First Mercury orbiter
Chandrayaan-1 – Water Around Fresh Moon Crater
Mars Science Laboratory – Mars lander and large rover
Mangalyaan – First Indian Mars orbiter
Trace Gas Orbiter – ESA/Roscosmos Mars orbiter
NASA's Perseverance rover
The Sun, the planets, their moons, and several trans-Neptunian objects The Sun Mercury Venus The Moon Earth Mars Phobos and Deimos Ceres The main asteroid belt Jupiter Moons of Jupiter Rings of Jupiter Saturn Moons of Saturn Rings of Saturn Uranus Moons of Uranus Rings of Uranus Neptune Moons of Neptune Rings of Neptune Pluto Moons of Pluto Haumea Moons of Haumea Makemake S/2015 (136472) 1 The Kuiper Belt Eris Dysnomia The Scattered Disc The Hills Cloud The Oort Cloud