1543: Copernicus' universe:
published a view similar to Aristarchus but not widely accepted as opposed religious doctrine, removing humanity as the centre of all consideration, until Newton & others to spread it, even so, it was not widely accepted until late 18thC.
1572: Brahe discovers the “New Star” in the Milky Way;
1599: Brahe's account of his discoveries & instruments;
1609: Galileo's telescope:
1610: Harriott discovers sunspots; Pieresc discovers Orion nebula;
1618: Kepler's 3rd law of planetary motion;
1651: Riccioli introduces on his lunar map many of the modern names of lunar features;
1666: Newton measures the moon's orbit;
1668: Isaac Newton (1642-1727):
1675: Romer discovers the finite velocity of light;
1705, Halley correctly predicts return of the Halley comet for 1758;
1761: atmosphere of Venus;
1800: Herschel discovers infrared solar rays;
1802: Herschel disc. binary stars;
1805, rockets re-introduced as weapons in UK army;
1818: Encke's comet;
1838, parallax measurement for a fixed star;
1859: spectroscope;
1859: massive solar flare witnessed just prior to telegraph systems failing and large aurorae leads to the recognition of solar flares and their effects on earth and the magnetosphere thus founding the concept of space weather
1888: radio waves;
1895: rocket propulsion principle;
1896, helium;
1913: Russell's theory of stellar evolution;
1914: Goddard's rocketry expts;
1917: Mt Wilson 100in telescope;
1921: Oberth's “The Rocket into Interplanetary Space”;
1925: cosmic rays in upper atmosphere;
1926: Goddard's 1st liquid fuel rocket;
1929: Hubble measures red shifts;
1930: pluto; Schmidt makes 1st coma-free 14“ mirror telescope;
1932: Piccard reaches 17.5miles high in his stratosphere balloon;
1946: sun spots emit radiowaves; pilotless rocket missile;
1948: rocket missiles reach 78 miles high & 3000mph; 200in Mt Palomar telescope;
1949: US launches guided missile 250miles;
1953: cosmic ray observatory erected; rocket-powered plane flies at 1,600mph;
1957: USSR launches Sputnik I & II - 1st earth satellites;
1958: NASA established; Van Allen belts around earth;
1959: USSR launches rocket with monkeys aboard;
1960: 1st weather satellite;
1961: Yuri Gagarin (USSR) orbits earth; Alan Shepard (US) makes 1st US space flight;
1962: Mariner 2 launched as probe to Venus;
1963: quasars;
1966: Soviet Luna 9 then US Surveyor I soft-lands on moon; Aldrin's space walk;
1968: Apollo 8 orbits moon; pulsars;
1969: Concorde; Apollo 11 - man on moon; Mariner probe images of Mars;
1970: Apollo 13;
1971: Apollo 14 & 15 explore moon's surface; Mariner 9 orbits Mars; USSR soft lands capsule on Mars;
1972: Apollo 16 & 17 on moon; Soviet Venus 8 lands on Venus;
1973: Skylab; Pioneer 10 probe to Jupiter transmits images back; US Pres. Nixon approves development of the shuttle;
1974: Skylab 3 astronauts 84 days in space; Mariner 10 transmits images of both Venus & Mercury;
1975: US & Soviet craft rendezvous in orbit - the 1st joint international flight & the last US manned mission in the 1970's.
1979: Skylab crashes into Western Australia.
1981: 1st shuttle flight in space - the Columbia;
1983: 1st flight for shuttle Challenger;
1984: 1st flight for shuttle Discovery;
1985: 1st flight for shuttle Atlantis;
1986: after 24 shuttle flights, 1st shuttle tragedy when Challenger blows up on launch killing all 7 astronauts;
1990: shuttle places Hubble Space Telescope in orbit.
1992: 1st flight for shuttle Endeavour;
1993: Endeavour flight repairs the flawed Hubble telescope;
1996: 1st space flight of Australian astronaut Andy Thomas.
1998: Russian rocket delivers the 1st International Space Station (ISS) module into orbit.
2003: Columbia breaks up on re-entry killing all 7 astronauts;
2005: 114th shuttle mission;
2010: ISS likely to finish;