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:
- All spacecraft that have left Earth orbit for the purposes of Solar System exploration, including lunar probes.
- A small number of pioneering or notable Earth-orbiting craft.
- Centuries of terrestrial telescopic observation.
- The great majority of Earth-orbiting satellites.
- Space probes leaving Earth orbit that are not concerned with Solar System exploration.
- Probes that failed at launch.
1950s
| Mission name | Launch date | Description | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 1960s
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