NewsgalleryAs scientists celebrate Rosetta's landing on the comet, here's a brief history of space exploration firstsBookmarkShareNewsBySamantha Gildea18:20, 14 NOV 2014Updated18:32, 14 NOV 20141942 - German rocket crosses the Karman line – 62 miles above the Earth’s surface – thereby entering outer space. (Image: StephenThomas/Flickr)1 of 171957 - Soviet Union’s Sputnik 1 becomes the first man-made satellite to orbit the earth. (Image: Paukrus/Flickr)2 of 171959 - NASA’s Explorer 6 takes the first photo of Earth from orbit. (Image: NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre/Flickr)3 of 171960 - USSR’s Sputnik 5 brings plants and animals back from space alive - including Belka and Strelka, pictured4 of 171961 - Yuri Gagarin is the world's first man in space5 of 171965 - USA’s Marina 4 performs the first flyby of Mars. (Image: NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre)6 of 171969 - Neil Armstrong becomes the first man on the Moon.7 of 171971 - ‘Soft’ (as opposed to crash) landing on Mars (Image: Bluedharma/Flickr)8 of 171976 - Photos and soil samples from the surface of Mars (Image: NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre/Flickr)9 of 171981 - Reusable manned space craft, the Space Shuttle, launched (Image: GovWin A Deltek Network/Flickr)10 of 171986 - Consistently inhabited long-term research space station (Image: NASA Marshall Space Flight Centre/Flickr)11 of 171990 - Photo of the entire Solar System (Image: KabsikPark/Flickr)12 of 171995 - Orbit of Jupiter (Image: Tonynetone/Flickr)13 of 172006 - Sample returned from a comet. (Image: Kevin Dooley/Flickr)14 of 172001 - Landing on an asteroid. (Image: European Space Agency/Flickr)15 of 172011 - Orbit of Mercury (Image: NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre/Flickr)16 of 172014 - Man-made probe lands on a comet (Image: European Space Agency/Flickr)17 of 17