S.P.Korolev RSC Energia's "firsts":

1948 - Successful launch of the first home ballistic missile R-1 developed by S.P. Korolev, Chief Designer
1955 - Launch of the first mobile ballistic missile from a submarine (R-11FM).
1956 - Launch of the first strategic ballistic missile with a specific nose cone (R-5M)
1957 - Launch of the first intercontinental ballistic missile R-7
1957 - Launch of the first artificial Earth's satellite
1959 - Launch of interplanetary probe Luna-1, which accomplished the first lunar fly-by
1959 - Interplanetary probe Luna-2 was the first to reach the Moon's surface. It delivered there national symbols of the USSR.
1959 - Interplanetary probe Luna-3 took the first pictures of the far side of the Moon and transmitted them to Earth
1961 - Launch of the first interplanetary probe Venera-1 to Venus
1961 - First manned flight into space, the mission of Yuri Gagarin on-board Vostok spacecraft
1962 - First "formation flying" in space of two manned spacecraft, Vostok-3 and Vostok-4
1963 - First woman in space, the mission of Valentina Tereshkova on-board Vostok-6
1964 - Launch of two satellites, Elektron-1 and Electron-2, with one launch vehicle. The first time a satellite (Elektron-1) separates during powered flight
1965 - First space walk - Alexei Leonov was the first person to leave a spacecraft and float in space
1965 - Launch of interplanetary probe Venera-3, which, in 1966 became the first spacecraft to reach the surface of Venus. It delivered there national symbols of the USSR.
1966 - First soft landing on the Moon (Luna-9 space probe) and transmission of pictures from its surface
1966 - First artificial satellite of the Moon (Luna-10 space probe)
1967 - First automatic docking and undocking of two unmanned spacecraft
1968 - Zond-5, the first spacecraft to complete a flight along the Earth-Moon-Earth route, having passed around the Moon, returned to the vicinity of Earth moving with escape velocity
1969 - First docking of manned spacecraft (Soyuz-4 and Soyuz-5), and crew transfer from one spacecraft to the other through open space.
1969 - First formation flying of three manned spacecraft, Soyuz-6, Souyz-7 and Soyuz-8, during which they maneuvered relative to each other, with ground facilities providing simultaneous support for the three spacecraft
1971 - Launch of the first long-duration manned space station Salyut
1975 - First on-orbit docking of spacecraft (Soyuz-19 and Apollo) of different countries (USSR and USA)
1978 - Flight of the first logistics vehicle Progress-1, which was the first to resupply propellant to the propulsion system of the space station (Salyut-6)
1978 - Beginning of a wide international integration for the implementation of the joint space programs (Czechoslovakia, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Vietnam, Cuba, Mongolia, Roumania, France, India, Syria, Afghanistan, Japan, Great Britain, Kazakhstan, Austria, Germany).
1984 - First space walk of the woman cosmonaut (S.E. Savitskaya)
1986 - Beginning of deployment of space station Mir, which was to become an international laboratory in space.
1986 - First station-to-station transfer of cosmonauts (on Soyuz T-15 spacecraft from Mir to Salyut-7 and back to Mir) with delivery of 400 kg of cargo for its further use to Space Station Mir.
1988 - Development of the Energia-Buran multipurpose rocket and space complex. First automatic landing of the winged orbiter (Buran) to the airdrome when returning from orbit.
1995 - Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov sets the world space endurance record by continuously staying in space for 437 days 17 hours 58 minutes.
1995 - Long-duration flight of the woman cosmonaut of 169 days (E.V. Kondakova)
1995 - First docking of high-mass vehicles MIR (105 t) and Space Shuttle (104 t)
1995 - On-orbit manned complex MIR/SHUTTE with a combined 10-member crew was first created
1995 - Record long-duration manned flights on-board the MIR Station were first performed by foreign astronauts: NASA - 115 days (N. Tagard), and ESA - 179 days (T. Reiter)
1996 - Space operation of the unique facility of the XX century, namely MIR Station, stepped over a 10-year mark
1996 - Astronaut Shannon Lucid (USA) sets the world space endurance record for women by continuously staying in space for 188 days 04 hours 00 minutes, which includes 183 days 23 hours 00 minutes on-board Mir.
1996 - Priroda module, which has no analogues in the history of space exploration with regard to outfitting with various research hardware and variety of capabilities of its combination, is docked to the MIR Space Station and put into operation. A complete configuration of MIR station determined a classical configuration concept of the manned on-orbit centre in the XX century.
1996 - MIR station became the first international on-orbit research centre, on which starting from 1996 astronauts from different countries worked.
1996 - Station logistics support system by using the reusable transport vehicle Space Shuttle was first tested and modified as part of the station
1996 - Docking, long-duration free flight on-orbit operations with subsequent redocking of Progress M vehicle to the station was first tested, which will be implemented on the manned research space centres in operation of automatic periodically serviceable platforms as part of them
1996 - Launch of spacecraft Astra-1F by using Upper Stage DM3 on demand of European organisation SES marked Russia's entry to the International commercial space market of launch vehicles
1997 - Cosmonaut A.Ya. Soloviev made 16 egresses into space during five flights, set a record of a total operation duration in space of 77 hours 46 min.
1997 - Following Progress M-34 collision with the MIR space station repair and refurbishment activities were conducted in extreme conditions and in the shortest possible time, that allowed to maintain not only the space station, but the prestige of Russian space technology
1997 - Flight experiment was first performed to test a small space teleoperator and monitoring vehicle Inspector intended to service future on-orbit stations and space systems
1998 - Large-scale four-year Russian-American program MIR-NASA is completed. It included nine dockings of the Space Shuttle to MIR station. The U.S. astronauts worked in orbit with the Russian crews for about two years.
1998 - the launch of the functional and cargo module Zarya - the first module of the International Space Station - started the implementation of this large-scale international project of the 21st century.
1999 - beginning of flight tests of the rocket segment of the Sea Launch system. A demo launch of Zenit-3SL with upper stage DM-SL.
1999 - a new-generation communications satellite Yamal-100 was put into its target orbit. After a 35-year gap, RSC Energia resumed its work in the field of space communications systems at a new qualitative level.
1999 - "Reflector" experiment was conducted on-board Mir space station under a joint Russian-Georgian program, making a start on a new line of activities in the area of building large-diameter antennas (reflectors).
1999 - for the first time in the world the crew of expedition 27 on Mir observed and recorded from orbit a total solar eclipse.
1999 - an international panel in London awarded the aerospace industry's most prestigious Francois-Xavier Bagnio prize to manned space station Mir.
1999 - cosmonaut Sergei Avdeev sets an absolute world record in total space endurance time of 747 days 14 hours 12 minutes (accrued over three missions).
2000 - for the first time in the world, a long-duration (75 days) mission to Mir (expedition 28) was carried out on a purely commercial basis by a Russian crew consisting of S.V.Zaletin and A.Yu.Kaleri. This mission laid the foundations for and verified the viability of a further commercialization of space research.
2000 - completion of one of the most important phases in the construction of the International Space Station - in-orbit docking of Service Module Zvezda with the Zarya-Unity module stack, making the space station ready for operation in manned mode.
2000 - Soyuz TM-31 spacecraft delivered the first international crew consisting of: Russian cosmonauts - spacecraft commander Yu.P.Gidzenko and flight engineer S.K.Krikalev; head of the expedition - NASA (USA) astronaut W.Shepherd, which initiated operation of the International Space Station in the permanently manned mode.
2000 - S.P.Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia in one year put into their target orbits 22 various spacecraft, thus setting a sort of a record for one organization. This demonstrated the highest level of organizational management and scientific and technological potential of the company's workforce reached by the end of the 20th century.
2001 - Mir in-orbit operational life exceeded 15 years
2001 - a one-of-a-kind operation - deorbiting a 140 ton structure of Mir and bringing it down into a specified area of the ocean.
2001 - the first mission of a space tourist - an American D.Tito - as a member of the first visiting crew (Yu.M.Baturin, T.A.Musabaev) on Soyuz TM-32 spacecraft to the International Space Station, which initiated a new line of activities in the area of manned spaceflight.
2002 - New Soyuz TMA modified transport manned vehicle is brought into service.
2002 - 100 spacecraft have been put into orbit over 25 years since the launch of the first Progress transport cargo vehicle, which completely fulfilled their mission tasks.
2003 - Two Yamal-200 telecommunication satellites were first inserted into a geostationary orbit to design points by one launch; after flight tests the satellites were taken into nominal operation.
2003 - The Zenit-3SL launch vehicle of middle class with upper stage DM-SL (Sea Launch) was first put into GEO of SC the mass of which is commensurable with spacecraft launched by Proton and Ariane-5 heavy launch vehicles.
2008 - The integrated launch vehicle Zenit-3SLB was launched for the first time under the Land Launch program. Upper stage Block DM-SL - a new modification of Block DM upper stage - put AMOS-3 spacecraft into its target orbit.
2008 - The first cargo transportation spacecraft Progress M-01M was launched, representing a new spacecraft series with some of its on-board systems upgraded.