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;
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;