Editing Space exploration (section)

=== First astronomical body space explorations ===
The first artificial object to reach another celestial body was [[Luna 2]] reaching the [[Moon]] in 1959.<ref name="jpl-luna2">{{cite web|url=http://sse.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/profile.cfm?Sort=Target&Target=Moon&MCode=Luna_02 |title=NASA on Luna 2 mission |publisher=Sse.jpl.nasa.gov |access-date=24 May 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120331155310/http://sse.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/profile.cfm?Sort=Target&Target=Moon&MCode=Luna_02 |archive-date=31 March 2012 }}</ref> The first [[Soft landing (aeronautics)|soft landing]] on another celestial body was performed by [[Luna 9]] landing on the Moon on 3 February 1966.<ref name="jpl.luna9">{{cite web|url=http://sse.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/profile.cfm?Sort=Target&Target=Moon&MCode=Luna_09 |title=NASA on Luna 9 mission |publisher=Sse.jpl.nasa.gov |access-date=24 May 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120331155324/http://sse.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/profile.cfm?Sort=Target&Target=Moon&MCode=Luna_09 |archive-date=31 March 2012 }}</ref> [[Luna 10]] became the first artificial satellite of the Moon, entering in a lunar orbit on 3 April 1966.<ref name="jpl-luna10">{{cite web|url=http://sse.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/profile.cfm?Sort=Target&Target=Moon&MCode=Luna_10 |title=NASA on Luna 10 mission |publisher=Sse.jpl.nasa.gov |access-date=24 May 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120218232128/http://sse.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/profile.cfm?Sort=Target&Target=Moon&MCode=Luna_10 |archive-date=18 February 2012 }}</ref>

The first crewed landing on another celestial body was performed by [[Apollo 11]] on 20 July 1969, landing on the Moon. There have been a total of six spacecraft with humans [[Moon landing|landing on the Moon]] starting from 1969 to the last human landing in 1972.

The first interplanetary [[Flyby (spaceflight)|flyby]] was the 1961 [[Venera 1]] flyby of [[Venus]], though the 1962 [[Mariner 2]] was the first flyby of [[Venus]] to return data (closest approach 34,773 kilometers). [[Pioneer 6, 7, 8, and 9|Pioneer 6]] was the first satellite to orbit the [[Sun]], launched on 16 December 1965. The other planets were first flown by in 1965 for [[Mars]] by [[Mariner 4]], 1973 for [[Jupiter]] by ''[[Pioneer 10]]'', 1974 for [[Mercury (planet)|Mercury]] by [[Mariner 10]], 1979 for [[Saturn]] by ''[[Pioneer 11]]'', 1986 for [[Uranus]] by ''[[Voyager 2]]'', 1989 for [[Neptune]] by ''[[Voyager 2]]''. In 2015, the [[dwarf planet]]s [[Ceres (dwarf planet)|Ceres]] and [[Pluto]] were orbited by ''[[Dawn (spacecraft)|Dawn]]'' and passed by ''[[New Horizons]]'', respectively. This accounts for flybys of each of the eight planets in the [[Solar System]], the [[Sun]], the [[Moon]], and [[Ceres (dwarf planet)|Ceres]] and [[Pluto]] (two of the five [[Dwarf_planet#Population_of_dwarf_planets|recognized dwarf planets]]).

The first interplanetary surface mission to return at least limited surface data from another planet was the 1970 landing of [[Venera 7]], which returned data to Earth for 23 minutes from [[Venus]]. In 1975, [[Venera 9]] was the first to return images from the surface of another planet, returning images from Venus. In 1971, the [[Mars 3]] mission achieved the first soft landing on Mars returning data for almost 20 seconds. Later, much longer duration surface missions were achieved, including over six years of Mars surface operation by [[Viking 1]] from 1975 to 1982 and over two hours of transmission from the surface of Venus by [[Venera 13]] in 1982, the longest ever Soviet planetary surface mission. Venus and Mars are the two planets outside of Earth on which humans have conducted surface missions with uncrewed [[robotic spacecraft]].