Space exploration firsts

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  Neil Armstrong about to take the first step on the moon; the first human step on an extraterrestrial object

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  First reusable spacecraft: The Space Shuttle Columbia seconds after engine ignition, April 12, 1981 (NASA)

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  First permanently manned space station, Mir, which orbited the Earth from 1986 until 2001

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  The International Space Station (ISS), the first internationally built and owned permanently manned space station