Space exploration firsts
From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository
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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
