References are numbered in [brackets], which are listed here. A number after the dot gives the page in the source.

Last updated: 2008 June 28.

start-1899	1900-1949	1950-1964	1965-1969	1970-1974	1975-1979	1980-1984	1985-1989	1990-1994	1995-1999
2000-end

2000 January 18 The Tagish Lake meteorite impacts the Earth. [21] May 3 A rare conjunction of seven celestial bodies (Sun, Moon, planets Mercury-Jupiter) occurs on the New Moon. [21] July 10 EADS, the world's second largest aerospace group, is formed by the merger of Aérospatiale-Matra, DASA and CASA. [5] November 2 The first crew arrives at the International Space Station. [5] 2001 February 12 The NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touches down in the "saddle" region of 433 Eros, becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid. [5] [22] March 23 The Russian space station Mir re-enters the atmosphere near Nadi, Fiji, and falls into the Pacific Ocean. [22] April 28 Soyuz TM-32 lifts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, carrying the first space tourist, American Dennis Tito. [22] May 6 Space tourist Dennis Tito returns to Earth aboard Soyuz TM-31. (Soyuz TM-32 is left docked at the International Space Station as a new lifeboat.) [22] May 22 A large trans-Neptunian object (28978 Ixion) is found during the Deep Ecliptic Survey. [22] June 21 A total solar eclipse occurs. [22] September 21 Deep Space 1 flies within 2,200 km of Comet Borrelly. [5] October 15 NASA's Galileo spacecraft passes within 112 miles of Jupiter's moon Io. [22] November 27 The Hubble Space Telescope detects the first atmosphere (in this case, hydrogen) on an extrasolar planet (on Osiris). [5] December 14 An annular solar eclipse occurs. [22] 2002 February 19 NASA's Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system. [5] [23] March 1 The Envisat environmental satellite successfully reaches an orbit 800 km above the Earth using an Ariane 5 on its 11th launch, carrying the heaviest payload to date at 8500kg. [23] Space Shuttle Columbia flies the Hubble Space Telescope service mission, its last before STS-107. [23] April 25 Soyuz TM-34: South African Mark Shuttleworth blasts off from the Baikonur cosmodrome; he had paid £15 million for the trip. [23] May 12 The Russian Shuttle Buran is destroyed when the roof of the hangar collapses, killing eight workers. [23] May 26 The Mars Odyssey finds signs of huge water ice deposits on the planet Mars. [23] June 4 The planetoid Quaoar is discovered orbiting the Sun in the Kuiper belt. [23] June 6 A near-Earth asteroid estimated at 10 meters in diameter explodes over the Mediterranean Sea between Greece and Libya with an estimated force slightly more powerful than the Nagasaki atomic bomb. [5] [23] June 10 An annular solar eclipse occurs. [23] June 15 Near Earth Asteroid 2002 MN misses our planet by 75,000 miles (120,000 km) about one third the distance to the moon. [23] September 25 A bolide or comet nucleus is believed to impact in the Vitim River basin near the town of Bodaybo in Siberia, Russia. [5] October 7 The discovery of Quaoar, a planet-like body orbiting the Sun, is announced. [23] December 4 A total solar eclipse occurs. [23] 2003 January 22 The last successful contact arrives from the spacecraft Pioneer 10, one of the most distant man-made objects. [5] February 1 American Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates over Texas upon re-entry, killing all seven astronauts onboard: Michael P. Anderson (born 1959), David M. Brown (born 1956), Kalpana Chawla (born 1961), Laurel Clark (born 1961), Rick Husband (born 1957), William McCool (born 1961), Ilan Ramon (Israeli) (born 1954). [24] June 10 NASA begins its Mars Exploration Rover mission by launching Spirit Rover. [5] August 22 A rocket explosion kills 21 at the Brazilian rocket complex in Alcântara, Brazil, due to the premature ignition of a solid rocket booster. [24] August 27 Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in over 50,000 years. [24] September 3 Hubble Space Telescope starts Hubble Ultra Deep Field. [24] September 21 Galileo mission is terminated by sending the probe into Jupiter's atmosphere, where it is crushed by the pressure at the lower altitudes. [5] September 27 Smart 1, a European Space Agency satellite, is launched from French Guiana. [24] October 15 China launches Shenzhou 5, their first manned space mission. [24] November 9 A lunar eclipse is seen in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Central Asia. [24] November 23 A total solar eclipse is seen over Antarctica. [24] December 25 Beagle 2 is scheduled to land on Mars, but nothing is heard from the lander. [24] 2004 January 4 NASA's MER-A (Spirit) lands on Mars at 04:35 UTC. [5] [25] January 24 At 05:05 UTC, NASA's MER-B (Opportunity) rover lands on Mars. [5] [25] March 2 NASA announces that the Mars rover MER-B (Opportunity) has confirmed that its landing area was once drenched in water. [25] June 8 The first transit of Venus since 1882 occurs; the next one will occur in 2012. [25] June 12 A 1.3 kg chondrite type meteorite strikes a house in Ellerslie, New Zealand, causing serious damage but no injuries. [25] June 21 In Mojave, California, SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately-funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight. [25] July 1 The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft arrives at Saturn. [25] October 4 SpaceShipOne reaches space for the second time, winning US$10 million in the Ansari x Prize challenge. [108.66] October 23 Brazil's "Operation Cajuana" launches its first rocket into space, the VSB-30, just 14 months after its space program experienced a deadly launch pad accident. [5] (October 24 [25]) October 26 The Cassini probe passes within 1,200km of Titan. [25] November 16 The European Space Agency probe, Smart 1, passes from Earth orbit into the orbit of the Moon. [25] 2005 January 12 Deep Impact is launched from Cape Canaveral by a Delta 2 rocket. [26] January 14 The Huygens probe lands on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. [26] January 15 ESA's SMART-1 lunar orbiter discovers elements such as calcium, aluminum, silicon, iron and other surface elements on the moon. [5] June 21 A Volna booster rocket carrying the first light sail spacecraft (a joint Russian-American project) fails 83 seconds after its launch, destroying the spacecraft. [26] July 4 NASA's "Copper bullet" from Deep Impact spacecraft hits Comet Tempel 1, creating a crater for scientific studies. [26] July 26 The Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on its "Return To Flight" mission. This is the first space shuttle flight in nearly 2 1/2 years since the breakup of Space Shuttle Columbia on its return from mission STS-107. [26] August 9 Space Shuttle Discovery returns to Edwards Air Force Base at 0814 EDT, completing STS-114, "Return to Flight." [26] August 12 The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is launched. [26] August 22 A 4.1-kg (9-pound) meteorite crashes into the Dotito area of Zambezi Escarpment in Zimbabwe, leaving a 15-cm (6-inch) crater. [26] October 12 The second Chinese spacecraft, Shenzhou 6, is launched, carrying Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng for five days in orbit. [5] [26] November 9 The Venus Express mission of the European Space Agency is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. [5] 2006 January 15 NASA's Stardust mission successfully ends, the first to return dust from a comet. [27] January 25 Three independent observing campaigns announce the discovery of the first cool rocky/icy extrasolar planet around a main-sequence star (OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb, near the center of the Milky Way galaxy). [5] March 4 The final contact attempt with Pioneer 10 receives no response. [27] March 9 NASA's Cassini-Huygens spacecraft discovers geysers of a liquid substance shooting from Saturn's moon Enceladus, signaling a possible presence of water. [27] March 10 NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter enters Mars orbit. [27] March 30 The first Brazilian astronaut, Marcos Pontes, goes to space in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, Soyuz TMA-8, at 2:29:00 CET. [27] April 11 The European Space Agency's Venus Express spaceprobe enters Venus' orbit. [27] May 5 NASA astronomers announce the discovery of a storm system in the Jovian atmosphere, dubbed the Red Spot Junior. [27] June 18 The first Kazakh space satellite "KazSat" is launched. [27] July 3 Asteroid 2004 XP14 flies by Earth's atmosphere. [5] July 4 Space Shuttle Discovery is launched to the International Space Station. It returns safely on July 17. [27] July 17 Space Shuttle Discovery returns to Earth from the International Space Station, thirteen days after its launch. [27] August 24 The International Astronomical Union defines 'planet' at its 26th General Assembly, demoting Pluto to the status of 'dwarf planet' more than 70 years after its discovery. [5] [27] September 9 Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on a mission to build up the International Space Station. It returns safe and successful on September 21. [27] September 13 The solar system's largest dwarf planet, designated until now as 2003 UB313, is officially named "Eris"; its satellite is now known as "Dysnomia". [27] November 8 A transit of Mercury occurs. [27] December 10 Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center on the first night launch since the 2003 loss of Columbia. [27] Christer Fuglesang becomes the first Swede in space. [27] December 22 The Space Shuttle Discovery lands at the Kennedy Space Center, concluding a two-week mission to the International Space Station. [27] 2007 January 12 Comet McNaught, the brightest comet in over 40 years, makes perihelion. [38] January 15 Comet McNaught makes perigee after coming close to the sun. [5] January 18 Comet McNaught, the brightest comet to appear in over 40 years, becomes visible over the Southern Hemisphere. [38] February 25 The European Space Agency confirms Rosetta's successful Mars trajectory fly-by. [38] February 28 The New Horizons space probe makes a gravitational slingshot against Jupiter which changes its trajectory towards Pluto. [38] March 3 Total lunar eclipse. [38] April 24 Gliese 581 c, a potentially habitable Earth-like extrasolar planet, is discovered in the constellation Libra. [38] May 31 A calendar blue moon occurs in the Western Hemisphere and parts of the Eastern Hemisphere. [38] June 5 NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft makes its second fly-by of Venus en route to Mercury. [38] June 8 The Space Shuttle Atlantis is successfully launched on mission STS-117. [38] June 30 A calendar blue moon occurs in most of the Eastern Hemisphere. [38] July 2 Venus and Saturn are in conjunction, separation 46 arcsecs. [38] August 4 At Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, NASA launches a Delta II rocket carrying the Mars Phoenix lander to explore the north of Mars. (The Phoenix will successfully land and return pictures in May 2008.) [38] [57] August 8 The Space Shuttle Endeavour is successfully launched on mission STS-118. [38] August 21 STS-118 lands at the Kennedy Space Center, completing Space Shuttle Endeavour's 19th flight. [38] September 14 The SELENE spacecraft launches. JAXA has called the mission "the largest lunar mission since the Apollo program." [38] September 15 A stony meteorite estimated with 1m-wide diameter travelling at 24,000 km/h plows into a dry riverbed near Lake Titicaca in Carancas in the Puno region of Peru. [57] October 23 The Space Shuttle Discovery is successfully launched on mission STS-120. [38] October 24 In the space of a few hours, Comet Holmes develops a coma and flares up to half a million times its former brightness, becoming visible to the naked eye. Its coma later becomes larger in volume than the Sun, making it the second comet to do so in 2007 after Comet McNaught. [38] December 7 Uranus' orbit is positioned such that the sun shines directly above its equator (i.e. an equinox). [38] 2008 January 14 The U.S. space agency's MESSENGER (Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging) probe passes about 126 miles over Mercury. This is the first spacecraft since 1975 to fly past the planet. [35] January 23 At the American Museum of Natural History, Virgin Galactic unveils the design of its next generation of space vehicles, named White Knight Two, and SpaceShipTwo. [108.12,66] At the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, New York, Richard Branson unveils a model of the Virgin Galactic spaceship SpaceShipTwo, intending to take paying passengers into space on a regular basis next year. [35] February 12 At the International Space Station, the Columbus laboratory module built by the Europe Space Agency is installed and opened for the first time. [35] February 18 Space shuttle Atlantis departs from the International Space Station, after delivering a European laboratory. [35] February 20 A U.S. Navy warship neat Hawaii fires a missile at a defunct spy satellite 153 miles up in the atmosphere, to destroy the fuel tank of hydrazine fuel, to prevent it from being released as a toxic gas if it had fallen to Earth. [35] March 11 At the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, US space shuttle Endeavour lifts off headed for the International Space Station. Its cargo includes part of a Japanese space laboratory and a Canadian-built robotic system. [35] March 26 US space shuttle Endeavour returns to Earth, landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission delivered the first part of the Japanese Kibo research laboratory and a Canadian maintenance robot to the International Space Station. Space station flight engineer Leopold Eyharts returned with the shuttle, after spending seven weeks setting up the Columbus lab. [35] May 25 NASA's Mars Phoenix lander touches down in the far north of Mars, sending back to Earth pictures of a region never previously seen up close. [57] May 31 NASA's Discovery space shuttle blasts off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a 14-day mission to the International Space Station, delivering a cylinder for Japan's Kibo science lab, and also a new pump to repair the station's toilet. [57] June 14 The space shuttle Discovery returns to Earth after a 14-day mission, landing at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Among the returning is Garrett Reisman, after 95 days in space. [105] June 20 The Janus-2 satellite is launched from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, atop a Delta-2 rocket. The satellite will be used for measuring the shape of the world's oceans. [57]