21st century

===Space exploration===
[[File:PIA16239 High-Resolution Self-Portrait by Curiosity Rover Arm Camera.jpg|thumb|upright|NASA successfully lands the [[Curiosity (rover)|''Curiosity'' rover]] on the surface of [[Mars]].]]
[[File:15-011a-NewHorizons-PlutoFlyby-ArtistConcept-14July2015-20150115.jpg|thumb|upright|Artist's impression of ''[[New Horizons]]''{{'}} close encounter with the Pluto–Charon system.]]
* 2001 – [[Dennis Tito]] becomes the first [[space tourism|space tourist]] by paying $19 million to board the [[International Space Station]].
* 2003 – [[Space Shuttle Columbia disaster|Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' disaster]] on 1 February.
* 2003 – The [[Chinese space program]] launches its first [[Human spaceflight|crewed space flight]], [[Shenzhou 5]], on 15 October. This made China the third country in the world to have indigenous crewed space capability.
* 2004 – [[Mars Exploration Rover]]s ''[[Spirit (rover)|Spirit]]'' and ''[[Opportunity (rover)|Opportunity]]'' land on [[Mars]]; ''Opportunity'' discovers evidence that an area of [[Mars]] was once covered in water.
* 2004 – ''[[Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne|SpaceShipOne]]'' makes the first privately funded [[human spaceflight]], on 21 June.
* 2005 – The ''[[Huygens (spacecraft)|Huygens]]'' probe lands on [[Titan (moon)|Titan]], the largest of Saturn's moons, on 14 January.
* 2006 – The ''[[New Horizons]]'' probe is launched to Pluto, on 19 January.
* 2006 – [[Pluto]] is reclassified from a [[planet]] to a [[dwarf planet]], leaving the solar system with eight planets.
* 2007 – China launches its first lunar mission with the [[Chang'e 1]], on 24 October.
* 2008 – India launches its first lunar mission [[Chandrayaan-1]] which included a [[remote sensing]] orbiter and impactor on 22 October 2008. It made India the third nation to place its flag on Moon.
* 2008 – [[Chinese space program]] launches its third crewed space flight carrying its first three-person crew and conducts its first spacewalk that makes China the third nation after Russia and USA to do that, ''[[Shenzhou 7]]'', on 25 September.
* 2008 – ''[[Phoenix (spacecraft)|Phoenix]]'' discovers water ice on Mars.
* 2009 – [[Iranian Space Agency|Iran]] launches its first [[satellite]], ''[[Omid]]'', on 2 February.
* 2011 – [[NASA]] retires the last Space Shuttle, ''Atlantis'', marking an end to its three-decade shuttle program.
* 2012 – [[SpaceX]] successfully delivers cargo to the [[International Space Station]].
* 2012 – NASA successfully lands the [[Curiosity (rover)|''Curiosity'' rover]] on the surface of [[Mars]], on 6 August.
* 2014 – India's [[Mars Orbiter Mission]], the nation's first attempt to send a spacecraft to Mars, successfully entered orbit on 24 September, making India the fourth nation in the world to reach that goal.
* 2014 – The [[European Space Agency]] robotic spacecraft [[Philae (spacecraft)|''Philae'']] landed successfully on the [[67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko|comet 67P]], the first cometary landing ever.
* 2015 – On 14 July, NASA's ''[[New Horizons]]'' spacecraft became the first to fly by [[Pluto (planet)|Pluto]], on a mission to photograph and collect data on its planetary system. No other spacecraft has yet performed such a mission so far from Earth.
* 2015 – On 28 September, NASA announces that liquid water has been found on [[Mars]].<ref>{{cite web |title=NASA News Conference: Evidence of Liquid Water on Today's Mars. |url=http://www.nasa.gov/topics/journeytomars/index.html |date=28 September 2015 |work=[[NASA]] |access-date=16 July 2021 |archive-date=18 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210718143624/https://www.nasa.gov/topics/journeytomars/index.html |url-status=live}}</ref>
* 2015 – [[SpaceX]] launches and lands a [[Falcon 9]] into orbital space on 21 December, becoming the first reusable rocket to do so.
* 2016 – [[SpaceX]] lands the first orbital rocket, a [[CRS-8]], on a drone platform at sea on 8 April.
* 2016 – On 4 July, NASA's [[Juno (spacecraft)|''Juno'']] space probe maneuvered into a polar orbit to study the planet [[Jupiter]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/overview/index.html|title=Juno Overview|last=Greicius|first=Tony|date=13 March 2015|access-date=23 July 2016|archive-date=7 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180907181255/https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/overview/index.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
* 2016 – On 26 July, [[Solar Impulse 2]] becomes the first solar-powered aircraft to circumnavigate the world.
* 2016 – On 24 August, [[Proxima Centauri B|an Earth-sized exoplanet]] is discovered around [[Proxima Centauri]], 4.2 light years away, which is potentially habitable.
* 2016 – On 8 September, NASA's [[OSIRIS-REx|''ORIRIS-Rex'']] space probe is launched as the first asteroid sample return mission to collect samples from [[Bennu (asteroid)|Bennu]].
* 2019 – On 3 January, Chinese probe [[Chang'e 4]] becomes the first human-made object to land on the [[far side of the Moon]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-lands-probe-on-dark-side-of-the-moon-11546493599 |title=China Lands Probe on the 'Dark Side' of the Moon |last=Moss |first=Trefor |date=2019-01-03 |work=The Wall Street Journal |access-date=2019-01-03 |archive-date=12 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412020545/https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-lands-probe-on-dark-side-of-the-moon-11546493599 |url-status=live}}</ref>
* 2019 – NASA concludes the 15-year [[Opportunity (rover)|''Opportunity'' rover]] mission after being unable to wake the rover from hibernation.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Ryan |first1=Jackson |title=NASA's history-making Mars rover Opportunity declared dead |url=https://www.cnet.com/news/nasa-history-making-mars-rover-opportunity-declared-dead/ |access-date=14 February 2019 |publisher=CNET |date=13 February 2019 |archive-date=11 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190411223630/https://www.cnet.com/news/nasa-history-making-mars-rover-opportunity-declared-dead/ |url-status=live}}</ref>
* 2019 – [[Israel]] launched its first [[spacecraft]], ''[[Beresheet]]'', towards the [[Moon]] on 7 April; after two months of journey, the spacecraft failed to land and crashed on the surface of the Moon, making Israel the seventh country to orbit the Moon.
* 2019 – The first image of the [[supermassive black hole]] inside galaxy [[Messier 87]] was captured by the [[Event Horizon Telescope]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Grossman |first1=Lisa |last2=Conover |first2=Emily |title=The first picture of a black hole opens a new era of astrophysics |url=https://www.sciencenews.org/article/black-hole-first-picture-event-horizon-telescope |access-date=11 April 2019 |publisher=Science News |date=10 April 2019 |archive-date=27 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427192956/https://www.sciencenews.org/article/black-hole-first-picture-event-horizon-telescope |url-status=live}}</ref>
* 2021 – [[NASA]]'s ''[[Perseverance rover|Perseverance]]'' rover, carrying the ''[[Ingenuity helicopter|Ingenuity]]'' helicopter, successfully lands on [[Mars]].
* 2021 – NASA's [[James Webb Space Telescope]] is successfully launched into orbit.
* 2022 – The first image of the [[supermassive black hole]] inside [[Milky Way]] was captured by the [[Event Horizon Telescope]].
* 2022 – The first image from the James Webb Space Telescope is published.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Garner |first1=Rob |title=NASA's Webb Delivers Deepest Infrared Image of Universe Yet |url=https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-delivers-deepest-infrared-image-of-universe-yet |website=NASA |access-date=12 July 2022 |date=11 July 2022 |archive-date=12 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220712000119/https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-delivers-deepest-infrared-image-of-universe-yet/ |url-status=live}}</ref>
* 2022 – NASA successfully launches the [[Artemis 1]] Moon mission on the SLS spacecraft after multiple delays.
* 2023 – India successfully touched down near the south pole of the Moon with Chandrayaan-3's lander on August 23, making it only the fourth country to achieve the feat of reaching lunar surface after the US, China and the erstwhile Soviet Union.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.isro.gov.in/Chandrayaan3.html | title=Chandrayaan-3 }}</ref>