1966: The American lander Surveyor 1 achieves the first US soft landing on the Moon, in Oceanus Procellarum (the Ocean of Storms). Unlike previous probes that deliberately crashed, Surveyor 1 used retrorockets to land intact. It transmitted over 11,000 high-resolution photographs of the lunar soil, confirming that the surface was solid enough to support the weight of a manned lunar module, thereby validating the Apollo programme's strategy.

2003: Launch of the Mars Express probe by the European Space Agency (ESA) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. As ESA’s first planetary mission, it was designed to study the atmosphere and geology of Mars. Equipped with state-of-the-art instruments, it notably confirmed the presence of water ice at the poles and enabled the high-resolution mapping of the planet. Despite the loss of its small lander, Beagle 2, the orbiter is a total success and remains operational in 2026.

Image credits : nasa.gov