Astronotes Armagh Planetarium's Stellar Blog! ... Space Flight . ... 1976:NASA?s Space Shuttle climbs to orbit . ... 1972:The first American space station, Skylab 1, is placed into orbit and inhabited by a series of three man crews. ... 1973:NASA sends the first two probes in the Voyager program to Mars, more follow every other year throughout the 1970тАЩs preparing the way for the manned Mars missions to follow. ... 14 August 1983 The first Mars mission arrives back in orbit around Earth. ...