Space exploration on 16 June 1963. China first launched a person into space 42 years after the launch of "Vostok 1", on 15 October 2003, with the flight of Yang Liwei aboard the "Shenzhou 5" (Divine Vessel 5) spacecraft. The first artificial object to reach another celestial body was Luna 2 in 1959. The first automatic landing on another celestial body was performed by Luna 9 in 1966. Luna 10 became the first artificial satellite of the Moon. The first crewed landing on another celestial body was performed by Apollo 11 on 20 July 1969. The first successful interplanetary flyby was the
Celestial sphere the equatorial coordinate system, the celestial equator divides the celestial sphere into two halves: the northern and southern celestial hemispheres. Because astronomical objects are at such remote distances, casual observation of the sky offers no information on their actual distances. All celestial objects seem equally far away, as if fixed onto the inside of a sphere with a large but unknown radius, which appears to rotate westward overhead; meanwhile, Earth underfoot seems to remain still. For purposes of spherical astronomy, which is concerned only with the directions to celestial objects, it makes no difference if this is actually the case