On February 14th, St Valentine's day, one of its craft went into orbit around an asteroid called Eros amid much over-rehearsed, toe-curling humour.

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Gagarin went into orbit at the height of the Cold War.

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Three days later (42 years ago yesterday), at 12:27 Eastern Daylight Time, Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins went into lunar orbit.

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Mars Express went into an initial orbit around Mars at about the time that Beagle 2 was landing, and it is now being manoeuvred into an operational orbit that will take it over both poles.

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There was 1995, when Netscape went public and sent Nasdaq into a five-year orbit.

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