1969 – The world watches in wonder as Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong and “Buss” Aldrin become the first human beings to set foot on the surface of the moon.
1997 – Sojourner touches down at Ares Vallis becoming the first rover to explore Mars. During the three months of operation, the rover captures more than 550 images of the Red Planet.
2015 – SpaceX successfully lands and recovers the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket after delivering 11 communications satellites to orbit. This represents the first-ever orbital class rocket landing, and humanity’s first major shift towards sustainable space travel.
2069 – In commemoration of the first moon landing’s 100-year anniversary, the first human settlement is founded on Luna at Shackleton Crater and christened Armstrong Outpost.
2103 – Founded by the European Space Agency, Lowell City, the first permanent human settlement is established on Mars.
2148 – Hidden below the surface of Mars, humanity discovers a small cache of highly-advanced technology belonging to an extinct alien race known as Protheans. This monumental find leads to the science of mass effect fields, and the development of faster-than-light travel.
2149 – Humanity discovers the first Mass Relay; a dormant piece of ancient alien technology disguised at Pluto’s moon, Charon. John Grissom leads a team through the Charon Relay to a location 36 light-years away. This feat determines that the Charon Relay is part of a vast network of relays enabling travel across the galaxy.
2152 – In an effort to expand its galactic presence, humanity establishes its first extrasolar colony world on the planet of Demeter. The colonies of Terra Nova and Eden Prime soon follow.
2157 – Humanity unknowingly breaks galactic law and are attacked by an alien race known as Turians, making the beginning of the First Contact War. Before a full-scale war could erupt, the Citadel Council, a galactic governing body, intervenes, brokering a peace between the humans and Turians and revealing the existence of the greater galactic community to humankind.
2165 – In official recognition of its growing power and influence, the Citadel Council grants humanity an embassy on the Citadel, the political and economic cornerstone of the galaxy.
2185 – The Andromeda Initiative is scheduled to launch. Privately funded and operating independently from the Systems Alliance, the Initiative’s mandate is to make a 600-year journey to the Andromeda galaxy in hopes of establishing a new home world. This impending galactic journey represents the most ambitious undertaking of any Milky Way race to date…