Exploration & Expansion in the 21st century

45 sourced entries, 2000 CE to 2025 CE, oldest first. Also see Exploration & Expansion across every century or everything else in the 21st century.

• 2000November 2 – Expedition 1 to the International Space Station begins.source
• 2001May 24 – Sherpa Temba Tsheri, 15, becomes the youngest person to reach the summit of Mount Everest.source
• 2001November – The World Trade Organization begins the Doha Development Round to negotiate lower trade barriers between countries and integrate developing nations into the global economy.source
• 2002February 5 – NASA launches the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager as part of the Explorers Program.source
• 2002June 3 – Archaeologists begin uncovering the Liye Qin Slips in Liye, China.source
• 2003April 18 – Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee visits Kashmir and expresses support for peace negotiations with Pakistan.source
• 2003September 10 – The four-day World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference of 2003 begins in Cancún.source
• 2006July 6 – The Nathu La pass between India and China, sealed during the Sino-Indian War, re-opens for trade after 44 years.source
• 2006October (date unknown) – The Offshore MPA project is initiated.source
• 2007September 20 – The Universal Forum of Cultures opens in Monterrey, Mexico.source
• 2008August 1 – Eleven mountaineers from international expeditions die on K2, the second-highest mountain on Earth, in the worst single accident in the history of K2 mountaineering.source
• 2008The Easyswap on-line local exchange trading system (LETS) website is officially launched in Switzerland.source
• 2010May 1 – Expo 2010 is held in Shanghai, China.source
• 2010October 31 – Expo 2010 concludes in Shanghai, China.source
• 2011December 19 – Liechtenstein becomes the 26th member state of the Schengen Area.source
• 2011December 29 – Samoa and Tokelau move from east to west of the International Date Line, thereby skipping December 30, in order to align their time zones better with their main trading partners.source
• 2012July 21 – Turkish adventurer Erden Eruç becomes the first person in history to complete a solo human-powered circumnavigation of the Earth.source
• 2013November 21 – Moldovan-flagged cargo ship makes port in Beirut, Lebanon, carrying 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate. After inspection by port state control, the Rhosus is deemed unseaworthy, and is forbidden to set sail. By order of an Urgent Matters judge in Beirut, the cargo is brought ashore in 2014 and placed in Warehouse 12 at the port, where it will remain for six years. The ammonium nitrate will erupt in a massive explosion on August 4, 2020.source
• 2015May 1–October 31 – Expo 2015 is held in Milan, Italy.source
• 2016July 26 – Swiss Solar Impulse 2 becomes the first solar-powered aircraft to circumnavigate the Earth.source
• 2017June 26 – The 2017 America's Cup yacht race, sailed in Bermuda, is won by New Zealand's Aotearoa.source
• 2018March 25 – Qantas launches direct non-stop Boeing 787 Dreamliner flights between Perth Airport and Heathrow Airport, making it the first commercially non-stop service between Australia and the United Kingdom.source
• 2018April 27 – 2018-19 Korean peace process: Kim Jong Un crosses into South Korea to meet with President Moon Jae-in, becoming the first North Korean leader to cross the Demilitarized Zone since its creation in 1953.source
• 2018June 30 – Millions of people marched to protest the Trump administration's zero-tolerance policy towards illegal migrants. This march was devoted to reuniting refugee and immigrant families that were separated at the US–Mexico border by the US government's policy introduced in the spring of 2018.source
• 2018August 12 – NASA launches the uncrewed Parker Solar Probe to study the Sun at close range and the solar wind.source
• 2018October 1 – The International Court of Justice rules that Chile is not obliged to negotiate access to the Pacific Ocean with Bolivia.source
• 2018October 16 – Canada legalises the sale and use of cannabis, becoming the second country in the world to do so, after Uruguay in 2013.source
• 2019April 28 – Victor Vescovo achieves the deepest dive of any human in history, as he reaches Challenger Deep within the Mariana Trench, at a depth of 10,928 m (35,853 ft).source
• 2019July 1 – Japan announces tightening high-tech exports to South Korea, thus beginning the trade dispute between the two countries.source
• 2020September 3 – The skeletons of 200 mammoths and 30 other animals are unearthed at a construction site for the Mexico City Santa Lucía Airport. It is the largest find of mammoth bones to date, surpassing The Mammoth Site in the U.S. which had 61 skeletons.source
• 2021January 1 – The African Continental Free Trade Area comes into effect.source
• 2021January 4 – The border between Qatar and Saudi Arabia reopens.source
• 2021April 9 – Roscosmos launches the Soyuz MS-18 mission, carrying three Expedition 65 crewmembers to the International Space Station.source
• 2021April 17 – The Soyuz MS-17 mission concludes, returning three crewmembers of Expedition 64 to Earth from the International Space Station.source
• 2021April 23 – SpaceX launches the Crew-2 mission, carrying four crew members of Expedition 65 and 66 to the International Space Station aboard Crew Dragon Endeavour.source
• 2021May 2 – The SpaceX Crew-1 mission ends, returning four crew members of Expedition 64 and 65 to Earth from the International Space Station aboard Crew Dragon Resilience.source
• 2021September 26 – Lewis Hamilton wins his 100th Grand Prix in Formula 1, becoming the first to reach the milestone, at an eventful Russian Grand Prix.source
• 2021October 5 – Roscosmos launches the Soyuz MS-19 mission, which carries an Expedition 66 crewmember and two Channel One Russia personnel to the International Space Station. The two Channel One crew will perform principal photography on the film Vyzov aboard the station.source
• 2021November 11 – SpaceX launches the Crew-3 mission, carrying four Expedition 66 crew members to the International Space Station.source
• 2022November 15 – The 2022 G20 Bali summit in Bali, Indonesia takes place.source
• 2023April 14 – Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) is launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) to search for life in the Jovian system, with an expected arrival year of 2031.source
• 2023August 22 – Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra returns to Thailand after 15 years of political exile.source
• 2024March 31 – Bulgaria and Romania become members of the Schengen Area through sea and air routes.source
• 2024August 1 – 2024 American–Russian prisoner exchange: 26 individuals are released from Ankara Esenboğa Airport in the largest prisoner exchange between the United States and Russia since the Cold War.source
• 2025April 13 – October 13 – Expo 2025 is held in Osaka, Japan.source