This is Information design at it’s best naturally by National Geographic. You can see 50 years of robotic planetary exploration at a glance. It even includes failed missions represented by darker desaturated lines. As far as I can tell the cream colored lines are US and the red ones are Soviet. Interesting to see how many of those lines go dark around Mars. Here is the link to it on the NG site complete with zoom viewer and them some kind Samaritan posted a hires version to flickr.

Design You Trust sponsors:
HeySmartGuy - The Smart Way to Run Your Business on the Web! | Photoshop Lady - Best Photoshop Tutorials For You!!

Advertise with Design You Trust! - DYT on Twitter - Facebook