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Sputnik 1
On the evening of October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union news service announced that the nation had successfully launched the first-ever artificial satellite into Earth orbit. Launched atop an R-7 Semiorka rocket, the satellite weighed 184 pounds, was about the size of a basketball, and circled Earth every ninety-eight minutes.
Source: Encyclopedia -
Sputnik 2
For the first time, the American public realized that the Soviets probably had the capability to launch long-range nuclear missiles against the United States. A month later there was even further dismay when the Soviets launched a second satellite. Sputnik 2 was much larger than its predecessor and carried a live dog, a husky-mix named Laika, into orbit. It was a one-way trip for her.
Source: Encyclopedia -
Explorer 1
The military turned to von Braun and his team of rocket scientists working for the U.S. Army. On January 31, 1958, the first American satellite soared into orbit. It was named Explorer 1 and rode atop a Jupiter-C rocket developed by the von Braun team.
Source: Encyclopedia -
Sputnik 3
Sputnik 3 was an automatic scientific laboratory spacecraft. It was conically-shaped and was 3.57 m long. The outer radiation belts of the Earth were detected during the flight. The spacecraft remained in orbit until April 6, 1960.
Source: NASA -
NASA Created
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), is responsible for unique scientific and technological achievements in human space flight, aeronautics, space science, and space applications that have had widespread impacts on our nation and the world. When NASA opened for business on October 1, 1958, it accelerated the work already started on human and robotic space flight.
Source: NASA -
First Man in Space
On April 12, 1961, the cosmonaut (Russian astronaut) Yuri Gagarin (1934-1968) became the first human to travel beyond Earth’s atmosphere, enter the frontier of space, and return safely to Earth....his flight took him roughly 300 kilometers (186 miles) above Earth and that he spent 1 hour and 48 minutes circling the planet, completing one entire orbit and part of another one.
Source: Encyclopedia -
NASA's Lunar Probes
Four NASA probes crashed into the Moon, but they had beamed back valuable photographs before impacting the lunar surface. In February 1966 the Soviet probe Luna 9 softly set down in the Ocean of Storms, the largest of the lunar “seas.” Four months later, NASA’s Surveyor 1 probe landed nearby. -
Apollo 1
On January 27, 1967, three American astronauts—Virgil I. Grissom (1936-1967), Edward H. White (1930-1967), and Roger B. Chaffee (1935-1967)—were killed when a flash fire raced through their capsule during a routine practice drill. They were the first human casualties of the space program. To honor their memory, their tragic mission was named Apollo 1. The tragedy stunned the nation. Some politicians even called for the program to end, but Apollo continued.
Source: Encyclopedia -
Zond 5
The Soviet space program continued to flourish. In September 1968 an unmanned probe called Zond 5 became the first spacecraft to travel around the Moon and return to Earth. The pressure was on NASA to speed up the Apollo program.
Source: Encyclopedia -
Apollo 11
Meanwhile, on July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 set down safely on the Moon near the Sea of Tranquillity. Late that evening the astronaut Neil A. Armstrong stepped out of the spacecraft to become the first human to stand on the Moon. Approximately half a billion people on Earth watched the historic event on television. Four days later the Apollo 11 crew returned to Earth to a heroes’ welcome.
Source: Encyclopedia
