Space Race

By sloviakkr

  • USSR launches Sputnik 1

  • USSR launches Sputnik 2

    Carried a small dog named Laika

  • USA launches Explorer 1

    Carried scientific equipment that lead to the discovery of the Van Allen radiation belt.

  • USA launches Explorer 2

    Failed to reach orbit.

  • USA launches Vanguard 1 satellite

  • USSR launches Sputnik 3

  • NASA replaces NACA

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration replaced the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics.

  • USA launches Pioneer 1

    launched to a height of 70,000 miles

  • USSR launches Luna 1

    First man-made object to orbit the Sun.

  • USA launched Pioneer 4

    Passed within 37,000 miles of the Moon before falling into a solar orbit.

  • USSR launches Luna 2

    First man-made object to impact the Moon.

  • USSR's Luna 3 orbits the Moon

    Photographs 70% of the Moon's surface.

  • USA launches Tiros 1

    First successful weather satellite

  • USA launches Discoverer XIV

    USA's first camera-equipped spy plane

  • USA John F. Kennedy is elected president

  • USSR's Yuri Gargarin orbits Earth once

    First man in space

  • USA's Alan B. Shepard becomes first American in space

  • USA's Gus Grissom is launched on a sub-orbital flight.

    His Liberty Bell capsule was lost when it filled with water and sank after splashdown.

  • USSR's Gherman Titov spends a day in space aboard Vostok 2

  • USA's NASA announces the Gemini Program

  • USA's John Glenn orbits Earth 3 times

  • USA's Scott Carpenter repeats John Glenn's flight aboard Aurora 7

  • USA's Walter Schirra orbits Earth 6 times

  • USA Mariner 2 flies past Venus and enters a solar orbit

  • USA's L. Gordon Cooper spends 34 hours in space.

    Last American to fly alone in space.

  • USSR's Valentia Tereshkova becomes first woman in space

  • USA's John F. Kennedy is assassinated

  • USA Ranger 7 transmits first close range images of the Moon

  • USSR's Alexei Leonov spends 12 minutes outside of his Voshod spacecraft

    Performed first spacewalk

  • USA's Gus Grissom and John Young fly the first manned Gemini spacecraft

  • USA's ED White performs America's first spacewalk

  • USA Mariner 4 returns closer images of Mars

  • USSR Venus 3 is launched

    First man-made object to impact Venus on March 1, 1966

  • USA's Frank Borman and James Lovell begin a two week stay aboard Gemini 7

  • USA's Gemini 6 makes the first space rendezvous with Gemini 7

  • USSR Luna 9 becomes first spacecraft to soft-land on the Moon

  • USSR Luna 10 becomes first satellite to orbit the Moon

    Takes the first picture of Earth from that distance.

  • USA Surveyor 1 soft-lands on the Moon

  • USA Lunar Orbiter 1 enters orbit around the Moon

    Takes first picture of Earth from that distance.

  • USA Gemini 12 launches

    Last flight of the Gemini Program.

  • USA Apollo 1 capsule ignited

    Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee were killed while performing a test on the launch pad.

  • USSR's Vladimir Komarov is killed

    Parachute of his Soyuz capsule failed to open properly following re-entry.

  • USSR Venera 4 transmits data about the atmosphere of Venus

  • USSR Zond 5 is launched

  • USSR Soyuz 4&5 perform the first Soviet spacecraft docking

  • USA's Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin become the first men to walk on the Moon

    Crewmate Michael Collins orbits around the Moon alone.

  • USA's Pete Conrad and Alan Bean perform the first precision lunar landing.

    Touching down just 600 feet from the Surveyor 3 probe that arrived two years earlier.