-
Launching of Spuknik
USSR launched Spuknik 1 and was the first artificial satellite to be put into Earth's orbit. -
Period: to
Space Racce
-
Explorer I is Launched
Explorer I was the first American satellite to reach orbit. It carried scientific equipment that evenutally lead to the discovery of the Van Allen radiation belt. -
NASA is formed
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA is established. It replaced the National Advisory Comittee Aeronautics, or NACA. -
Discoverer XIV
The U.S. launches its first camera equiped by satellite, Discoverer XIV -
First man in Space
Yuri Gagarin orbits the Earth once and becomes the first man in the world to go into space. -
First American in Space
Alan B. Shepard becomes the first American in space. -
Orbit around the Earth
Walter Schirra orbits the Earth six times. -
First Spacewalk
Alexei Lenov spends 12 mintues outside of his Voskhod spacecraft performing the first spacewalk. -
Soviet Union lanuches Venus 3
Venus 3 becomes the first man made object to impact with Venus on March 1, 1966 -
First Satellite
Luna 10 becomes the first satellite to orbit the moon. -
Apollo 1 Tragedy
Gus Grissuom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee were killed in a fire when the capsule failed to open during a test. A wire sparked and the pure oxygen exploded. The fire elted their suits and they died in 17 seconds. -
Cosmonaut dies
Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov is killed when the parachutes of his Soyuz 1 capsule didn't open right follwoing re-entry. -
First man to walk on the moon
Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon, while their crewmate Michael Collins orbits around the moon by himself. -
First Precision Lunar landing
Pete Conrad and Alan Bean perform the frist precision lunar landing. They touched down just about 600 ft from Surveyor 3 probe that arrived two years earlier. -
Apollo 17's return from the Moon
The eleventh and final manned mission in the Apollo Space Program.
