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Open Spies Exposed
The United Staes and the Soviet Union begin the Cold War game of sending spy by spy over to the opposing country. An open skies policy was then proposed by president Dwight Eisenhower. The announcement was made on this date that the United States would begin working on a scientific satellite -
Sputnik 1 Is Launched
The Soviets sent Sputnik 1 into orbit so they could moniter activity on the ground. The United States then encouraged president Eisenhower to launch a satellite of there own to do the same. -
Explorer 1
Soviets made headlines for Sputnik 2 for launching a dog into space. The United States then sent Explorer 1 into orbit. This also collected useful scientific data. -
Reaching the Moon
The Soviets sucessfully took a photograph of the moon while doing a flyby on the Luna 2. -
Gagarin Reaches Space
Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man to reach space aboard the Yostok 1. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
Satallite photos are taken of Soviet missiles under construction 90 miles off of the coast of the United States. This event would last two weeks -
Manned Orbiting Laboratory
The United States announced that they would build a military space station designed for scientific research. Its main design was to make more detailed photographs of the Soviet Union -
United States Reaches the Moon
Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to step on the moon. This event happened aboard the Apollo 11. The United States was now way ahead of the Soviets by this point. -
Skylab
The United States sent the Skylab into the air. This involved having someone aboard this for months at a time. This also allowed Americans to gather useful scientific data. -
Apollo-Soyuz
This was a temporary thaw of the Cold War. This marked the first joint space mission between the Soviets and the United States. Both astronauts and cosmonauts worked together to gather scientific data. This event set the stage for later colaborative space efforts, such as the International Space Station. This marked the end of the Space Race
