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Launching of Sputnik I
USSR launches first manned space craft into space. -
Period: to
space race
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USSR launches sputnik II which carried a small dog named Laika
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Tiros 1, the first successful weather satellite is launched
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John F. Kennedy is Elected the 35th President of the United States
John F. Kennedy is elected the 35th President of the United States. -
President John F. Kennedy addresses Congress and challenges the nation to go to the Moon before the end of the decade.
President John F. Kennedy addresses Congress and challenges the nation to go to the Moon before the end of the decade. -
NASA announces the Gemini Program.
To facilitate this goal, NASA expanded the existing manned space flight program in December 1961 to include the development of a two-man spacecraft. The program was officially designated Gemini -
John Glenn orbits the Earth three times
NASA launched one of the most important flights in American history. Send a man to orbit Earth, observe his reactions and return him home safely. The pilot of this historic flight, John Glenn, became a national hero and a symbol of American ambition. -
President Kennedy gives a speech
President Kennedy gives a speech at Rice University reaffirming the importance of the Moon program. -
Astronauts Charles Bassett and Elliott See die
Bassett and See were killed on February 28, 1966, when their
T-38 trainer jet crashed into McDonnell Aircraft Building 101, known as the McDonnell Space Center, located 1,000 feet from Lambert Field airport -
Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin become the first men to walk on the Moon
Apollo 11 fulfilled U.S. President John F. Kennedy's goal of reaching the Moon before the Soviet Union by the end of the 1960s, which he had expressed during a 1961 mission statement before the United States Congress: -
Pete Conrad and Alan Bean perform the first precision lunar landing
Apollo 12 astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean made a precision landing on the lunar surface in Oceanus Procellarum, Their touchdown point was a mere 535 feet from the Surveyor 3 lander ,and an easy stroll to the hardware that had soft-landed on the lunar terrain years before, -
Apollo 17's return from the moon
the last Apollo mission to land men on the Moon. It carried the only trained geologist to walk on the lunar surface, Compared to previous Apollo missions, Apollo 17 astronauts traversed the greatest distance using the Lunar Roving Vehicle.
