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Space Race Begins
A modified R-7 two-stage ICBM launches the satellite Sputnik 1 from Tyuratam. The Space Race between the Soviet Union and the United States begins. -
Sputnik 2
The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2 with the first living passenger, the dog Laika, aboard. -
NASA
NASA Administrator T. Keith Glennan publicly announces NASA's manned spaceflight program along with the formation of the Space Task Group, a panel of scientist and engineers from space-policy organizations absorbed by NASA. The announcement came just six days after NASA was founded. -
Luna 1
The U.S.S.R. launches Luna 1, which misses the moon but becomes the first artificial object to leave Earth orbit. -
Discover 1
NASA launches Discover 1, the U.S. first spy satellite, but it is not until the Aug. 11, 1960, launch of Discover 13 that film is recovered successfully. -
First Primates in Space
The United States launches the first primates in space, Able and Baker, on a suborbital flight. -
First Photos from Space
NASA's Explorer 6 launches and provides the first photographs of the Earth from space. -
X-15
NASA's X-15 hypersonic research plane, capable of speeds to Mach 6.7, makes its first powered flight. -
Freedom 7
Mercury Freedom 7 launches on a Redstone rocket for a 15-minute suborbital flight, making Alan Shepard the first American in space. -
Announcement of Moon Landing
In a speech before Congress, President John Kennedy announces that an American will land on the moon and be returned safely to Earth before the end of the decade. -
Cosmos 7
The U.S.S.R launches its first successful spy satellite, designated Cosmos 7. -
Mariner 2
Mariner 2 launches and eventually performs the first successful interplanetary flyby when it passes by Venus. -
Luna 9
The unmanned Soviet spacecraft Luna 9 makes the first soft landing on the Moon. -
Luna 10
The Soviet Luna 10 space probe enters lunar orbit, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit the Moon -
First Humans to Land on the Moon
Six years after U.S. President John F. Kennedy's assassination, the Apollo 11 crew lands on the Moon, fulfilling his promise to put an American there by the end of the decade and return him safely to Earth.
