Space Race

First satellite in space by USSR

Oct 4, 1957

First animal in space by USSR

Nov 3, 1957

The dog Laika

First satellite in space by USA

Jan 31, 1958

Explorer I

Creation of NASA

Jul 29, 1958

First animal in space by USA

Jan 31, 1961

HAM the chimpanzee

First man in space by USSR

Apr 12, 1961

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, a Soviet Air Forces pilot

First man to orbit Earth by USSR

Apr 12, 1961

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin

First man in space by USA

May 5, 1961

Alan Shepard, US Navy Pilot

JFK's commitment to getting to the moon

Jun 25, 1961

First man to orbit Earth by USA

Feb 20, 1962

John Glenn, US Fighter Pilot

First man to do an EVA by USSR

Mar 18, 1965

Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov

First man to do an EVA by USA

Jun 3, 1965

Ed White, U.S. Air Force officer and test pilot

Gemini 4

Jun 3, 1965

Stays in space for 4 days. Astronaut Ed White performs the first American spacewalk.

Gemini 5

Aug 21, 1965

Eight-day mission to study how humans could handle long-term exposure to a space environment.

Gemini 12

Nov 25, 1966

The final flight of the Gemini program. Underwater training is introduced for spacewalk preparation.

Apollo 1

Feb 21, 1967

Astronauts Virgil Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee lost their lives when a fire swept through the Command Module due to a fuse that sparked and was exposed to pure oxygen.

Apollo 8

Dec 21, 1968

Apollo 8 circumnavigates the moon. It is the first manned spacecraft to leave the gravitational influence of Earth.

Apollo 9

Mar 3, 1969

Apollo 9 was the first flight to have the command and service module with the Lunar Module.

Apollo 10

May 18, 1969

Apollo 10 was a "dress rehearsal" for the first Moon landing, testing all the components and procedures just short of actually landing.

Apollo 11

Jul 20, 1969

Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon.