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First Satellite by USSR
The first satellite launched by the USSR was called Sputnik. Sputnik was the first artificial satellite to successfully be placed in Earth’s orbit and it was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome at Tyuratam. -
First Animal in Space by USSR
The first animal in space from the USSR was a dog named Laika. She was a stray found in Moscow and because she was a stray, scientists thought she would be able to handle the hunger, cold, and harsh conditions of space travel. -
First Satellite in Space by USA
The name of the first satellite from the U.S. was called Explorer 1. It was the first satellite to carry science instruments and it was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Also, Explorer 1 followed a flight path that orbited the Earth once every 114 minutes. -
Creation of NASA
NASA was created because of an agreement between Eisenhower (Republican) and a Democratic controlled Congress in 1958. The agreement was called the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 and basically it was saying that there needed to be a civilian agency to oversee non-military space activities. -
First Animal in Space by USA
Ham was a chimpanzee that was launched into space before any American. His flight was 16 1/2 minutes and he traveled at a speed of 5,800 miles per hour. He was above the Earth by 157 miles and he experienced 6 1/2 minutes of weightlessness, and he was able to perform all of his tasks correctly while he was in space. -
First Man in Space by USSR
The first man is space was Yuri Gagarin and he traveled around the Earth on the Vostok 1 at 27,400 kilometers per hour and the flight lasted 108 minutes. The reentry was controlled by a computer and unlike U.S. space flight programs, Gagarin didn’t land inside of capsule. -
First man in Space by USA
The first American into space was Alan Shepard. He traveled on the Freedom 7 at 300 miles per hour for 15 minutes. This was a very proud moment for the U.S. despite Shepard being the second man into space and not the first. -
First man to Orbit Earth by USA
The first American to orbit the Earth was John Glenn. He orbited the Earth during the three-orbit Mercury-Atlas 6 mission and he orbited the Earth on his spacecraft called the Friendship 7. -
JFK’s Moon Speech
JFK stood up in front of congress and proposed the idea/goal for the U.S. to send a man to the moon and bring him back before the decade was over, “should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” -
First man to do EVA by USSR
Alexei Lenov was the first man to perform Extra Vehicular Activity in space. His space suit had a life-support system worn as a back pack. A TV camera recorded the EVA and Lenov had a handheld movie camera. -
Gemini III
Gemini III (GT-3) was the first mission in the Gemini series to have a crew which is what makes it so important. The GT-3 was piloted by Virgil “Gus” Grissom and John Young. The main goal was to show the crews qualifications of the Gemini spacecraft. Another goal was to evaluate the flight crew equipment and the effects on the crew. The flight lasted for 4 hours, 52 minutes, and 31 seconds. -
First man to do EVA by USA
Ed White was the first American to perform a spacewalk. He did this for 21 minutes while being tethered to the spacecraft. He also had a 25 foot cord to provide him oxygen and it also carried communications and biomedical instrumentation. -
Gemini VII
Gemini VII was the fourth mission that had a crew. This was launched before Gemini VI-A and the crew was Frank Borman and Jim Lovell. The mission lasted for 13 days, 18 hours, 35 minutes, and 1 second and had 5 goals. Show a 2-week flight, perform station keeping with Gemini launch vehicle stage 2, evaluate the “shirt sleeve” environment and the lightweight pressure suit, be a rendezvous target for Gemini VI-A, and show a controlled reentry close the target landing point. -
Original Gemini 9 Crew
The original Gemini IX crew was supposed to be Elliot See and Charles Bassett but unfortunately they were killed in a crash. The crash happened while they were flying a T-38 jet trainer to inspect their spacecraft. -
Gemini XII
Gemini XII was the tenth and last crew flight of the Gemini series and this brought together the Mercury and Apollo programs. This flight had Jim Lovell and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and the goal was to perform a rendezvous and docking with the Agenda target vehicle and to do three EVA operations. It lasted for 3 days, 22 hours, 34 minutes, and 31 seconds. -
Apollo 1 Crew
The Apollo 1 mission never got the chance to fly. It didn’t get the chance to fly because of a fire that happened during a launch rehearsal test. The fire ended up killing the 3 astronauts, Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. -
Apollo 7
This was the first Apollo mission to get to space. The flight was for 11 days and the crew did several tests on spacecraft systems and did the first live TV program from an American spacecraft. The crew members were Wally Schirra, Walt Cunningham, and Donn Eisele who all got really bad head colds during their mission. -
Apollo 8
The crew members were Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders and they were the first crew to fly on top of the powerful Saturn V booster. They spent about 20 hours orbiting the Moon and on Christmas Eve, the crew read from the Book of Genesis and Anders took the iconic “Earthrise” photo. -
Apollo 9
Apollo 9 was the first mission to carry a lunar module into orbit. The crew consisted of James McDivitt and Rusty Schweickart who stayed in Earth’s orbit but separated the lunar module from the command module. With this they flew independently for 6 hours and tested the lunar module’s systems. -
Apollo 10
Apollo 10 was the final rehearsal for the first lunar landing. The crew tested everything for the mission and they showed the initial docking with the lunar module on the first color television transmission from space. The crew consisted of Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan. -
Apollo 11
Apollo 11 was the mission that had a human walk on another planet for the first time ever. This achieved the goal of JFK to have a human go to the moon and come back safely. The crew was Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins and the crew left a plaque saying “We came in peace for all mankind.”