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First satellite in space by USSR
the Soviet Union launched the earth's first artificial satellite, Sputnik I. The successful launch came as a shock to experts and citizens in the United States, who had hoped that the United States would accomplish this scientific advancement first. -
First animal in space by USSR
The Soviet Union launches the first animal to orbit the earth into space—a dog nicknamed Laika—aboard the Sputnik 2 spacecraft. Laika, part Siberian husky, lived as a stray on the Moscow streets before being enlisted into the Soviet space program. -
First satellite in space by USA
Explorer 1 was the first satellite launched by the United States in 1958 and was part of the U.S. participation in the International Geophysical Year -
Creation of NASA
President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). -
First animal in space by USA (Ham the chimp)
Ham, his compatriot from the U.S. Air Force's chimp training facility in New Mexico, overshadows him. Launched on Mercury-Redstone 2. -
First man in space by USSR
Yuri Gagarin, in full Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, (born March 9, 1934, near Gzhatsk, Russia, U.S.S.R. [now Gagarin, Russia]—died March 27, 1968, near Moscow), Soviet cosmonaut who in 1961 became the first man to travel into space. -
First man in space by USA
U.S. Navy test pilot Alan Shepard joined the astronaut program in 1959. He became the first American and the second man in space on May 5, 1961, when he piloted the Mercury spacecraft Freedom 7 on a 490-kilometer (300-mile), 15-minute suborbital flight. -
First man to orbit Earth by USA
astronaut John H. Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth during the three-orbit Mercury-Atlas 6 mission, aboard the spacecraft he named Friendship 7. Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. -
JFK's speech and commitment to getting to the moon
"We choose to go to the Moon", officially titled the Address at Rice University on the Nation's Space Effort, is a September 12, 1962, speech by United States President John F. Kennedy to bolster public support for his proposal to land a man on the Moon before 1970. -
First onboard computer
Project Gemini was the first with an on-board computer, as Project Mercury was controlled by computers on Earth. The Gemini Guidance Computer was responsible for the following functions: Ascent – serves as a backup guidance system. The switchover is manually controlled by the astronauts. -
First man to do an EVA by USSR
The first EVA was performed on March 18, 1965, by Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, who spent 12 minutes and 9 seconds outside the Voskhod 2 spacecraft. -
First man to do an EVA by USA
US astronaut Edward White (1930–67) was the first American to perform an “extra-vehicular activity” (EVA), or spacewalk. On June 3, 1965, White opened the hatch of his Gemini 4 spacecraft and pulled himself out into space. It was less than three months after Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov's historic first spacewalk. -
First docking of crewed and uncrewed spacecraft (Gemini VIII with Agena)
The first docking between two spacecraft occurred at 22:14 (UTC) on 16 March 1966, when the Gemini VIII capsule, piloted by Neil Armstrong and David Scott (both USA) docked with an unmanned spacecraft called the Agena Target Vehicle. -
First propulsion maneuver with docked Agena (Gemini X)
first use of docked Agena to propel Gemini spacecraft. Gemini XI: 12-15 September 1966, docking and maneuvering with Agena, altitude record. Gemini XII: 11-15 November 1966, first fully successful EVA (2 hours 6 minutes). -
Apollo 1 fire
a fire ignited in the Apollo 1 command module in the middle of a launch rehearsal. All three astronauts inside the module — Roger Chaffee, Ed White and Virgil "Gus" Grissom — died in the blaze. -
Neil Armstrong nearly dies
Armstrong, the first human to walk on the moon, nearly died just over a year before the July 1969 launch. On May 6, 1968, he was piloting the lunar-landing research vehicle, an aircraft meant to simulate a moon landing. During the flight, in Houston, leaking propellant resulted in a total failure of the flight controls. -
Launch of Apollo 7
Apollo 7 was launched on a Saturn IB rocket, making it the first successful crewed Apollo mission and the only crewed Apollo mission to use the Saturn IB Rocket. Apollo 7 was the first test of the command and service module with a crew. -
Launch of Apollo 8
the first crewed spacecraft to leave low Earth orbit and the first human spaceflight to reach the Moon. The crew orbited the Moon ten times without landing, and then departed safely back to Earth. -
Launch of Apollo 9
Apollo 9 carried out a full test of the lunar landing mission in Earth orbit. Astronauts McDivitt and Schweickart tested the lunar module and rendezvoused and docked with the command and service modules piloted by Scott. -
Launch of Apollo 10
Apollo 10 was a human spaceflight, the fourth crewed mission in the United States Apollo program, and the second to orbit the Moon. -
Launch of Apollo 11
Apollo 11 was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, 1969, at 20:17