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First satellite in space by USSR
Sputnik l -
First animal in space by USSR
Dog Laika -
First satellite in space by USA
Explorer 1 -
Creation of NASA
President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 into law on July 29, creating NASA. -
First animal in space by USA (Ham the chimp)
Ham flew a suborbital flight on the Mercury-Redstone 2 mission, part of the U.S. space program's Project Mercury. -
First man in space by USSR
Yuri Gagarin -
First man in space by USA
Alan Shepard -
JFK's speech and commitment to getting to the moon
Kennedy stood before Congress on May 25, 1961, and proposed that the US "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 orbit Earth by USA
John H. Glenn -
Three of the important Gemini missions
Gemini III: 23 March 1965, first crewed flight. Gemini IV: 3-7 June 1965, first EVA. Gemini V: 21-29 August 1965, first week-long flight, first fuel cells. -
First man to do an EVA by USSR
Alexei Leonov -
First man to do an EVA by USA
Edward H. White -
Two tragedies that led up to getting to the moon
Gemini 9- Astronauts Elliot See and Charles Bassett were scheduled to fly the mission,but they tragically died in a plane crash while training for the mission.
Apollo 1- Astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee were preparing for the first manned Apollo mission when a fire broke out inside the spacecraft during a launch rehearsal. -
The launch of Apollo 7-11 and what they were known for as their "firsts"
Apollo 7- The first Apollo mission to carry a crew into space.
Apollo 8- The first mission to take humans to the Moon and back.
Apollo 9- The first crewed flight of all Apollo lunar hardware.
Apollo 10- A complete staging of the Apollo 11 mission without actually landing on the Moon.
Apollo 11- Humans walked on the Moon for the first time.