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Sputnik 1
The Russian unmanned satellite, the Sputnik 1, was a 58 cm-diameter aluminum sphere had four antennas that were between 2.4 and 2.9 meters long. The purpose was to obtain data about the density of the upper layers of the atmosphere and the propagation of radio signals in the ionosphere. Orbited the Earth for 92 days, completing 1400 orbits.
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1957-001B -
Explorer 1
Revolved around Earth in a looping orbit that took it as close as 354 kilometers to Earth and as far as 2,515 kilometers. It made one orbit every 114.8 minutes, or a total of 12.54 orbits per day. The satellite itself was 203 centimeters long and 15.9 centimeters in diameter. Explorer 1 made its final transmission on May 23, 1958. It entered Earth's atmosphere and burned up on March 31, 1970, after more than 58,000 orbits. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/explorer/explorer-overview.html -
Luna 1
The Luna 1 was the first spacecraft to reach the moon and the start of automatic interplanetary stations launched in the direction of the moon launched by the Soviets. The Luna 1's mission was to measure temperature and pressure inside the sphere, study solar radiation, measure the magnetic fields of the Earth and the moon, study meteoric particles, and study other properties of cosmic rays.
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1959-012A -
Ham The Astrochimp
Was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and was trained to pull a lever within five seconds of seeing a blue light. In space, Ham’s lever-pulling skills were only a fraction of a second slower in space than they were on Earth, which proved that tasks could be performed in space. His flight lasted 16 minutes, and while the pressure in the capsule was partially lost, he survived with only a bruised nose https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ham_(chimpanzee) -
Yuri Gagarin
Was the first human to travel into space, and the first human to orbit Earth, a feat achieved from within the Soviet “Vostok 3KA-3” spacecraft.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Gagarin -
Alan Shepard
Alan Shepard boasts the title of the first American to journey into space. He was by NASA in the Freedom 7 spacecraft, launched by a Red stone vehicle. His flight took him to an altitude 116 miles and landed 302 miles away from the launch site.
https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/nasa-knows/who-was-alan-shepard-k4.html -
John Glenn
Was launched from the Friendship 7, and during his first orbit, a failure of the automatic-control system was detected, forcing Glenn to operate in manual mode for the second and third orbits.Later in the flight, telemetry indicated that the heat shield had become loose, and while Glenn made adjustments to accommodate for this, it ended being just a false reading by a sensor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Glenn#NASA_career -
Gemini 2 Spacecraft
Shortly after launch the Mission Control Center suffered a power outage. Control of the mission was transferred to a tracking ship. The flight lasted 18 minutes 16 seconds.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_2 -
Gemini Program, First American Spacewalk
The spacewalk started at 3:45 p.m. EDT on the third orbit, and lasted 23 minutes
https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1098.html -
Apollo 1
Was the first manned mission of the U.S.A.P. Ended in tragedy when the cockpit caught fire, killing the three men inside.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_1 -
Apollo 8
Was the first manned spacecraft to leave Earth’s orbit, reach Earth’s moon, orbit it and return to Earth safely
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_8 -
Apollo 11
The spaceflight that landed two men on the moon, winning America the space race.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11
