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Soviets launch Sputnik I
Sputnik I was the first artificial sattelite to orbit Earth, It was launched on a huge rocket and orbitted the Earth at 29,000 Km per hour. Sputnik I marked the start of the Space age and Space Race and led to the creation of NASA. -
N.A.S.A. is Created
NASA is a civilian agency responsible for coordinating America’s activities in space. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was created in response to the soviets launch of Sputnik I, this suprised many Americans and sparked fears that they would be able to launch missles towards them. -
Americans successfully launch and return Ham, a chimpanzee
After hours of waiting on a launch pad, Ham was sucessfully launched into space. His flight lasted aroung 16 1/2 minutes and travelled at a speed of 5800 mph and a height of 157 miles above earth. -
Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in space
Yuri Gagarin was from the Soviet Union and was the first man to enter space. His flight lasted aroung 108 minutes, meaning he orbitted Earth 3 times, then re entered the atmosphere and parachuted back to ground. Gagarin´s flight pushed the Soviet Union ahead in the Space Race with the United States. -
Mariner 4 becomes the first satellite to reach Mars
Mariner 4 passed within 6,118 miles of Mars, taking around 22 photographs of the planet and taking scientific measurements. The satellite passed behind the planet as seen from Earth, allowing a radio occultation study to estimate the density of the atmosphere. It was important to the Space Race beacuse it took the first photos of another planet from space. -
Americans land on the moon
Wearing their big space suits and backpacks of oxygen to be able to breathe, Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin became the first human beings to walk on the moon. This secured a victory for the United States in the Space Race. -
Soviets launch the first space station
Salyut 1 was the worlds first space station launched into Earth orbit but failed due to a docking mechanism problem. It was signifagant to the space race because it changed the world overnight. -
The first joint mission between the U.S. and U.S.S.R.
The tensions between the US and USSR began to relax and the first cooperative Apollo-Soyuz mission was launched. with 2 seperate flights the spacecrafts dock into space and the commanders, Tom Stafford and Alexei Leonov share the first international hanshake