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Soviets Launch Sputnik I
On October 4th, 1957 at 7:28 PM, the artifical satalite, Sputnik I, was made the first artificaly launched satalite. This shocked the United States as scientists did not think that the satalite would launch sucessfuly. This would give the Soviet Union the first place advantage in the Space race. -
N.A.S.A is created
The National Aeronautics and Space agecy(N.A.S.A), was created in response to the technological advances in the Soviet Unions space agency. N.A.S.A overlooks the space program in the U.S and helped launch the first American spacecraft. -
Americans successfully launch and return Ham, a chimpanzee
On January 31st, 1961, the U.S launched the first Chimpanze named Ham, into space. This was a moumental moment for the U.S due to the fact that the chimp actually survived the trip into outer space. -
Yuri Gagarin is the first man in space
Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet pilot and Cosmonaut took to space in the Vostok 1 and completed 1 orbit around Earth. This was a monumental moment in space history as it marked the first man in space. This was also a big moment for the Soviet Union as it put them ahead in the space race. -
Mariner 4 becomes the first satellite to reach Mars
The Mariner 4, a fly-by spacecraft, made its close approach to Mars to take pictures and observe Mars. This was a very big technological advancement as no spacecraft has passed that far. This put the U.S far ahead of the USSR in the Space Race. -
Americans land on the Moon
On July 20th, with wide-spread media coverage, America completed one of the biggest feats of all, arguably ending the whole Space Race. The U.S landed on the moon. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Ardrin were the first and last people to take steps on the moon. -
Soviets launch the first space station
On April 19th, 1971, The Soviets had launched their first human bearing space station, the Salyut, in response to the Apollo landing. They had hopes to increase the space presence of Soviets. It was also one of the first permanant things to go into space. -
The first joint mission between the U.S and the U.S.S.R
On July 15th, 1975, an Apollo rocket carrying 3 Americans launched. Only 2 days later, the Apollo docked with the Soyuz space craft to conduct the first Apollo- Soyuz test project. This further eased the tentions after the space race and gave the U.S reasons to trust the U.S.S.R.