Space Race Timeline - Teresa Piccoli

First satellite in space by USSR

Oct 4, 1957

Called Sputnik 1; was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by Soviet Union.

First animal in space by USSR

Nov 3, 1957

A dog named Laika was aboard the Sputnik 2 spacecraft. Laika, was part Siberian husky who lived as a stray before being enlisted into the Soviet space program.

First satellite in space by USA

Jan 31, 1958

Named Explorer 1; was launched shortly after the USSR's Sputnik 1 launched.

Creation of NASA

Jul 29, 1958

President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 establishing NASA. Reason was to provide research into problems of flight within and outside of earth's atmosphere.

First animal in space by USA (Ham the chimp)

Jan 31, 1961

Ham rode into space in Mercury spacecraft #5, boosted by a Mercury- Redstone 2 rocket. He died 22 years after his flight into space.

First man in space by USSR

Apr 12, 1961

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut.

First man in space by USA

May 5, 1961

Pilot Alan Shepard aboarded the Freedom 7 capsule powered by a Redstone booster.

First man to orbit Earth by USA

Feb 20, 1962

Astronaut John H. Glenn orbited the Earth during the three-orbit Mercury-Atlas 6 mission

JFK's speech and commitment to getting to the moon

Sep 12, 1962

JFK announced that "We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard" He continued to bolster his proposal throughout 1970.

First man to do an EVA by USSR

Mar 18, 1965

Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov spent 12 minutes and 9 seconds outside the Voskhod 2 spacecraft.

Gemini 3

Mar 23, 1965

Objectives were to test the basic systems of the Gemini spacecraft and make the first orbit-changing maneuvers in space.

First man to do an EVA by USA

Jun 3, 1965

Astronaut Edward White opened the haitch of his Gemini 4 spacecraft and pulled himself out into space using the oxygen-jet gun.

Gemini 4

Jun 3, 1965

Objective was to test the performance of the astronauts and capsule and to evaluate work procedures, schedules, and flight planning for an extended length of time in space.

Gemini 5

Aug 21, 1965

Objective was to demonstrate a long duration crewed flight, evaluate the effects of long periods of weightlessness on the crew, and test rendezvous capabilities and maneuvers using a rendezvous evaluation pod.

Tragedy of the Original Gemini 9 crew

Feb 28, 1966

Command pilot Elliot See and pilot Charles Bassett, were killed in a crash while flying a T-38 jet trainer to inspect their spacecraft.

Tragedy of the Apollo 1 crew

Jan 27, 1967

Apollo 1 was expected to fly to Earth and orbit later with three astronauts. However, during a test on the launch pad, a fire erupted and rapidly asphyxiated all three astronauts.

Launch of Apollo 7

Oct 11, 1968

The first three successful three-crewed flight to launch after the tragedy of Apollo 1. They were known for their "first" live television broadcast aboard a crewed American spacecraft.

Apollo 8

Dec 21, 1968

The crew orbited the Moon ten times without landing, then departed for Earth. It was the "first" crewed spacecraft to leave low Earth orbit and the first human spaceflight to reach the Moon.

Apollo 9

Mar 3, 1969

Was flown to qualify the LM for lunar orbit operations in preparation for the first Moon landing. It was the "first" crewed flight of a lunar module, the first docking and extraction of the same, one two-person spacewalk.

Apollo 10

May 18, 1969

The mission was to test all spacecraft components and procedures short of actual descent and landing. It was the "first" flight of a complete, crewed Apollo spacecraft to operate around the moon; orbited around the moon 31 times.

Apollo 11

Jul 16, 1969

The objective was to launch a crew of astronauts to the moon. It was the first American spaceflight that landed humans on the moon. Neil Armstrong was the first person to step onto the Moon's surface.