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  It was Oct. 4, 1957 when the Soviet news agency Tass announced to a stunned world that the Soviet Union had successfully placed Elementary Satellite 1, aka "Sputnik," into an elliptical orbit 900 kilometers above the Cold War-wracked planet. The aluminum sphere was the first man-made object to orbit the Earth, and its celestial presence electrified the world and kicked the Space Age into high gear, leading in short order to the formation of NASA.
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  On Jan. 31, 1961, Ham was strapped inside a Mercury capsule and blasted into space by a Redstone Rocket on a short, 15-minute suborbital flight.
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  Neil Armstrong walks on the moon for the first time in human history.
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  The USSR gets first automatic sample return from the Moon in Mission "Luna 16".
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  First X-ray orbital observatory by NASA.
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  First photos and soil samples from the surface of Mars USA (NASA)
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  First Reusable manned spacecraft called the STS (orbital) was launched by NASA April 12th, 1981.
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  A school teacher named Christa McAuliffe died with the crew of a shuttle launch. She was supposed to be the first teacher to ever go in to space, but something went wrong and they blew up before leaving the atmosphere.
 I think it effects us because it could be a learning experience.
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  First photos from the surface of another planet (Venus) (USA) (NASA)
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  First mission into the atmosphere of a gas giant (Jupiter) by USA (NASA)
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  (433 Eros) USA (NASA)
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  Nuclear-powered NASA rover successfully lands on Mars to seek out life clues.
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  Yay! Spandex. The suits were made of it, now we live for it.