The Space Race

  • Spudnik-1 launch into orbit

    The first man made object to orbit the earth. launch by the USSR
  • Sputnik-2 launched

    was carrying a dog. it was the first living thing in space launched by the USSR
  • Explorer 1 launched

    the first U.S. satellite in orbit, was launched into
    space. It discovered the Earth’s radiation belt.
  • Vanguard 1 launched

    satellite was launched into orbit. Although
    communication with it was lost in 1964, it remains the oldest
    human made satellite still in orbit. launched by US
  • NASA was founded.

  • Pioneer 1 launched

    first launch by NASA.
  • Sputnik 3 launched

    launched by the USSR
  • Luna 1 launched

    the first human made satellite to orbit the moon, was
    launched by the USSR
  • Pioneer 4 launched

    fell into a solar orbit, becoming the
    first U.S. sun orbiter.
  • Luna 2 launched

    hit the moon on September 13,
    becoming the first human made object to hit the moon.
  • Tiros 1 launched

    the first successful weather satellite was launched by
    the United States
  • Discoverer XIV launched

    the first U.S. camera equipped
    Corona spy satellite.
  • Vostok 1 launched

    carrying cosmonaut Yuri A. Gargarin, the first man in space. He orbits the Earth once
  • Mercury Freedom 7 launched

    carried Alan Shepard, the first U.S.
    astronaut into space in a suborbital flight.
  • Vostok 2 launched

    Vostok 2 was launched by the USSR carrying Gherman Titov,
    the first day long Soviet space flight.
  • Mercury Friendship 7 launched

    took off with John Glenn, Jr. the first
    American in orbit, and orbited the Earth three times.
  • Mercury Aurora 7

    Mercury Aurora 7 was launched with M. Scott Carpenter,
    making three orbits.
  • Telstar 1, U.S. satellite, beamed the first live transatlantic telecast.

  • U.S. Mariner 2

    the first successful planetary spacecraft flew
    past Venus, and entered a solar orbit.
  • Vostok 6 launched

    carried Valentia Tereshkova, the first woman in space
    and orbited the Earth 48 times.
  • U.S. Ranger 7

    relayed the first close-range photographs of the
    Moon.
  • The first space walk

    from Soviet Vostok 2 by Alexei A. Leonov. Duration was 12 minutes.
  • First staffed flight of the Gemini program

    Gemini 3 carrying Virgil I. Grissom and John W. Young. It made three orbits around the Earth. USA
  • Edward White made the first U.S. space walk

    from Gemini 4. Duration was 22 minutes
  • U.S. Mariner 4

    Returned the first close-range images of Mars.
  • Soviet Venus 3 was launched

    becoming the first craft to hit Venus on March 1, 1966.
  • Gemini 7 was launched

    carrying Frank Borman and James A.Lovell, Jr., making 206 orbits around Earth and proving a trip to the Moon possible.
  • first space rendezvous

    American astronauts Walter Schirra, Jr. and Thomas Stafford in
    Gemini 5 made the first space rendezvous with Gemini 7.
  • Soviet Luna 9

    was the first spacecraft to soft-land on the moon.
  • Soviet Luna 10

    was the first spacecraft to orbit the moon.
  • Surveyor 1

    was the first U.S. spacecraft to soft-land on the Moon.
  • Soviet Soyuz 1 was launched

    carrying Vladimir M. Komarov. On April 24 it crashed, killing Komarov, the first human space flight fatality.
  • Venera 4

    sent a descent capsule into the atmosphere of Venus,
    returning data about its composition.
  • Soviet Zond 5 was launched

    the first spacecraft to orbit the Moon and return.
  • Apollo 7 was the first staffed Apollo mission

    Walter M. Schirra, Jr., Donn F. Eisele, and Walter Cunningham. It orbited the Earth once.
  • Apollo 8 was launched

    Frank Borman, James A. Lovell, Jr., and William A. Anders, the first Apollo to use the Saturn V rocket, and the first staffed spacecraft to orbit the moon, making 10 orbits on its 6-day mission.
  • Soyuz 4&5 perform the first Soviet spaceship docking

  • First man on Moon

    Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, Jr. made the first staffed soft
    landing on the moon and the first moonwalk, using Apollo 11.