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Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1
The world's first artificial satellite was about the size of a beach ball, weighed only 183.9 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path. The soviet union launched their space craft, which started the space age put the U.S behind on the race to space. -
Soviet Union launches dog into space
The soviet Union puts the first living creature into space. Laika dies a few hours after takeoff from overheating and panic. The results were not as sucessful as the Soviet Union hoped, but regardless, it put them even farther ahead in the space race. -
U.S Launches first satellite
The satellite called Explorer was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida. It was considered sucessful, and made America feel like they were gaining the advantage in the space race over Soviet Union. -
NASA is formed
National Aeronautics and Space Administration. more commonly known as NASA, was formed to help advance America's expeditions in space. It was hoped that NASA would dramatically advance us further than the Soviet Union. -
President John F. Kennedy adresses America
President Kennedy gives a speech hoping to inspire the American people to feel passionate about the space race, and says "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth." -
Take Off!
The Saturn V rocket launched Apollo 11 into the sky from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. On the ground there were over 3,000 journalists, 7,000 dignitaries, and approximately a half million tourists watching this momentous occasion. The event went smoothly and as scheduled. -
Lunar Module lands on the moon
The Apollo Lunar Module (LM), previously known as the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), was the lander portion of the Apollo spacecraft built for the US Apollo program to carry Neil Armstrong snf Buzz Aldrin from lunar orbit to the surface and back -
Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to walk on the moon
Neil Armstrong lands on the moonAt around 11 pm, Neil Armstrong lands on the moon and says the famous line "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Armstrong and Aldrin become the first two humans to ever set foot on the moon, a huge accomplishment for America. -
Lunar Module blasts off from the moon
The lunar module takes off from the moons surface and rejoins it's origional position with the crew in orbit. It is a sigh of relief and a huge sucess for American engineers. -
Columbia lands in the Pacific Ocean
The astronauts returned home aboard the command module Columbia just before dawn.The parachutes had been deployed and 7 minutes later the command module struck the water forcefully. 10 minutes later it was upright and the astronauts were taken into helicopters and examined for diseases. -
Astronauts released from Quarantine
The astronauts were taken into quarantine because it was unknown what diseases they could have possibly come across in space. 21 days later, they were released. President Nixon personally welcomed the astronauts back to Earth. He told the astronauts, "As a result of what you've done, the world has never been closer together before."
