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The Soviet Union launches the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik, which is the rRussian word for "fellow traveler." -
Laika the dog was the first animal to make an orbital spaceflight around the Earth aboard Sputnik 2 created by the Soviets -
Explorer 1 became the first successfully launched satellite by the United States thanks to the combined efforts of Army Ballistic Missile Agency, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the University of Iowa. -
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was founded by Dwight D. Eisenhower as an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the civilian space program and aeronautics and space research. -
Ham the Chimp flew a suborbital flight on the Mercury-Redstone 2 mission, part of the U.S. space program's Project Mercury. -
Alan Shepard was the first American in space, and the fifth astronaut to walk on the moon as part of the Apollo 14 lunar landing mission. -
Gagarin was launched into orbit by a Vostok rocket and brought him safely back to earth after completing one orbit by the spacecraft's automatic controls, making him the first man in space. -
President John F. Kennedy announced before a special joint session of Congress goal of sending an American safely to the Moon before the end of the decade -
John Glenn spent 4h 55m 23s in space, orbiting earth on NASA's Mercury-Atlas 6 mission. -
This mission was a Test flight that lasted 18m,16s with a range of 3,422.4 kilometers. -
Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov spent 12 minutes and 9 seconds outside the Voskhod 2 spacecraft, performing the first ever EVA. -
this mission was the first crewed mission in NASA's Gemini program, as well as the first time two American astronauts flew together into space. -
Ed White became the first American to conduct a spacewalk during the Gemini 4 mission. -
The mission was flown by Wally Schirra and Thomas P. Stafford, and they achieved the first crewed rendezvous with another spacecraft, its sister Gemini 7. -
The crash occurred when a NASA Northrop T-38 Talon crashed at Lambert Field in St. Louis, Missouri, killing two Project Gemini astronauts, Elliot See and Charles Bassett. -
The Apollo 1 mission never flew due to a cabin fire during a launch rehearsal test at Cape Kennedy Air Force Station Launch Complex 34 that killed the three crew members. -
Apollo 7 was the first manned test of the Command and Service Module, in which the crew orbited the Earth 163 times and spent 10 days and 20 hours in space. -
This crew orbited without landing, and then departed safely back to Earth, making them the first crewed spacecraft to leave low Earth orbit, and also the first human spaceflight to reach another astronomical object. -
This mission was the first flight of the full Apollo spacecraft: the command and service module with the Lunar Module. -
This was considered the F mission: a "dress rehearsal" for the first Moon landing to test all the components and procedures just short of actually landing. -
This was the spaceflight that first landed humans on the moon with Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin.