Space Race Timeline

By lakeale
  • First Satellite in Space by USSR

    First Satellite in Space by USSR
    The first official satellite to orbit Earth was Sputnik sent by the USSR
  • First Animal in Space by USSR

    First Animal in Space by USSR
    The first animal to make orbital space flight around the Earth was Laika, the dog on the Sputnik 2
  • First Satellite in Space by USA

    First Satellite in Space by USA
    The Explorer 1 was launched in response to the USSR Sputnik, beginning the space race
  • Creation of NASA

    Creation of NASA
    Created in response to the USSR Sputnik launch, NASA coordinates America's activity in space and Earth's atmosphere
  • First Animal in Space by USA

    First Animal in Space by USA
    The first animal sent to space by the USA was Ham the chimp who flew a suborbital flight on the Mercury-Redstone 2, part of NASA's Project Mercury
  • First Man in Space by USSR

    First Man in Space by USSR
    The first man in space was Yuri Gagarin who orbited Earth in the Vostok 1
  • First Man in Space by USA

    First Man in Space by USA
    Alan Shepard was the first man sent to space by the USA. He completed a suborbital flight around the Earth in the Mercury capsule, Freedom 7
  • JFK Commitment to The Moon Speech

    JFK Commitment to The Moon Speech
    President Kennedy gave a speech to Congress and declared that the USA would put a man on the moon before the end of the decade.
  • First Man To Orbit Earth by USA

    First Man To Orbit Earth by USA
    John Glenn orbited the Earth three times in the Mercury capsule Friendship 7
  • First Man to do an EVA by USSR

    First Man to do an EVA by USSR
    The first man to do an EVA was Alexei Leonov sent by the USSR. He spent 12 minutes and 9 seconds outside the Voskhod 2 spacecraft.
  • Gemini 3 Mission

    Gemini 3 Mission
    The Gemini 3 mission was the first crewed mission in the Gemini space program, Gus Grissom and John Young did 3 low Earth orbits in their spacecraft, nicknamed the Molly Brown
  • First Man to do an EVA by USA

    First Man to do an EVA by USA
    Ed White was the first American to complete an EVA in space. His spacewalk lasted approximately 20 minutes on the Gemini 4 mission.
  • Gemini 6 Mission

    Gemini 6 Mission
    Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford preformed the first rendezvous between the Gemini 6A and Gemini 7
  • Gemini 9 Tragedy

    Gemini 9 Tragedy
    The original crew for the Gemini 9 mission, Elliott See and Charles Bassett, was killed in a plane crash before their set launch date so Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan took their places as pilots.
  • Gemini 11 Mission

    Gemini 11 Mission
    Charles Conrad and Richard Gordon completed a rendezvous and docking with the GATV during its first orbit and completed 44 orbits total
  • Apollo 1 Tragedy

    Apollo 1 Tragedy
    The Apollo 1 mission never flew, there was a cabin fire during a launch rehearsal test that killed all three crew members, Ed White, Gus Grissom, and Roger Chaffee
  • Apollo 7 First

    Apollo 7 First
    The Apollo 7 mission was the first crewed mission NASA launched after the disaster of Apollo 1. It sent up Walter Schirra, Donn Eisele, and Walter Cunningham
  • Apollo 8 First

    Apollo 8 First
    The Apollo 8 mission was the first NASA mission to leave low Earth orbit and orbited the moon
  • Apollo 9 First

    Apollo 9 First
    The Apollo 9 mission was the first manned flight of the lunar module with pilots James McDivitt, James Scott, and Russell Schweickart
  • Apollo 10 First

    Apollo 10 First
    The Apollo 10 mission was the second trip to orbit the moon and tested all the procedures and components just short of landing to ensure everything would work when they tried to land on the moon
  • Apollo 11 First

    Apollo 11 First
    On the Apollo 11 mission, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to land and walk on the moon's surface