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Launch of Gemini 5
carrying astronauts Gordon Cooper and Charles Conrad on an eight-day mission to test rendezvous guidance and navigation systems, as well as study how humans could handle long-term exposure to a space environment. Gemini would be the critical link between the early Mercury Project and the Apollo missions. -
Mission AS-204 is struck by tragedy
a flash fire breaks out during a launch pad test, killing three astronauts: Virgil Grissom, who had participated in Mercury and Gemini flights; Edward White, who conducted NASA's first extravehicular activity; and new astronaut Roger Chaffee. The mission, one of NASA's first major setbacks, was later renamed Apollo 1. -
First test flight of the Saturn V rocket,
First test flight of the Saturn V rocket, which would carry dozens of spacecraft into space in the years to come -
Launch of Apollo 11
Launch of Apollo 11 -
Smoke Alarm was invented
In the 1970s, NASA partnered with Honeywell Corp. to create a device that would detect smoke and toxic gases in Skylab, America's first space station. The result was the first ionization smoke detector, using a minute amount of the radioactive isotope Americium -
Launch of Voyager 1
Launch of Voyager 1 -
Protective Paint was Invented
What do the Statue of Liberty, a gigantic Buddha in Hong Kong and the Golden Gate Bridge all have in common? They're protected by the American space program ... sort of. In the late 1980s, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center began a research program to develop coatings for the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to shield the launch structures from salt-air corrosion, rocket exhaust and thermal stress. Applications of this material proved ideal for protecting structures like bridges, antenna towers -
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First piece of the International Space Station is launched.
First piece of the International Space Station is launched.
