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Sputnik 1 was luanched by the soviet union.
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Sputnik 2 was luanched with Laika the dog on board.
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NASA is formed after Congress passes the National Aeronautics and Space Act.
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Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to enter space and return safely.
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U.S. President John F. Kennedy announces the goal of sending astronauts to the moon before the end of the decade.
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Launch of Gemini 5, carrying astronauts Gordon Cooper and Charles Conrad on an eight-day mission to test navigation system and to see how humans respond to long term living in space.
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Launch of Apollo 11
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Astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong become the first men to walk on the moon.
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United States launches its first experimental space station, the Skylab.
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voyager 1 was launched.
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Aboard the space shuttle Columbia, Robert L. Crippen and John W. Young make the first mission in NASA's space shuttle program.
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Sally Ride becomes first American woman in space with launch of shuttle mission STS-7 aboard the space shuttle Challenger
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First major disaster for NASA, when space shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after takeoff with seven crewmembers aboard
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The MIR space station was launched
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Astronaut Norman Thagard launched with Cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Gennady Strekalov aboard a Russian Soyuz to spend 115 days on MIR.
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Launch of Mars Pathfinder
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Pathfinder lands on Mars. The rover Sojourner would go on to explore the Martian surface for more than 80 days.
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First piece of the International Space Station is launched.
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The crew of Expedition One, astronaut Bill Shepherd and cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev, dock at the International Space Station. They are the first people to take up residence at the ISS, staying there for several months
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Launch of Genesis, which would collect samples of atoms from solar wind. Genesis would be the first attempt to return samples to Earth since the Apollo moon mission in 1972.
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After capturing particles from the sun, Genesis makes a dramatic crash landing in Utah when its parachute fails to deploy. Despite the landing, scientists still managed to recover and study the samples.
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Phoenix lander launches on its way to explore the northern pole of Mars.
