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First artifal salalite put in space by the USSR. Because the USA feared USSR had technology to deliver a nuclear weapons via to R7 rocket. ~Space Exploration Packet
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Three months into the International Geophysical Year (IGY), the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC, held a conference to coordinate IGY nations taking part in rocket and satellite launchings and tracking.
http://celebrating200years.noaa.gov/magazine/igy/space_race.html -
Explorer 1 was the first satellite launched by the United States when it was sent into space on January 31, 1958. The U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency was directed to launch a satellite using its Jupiter C rocket developed under the direction of Dr. Wernher von Braun.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/explorer/explorer-overview.html -
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was a Russian Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey into outer space.
https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1CAHPZY_enUS658US658&ion=1&espv=2&es_th=1&ie=UTF-8#q=first%20human%20in%20space&es_th=1 -
On April 12, 1961, aboard the spacecraft Vostok 1, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin becomes the first human being to travel into space. During the flight, the 27-year-old test pilot and industrial technician also became the first man to orbit the planet, a feat accomplished by his space capsule in 89 minutes. Vostok 1 orbited Earth at a maximum altitude of 187 miles and was guided entirely by an automatic control system.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-man-in-space -
On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced before a special joint session of Congress the dramatic and ambitious goal of sending an American safely to the Moon before the end of the decade.
http://history.nasa.gov/moondec.html -
On February 20, 1962, NASA launched one of the most important flights in American history. The mission? Send a man to orbit Earth, observe his reactions and return him home safely. The pilot of this historic flight, John Glenn, became a national hero and a symbol of American ambition.
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/about/bios/mercury_mission.html -
The first three humans to touch the moon.Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that landed the first humans on the Moon, Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1CAHPZY_enUS658US658&ion=1&espv=2&es_th=1&ie=UTF-8#q=Apollo+launch&es_th=1
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While Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were concluding humanity's first Moonwalk, the Soviets made an oopsie: their Luna 15 probe crashed into the Moon. The crash site was about 530 miles from the Sea of Tranquility. http://mentalfloss.com/article/54028/during-first-us-lunar-landing-soviets-crashed-moon
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Cassini's mission will conclude in 2017, sending itself into Saturn's atmosphere where it will be destroyed. But before it meets its fateful end, it will go through a series of maneuvers through and between Saturn's rings -- so we should have plenty more incredible photos to look forward to.
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/