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The Soviet Union launched the first ever satellite called Sputnik 1. The satellite that the Soviet Union is shaped like a ball the size of a beach ball and having the weight of about 184 pounds. It only took 98 minutes to orbit the Earth. -
The first ever dog in orbit was launched by The Soviet Union. The dog was named Laika. Laika survives the launched, but after a couple hours after launch she had died due to a life-support canister failure that caused her to overheat and die. -
The first attempt to compete with The Soviet Unions satellite fails for the United States because the satellite blew up on the launchpad. On their second attempt of launching a satellite it's a success, 1958 Alpha achieves an astonishing 1,560 miles above the Earth. -
Scared that The Soviet Union is going to win the Cold War the United States writes National Aeronautics and Space Act (NASA) This act creates a civilian agency National Aeronautics and Space Act (NASA) -
After being in the lead The Soviet Union sends the first man into orbit (Yuri Gregarin) On April 12th 1961 Vostok 1 blasts into space and returns 2 hours later after completing an orbit around Earth. -
After the Soviet Union sends a man into space The United States does it too, they launched Alan Shepard. The mission was called Mercury Freedom 7 and it only lasted 16 minutes and wasn't complete. -
Vostok 6 was launched in The Soviet Union, it carried Valestia Tereshkova and she recorded 3 days of data before returning back to Earth safely. -
With the start of mission Voskhod 2 they let an astronaut exit the space ship. This person was Alexei Leonov and he stayed out for 12 minutes but he was almost not able to make it because space can suck you in and you could possibly die. -
President Kennedy launched the Apollo 11 mission and it lands on the moon. And Neil Armstrong was the first man on the moon and his famous words were "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." And with this happening USA was ahead of The Soviet Union. -
On April 11, 1970 an oxygen tank explodes while Apollo 13 was trying to get to the Moon. After this happened the crew and the NASA scientist in Houston's plan was to get the crew safely back on Earth without being hurt. -
On January 31st, 1971 Apollo 14 lands where Apollo 13 was supposed to land, Alan Shepard was leading this expedition. Millions of people were watching on Tv as the astronauts played golf and threw javelins on the Moon. -
On 1973 NASA launched a Skylab that allowed other space craft to float near it and dock. This allowed astronauts to go into the Skylab and leave when they needed to. After a while the Skylab ended. -
After competing for a while America and Russia agree to do a mission together. Apollo 18 and Soyuz 19 and dock with each other this means that the astronauts got to meet. -
On August 8th, 1978 the first space shuttle was tested. it was put on the back of a bigger plane then it let go and it had a very safe landing. -
On April 12th, 1981 the first space shuttle was launched into space with the help of booster rockets. After it was launched into space for two days it landed safely on an Air Force base in California. -
On April 4th, 1983 the second space shuttle is launched into space and it was named Challenger. 2 crew members went out and repaired the shuttle. -
On June 18th, 1983 the first American woman is launched into space and her name was Sally Ride. She performed many missions in space and became a hero to many people. -
On August 30th, 1984 a space shuttle carries three communication satellite into space for a mission. Americans think that NASA can achieve anything at this point. -
There was four space shuttles in space already, On October 3rd, 1985 NASA launched the space shuttle called Atlantis and it was the fifth and last shuttle launched into space. -
On January 28th 1986 the space shuttle challenger is launched as planned. Kids all over America were watching and teachers were ready to teach a lesson on the launch. But then unfortunately 73 seconds later The space shuttle explodes killing the whole crew and shocking the world. -
On April 24th, 1990 NASA launched the telescope named Hubble. This telescope has given us so many cool things to look at that are very far in this universe. This is a big comeback after the Columbia accident. -
On May 7th, 1992 the space shuttle endeavour is launched as a better replacement for Challenger. The space shuttle went to go repair a satellite that was not replying to commands. After the longest space walk ever and fixing the satellite they send it back into orbit. -
On February 1st, 2003 the space shuttle Columbia returns from a long space flight. Before the launch of the shuttle a piece of foam damaged the wing, it didn't become a problem until the shuttle was going faster than the speed of sound through our atmosphere that it ripped off the wing and it killed all the crew members on board. -
On November 20th, 2011 the I.S.S. is launched (International Space Station.) The I.S.S. is big enough to be seen at night if you catch it at the right time of year at night.