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Sputnik
Sputnik I by the Soviet Union began the "space war" with the United States. It was the first artifial satellite that was put in to the Earth's orbit. It helped with research of the atmosphere. It travels at 18,000 mi per hour and completeing an orbit in 96.2 minutes. -
Explorer 1
Explorer 1 was the first Amercian satellite put into orbit. It was launched after Soviet's Sputnik 1 and 2. The satellite remained in orbit until 1970 and was the first to record the Van Allen radiation belt. -
Gemini 3
Gemini 3 was the first manned mission in NASA's Gemini program, The second American manned space program, manned by Gus Grissom and John Young. It was also the final manned flight from Cape Canaveral, Florida before mission control functions were shifted to the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas. -
Apollo 11
Apollo 11 was the first flight that took men to the moon and was a project of the United States. This was a great achievement because the US had reached the moon before the Soviets. The astronauts on this mission include Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. -
Kepler
Kepler is a space observatory launched by NASA to discover Earth-like planets orbiting other stars. Kepler is part of NASA's Discovery Program of relatively low-cost, and focuses primary science missions. As of April 2014, Kepler has found 962 confirmed exoplanets, along with 2,903 unconfirmed planets.
