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The USSR launched the first satellite into orbit. It was named Sputnik 1.
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The USSR used Sputnik 2 to send a dog named Laika into orbit.
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The U.S launched their first satellite named Explorer 1. It was the first retaliation in the space race against the Soviets.
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The U.S launched the first satellite for communications on board the Atlas Rocket
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The U.S launched the first weather satellite named Vanguard 2. It measured cloud-cover distribution.
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NASA satellite "Discoverer 13" was the first satellite and first man-made object recovered from space. It beat out the Soviet Korabl Sptunik 2 by 9 days.
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Soviet guidance systems proved to outdo U.S guidance systems when Luna 2 was successfully guided to crash on the moon.
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The USSR was the first to send and return living things from space with their Sputnik 5. On board were 2 dogs named Belka and Strelka as well as many other plants and animals.
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A prototype of the Soviet missile ICBM R-16 blew up on the launchpad and killed many technical personnel.
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The Soviets launched Yuri Gagarin on the Vostok 1 into space.
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The United States sent Alan Shepard into space as a response to the Soviets sending Yuri Gagarin. Shepard became 1st American to go to space.
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Venera 1 was a Soviet spacecraft the successfully flew by Venus.
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Valentina Tereshkova was a Soviet astronaut who became the first woman to go to space. She made here journey in the Vostok 6.
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NASA developed the first spaceplane named the X-15. It flew at the edge of outer space.
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NASA's Gemini 8 successfully docked with the Agena target vehicle.
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During a launch rehearsal for the Apollo 1 mission, U.S astronauts Edward White, Gus Grissom, and Roger Chaffee died of an accidental fire in the cabin.
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Two crew members exchanged between the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5.
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The U.S achieved the ultimate goal of putting a man on the moon, and they did it before the Soviets. The missions was Apollo 11 and the man who went was Neil Armstrong.
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American spacecraft, Apollo 12, landed precisely on the moon at the site of the Surveyor 3 probe.
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On board Apollo 13 a liquid oxygen tank ruptured and crippled the spacecraft during its mission. The American crew barely managed to make it back to earth.
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USSR mission Luna 16 was the first to have a robot automatically return a sample from another celestial body. It got its sample from the moon.
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The USSR Lunokhod 1 mission involved the first remote-controlled mobile vehicle on another planet. The moon.
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Salyut 1 was the first space station, and it was made by the Soviets.
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The crew capsule of the Soyuz 11 depressurized during reentry tragically killing all three Soviets who were piloting it.
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NASA probe Mariner 9 got into the orbitof Mars.
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USSR space probe, Mars 3, was the first soft landing on mars and sent the first signals from mars.
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NASA was the first to do a gravitational assist when its, Mariner 10, flew by Venus.
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In addition to being the first space probe to perform a gravitational assist from a planet, NASA's Mariner 10 was also the first space Probe to fly by Mercury.
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The Pioneer 10 was the first probe to fly by Jupiter. It was a NASA probe.
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The Soviets and the United States ended their competition against each other by working together on the Apollo Soyuz Test Project.
