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As the tiny satellite orbited the earth, Americans reacted with distress that the Soviets could have gotten so far ahead of the supposedly technologically superior United States.
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The primary science instrument on Explorer 1 was a cosmic ray detector designed to measure the radiation environment in Earth orbit.
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Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin becomes the first human being to travel into space. To Soviet propagandists, the Soviet conquest of space was evidence of the supremacy of communism over capitalism
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Navy Commander Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. is launched into space aboard the Freedom 7 space capsule, becoming the first American astronaut to travel into space.
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the United States was already a distant second in space technology, behind the Soviet Union. The race to begin to explore the universe had unofficially begun on October 4, 1957, when the Soviets launched Sputnik I, the world’s first artificial satellite.
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After 48 orbits and 71 hours, she returned to earth, having spent more time in space than all U.S. astronauts combined to that date.
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Mariner 4 was the fourth in a series of spacecraft used for planetary exploration in a flyby mode and represented the first successful flyby of the planet Mars, returning the first pictures of the martian surface.
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took the first photos of another planet from space.
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Pioneer 7 was last tracked successfully on 31 March 1995.
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Apollo 11 took off from Kennedy Space Center with astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins aboard.
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The objectives of the missions were to return data from the Venus atmosphere, make a landing on the surface, and continue to return data after landing. Venera 7 was the first spacecraft to return data after landing on another planet.
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this mission ceremoniously marked the end of the Space Race that had begun in 1957 with the Sputnik launch.
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It was the first spacecraft to reach the surface of the moon.
