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was the first artificial satellite to be put into Earth's orbit.
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USSR launches Sputnik 2 which carried a small dog named Laika into orbit.
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Explorer 1, the first American satellite to reach orbit, is launched. It carried scientific equipment that lead to the discovery of the Van Allen radiation belt.
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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is formed, it replaces the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA).
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Pioneer 4 is launched on a Earth-Moon trajectory. It passed within 37,000 miles of the Moon before falling into a solar orbit.
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Luna 2 is launched. It impacts the Moon on September 13, becoming the first man-made object to do so.
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Gus Grissom is launched on a sub-orbital flight. His Liberty-Bell capsule is lost when it fills with water and sinks after splashdown.
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President Kennedy gives a speech at Rice University reaffirming the importance of the Moon program.
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President Kennedy is assassinated
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Alexei Leonov spends 12 minutes outside of his Voskhod spacecraft performing the first spacewalk.
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Mariner 4 returns close ranger images of Mars.
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Venus 3 is launched. It becomes the first man made object to impact Venus on March 1, 1966.
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Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee are killed when a fire ignites in their Apollo 1 capsule while performing a test on the launch pad.
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Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov is killed when the parachutes of his Soyuz 1 capsule fail to open properly following re-entry.
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Apollo 17 was the eleventh and final manned mission in the American Apollo space program.
