Space Race timeline

  • USSR launches Sputnik 1.

  • Sputnik 3 is launched

  • Luna 1 is launched by the USSR. It is the first man made object to orbit the Sun.

  • John F. Kennedy is elected the 35th President of the United States.

  • Yuri Gagarin orbits the Earth once and becomes the first man in space.

  • John Glenn orbits the Earth three times.

  • President Kennedy is assassinated.

  • Astronaut Theodore Freeman dies in a plane crash.

  • Mariner 4 returns close ranger images of Mars.

  • Luna 10 becomes the first satellite to orbit the Moon.

  • Astronaut Clifton Williams is killed in a plane crash.

  • The crew of Apollo 7 begin a 10 day mission to study the new spacecraft.

  • Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin become the first men to walk on the Moon while crewmate Michael Collins orbits around the Moon alone.