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In 1949, rhesus monkey Albert II became the first primate in space, reaching a height of 82 miles aboard a V2 rocket.
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In 1957 the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The world's first artificial satellite
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The first animal to go into orbit was a dog named Laika, launched on board the Soviet Sputnik 2 spacecraft on November 3, 1957.
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The first successful U.S. satellite, Explorer I, was launched into Earth orbit on Jan. 31, 1958, at Cape Canaveral, Florida,
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On this day in 1958, the U.S. Congress passes legislation establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
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Yuri Gagarin was the first person to fly in space. His flight, on April 12, 1961, lasted 108 minutes as he circled the Earth for a little more than one orbit in the Soviet Union's Vostok spacecraft.
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Alan Shepard became the first American in space when the Freedom 7 spacecraft blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on May 5, 1961
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Kennedy began a dramatic expansion of the U.S. space program and committed the nation to the ambitious goal of landing a man on the Moon by the end of the decade.
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On February 20, 1962, Glenn flew the Friendship 7 mission, becoming the first American to orbit the Earth, and the fifth person and third American in space.
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The first EVA was performed on March 18, 1965, by Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, who spent 12 minutes and 9 seconds outside the Voskhod 2 spacecraft.
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This close-up photo shows Ed White during his Gemini IV spacewalk, AKA extravehicular activity (EVA), as he became the first American astronaut to walk in space on June 3, 1965
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Apollo 1, initially designated AS-204, was the first crewed mission of the United States Apollo program, the undertaking to land the first men on the Moon. During a preflight test for what was to be the first manned Apollo mission, a fire claimed the lives of three U.S. astronauts; Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee.
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Apollo 7 was an October 1968 human spaceflight mission carried out by the United States. It was the first mission in the United States' Apollo program to carry a crew into space. It was also the first U.S. spaceflight to carry astronauts since the flight of Gemini XII in November 1966
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Apollo 8 was the first crewed spacecraft to leave low Earth orbit and the first to reach the Moon, orbit it, and return.
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Apollo 9 was a March 1969 human spaceflight, the third in NASA's Apollo program. Flown in low Earth orbit, it was the second crewed Apollo mission that the United States launched
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Apollo 10 was a May 1969 human spaceflight, the fourth crewed mission in the United States Apollo program, and the second to orbit the Moon.
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Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin formed the American crew that landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, 1969
