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The USSR launches the first man made satellite into space. This terrifies the US and starts the space race. -
The USSR launches Laika, a dog, on Sputnik II into space and she becomes the first animal and living creature to orbit Earth in space. Though she sadly died in space. -
The US, trying to catch up to the USSR in the space race finally successfully launches a satellite into space. -
President Eisenhower signs the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 into law creating NASA. -
Ham was the first chimp that the US sent to space. He survived his mission and died 22 years later in 1983. -
Yuri Gagarin was the first human in space. He circled Earth at the speed of 27,400 kilometers per hour with the flight lasting 108 minutes. He survived reentry by ejecting from the capsule. -
Alan Shepard, piloting the Freedom 7 Mercury capsule for a 15 minute suborbital flight. Becoming the second person to go to space. -
JFK shows his commitment to American about the space race by making a speech stating that the US will be the first to put a man on the moon. -
John Glenn, was the first American to orbit Earth. -
Alexei Leonov, was the first person to do a EVA. He spent 12 minutes and 9 seconds outside the Voskhod 2 spacecraft. -
Gemini 3, the first crewed mission in NASA's Project Gemini and was the first time two American astronauts flew together into space. Their goal was to test the basic systems of the Gemini spacecraft and make the first orbit-changing maneuvers in space. -
Ed White, was the first American to do an EVA in space. -
Gemini 7's goal was to show that humans could live in weightlessness for 14 days, a record that would stand until 1970. -
Elliot See and Charles Bassett, while flying a T-38 jet trainer to the McDonnell Aircraft plant in St. Louis, Missouri to inspect their spacecraft crashed and died. -
Gemini 8 was the first to link two spacecraft together in Earth orbit. -
During a launch rehearsal test a fire swept through the command module killing the three Apollo 1 crew members, Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. -
Was the first crewed Apollo mission and was the resumption of human spaceflight after the tragic Apollo 1 flight. The crew spent almost 11 days testing out the Apollo command and service modules in space, which would carry future astronauts to the Moon. -
Apollo 8 was the first maned spacecraft to leave Earths low orbit and make it to the moon. They completed 10 orbits of the moon before returning back to Earth. -
Apollo 9 stayed in Earths orbit and tested the lunar landing mission. -
The second maned object to orbit the moon and was a test run of the moon landing mission. -
The first maned object to land people onto the moon. Completing Kennedy's goal of getting Americans on the Moon.
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