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The launching of Sputnik 1 was the start of the space race. It was the first artificial Earth satellite. -
Laika was a soviet space dog who was the first successful astronaut to orbit the Earth in Sputnik 2. Although she did not get to return home. -
Explorer 1 was the first successful US satellite. -
The National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 was signed by President Eisenhower. It was created in response to Soviet advances in space exploration. -
First chimpanzee used to perform tasks in space by USA. Ham flew in the Mercury-Redstone 2 mission and proved that mankind could work and live in space. -
Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth aboard the Vostok 1 and was titled a "Hero of the Soviet Union" upon his return. -
He was the second man to travel in space in NASA's Mercury spacecraft Freedom 7. -
He became the first American to orbit the Earth. His trip was aboard a spacecraft that he gave the name Friendship 7. -
JFK is quoted in his speech saying, "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. . ." JFK expresses his commitment on reaching the moon before 1970. -
Leonov was the first person to ever leave a spacecraft. He was on the Voskhod 2 mission and outside of the ship for 12 minutes and 9 seconds. -
Became the first American to conduct a spacewalk aboard the Gemini 4 mission. -
The second crewed mission in the Gemini series. Edward White and James McDivitt were aboard the spacecraft and completed the first American spacewalk. -
Carried Frank Borman and Jim Lovell on a 14 day mission to perform stationkeeping. -
The original pilots of the mission, Elliot See Jr. and Charles Bassett died in a plane crash during training. -
Gemini VIII's mission was to perform docking tests with the Agena target vehicle and to do an EVA. Aboard the Gemini VIII were Neil Armstrong and David Scott, and their mission lasted 10 hours and 41 minutes. Their trip was cut short due to a short circuit, yet their mission was still successful in proving that NASA's docking mechanism worked. -
During a launch test rehearsal the crew of Apollo 1, Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee died in a flash fire. -
The first crewed flight of the Apollo missions after the Apollo 1 crew incident, carrying Walter Schirra Jr., R. Walter Cunningham, and Donn Eisele. Their objective was a crewed orbital flight. -
Frank Borman, James Lovell Jr., and William Anders were the crew of Apollo 8. Their objective was to do lunar landing preparation. -
James McDivitt, Russell Schweickart, and David Scott were the crew with a mission to complete an Earth-Orbital engineering test. -
Apollo 10's mission was lunar landing preparation and aboard the spacecraft was Thomas Stafford, Eugene Cernan, and John Young. -
Primary objective was a lunar landing which was completed. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins were the crew. "The Eagle has landed..."