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Sputnik 1 became the first satellite to be launched by man.The launch of Sputnik in 1957 indicated not only Soviet technical leadership in a new field but also the capability and extent of Soviet large-missile development and production.
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NASA was founded by Dwight Eisenhower.While this new federal agency would conduct all non-military space activity, the Advanced Research Projects Agency was created in February 1958 to develop space technology for military application.
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The first to return animals alive from orbit. The passengers were the dogs Belka and Strelka, plus a gray rabbit, 42 mice, two rats and fruit flies.
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Cosmonaut Yuri A. Gagarin, on board the Vostok 1 spacecraft, became the first human in space. The first crewed spacecraft was Vostok 1, which carried Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into space in 1961, and completed a full Earth orbit.
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The Apollo 11 spaceflight, achieved its goal of landing the first humans on the Moon. A Moon landing is the arrival of a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon. This includes both crewed and robotic missions.
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The space shuttle explodes 73 seconds after launch, killing its crew of seven.
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The Hubble Space Telescope, named after Edwin Powell Hubble, was placed into orbit by crew members of the space shuttle Discovery.
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SpaceShipOne, designed and developed by an aerospace development company known as Scaled Composites invented by Burt Rutan, became the first private manned space vehicle to fly past the boundary of space.
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Curiosity rover lands after 350-million-mile journey- On August 6, 2012.
