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The Space Race began as an arms race between the respective militaries of the United States and the Soviet Union. World War II had demonstrated to the world
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The first spacecraft, the Soviet Union's Sputnik 1, was launched on October 4, 1957
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The United States' Apollo 11 was the first crewed mission to land on the Moon, on 20 July 1969.
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The United States has not attempted a moon landing since Apollo 17′s Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt, the last of 12 moonwalkers, explored the gray, dusty surface in December 1972
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In the early morning hours of April 12, 1981, NASA launched is first Space Transportation System, or space shuttle, mission, carrying astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen into orbit.
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STS-1 (Space Transportation System-1) was the first orbital spaceflight of NASA's Space Shuttle program. The first orbiter, Columbia, launched on April 12, 1981