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The space race begins! The Soviet union launched the very first artificial satellite Sputnik I.
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2nd satellite, Sputnik II, launches. Inside the spacecraft was an experimental dog named Laika.
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The US launches Explorer 1. It was the first American satellite to reach orbit.
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The US forms NASA. NASA stands for
National Aeronautics and Space Administration. -
NASA launches Pioneer 1. It reaches a hight of 70,700
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NASA picked astronauts to go on the Mercury 7 mission. The astronauts were chosen based on the way they completed difficult tests.
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NASA sends off Tiros 1. Tiros stands for Television Infrared Observation Satellite Program. Tiros 1 was the first working weather satellite.
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Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to enter space and return safely. Gagarin was from Russia and went to space in the Vostok I spacecraft. He was only in space for a little under 2 hours.
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Alan B. Shepard becomes the first American to enter space. He was only in space for a little over 15 minutes.
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The 35th president, John F. Kennedy, gives a speech in Texas. He addressed congress and challenged Americans to be the first to make it to the moon.
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NASA launches the Friendship 7. John Glenn, the pilot, was the first person to orbit earth, In fact he orbited 3 times.
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Mission AS-204 later renamed Apollo 1 had an accident on the launch pad killing 3 astronauts. This created a delay for NASA.
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The Vostok 6 was sent into space on June 16, 1963 by Russia. On board was cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova. She is known as the first woman in space.
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US wins the race to the moon beating the USSR by only a few weeks. "Buzz" Aldrin and Neil Armstrong are the first people ever to walk on the moon. The American Flag and the footprints they left are still there today.
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NASA sends off there first experimental space station called the Skylab. The Skylab returned to earth, plunging into the Indian Ocean, on July 11,1979.
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NASA launches Voyager I. It was launched as one of two spacecrafts sent to explore beyond the asteroid belt. Voyager I was issued to find out about the atmosphere of planets, map out the geography of the planets, and calculate the size, shape, and if there were any rings.
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A major explosion at the launching of the space shuttle Challenger occurred. The Challenger exploded 73 seconds after takeoff. It carried 7 crew members who all died in the accident.
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NASA launches the Mars Pathfinder to try to discover what the surface of Mars looked like. The Pathfinder landed on Mars on July 4, 1997.
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NASA launches first piece of the international space station. It was the first step of several to assemble an US station.
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NASA launches Apollo 11. This launch would later go down in history as one of the most important days of space traveling history.
