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USSR launches Sputnik 1
USSR launches Sputnik 1 -
USSR launches Sputnik 2 which carried a small dog named Laika into orbit
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Explorer 1, the first American satellite to reach orbit, is launched. It carried scientific equipment that lead to the discovery of the Van Allen radiation belt.
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Explorer 2 is launced but it fails to reach orbit.
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The Vanguard 1 satellite is launched. It continues to function for 3 years.
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Sputnik 3 is launched.
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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is formed, it replaces the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA)
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Pioneer 1 is launched to a height of 70,700 miles.
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Luna 1 is launched by the USSR. It is the first man made object to orbit the Sun.
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Pioneer 4 is launched on a Earth-Moon trajectory. It passed within 37,000 miles of the Moon before falling into a solar orbit.
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The "Mercury Seven" astronauts are selected by NASA.
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Luna 2 is launched. It impacts the Moon on September 13, becoming the first man-made object to do so.
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Luna 3 orbits the Moon and photographs 70% of its surface.
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John F. Kennedy is elected the 35th President of the United States.
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Alan B. Shepard becomes the first American in space.
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President John F. Kennedy addresses Congress and challenges the nation to go to the Moon before the end of the decade.
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John Glenn orbits the Earth three times
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Walter Schirra orbits the Earth six times.
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President Kennedy is assassinated.
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Ranger 7 transmits the first close range images of the Moon
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Mariner 4 returns close ranger images of Mars.
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Venus 3 is launched. It becomes the first man made object to impact Venus on March 1, 1966
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Luna 9 becomes the first spacecraft to soft-land on the Moon for the Russians
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Luna 10 becomes the first satellite to orbit the Moon.
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Zond 5 is launched. It carried a biological payload (including two turtles) around the Moon and returned to Earth six days later.
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Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin become the first men to walk on the Moon while crewmate Michael Collins orbits around the Moon alone.
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The United States launches Mariner 9, which becomes the first spacecraft to survey Mars from orbit.
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Scientists designate Cignus X-1 as the first probable black hole.
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American Mariner 10 is launched, on the first dual-planet mission. Over the next year, it returned photographs of Venus and Mercury.
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Pictures of the Martian surface are taken by Viking 1, the first U.S. attempt to soft land a spacecraft on another planet.
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Pioneer 11 reaches Saturn, flying to within 13,000 miles and taking the first close-up photographs.
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The space shuttle Challenger lifts off for its first mission (STS-6) and has the first American space walk in nine years. Crew: Paul Weitz, Karol Bobko, Donald Peterson, and Story Musgrave.
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The fourth space shuttle Atlantis takes off on its first mission (STS-51J). Crew: Karol J. Bobko, Ronald J. Grabe, Robert A. Stewart, David C. Hilmers, and William A. Pailes.
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Astronomers find that our galaxy is smaller than they thought and the Sun is 23,000 light-years from it's center.
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Space Shuttle Columbia lifts off on its 21st space flight, setting a new shuttle in-space endurance record of almost 18 days. This flight carries Story Musgrave, at that time the oldest man to fly in space at 61 years of age.
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launch of the double probe Cassini/Huygens, aimed at Saturn. This is probably the most ambitious and complex unmanned planetary project ever attempted, costing more than $2.5 billion and involving 17 nations and hundreds of scientists from the U.S. and Eu
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Galileo completes another flyby of Jupiter's moon Io, passing only 181 km from Io's south polar region.
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L. Gordon Cooper spends 34 hours in space. He is the last American to fly in space alone.