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USSR: The Lanch of Sputnik 1
The launch of Sputnik 1 by the USSR marked the beginning of the space rae. It was the first time had ever put anything into space. -
USSR: Sputnik 2 and Laika
Sputnik 2 was the first spacecraft to put an animal in orbit. Laika, the animal in question, died shortly after entering orbit, due to overheating. -
USA: Explorer 1
Explorer 1 was the first American satellite ever put in orbit, or space for that matter, and was only the thrid man made object in orbit after Sputnik 1 & 2. It also was the first spacecraft to ever detect the Van Allen Radiation belt. -
USSR: Vostok 1
Vostok 1 was piloted by Yuri Gagarin, and was the first manned space flight. Yuri completed one orbit of the earth before he landed back in Russia, and the whole mission only lasted 108 minutes. It was the first time a human had been put into space. -
USA: Mercury-Redstone 3 & Alan Shepard
Mercury-Redstone 3 was the first American space mission to put a man by the name of Alan Shepard. Alan Shepard was the first American, and the second human to ever go into to space. The Mercury-Redstone 3 mission took place only three weeks after the Russians had put the first ever human (Yuri Gagarin) into space, and put Shepard in space for a short 15 minutes, only 4 of which were in zero-G. -
USSR: Vostok 6
Vostok 6 was the last mission of the Russia Vostok program, and was the first to put a woman (Valentina Tereshkova) into space. It was originally supposed to be part of as joint mission with another spacecraft (Vostok 5) but they had to cut the mission's budget in order to fund the up coming Voskhod program. -
USSR: Voskhod 2
Voskhod 2 was a two manned craft that set another milestone in the space race: Alexey Leonov, a cosmonaut, was the first man to leave a spacecraft in orbit and conduct a "Spaewalk." -
USA: Gemini 6A
Gemini's 6 and 7 were the first set of manned spacecraft to preform an orbital rendezvous. The Russians had already sent up pairs of manned spacecraft, but could only make radio contact. Gemini 6 & 7 however, came as close as 1 foot from each other while in orbit. -
USSR: Luna 9
Luna 9 was one of the Solviet Union's unmanned spacecraft that landed on the moon. It was the first "soft landing" and it took the first pictures from the surface of another world. -
USA: Apollo 1 disaster
Apollo 1 was scheduled to take off on February 21, and would have been the first manned Apollo mission, but during a Launch pad test, a spark from an exposed wire started a cabin fire, killing all three crew members within 17 seconds. This tragic accident almost shut down the Apollo program all together. -
USA: Apollo 8
Apollo 8 marked the first time a human had ever orbited another celestial body (Our moon). Apollo 8 orbited the moon 10 times, taking pictures of the surface and looking for possible landing site for the lunar lander later to come. -
USA: Apollo 11
Apollo 11 was the first mission to ever put a human on the moon, and it meant that the USA had won the space race against the Russians. The USA is still the only counrty to have put a man on the moon. -
USA: Apollo 12
Apollo 12 was not only the second landing on the moon, but also the first rendezvous on the surface of another world. Astronaut Conrad made said rendezvous with Surveyor 3, a probe that had been sent to the moon about two years earlier. Landing close to Surveyor 3 was one of the mission's major objectives. -
USA: Apollo 15
Apollo 15 was the fourth Apollo mission to land on the moon, and the first to use the Lunar Roving Vehicle, or LRV. -
USA: Apollo 17 Returns to Earth
After a 12 day mission, Apollo 17 makes it back home. This was the eleventh and final Apollo mission, and marks the end of the space race.
