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Launch of Sputnik 1
Sputnik 1 was the first artificial satellite to be put into Earth's orbit. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957, and was the first in a series of satellites collectively known as the Sputnik program. The unanticipated announcement of Sputnik 1's success precipitated the Sputnik crisis in the United States and ignited the Space Race within the Cold War. -
Period: to
Space Race
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Launch of Sputnik 2
was the second spacecraft launched into Earth orbit, on November 3, 1957, and the first to carry a living animal, a dog named Laika. Sputnik 2 was a 4-meter (13 foot) high cone-shaped capsule with a base diameter of 2 meters (6.6 feet). It contained several compartments for radio transmitters, a telemetry system, a programming unit, a regeneration and temperature control system for the cabin, and scientific instruments. A separate sealed cabin contained the dog Laika. -
Explorer 1
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. -
Launch of Tiros 1
TIROS I was the first successful weather satellite, and the first of a series of Television Infrared Observation Satellites. It was launched at 6:40 AM on April 1, 1960 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in the United States. -
Gemini
NASA finally announces there release of the Gemini project, a awesome space program. -
First Spacewalk
Alexei Leonov spends 12 minutes outside of his Voskhod spacecraft performing the first spacewalk. Dumb Russians . . . -
Moon landing of Luna 9
Luna 9 was an unmanned space mission of the Soviet Union's Luna program. On February 3, 1966 the Luna 9 spacecraft was the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on any planetary body other than Earth and to transmit photographic data to Earth. -
Orbit of Luna 10
This russian satelite become the forst to orbit the moon completlely, still hate russians . . . -
America for the MOON!
Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin become the first men to walk on the Moon while crewmate Michael Collins orbits around the Moon alone. -
Return of Apollo 17
Apollo 17 was the eleventh and final manned mission in the American Apollo space program. Launched at 12:33 a.m. EST on December 7, 1972, with a crew of Commander Eugene Cernan, Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans, and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt, Apollo 17 remains the most recent manned Moon landing and the most recent manned flight beyond low Earth orbit.
