Space Race Events

Sputnik 1 was the world's first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite. It was launched into a low altitude elliptical orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957, and was the first in a ser...

The Soviet Union went on to launch a series of additional Sputnik satellites. Sputnik 2, for example, carried a dog into space, named Laika. Sputnik 2 weighed 1120 pounds. It was launched...

After an aborted launch on 9 September, the Ye-1A probe successfully lifted off and reached escape velocity three days later. Officially named the Second Soviet Cosmic Rocket, the spacecr...

The Apollo Program was a human spaceflight program undertaken by NASA during the years 1961–1975 with the goal of conducting manned moon landing missions. In 1961, President John F. Kenne...

Vostok 1 (Russian: Восток-1, East 1 or Orient 1) was the first spaceflight in the Vostok program and the first human spaceflight in history. The Vostok 3KA spacecraft was launched on Apri...

President Kennedy was also eager for the United States to lead the way in exploring space. The Soviet Union was ahead of the United States in its space program and President Kennedy was d...

On February 20, 1962, John H. Glenn, Jr., became the first American to orbit Earth. An Atlas launch vehicle propelled a Mercury spacecraft into Earth orbit and enabled Glenn to circle Ear...

"We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard." —John F. Kennedy

"I have today determined that Station Number 1 of the Atlantic Missile Range and the NASA Launch Operations Center in Florida shall hereafter be known as the JFK Space Center, I have also ..." —President Johnson

Apollo 2 is the informal name of the launch of AS-203. The main purpose of the AS-203 flight was to investigate the effects of weightlessness on the fuel in the S-IVB tank. The reason for...

AS-202 (or SA-202) was a sub-orbital test flight of the Saturn IB and Command and Service Module. It is sometimes informally called Apollo 3. AS-202 was the second test flight of the S...

Apollo 1 is the official name that was later given to the never-flown Apollo/Saturn 204 (AS-204) mission. Its command module (CM-012) was destroyed by fire during a test and training exer...

Apollo 4 was the first flight of the Saturn V launch vehicle, carrying no crew. It was also the first flight of the S-IC and S-II stages of the rocket. This was the first flight of the...

Apollo 5 was the first unmanned flight of the Apollo Lunar Module, which would later carry astronauts to the lunar surface. It lifted off on January 22, 1968. As with Apollo 4, this f...

Apollo 6, launched on April 4, 1968, was the Apollo program's second and last unmanned test flight of its Saturn V launch vehicle. While the vehicle experienced a number of significant ma...

Apollo 7 (October 11-22, 1968) was the first manned mission in the Apollo program to be launched. It was an eleven-day Earth-orbital mission, the first manned launch of the Saturn IB laun...

The Apollo 11 mission was the first manned mission to land on the Moon. It was the fifth human spaceflight of Project Apollo and the third human voyage to the Moon. It was also the second...

"Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me." —Pete Conrad

Apollo 13 was the third manned mission by NASA intended to land on the moon, but a mid-mission technical malfunction forced the lunar landing to be aborted. The crew members were commande...