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August, 1955
The United States announces they intend to launch the first artificial satellite into space, and the USSR responds by creating a satellite of their own. -
Period: to
Space Race
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October, 1957
The USSR successfully launches the first earth-orbiting satellite to space, named Sputnik-1.
Sputnik had a huge impact on the psychology of the Cold War as many Americans saw it as a Soviet military threat -
November, 1957
The USSR becomes the first nation to successfully send a living organism to space by sending a dog named Laika on satellite Sputnik-2 -
December, 1958
The US launches the world's first communications satellite, named SCORE. They became the first nation to broadcast a human voice from space by broadcasting a pre-recorded Christmas message from president Eisenhower. -
January, 1958
The US launches its first satellite to reach orbit: Explorer 1, entering the Space Race. It carried experimental equipment that led to the discovery of the Van Allen radiation belt. -
October, 1958
The US creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), in an urge to create something of an equal caliber and bring themselves back ahead the Russians technologically after their success with Sputnik 1 -
January, 1959
The USSR launches Luna 1, which becomes the first human-made object to orbit the Sun instead of the Earth -
September, 1959
The USSR creates the first spacecraft to reach the moon's surface, and launches Luna 2 -
October, 1959
The US launches the world's first weather satellite and obtains the first pictures of earth from space, named Explorer 6. -
August, 1960
Two dogs and a range of plants are returned alive from space aboard the URSS' Sputnik 5 -
May, 1961
The US achieves the first- controlled journey and first American in space with Alan Shepard. -
April, 1961
The URSS achieves a clear victory on the Space Race by sending Yuri Gagarin to space aboard the Vostok 1. The nation becomes first to send a human to do a single orbit around earth and returning successfully. -
June, 1963
Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space and orbits the earth almost three days aboard Vostok 6. -
March, 1965
Alexei Leonov leaves his spacecraft on a specialized suit and the URSS becomes the First Nation to perform a moonwalk -
July, 1965
The US satellite Mariner 4 performs the first voyage to Mars, and returns with the first close pictures of the surface. -
1967
This year proves the most deadly of the Space Race for both the US and Soviet Union. American astronauts Ed White, Gus Grissom, and Roger Chaffee die when a fire ignited in their Apollo 1 capsule on the launch pad. A few months later the Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov is also killed when the parachute on his Soyuz 1 capsule fails to open on his reentry into Earth's atmosphere. -
December, 1968
US spacecraft Apollo 8 reaches the moon, orbits it and successfully returns to earth, human-crewed -
July, 1969
Neil Armstrong and later Edwin Aldrin become the first men to walk on the Moon while their crewmate Michael Collins continues to orbit the Moon aboard the Apollo 11. This secured a victory for America in the Space Race with a televised landing witnessed around the world by 723 million people. -
April, 1970
Apollo 13 is known as the first mission where the crew survived after an on-board explosion. The famous "Houston we have a problem". -
April, 1971
The URSS launches the first space station MIR -
August, 1971
David Scott, commander of the Apollo 15 mission, becomes the first person to drive on the moon. He also commemorated the US and URSS men who died during space missions. -
July, 1975
With tensions between the US and USSR softening, the first cooperative Apollo-Soyuz mission is launched. With two separate flights, the Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft dock in space and the two commanders Tom Stafford and Alexei Leonov exchange the first international handshake. This act can be seen to symbolically end the Space Race, paving the way for future joint missions, such as the International Space Station and the Shuttle-Mir programme.
