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Soviet Union launches Sputnik I
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NASA is formed after Congress passes the National Aeronautics and Space Act.
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Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to enter space and return safely.
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U.S. President John F. Kennedy announces the goal of sending astronauts to the moon before the end of the decade.
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Launch of Friendship 7 makes astronaut John Glenn the first American to go into orbit. Total flight time was just short of five hours.
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Mission AS-204 is struck by tragedy when a flash fire breaks out during a launch pad test, killing three astronauts: Virgil Grissom, who had participated in Mercury and Gemini flights; Edward White, who conducted NASA's first extravehicular activity; and new astronaut Roger Chaffee. The mission, one of NASA's first major setbacks, was later renamed Apollo 1.
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Astronauts Edwin Aldrin and Neil Armstrong become the first men to walk on the moon.
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Earth's first space probe sent to an outer planet, the first spacecraft to travel through the asteroid belt, the first spacecraft to make direct observations and obtain close-up images of Jupiter, and the first man-made object to leave the solar system. Pioneer 10 sent its last communication back to Earth on January 22, 2003, while 7.6 billion miles from home.
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United States launches its first experimental space station, the Skylab.
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Launch of Viking 1, the first orbiter and lander sent to Mars. Viking 2 would launch a few weeks later. Both landed safely on Mars and for six years sent back the first set of images and data from the Martian surface.
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First major catastrophe for NASA, when space shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after takeoff with seven crew members aboard