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Sputnik I was the first ever man-made satellite sent into orbit. The success of it sparked the flames that would become the Space Race between the USSR and the USA. -
A dog, Laika was the first large animal sent into space. Sadly, Laika died after liftoff and the remains were burnt up upon reentry. -
The USA put Explorer I into orbit as the first satellite to carry scientific instruments on it. It would follow an elliptical orbit that was completed once nearly every two hours. -
Congress proposed a bill that would assign a civilian agency to oversight of the US's future ventures into space (non-militarized that is). President Dwight (Ike) Eisenhower then created NASA by signing the National Aeronautics and Space Act into law. -
The US had sent small animals to space before, such as fruit flies in 1947. However, Ham the chimpanzee was the first large animal the US sent to space. He made it to a suborbital flight on the Mercury-Redstone and lived until January 1983. -
The USSR sent out the Vostok 1 with a new kind of cargo; a human. Yuri Gagarin flew at 27,000 km/h for about 110 minutes before reentry (which was computer-controlled). -
The US had shot the Freedom 7 Mercury up for 15 minutes carrying Alan Shepard Jr. He didn't orbit Earth, instead reaching an altitude of 116 miles before falling towards the Atlantic Ocean. -
Due to consistently trailing the USSR, JFK decided it was time to think big and set out for an adventure that the Soviets hadn't done yet, saying "We choose to go to the Moon." He even delivered a deadline of "before this decade is out." -
Not long after Shepard's flight, John Glenn would last 55 minutes in space and would orbit the Earth 3 times during his flight in his affectionately named "Friendship 7" capsule. -
The first extravehicular activity (EVA) done in space was performed by Alexei Leonov. He spent 12 minutes outside of the Voskhod 2 craft on a spacewalk. -
This mission marked the first time that a Gemini mission had a crew. It also performed the first orbital maneuvers while in space. Unfortunately, it did fail to grow sea urchin eggs as desired. -
Quickly catching up to the Soviet Union's Alexei Leonov, Ed White pushed himself out of his Gemini IV capsule with a hand-held O2-jet gun. He beat Leonov's time by spending 20 minutes out of his capsule. -
14 days was set as the record for how long the astronauts aboard this mission lasted in a Zero-g environment. This record would only be broken in 1970. -
As Elliot See and Charles Basset touched down at Lambert International Airport in St. Louis, Missouri, their plane crashed into the nearby McDonnell building, killing them. -
This marked the first time a craft docked with another in space. However, one of the capsule's thrusters broke and couldn't be controlled, so the crew had to make an early reentry. -
Upon a launch-rehearsal test of the first manned Apollo mission, a fire spread through the command module, which killed Virgil (Gus) Grissom, Edward (Ed) White, and Roger Chaffee. -
Apollo 7 was the first time a test was performed on a command and service module by a crew while in space. Also, the crew got sick for a bit while in space, making Apollo 7 the first spaceflight where people caught an infection. -
The first ever mission to leave low-earth orbit was Apollo 8. It sent its crew to the Moon, not for landing, but to reach it and come right back. -
This mission marked NASA's first test of the lunar module in space, specifically low-earth orbit. It was the first crewed flight of the lunar module as well. -
The Apollo 10 mission took all previous achievements in the Apollo missions and fully completed several operations around the Moon, as the landing wouldn't take place until... -
We all know what this did. Buzz Aldrin and Niel Armstrong became the first people to ever walk on the Moon's surface and Micheal Collins was the first person to see the "dark side" of the Moon in his capsule.