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Timeline NASA -geronimo

By laurie-geronimo

  • First satellite in space by USSR

    First satellite in space by USSR
    History changed on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The world's first artificial satellite was about the size of a beach ball , weighed only 183.9 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path

  • First animal in space by USSR

    First animal in space by USSR
    On 3 November 1957, the second-ever orbiting spacecraft carried the first animal into orbit, the dog Laika, launched aboard the Soviet Sputnik 2 spacecraft (nicknamed 'Muttnik' in the West). Laika died during the flight, as was intended because the technology to return from orbit had not yet been developed.

  • First satellite in space by USA

    First satellite in space by USA
    The first successful U.S. satellite, Explorer I, was launched into Earth orbit by the Army on Jan. 31, 1958, at Cape Canaveral, Florida, four months after Russia orbited Sputnik. The 18-pound satellite had a cylindrical shape and was 80 inches long and six inches in diameter. Explorer I's small package of instruments produced the first major discovery of the Space Age—The Van Allen radiation belts surrounding the Earth. Explorer I burned up in the atmosphere on March 30, 1970.

  • Creation of NASA

    Creation of NASA
    While this new federal agency would conduct all non-military space activity, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was created in February 1958 to develop space technology for military application. On July 29, 1958, Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, establishing NASA.

  • First animal in space by USA

    First animal in space by USA
    Ham (1957 – January 19, 1983), also known as Ham the Chimp and Ham the Astrochimp, was a chimpanzee and the first hominid launched into space, on January 31, 1961, as part of the U.S. space program's Project Mercury.

  • First man to orbit Earth by USSR

    First man to orbit Earth by USSR
    On April 12, 1961, aboard the spacecraft Vostok 1, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin becomes the first human being to travel into space. During the flight, the 27-year-old test pilot and industrial technician also became the first man to orbit the planet, a feat accomplished by his space capsule in 89 minutes.

  • First man in space by USSR

    First man in space by USSR
    Yuri Gagarin was the first person to fly in space. His flight, on April 12, 1961, lasted 108 minutes as he circled the Earth for a little more than one orbit in the Soviet Union's Vostok spacecraft. Following the flight, Gagarin became a cultural hero in the Soviet Union.

  • First man in space by USA

    First man in space by USA
    Alan Shepard became the first American in space when the Freedom 7 spacecraft blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on May 5, 1961, aboard a Mercury-Redstone rocket.

  • JFK's speech and commitment to getting to the moon

    JFK's speech and commitment to getting to the moon
    On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy gave a historic speech before a joint session of Congress that set the United States on a course to the moon. In his speech, Kennedy called for an ambitious space exploration program that included not just missions to put astronauts on the moon, but also a Rover nuclear rocket, weather satellites and other space projects. Just over 8 years after the speech, on July 20, 1969, NASA's Apollo 11 mission would land the first humans on the moon.

  • First man to orbit Earth by USA

    First man to orbit Earth by USA
    From Cape Canaveral, Florida, John Hershel Glenn Jr. is successfully launched into space aboard the Friendship 7 spacecraft on the first orbital flight by an American astronaut.
    On February 20, 1962, NASA launched one of the most important flights in American history. The mission? Send a man to orbit Earth, observe his reactions and return him home safely. The pilot of this historic flight, John Glenn, became a national hero and a symbol of American ambition.

  • 3 events that were important in the Gemini mission

    3 events that were important in the Gemini mission
    Before Gemini, NASA had limited experience in space. The Mercury missions had proved astronauts could fly in space. But before people could land on the moon, NASA had to learn many things.
    1. It had to learn what happened when astronauts spent many days in space.
    2. It had to learn how astronauts could go outside a spacecraft in a spacesuit.
    3. It had to learn how to connect two spacecraft together in space.
    Gemini proved NASA could do them all.

  • First man to do an EVA by USSR

    First man to do an EVA by USSR
    The first EVA was performed on March 18, 1965, by Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, who spent 12 minutes and 9 seconds outside the Voskhod 2 spacecraft.

  • First man to do an EVA by USA

    First man to do an EVA by USA
    Ed White during his Gemini IV spacewalk, AKA extravehicular activity (EVA), as he became the first American astronaut to walk in space on June 3, 1965.