October 4 Sputnik 1, world's first artificial satellite, is launched by U.S.S.R. November 3 Sputnik 2, second Soviet artificial satellite, with dog (Laika) aboard, gathers biological data from orbit. December 6 Vanguard TV3, U.S. satellite attempt, fails.

January 31 Explorer 1, first U.S. artificial satellite, is launched. Identifies Van Allen radiation belts. February 3 Sputnik 3, the third Soviet satellite attempt, fails. March 17 Vanguard 1, uses solar power and transmits "pear shaped earth" data until May, 1964. April 2 NASA is proposed by President Eisenhower. July 29 President Eisenhower signs the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 creating NASA. August 19 Keith Glennan is sworn in as NASA's first administrator. August 20 President Eisenhower gives manned space flight responsibilities to NASA. October 1 NASA officially begins operations. November 5 Space Task Group is established to coordinate manned space flight activities. November 26 Keith Glennan and NASA Deputy Administrator Hugh Dryden agree on the name "Mercury" for the first manned space program. December 17 Project Mercury is publicly announced. December 31 Jet Propulsion Laboratory is transferred to NASA.

January 2 Soviet satellite Luna 1 is the first to achieve earth-escape velocity and goes into solar orbit after coming within 5,998 km of Moon. January 12 McDonnell Aircraft Corp. is chosen to build Mercury spacecraft. January 15 NASA announces a Space Projects Center to be built in Greenbelt, Md. February 17 Vanguard 2 orbits for 18 days, transmitting first photographs by TV. April 9 Mercury astronauts are selected. May 1 The Space Projects Center is renamed the Goddard Space Flight Center. September 12 Soviet Luna 2 impacts on the Moon on September 14. September 18 Vanguard 3 gathers micrometeorite data until December 11, 1959 and is first satellite to map earth's magnetic field. October 4 Soviet Luna 3 is first satellite to photograph far side of moon.

January 18 President Eisenhower approves Saturn rocket project. March 11 Pioneer 5, the first successful interplanetary spacecraft, is launched. March 15 Agreement to transfer Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA), headed by Wernher von Braun, to NASA is reached. April 1 TIROS I, the first weather satellite, is launched. July 1 ABMA is officially transferred to NASA and becomes the Marshall Space Flight Center. July 28-29 Project Apollo, the post-Mercury program, is announced. August 11 Discoverer 13 becomes the first payload recovered from orbit. August 12 Echo 1, the first passive communications satellite, is launched. August 19 Soviet Sputnik 5 is the first vehicle to return successfully a live payload from space to Earth. After 17 orbits the satellite returns the dogs Belka and Strelka and six mice.

February 15 James Webb is sworn in as NASA's second administrator. April 12 Soviet Vostok 1 Soviet Yuri Gagarin becomes the first person in space in Vostok 1. He lands in USSR after making one orbit in 1.8 hours. May 5 Alan B. Shepard Jr. is America's first man in space in a 1961 suborbital flight of 15 minutes 22 seconds. His Mercury Freedom 7 spacecraft, launched by a modified Redstone rocket, reached an altitude of 187.5 kilometers (116.5 miles) and traveled 488.9 kilometers (303.8 miles) down range, splashing down near the Bahamas. May 25 President Kennedy announces the goal of landing astronauts on the Moon before 1970. July 21 Astronaut Virgil I. Grissom reaches an altitude of 190 kilometers (118 miles) and lands 487 kilometers (303 miles) from Cape Canaveral in the second suborbital flight of the Mercury Project. His Liberty Bell 7 spacecraft sank during recovery when the hatch opened prematurely. Grissom barely escaped without injury. August 6 Vostok 2 carries cosmonaut Gherman Titov in the Soviet Union's second human space mission, completing 17 orbits in a little over a day. August 24 NASA announces it will establish a launch facility on Merritt Island in Florida. September 19 James Webb announces the move of Space Task Group to Houston to start a new Manned Spacecraft Center. October 27 First Saturn rocket is successfully launched. December 7 Project Gemini is announced.

February 20 John H. Glenn, Jr., becomes the first American to orbit the Earth. Friendship 7, a 1354-kilogram (2987-pound) Mercury spacecraft completed three orbits in 4.9 hours, after launch by Atlas rocket. March 7 The American OSO-1, the first orbiting solar observatory, is launched. May 24, 1962 Astronaut M. Scott Carpenter, aboard Aurora 7, reports that he can see ". individual fields, rivers, lakes, roads...," during his 3-orbit, 4.9-hour flight. An attitude error and late retrorocket firing caused Carpenter's Mercury spacecraft to overshoot its planned landing site in the Atlantic Ocean by 402 kilometers (250 miles). Carpenter waited for 3 hours in a life raft alongside his spacecraft until a rescue helicopter arrived to transfer him to the recovery carrier USS Intrepid. July 1 NASA's Launch Operations Center in Florida is opened. July 11 James Webb announces that NASA has chosen Lunar Orbit Rendezvous as the technique for landing astronauts on the Moon. August 11 Cosmonaut Adrian Nikolayev lands by parachute after 64 orbits in Vostok 3. His flight was part of a dual launch mission, a space first. August 12 The Soviet Vostok 4 comes within 4.9 km of Vostok 3 during Earth orbit, as the second part of the first dual launch mission. Vostok 4 cosmonaut Papel Popovitch landed by parachute after 48 orbits. October 3 Astronaut Walter M. Schirra, Jr., flies Mercury spacecraft Sigma 7 in a 6-orbit flight lasting 9 hours, 13 minutes. Increased landing accuracy enabled Schirra to splash down just 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the recovery ship, 442 kilometers (275 miles) northeast of Midway Island in the Pacific Ocean. December 14 The US scientific probe Mariner 2 encounters Venus.

May 15-16 Astronaut L. Gordon Cooper, Jr., in Faith 7 completes the last Mercury mission. In a 22-orbit, 34 hour, 20 minute flight Cooper sighted roads, vehicles, and buildings and landed within 6.5 kilometers (4 miles) of the recovery ship. June 14 Cosmonaut Valeri Bykovsky lands by parachute after 81 orbits in Vostok 5. This was a part of a dual launch mission with Vostok 6) June 16 Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, lands by parachute after 48 orbits in Vostok 6. July 26 Syncom II becomes the first operational communications satellite in geosynchronous orbit.

July 28 Ranger 7, the first successful U.S. lunar probe, is launched, and takes the first close-up photographs of the moon. October 12 The first three man crew in space-cosmonauts Vladimir Komarov, Konstantin Feoktistov and Boris Yegorov-returns after 16 orbits in 24.3 hours in Voskhod 1.

March 18 Voskhod 2 Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov aboard Voskhod 2 spends 20 minutes outside spacecraft in the first extravehicular activity-a spacewalk. Leonov and fellow cosmonaut Pavel Belyayev returned after 17 orbits. March 23 Gemini, the second US human spaceflight program, begins with a 3-orbit flight by astronauts Virgil I. Grissom and John W. Young. Launched atop a Titan 2 rocket, the crew of Gemini 3 performed the first orbital maneuvers involving change of the altitude and path of their spacecraft. June 3-7 Astronaut Edward H. White II is the first American to walk in space during the first day of the flight of Gemini 4. After White and James A. McDivitt opened the hatches of their spacecraft, White floated out of the cockpit and into space. While McDivitt took photographs, White "walked" for 21 minutes at the end of his gold "umbilical cord." White later said that he had no sensation of falling while outside the spacecraft. He compared the experience to flying over the Earth in an airplane. July 14 The US scientific probe Mariner 4 encounters Mars. August 21-29 During the flight of Gemini 5 astronauts L. Gordon Cooper, Jr., and Charles Conrad, Jr., set a human duration record of 8 days in space, demonstrating that crews could function after experiencing prolonged weightlessness. Fuel cell problems threatened the flight initially but were overcome and a series of 17 scientific, medical, and engineering experiments performed. Dec. 4-18, 1965 The first rendezvous of two piloted, maneuverable spacecraft occurs on Dec. 15, 1965, when Gemini 6 joins Gemini 7 in orbit above the Earth. Gemini 7, with astronauts Frank Borman and James A. Lovell Jr., was launched on Dec. 4, 1965. Gemini 6, piloted by astronauts Walter M. Schirra Jr. And ThomasP. Stafford, rendezvoused with Gemini 7 in orbit on Dec. 15, 1965. The two spacecraft remained together, at times only 0.6 meter (2 feet) apart, until the next day when Gemini 6 returned to Earth. Gemini 7 continued in orbit until it splashed down on Dec 18. The 14-day flight of Gemini 7 set a new duration record for human spaceflight and demonstrated that a two-week flight to the Moon and back would be possible.

January 31 The Soviet Luna 9 makes the first soft landing on the Moon on February 3. The spacecraft returned photographs of the lunar surface for three days. February 26 A Saturn 1-B rocket, 68-meters tall (224 feet), launches the first test of an Apollo command module on a suborbital flight without a crew. March 16 Gemini 8 performs the first docking in space with an Agena target vehicle. Shortly after the successful docking, an attitude control thruster on Gemini 8 began firing continuously, tumbling, both spacecraft out of control. As a result, the Gemini 8 mission was terminated early. March 31 The Soviet Luna 10 scientific probe orbits the Moon and gathers data until May 30. May 30 Surveyor 1 is launched. It is the first US spacecraft to soft land on the Moon. It landed on June2 and in almost six weeks of operation took 11,150 photographs. June 3-6 Gemini 9's scheduled docking maneuver with a target vehicle is cancelled after astronauts Thomas P. Stafford and Eugene A. Cernan rendezvous with the target vehicle and find that its protective upper shroud had not been jettisoned. The shroud covered the docking mechanism, preventing the planned docking exercise. On this mission astronaut Cernan space walked for almost an hour and a half but had difficulty in maintaining his position outside the spacecraft. Exertion caused his helmet faceplate to fog, obscuring his vision. July 18-21 Gemini 10 astronauts John W. Young and Michael Collins successfully dock with an Agena and later rendezvous with an Agena from the Gemini 8 mission. A new manned spaceflight altitude record was set when Young and Collins fired the Agena's engine while the two spacecraft were linked together. The spacecraft then soared to an orbital altitude of 663 kilometers (412 miles). August 10 Lunar Orbiter 1 is launched. It was the first U.S. spacecraft to photograph the far side of the moon and returned data until August 29 when it crashed on the moon. Sept. 12-15 Astronauts Charles Conrad Jr. and Richard F. Gordon Jr. dock their Gemini 11 spacecraft with an Agena target vehicle only 94 minutes after launch. Using the Agena as a booster, the two astronauts raised the orbit of their spacecraft to an apogee (highest point) of 1193 kilometers (741.5 miles), a new record for human spaceflight. October 11 The Soviet Union begins the first triple launch of piloted spacecraft with Soyuz 6, 7, and 8. October 12 Soyuz 7 carries three astronauts and conducts autonomous navigation experiments. Re-entered the atmosphere on October 17 after 80 orbits. October 13 Soyuz 8 carries two astronauts and conducts maneuvers with Soyez 7. Re-entered the atmosphere on October 18 after 80 orbits. November 11-15 Gemini 12 Astronauts James A. Lovell Jr. and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. dock with an Agena target vehicle and photograph a solar eclipse on this final mission of Gemini program. Aldrin "walked in space" three times for a total of 5 1/2 hours.

January 27 Apollo1 astronauts Virgil I. Grissom, Edward H. White II, and Roger B. Chaffee die when fire swept through their Apollo command module during a ground test at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The three were scheduled to fly the first manned Apollo mission. The tragedy caused the Apollo program to be delayed for months and resulted in extensive design modifications to the interior of the Apollo command module, including replacement of all flammable parts with flame-resistant and flame-retardant materials. April 23 Soyuz 1 makes the first flight test for the Soviet Soyuz program, completing 18 orbits in a little over a day. Vladimir Komarov was killed in landing due to fouled parachute lines. November 9 Flying without a crew, an Apollo 4 command module successfully launches on a Saturn V rocket.

September 14 Zond 5 is the first flight to carry animals around the moon and return them alive to earth. October 11-22 The first Apollo manned flight, Apollo 7, proves the command and service modules could support a crew for the time necessary for a round trip flight to the Moon. Apollo 7 crewmen Walter M. Schirra, Jr., Don F. Eisele, and Walter Cunningham tested command and service modules systems and tracking station communications during their 11-day flight. Other accomplishments of the flight included repeated firing of the command/service module's main engine, seven televised conferences with the crew, and a rendezvous within 21 meters (70 feet) of the spent Saturn 4-B stage. October 25 Soyuz 2 is launched as an unpiloted rendezvous target for Soyuz 3. October 26 Soyuz 3 cosmonaut Georgi Beregovoi maneuvers to 650 feet from Soyuz 2 and lands after 64 orbits. November 12 NASA announces Apollo 8 will go to the Moon. December 7 OAO-2, the first successful orbiting astronomical observatory, is launched. Dec. 21-27 On Christmas Eve, 1968, the Apollo 8 crew are the first humans to orbit the Moon. Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, James A. Lovell Jr., and William A. Anders had lifted off from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, at 7:51 a.m. (e.s.t.) on Dec. 21, 1968. The crew was the first to be boosted into space by a 111-meter-tall (363 feet) Saturn 5 launch vehicle. They photographed the Moon during their 20-hour stay in lunar orbit and saw the Earth as a small, blue ball more than 381,404 kilometers (237,000 miles) away. Apollo 8 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean south of Hawaii at 10:51 a.m. EST a little more than 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) from the recovery ship, U.S.S. Yorktown. All spacecraft systems functioned almost flawlessly.

January 14 Soyuz 4 cosmonaut Vladimir Shatalov performs a manual docking with Soyuz 5 in the first link up of two piloted vehicles. January 15 Soyuz 5 cosmonauts Yevgeni Khrunov and Alexei Yeliseyev transfer to Soyuz 4 in an emergency rescue rehearsal, leaving their fellow cosmonaut Volynov to return the Soyuz 5 spacecraft back to Earth alone. March 3-13 The crew of the Apollo 9 tests the complete Apollo system for the first time. They successfully conducted rendezvous and docking maneuvers in Earth orbit. James A. McDivitt, David R. Scott, and Russell L. Schweickart docked with the Apollo 9 lunar module and pulled it from its storage area in the upper stage of the Saturn 5 launch vehicle a little more than 5 hours after lift-off. After orbiting the Earth for 2 days, McDivitt and Schweickart entered the lunar module and began testing the vehicle. Schweickart photographed the command and service modules and lunar module during a space walk on the fourth day. On the fifth day, the lunar module was separated from the command and service modules in orbit for the first time. McDivitt and Schweickart flew the lunar module through a series of tests. April 3 Thomas Paine is sworn in as NASA's third administrator. May 18-26 Apollo 10 is the final rehearsal for the first landing of humans on the Moon and tests the Apollo spacecraft in lunar orbit. While astronaut John W. Young piloted the command and service modules in orbit 96.5 kilometers (60 miles) above the Moon, astronauts Thomas P. Stafford and Eugene A. Cernan flew the lunar module to within 15,240 meters (50,000 feet) of the lunar surface. While in lunar orbit, the astronauts conducted extensive photographic surveys of the Moon, including the landing site for the upcoming Apollo 11 lunar landing mission. July 16-24, 1969 As Apollo 11 command module pilot Michael Collins orbits above, Neil. A. Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. make the first human steps on the Moon, July 20, 1969. At 4:17:40 p.m. July 20, astronaut Armstrong radioed to Mission Control in Houston and to the world, "The Eagle has landed!" The astronauts stayed outside their lunar module for a total of more than two hours and collected more than 21.3 kilograms (47 pounds) of lunar samples from their landing site in the Sea of Tranquility. July 20 At 10:56 p.m. EDT on July 20, 1969, Neil A. Armstrong sets his left foot on the surface of the Moon. Nov. 14-24, 1969 Apollo 12 follows the success of Apollo 11 by conducting almost 8 hours of lunar surface exploration. During their stay, astronauts Charles Conrad Jr. and Alan L. Bean erected a nuclear powered experiment package and recovered parts from the Surveyor 3 spacecraft. Apollo 12 landed within 200 meters of Surveyor 3. Richard F. Gordon, Jr., performed experiments and photographed the Moon from the orbiting command module as Conrad and Bean explored the lunar surface.

April 11-17 On Apollo13, an exploding oxygen tank in the service module nearly causes tragedy, but the crew's efficient response to the mishap and ground control's round-the-clock efforts safely bring home the crew of James A. Lovell Jr., John L. Swigert, and Fred W. Haise Jr. The three astronauts used the lunar module's engine for propulsion, and its oxygen supply and electrical supply for life support during the aborted mission. June 1 The Soviet Soyuz 9 spacecraft carries two astronauts for the longest manned space flight at that time, spending 17 days, 16 hours and 59 minutes in space. September 12 The Soviet Luna 16 scientific probe lands in the Moon's Sea of Fertility on September 20. It was the first automated lunar landing, collecting lunar soil samples and returning them to Earth on September 24. November 10 The Soviet Luna 17 scientific probe lands on the moon November 17, deploying an automated, television-controlled lunar roving vehicle, Lunokhod 1, on the lunar surface.

Jan. 31-Feb. 9 Apollo 14 achieves the third lunar landing. America's first man in space, Alan B. Shepard Jr., and his fellow explorer, Edgar D. Mitchell, performed numerous experiments during their 9 hours outside the lunar module. While the two were on the lunar surface, command module pilot Stuart A. Roosa photographed future landing sites. April 19 The Soviet Salyut 1 flies as a prototype space station for human habitation and remains in orbit until October 11. April 23 The Soviet Soyuz 10 spacecraft docks with Soyuz 1. This first attempt to dock with a space station failed. April 27 James Fletcher is sworn in as NASA's fourth administrator. June 6 The crew of the Soviet Soyuz 11 successfully enter Salyut 1 and remain docked with the space station from June 7 to June 29. The return to Earth, however, was tragic: the three cosmonauts died of asphyxiation just prior to reentry. July 26-Aug. 7 During Apollo 15, the fourth US lunar landing, astronauts David R. Scott and James B. Irwin ride their lunar roving vehicle near the Moon's Hadley Rill during more than 18 hours of exploration. During this time Command module pilot Alfred M. Worden conducted extensive photographic mapping activities from lunar orbit. Worden later retrieved the films from their service module compartment during a televised space walk, the first conducted in deep space.

January 5 President Nixon approves the Shuttle. February 14 The Soviet Luna 20 automatic spacecraft lands on the Moon, collects lunar samples, and returns them to Earth on February 25. April 16-27 Outward bound from Earth, Apollo 16 astronauts John W. Young, Thomas K. Mattingly II, and Charles M. Duke, Jr., photograph the Earth's auroras using film sensitive to ultraviolet radiation. After landing on the Moon near the crater Descartes, Young and Duke explored the surface for more than 20 hours, collecting an unprecedented 95.4 kilograms (210.4 pounds) of lunar samples. Command module pilot Mattingly performed a space walk during the flight back to Earth, recovering films of the lunar surface from the camera compartment in the service module. May 24 President Richard M. Nixon and Soviet Premier Alexsei Kosygin sign Apollo-Soyuz Test Project agreement, initiating the first cooperative undertaking in human space exploration between the two antagonists. The agreement symbolized the improved relations between the US and USSR under President Nixon's policy of détente. Dec. 7-19 Apollo 17, the last mission of the Apollo lunar landing program, returns 110 kilograms (243 pounds) of lunar samples to Earth. Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene A. Cernan and Harrison H. Schmitt spent more than 44 hours outside the lunar module erecting experiment packages and collecting samples while astronaut Ronald E. Evans orbited overhead. As Cernan took his last step off the lunar surface he said ". . . as we leave the Moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came and, God willing, we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind."

January 8 The Soviet Luna 21 spacecraft departs for the Moon to deploy the automated lunar roving vehicle, Lunokhod 2. The spacecraft and rover sucessfully landed on the Moon on January 16. February 17 Manned Spacecraft Center is renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. April 3 The Soviet Salyut 2 space station, without a crew aboard, fails in orbit and disintegrates April 14, 1973. May 14 The US Skylab, a space station derived from Apollo rocket and spacecraft technology, is launched for initial deployment. The station included an orbital workshop, an airlock module, a multiple docking adapter, and an Apollo telescope mount. The station sustained serious damage during launch, losing a solar panel and thermal and micrometeoroid shields. May 25 On the Skylab 2 mission, the first crew arrives at the space station. Three astronauts stay for over 28 days, working to repair the damaged spacecraft. July 28 On the Skylab 3 mission, a second crew of three astronauts continues making to Skylab space station and remain onboard for 59 days. September 27 The Soviet Soyuz 12, an improved version of the Soyuz 11 on which three cosmonauts died, flies to the Salyut space station. November 16 The Skylab 4 mission sends three astronauts to the Skylab space station. This was the last crew to occupy the station and they set the record for the longest U.S. space mission-84 days. December 3 Pioneer 10 becomes the first spacecraft to encounter Jupiter. December 18 The Soviet Soyuz 13 carries three cosmonauts for a few hours short of 8 days. The Soviet crew was in orbit at the same time as the crew of Skylab 4.

March 29 Mariner 10 becomes the first spacecraft to encounter Mercury. June 24 The Soviet Salyut 3 space station is launched. July 3 The Soviet Soyuz 14 transports two cosmonauts to Salyut 3. They remain on the station for over 15 days. August 26 The Soviet Soyuz 15 carries two cosmonauts in an unsuccessful attempt to dock with Salyut 3. December 2 The Soviet Soyuz 16, with two cosmonauts aboard, conducts a test of an Apollo Soyuz docking mechanism as a part of the Apollo Soyuz Test Project (ASTP).

January 10 Two Soyuz 17 cosmonauts dock with and board Salyut 4 in a 29 day mission. April 5 On the Soviet Soyuz 18A spacecraft two cosmonauts eject during launch vehicle failure, landing safely. The flight was headed for Salyut 4. May 24 Two Soyuz 18 cosmonauts dock with Salyut 4 and work onboard for almost 63 days. July 15 Apollo Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) mission commences. Soyuz 19 and Apollo 18 dock on the 36th orbit of Soyuz, remained in orbit together almost 6 days. Three American astronauts and three Soviet cosmonauts participated in joint mission.