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1960 - 1969
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| 1960 |
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Apr. 1 - |
Tiros 1, the first successful weather satellite, is launched.
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Aug. 18 - |
The US launches Discoverer XIV, it's first camera equipped spy satellite.
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Nov. 8 - |
John F. Kennedy is elected the 35th President of the United States.
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| 1961 |
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Apr. 12 - |
Yuri Gagarin orbits the Earth once and becomes the first man in space.
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May 5 - |
Alan B. Shepard becomes the first American in space.
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May 25 - |
President John F. Kennedy addresses Congress and challenges the nation to go to the Moon before the end of the decade.
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Jul. 21 - |
Gus Grissom is launched on a sub-orbital flight. His Liberty-Bell capsule is lost when it fills with water and sinks after splashdown.
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Aug. 6 - |
Gherman Titov spends a day in space aboard Vostok 2.
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Dec. 7 - |
NASA announces the Gemini Program.
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| 1962 |
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Feb. 20 - |
John Glenn orbits the Earth three times.
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May 24 - |
Scott Carpenter repeats John Glenn's flight aboard "Aurora 7".
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Sep. 12 - |
President Kennedy gives a speech at Rice University reaffirming the importance of the Moon program.
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Sep. 17 - |
NASA selects it's second group of astronauts.
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Oct. 3 - |
Walter Schirra orbits the Earth six times.
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Dec. 14 - |
Mariner 2 flies past Venus and enters a solar orbit.
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| 1963 |
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May 15 - |
L. Gordon Cooper spends 34 hours in space. He is the last American to fly in space alone.
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Jun. 16 - |
Cosmonaut Valentia Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space.
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Oct. 17 - |
A third group of NASA astronauts is selected.
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Nov. 22 - |
President Kennedy is assassinated.
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| 1964 |
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Jul. 31 - |
Ranger 7 transmits the first close range images of the Moon.
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Oct. 31 - |
Astronaut Theodore Freeman dies in a plane crash.
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| 1965 |
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Mar. 18 - |
Alexei Leonov spends 12 minutes outside of his Voskhod spacecraft performing the first spacewalk.
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Mar. 23 - |
Gus Grissom and John Young fly the first manned Gemini spacecraft.
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Jun. 3 - |
Ed White performs America's first spacewalk. Jim McDivitt remains in the Gemini capsule.
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Jul. 14 - |
Mariner 4 returns close ranger images of Mars.
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Nov. 16 - |
Venus 3 is launched. It becomes the first man made object to impact Venus on March 1, 1966.
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Dec. 4 - |
Frank Borman and James Lovell begin a two week stay in Earth orbit aboard Gemini 7.
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Dec. 15 - |
Walter Schirra and Thomas Stafford, in their Gemini 6 spacecraft, make the first space rendezvous with Gemini 7.
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| 1966 |
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Feb. 3 - |
Luna 9 becomes the first spacecraft to soft-land on the Moon.
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Feb. 28 - |
Astronauts Charles Bassett and Elliott See die when their plane crashes in bad weather.
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Apr. 3 - |
Luna 10 becomes the first satellite to orbit the Moon.
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Jun. 2 - |
Surveyor 1 soft-lands on the Moon.
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Aug. 14 - |
Lunar Orbiter 1 enters orbit around the Moon and takes the first picture of the Earth from that distance.
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Nov. 11 - |
Gemini 12, the last flight of the Gemini Program, launches with James Lovell and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin aboard.
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| 1967 |
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Jan. 27 - |
Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee are killed when a fire ignites in their Apollo 1 capsule while performing a test on the launch pad.
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Apr. 24 - |
Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov is killed when the parachutes of his Soyuz 1 capsule fail to open properly following re-entry.
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Jun. 6 - |
Astronaut Edward Givens is killed in an automobile accident.
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Oct. 5 - |
Astronaut Clifton Williams is killed in a plane crash.
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Oct. 18 - |
Venera 4 transmits data about the atmosphere of Venus.
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| 1968 |
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Mar. 27 - |
Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, dies in a plane crash.
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Sep. 15 - |
Zond 5 launches. It becomes the first spacecraft to orbit the Moon and return to Earth.
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Oct. 11 - |
The crew of Apollo 7 begin a 10 day mission to study the new spacecraft.
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Dec. 21 - |
Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders begin the first manned journey from the Earth to the Moon. On Christmas Eve they take turns reading Genesis in a broadcast heard around the world.
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| 1969 |
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Jan. 16 - |
Soyuz 4 & 5 perform the first Soviet spacecraft docking.
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Jul. 20 - |
Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin become the first men to walk on the Moon while crewmate Michael Collins orbits around the Moon alone.
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Nov. 19 - |
Pete Conrad and Alan Bean perform the first precision lunar landing, touching down just 600 feet from the Surveyor 3 probe that arrived two years earlier.
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