THE SPACE RACE
TIMELINE
October 4, 1955- The Soviet Union launches the
first satellite, Sputnik 1 into space. Sputnik 1
was only 23 inches in diameter and weighed
about 184 pounds. It traveled at the speed of
18,000 miles an hour. Sputnik 1 circled earth
every 96 minutes, making 1,440 orbits before its
re-entry and falling to earth over Western USA.
September 12, 1959 - The USSR launches
Luna 2. It is the first spacecraft to reach the
surface of the Moon.
October 4, 1959 - The USSR launches Luna 3
into orbit around the Moon and
photographing the far side of the Moon.
April 12, 1961 - The USSR Cosmonaut Yuri
Gagarin aboard the Vostok 1 makes a single
orbit around the Earth and becomes the first
man to reach space. He remained in space for
one hour and forty-eight minutes before
landing in Saratov Oblast, USSR.
June 16, 1963: USSR, Valentina Tereshkova
becomes the first civilian and first woman in
space. She spends almost three days in space
orbiting the Earth 48 times aboard the
spacecraft Vostok 6. She parachuted to
earth after ejecting at 20,000 feet.
March 18, 1965 – USSR, learning that the USA
was working on completing a spacewalk,
they rush to complete the first every
spacewalk with Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov
aboard the spacecraft the Voskhod 2 in a
special designed spacesuit. The space walk
lasts twelve minutes and 9 seconds.
Launched on January 31, 1966 and landing on
the moon on February 3, 1966 - USSR spacecraft
Luna 9. A landing capsule was ejected just before
impact for the soft landing. It lasted there days
on the moon prior to it’s batteries dying sending
back 8 hours and 15 minutes of photos.
April 19, 1971 - The USSR launches the first space
station Salyut 1. It was 65 feet long and 13 feet in
diameter. Two double sets of solar panels extended
like wings on the exterior of the compartments at
either end. October 11, 1971, it went into a lower
orbit and plunged into the Pacific Ocean.
1955
1957
1958
October 1
NASA Founded
1959
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
End of the Space Race - July 15, 1975 - Tensions lessened between the
USA and USSR. The first cooperative Apollo-Soyuz mission is launched.
With two separate flights, the Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft dock in space
and the two commanders Tom Stafford and Alexei Leonov exchange the
first international handshake. The Soyuz and Apollo spacecraft docked
on July 17, 1975, in a demonstration of how well the rendezvous and
docking systems of each spacecraft would work together.
1974
1975
July 1955: The United States announces it intends to launch the
first artificial satellite into outer space. August 1955: The USSR
responds, they will also launch a satellite “in the near future”.
January 31, 1958 – The USA launches their first
satellite Explorer 1. It was 80 inches long, 6.25
inches in diameter and weighed 31 pounds. It made
one orbit every 114.8 minutes / 12.54 orbits per day.
It discovered Van Allen radiation belts circling Earth.
It entered Earth's atmosphere and burned up on
March 31, 1970, after more than 58,000 orbits.
August 7, 1959 - The USA launches Explorer 6.
A small, spheroidal satellite designed to study
the electrical and magnetic fields about the
Earth and to test devices for scanning cloud
cover. It is responsible for the first pictures of
Earth from Space. It became the world’s first
weather satellite.
February 20, 1962 – USA Astronaut John Glenn
rocketed into space aboard the Mercury capsule
Friendship 7. He became the first man to orbit
Earth in 4 hours and 56 minutes. He circled
Earth three times, at a speed of more than
17,000 miles per hour. The mission ended with a
splashdown 800 miles southeast of Bermuda.
Launched on May 30, 1966 and landing on June 2,
1966 - USA's Surveyor 1 makes soft lunar landing.
The mission's objectives were to soft land on the
Moon and to collect information on the lunar
regolith. Surveyor 1 was more sophisticated than
Luna 9, and returned 11,000 photos. The Satellite
operated until January 7, 1967.
December 21, 1968 - USA spacecraft Apollo 8
becomes the first human crewed spacecraft
to reach the Moon, orbit it 10 times, and
successfully return to Earth safely in the
Pacific Ocean on December 27, 1968.
July 16, 1969 – USA launches the Apollo 11 with
astronauts Neil A. Armstrong Edwin E. Aldrin Jr.
July 20, 1969 - Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz"
Aldrin become the first men to walk on the
Moon. This secured a victory for America in the
Space Race with a televised landing witnessed
around the world by 723 million people.
August 1, 1971 - USA Apollo 15 was the fourth
mission to land men on the Moon. This mission
was the first flight of the Lunar Roving Vehicle
which astronauts used to explore the surface of
the moon. David Scott, commander, becomes
the first person to drive on the Moon. They spent
18 hours 37 minutes working on moon’s surface.