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July 1955 – American government makes an announcement that they are planning to launch a man-made satellite by the end of the year. Few days later the Soviet Union responds by saying they have similar intentions. This is the beginning of the Space Race. October 4, 1957 – Soviet Union beats the USA and launches the first ever man- made satellite called “Sputnik 1”. It looks like a metal beachball with antennas and weighs over 80 kilograms. Sputnik 1 orbits the Earth for 22 days (with one orbit taking 98 minutes) before it runs out of power. November 3, 1957 – the Soviet Union sends a dog Laika aboard “Vostok 2” spaceship. January 31, 1958 – USA launches their first artificial satellite called “Explorer 1”. Explorer 1 is very light (just over 13 kg) compared to Sputnik 1 (over 80 kg). It has 5 scientific instruments on board. Explorer 1 orbits the Earth for almost four months before running out of power. October 1, 1958 – NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, begins its work. January 2, 1959 – The probe “Luna 1” is launched by the Soviet Union as a part of the Moon study program. The probe was meant to crush into the Moon but missed the target. Still, it makes some valuable measurements during the flight and sends the information back to Earth. June 25, 1959 – the USA launches the first “spy” satellite “Discoverer 4” with a camera on board. Discoverer 4 fails to reach the orbit. September 14, 1959 – “Luna 2”, Luna 1’s twin probe, performs a planned crash- landing on the Moon. August 19, 1960 – the Soviet Union sends two dogs, Belka and Strelka, into space. They spend a day aboard “Sputnik 5” spacecraft accompanied by a rabbit, mice, rats, flies and some plants. All of them survive the journey and safely return back to Earth. April 12, 1961 – the Soviet Union sends the first man into space. Cosmonaut (that’s how a Russian astronaut is called) Yuri Gagarin makes one orbit around the Earth in his spaceship Vostok 1, and safely lands about two hours later. Gagarin becomes a Soviet hero. Many streets in Russia now bear his name, as well as an asteroid and a crater on the far side of the Moon. May 5, 1961 – less than a month after the Soviet Union, America sends their first astronaut Alan Shepard into space. Shepard performs suborbital flight (“suborbital” means that the spacecraft flies in a curve: only reaches the height where space starts and then descends again, no orbiting is performed) aboard “Freedom 7” that lasts 15 minutes. May 19, 1961 – Soviet Union’s spacecraft “Venera 1” performs the first ever fly past planet Venus. Unfortunately, the contact with Venera 1 is lost before the flyby. August 6, 1961 – Soviet Union’s cosmonaut Gherman Titov spends 1 day 1 hour and 18 minutes in space aboard “Vostok 2” spaceship. He orbits the Earth 17 times before returning back. The goal of this expedition was to study how a long stay in space affects the human body. February 20, 1962 – John Glenn becomes the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth. He spends 5 hours aboard “Friendship 7” spacecraft and makes 3 orbits around the Earth. June 16, 1963 – First woman as well a first civilian (meaning not a soldier) in space! Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova spends 3 days aboard “Vostok 6” completing 48 orbits around the Earth. There is a Tereshkova crater on the far side of the Moon. March 18, 1965 – Soviet cosmonaut Alexey Leonov performs the first spacewalk (now we call them EVA – extravehicular activity). He spends 12 minutes and 9 seconds outside the “Voskhod 2” ship while another crew member, Pavel Belyaev, stays inside. Leonov’s task was to attach a camera to the airlock and videotape his spacewalk and to take a picture of a spaceship. The cosmonaut had difficulties returning back to the ship: his space suit inflated while he was outside so that he could not squeeze back through the airlock. Leonov had to get rid of some air in the suit to get back to Voskhod 2. January 27, 1967 – Cabin fire during the ground test of Apollo 1 spacecraft kills all three astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee. November 9, 1967 – the USA launches “Apollo 4” spacecraft. Apollo 4 has no crew on board, The goal of the mission is to test the technology for future manned missions. It spends 9 hours in space before splash landing in the ocean. July 20, 1969 – Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin land on the Moon. They spend over two hours outside the lunar module Eagle collecting the samples of the Moon rock. Michael Collins awaits their return in the command module of Apollo 11. November 19, 1969 – Apollo 12 astronauts Charles “Pete” Conrad and Alan N. Bean land on the Moon and spend 1 day and 7 hours on the surface. They collect the Moon rock and set up the equipment for the future measurements.The third crew member, Richard F. Gordon, waits for them in the lunar orbit. November 17, 1970 – The first Soviet lunar rover “Lunokhod 1” soft lands on the Moon. It will spend 322 days working on the Moon, sending images and data back to Earth. April 23, 1971 – The Soviet Union launches the first ever space station Salyut 1. December 11, 1972 – The last Apollo program spaceship, Apollo 17, lands on the Moon. July 15, 1975 – The two spacecrafts, Soyuz 19 (with two cosmonauts, Alexei Leonov and Valeri Kubasov, on board) and Apollo (with three astronauts, Tom Stafford, Vance Brand and Deke Slayton, onboard) launch 7.5 hours apart. Three hours after the second launch the crews perform the first international space docking: the teams visit each other’s ships, exchange presents and do some joint experiments. After 44 hours together, the ships go their separate ways. Soyuz stays another 5, and Apollo another 9 days in orbit before returning back to Earth. This is the end of the Space Race!