1961

	April 12, 1961 First Man in Space Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin became the first human to venture into space. The Vostok 1 spacecraft made one complete orbit around Earth in 108 minutes, and reached altitudes of 112 to 203 miles. The flight lasted only one hour and 48 minutes.

	May 5, 1961 First American in Space On May 5, 1961, Astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American to be launched into space. Shepard's suborbital flight lasted only15-minutes, during which time he experienced about 5 minutes of "weightlessness" and tested the maneuvering capability of his Mercury capsule.

	May 25, 1961 President Kennedy's Historic Speech Just 20 days after Shepard's flight, President John F. Kennedy made his historic speech to Congress. He challenged the nation to land "a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth" before the end of the decade.

1962

	February 20, 1962 First American in Orbit Astronaut John H. Glenn was launched into orbit aboard an Atlas D rocket, where he became the first American to orbit the Earth. Glenn made a total of 3 complete orbits, and the flight time was 4 hours and 56 minutes.

1965

	March 18, 1965 First Space Walk Commander Pavel I. Belyayeu and Pilot Alexei A. Leonov into Earth’s orbit were launched into orbit aboard Voskhod 2. Alexei Leonov performed the first, tethered space walk outside of his spacecraft while in Earth’s orbit. This historic venture into space lasted a mere 12 minutes.

	July 14, 1965 First Close-up Images of Mars Mariner 4 arrived at Mars and gave scientists their first views of the planet at close range. The resulting photos showed no sign of the famous "canals" and no evidence of life.

1966

	February 3, 1966 First Spacecraft to Land on the Moon The Russian spacecraft Luna 9 completed a 250,000-mile trip and successfully became the first spacecraft to soft-land on the Moon. Luna 9 transmitted pictures of the Moon's surface back to Earth. The mission demonstrated that the Moon's surface was strong enough to support the weight of a large spacecraft.

	June 2, 1966 First American Spacecraft on the Moon Surveyor 1 became the first American spacecraft to soft-land on the Moon. After a journey of 63 hours and 36 minutes, Surveyor 1 successfully landed only 9 miles off its target in the Oceanus Procellarum. The spacecraft transmitted more than 11,000 high-resolution photographs before its energy sources were depleted.

1967

	January 27, 1967 First U.S. Space Tragedy During a routine test on the launch pad, a spark caused a fire to start in the crew compartment of the command module. Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee, were killed in this tragic incident. It was later determined that faulty wiring caused the spark, and the pure oxygen environment in the capsule was to blame for the rapid spreading of the blaze.

	April 23, 1967 First Spaceflight Casualty Soviet Soyuz 1 is launched, carrying Vladimir M. Komarov. On April 24 it crashed, killing Komarov, the first spaceflight fatality.

	October 18, 1967 First Venus Probe The Soviet probe Venera 4 sends a descent capsule into the Venusian atmosphere, returning data about its composition.

1968

	September 15, 1968 First Moon Orbit The Soviet Zond 5 is launched. It becomes the first spacecraft to orbit the Moon and return.

	October 11, 1968 First Manned Apollo Mission Apollo 7 is the first manned Apollo mission with Walter M. Schirra, Jr., Donn F. Eisele, and Walter Cunningham. It orbited the Earth once.

	December 21, 1968 First Manned Moon Orbit Apollo 8 is launched with Frank Borman, James A. Lovell, Jr. and William A. Anders, the first Apollo to use the Saturn V rocket, and the first manned spacecraft to orbit the Moon, making 10 orbits on its 6-day mission.

1969

	July 20, 1969 First Manned Moon Landing Apollo 11 makes the first successful soft landing on the Moon. Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, Jr. become the first human beings to set foot on another world.

1970

	April 11, 1970 Apollo 13 Launch Apollo 13 is launched, suffering an explosion in its SM oxygen tanks. Its Moon landing is aborted, and the crew, James A. Lovell, Jr., John L. Swigert, Jr. and Fred W. Haise, Jr., returns safely after several harrowing days in space.

	September 12, 1970 First Automated Return of Lunar Soil The Soviet Luna 16 is launched, conducting the first successful return of lunar soil samples by an automatic spacecraft.

	November 17, 1970 First Robotic Lunar Mission Luna 17 lands on the Moon, with the first automatic robot, Lunokhod 1. Driven by a five-man team on Earth, the craft travels over the lunar surface for 11 lunar days (322 Earth days). During this time, it returns 20,000 TV images and 206 high-resolution panoramas in addition to performing a host of experiments including soil analysis.

	December 15, 1970 First Landing on Venus The Soviet Venera 7 is the first probe to soft-land on Venus, transmitting for 23 minutes. The spacecraft send back a few images of the planet's surface before succumbing to the extreme heat and pressure of Venusian atmosphere.