4 October 1957 - USSR Sputnik 1 launches into Earth orbit. The Space Age has begun © Getty Images 3 November 1957 - USSR Sputnik 2 launches into space carrying Laika the dog. © Getty Images 6 December 1957 - USA First satellite launch attempt with a Vanguard rocket fails. © Getty Images
Read more about the Space Race:
31 January 1958 - USA A Juno 1 rocket puts the Explorer 1 satellite into orbit. © Getty Images 15 May 1958 - USSR Sputnik 3, weighing over a tonne, launches into orbit. (View of light trails caused by the orbit of Soviet-launched Sputnik 3 satellite, as seen above the Forth Rail Bridge, which connects Edinburgh with Fife, Scotland, July 1958. © Morris Allan/Getty Images) 1 October 1958 - USA New space agency NASA begins operations. (President Eisenhower presents Commissions of Office to Dr. T. Keith Glennan, of Cleveland (right) administrator of the new National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Dr. Hugh L. Dryden (left) of Washington, deputy administrator © Getty Images) 2 January 1959 - USSR Luna 1 misses the Moon, but leaves Earth orbit for the first time. © Getty Images 9 April 1959 - USA The astronauts of the Mercury programme are introduced. © Getty Images 14 September 1959 - USSR Luna 2 hits the Moon after its launch two days earlier. © Getty Images 11 August 1960 - USA Images of space are returned from orbit for the first time. © NASA 24 October 1960 - USSR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw0fLEpCtZA
Explosion of R-16 rocket on the launchpad kills 126 engineers.
6 January 1961 - USSR Six candidates shortlisted for first manned flight to space. © Getty Images
More from the history of the Apollo programme:
31 January 1961 - USA Ham the chimpanzee makes a successful suborbital flight. © Getty Images 9 March 1961 - USSR Vostok capsule returns dummy cosmonaut and dog safely from orbit. (Scale model of the Vostok 3KA capsule © Getty Images) 12 April 1961 - USSR Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in space aboard Vostok 1. © Sovfoto/Universal Images Group via Getty Images 5 May 1961 - USA Alan Shepard makes a 15-minute suborbital space flight. © Time Life Pictures/NASA/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images/Getty Images 25 May 1961 - USA President Kennedy announces his plans to send men to the Moon. © Getty Images 6 August 1961 - USSR Gherman Titov spends a whole day in space in Vostok 2. © Getty Images
Listen to episodes of the Science Focus Podcast about the Moon Landing:
27 October 1961 - USA Saturn I rocket launch marks the start of the Apollo programme. © NASA 20 February 1962 - USA John Glenn spends five hours in space orbiting the Earth. (Astronaut John Glenn, Jr. is loaded into the Friendship 7 capsule in preparation for flight on the Mercury Titan © Getty Images) 12 August 1962 - USSR Vostok 3 and 4 put two people in space at the same time. (Andriyan Nikolayev (left) and Pavel Popovich, of the Vostok 3 and Vostok 4 space missions © Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Read more fascinating features about the Apollo programme on BBC Sky At Night Magazine :
16 June 1963 - USSR Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space. (Valentina Tereshkova smiles broadly aboard the Vostok spacecraft © Getty Images) 12 October 1964 - USSR Three-man spacecraft Voskhod 1 launched on a day-long flight. (Voskhod 1 cosmonauts (L to R) Boris Yegorov, Vladimir Komarov, and Konstantin Feoktistov © Sovfoto/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) 18 March 1965 - USSR Alexei Leonov makes the first spacewalk on Voskhod 2. © Sovfoto/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Read more about the women at NASA:
23 March 1965 - USA Gemini 3 sees two astronauts orbit Earth and return safely. (John W. Young (L) and Virgil 'Gus' Grissom (R) sitting in the GT-3 spacecraft just before the hatches were closed © NASA/Getty Images) 3 June 1965 - USA Ed White performs a spacewalk from Gemini 4. © Getty Images 15 December 1965 - USA Gemini 6A and 7 make the first orbital rendezvous. (Gemini 7 spacecraft was taken from Gemini 6 during rendezvous © NASA) 14 January 1966 - USSR Chief rocket designer Sergei Korolev dies during routine surgery. © Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images 10 August 1966 - USA Lunar Orbiter 1 launched to take images of the Moon. © NASA 27 January 1967 - USA Virgil I Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee inside a practice module for the aborted Apollo 1 mission at Cape Kennedy, Florida. All three men were killed when a fire swept through the oxygenated Command Module during a pre-flight test on 27th January, 1967. (Photo by MPI/Getty Images) 24 April 1968 - USSR Vladimir Komarov killed in the first flight of a Soyuz spacecraft. © Getty Images 18 September 1968 - USSR Zond 5 probe travels behind the Moon and returns to Earth. © S.P.Korolev RSC Energia 11 October 1968 - USA Apollo 7 launches on an 11-day mission to Earth orbit. © The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images/Getty Images 21 December 1968 - USA Apollo 8 sends humans around the Moon for the first time. (Earthrise, taken on 24 December 1968, by Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders) 3 March 1969 - USA Launch of Apollo 9 marks first flight of the lunar module. © Getty Images 18 May 1969 - USA Launch of Apollo 10, the dress rehearsal for the Moon landings. © Getty Images 3 July 1969 - USSR
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Second launch of 105m tall N1 ends in biggest rocket explosion ever.
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21 July 1969 - USA Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong takes first step on the Moon. © Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images Follow Science Focus onTwitter ,Facebook , Instagram and Flipboard
