Space In The 1960s

The “Above & Beyond” of the 1960s

The revolutionary time of space exploration was, without a doubt, started in the 1950 & 60s. This was mainly due to the famous “Space Race” between the global superpowers of the USA (United States of America) and the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Russia).

The start of Space Exploration kicked off with the launching of the first artificial satellite, Sputnik I, by the Soviets. Many other "firsts" were recorded in subsequent years as the U.S. and the Soviets engaged in the "Space Race." Both nations struggled with each other to gain the lead on this new frontier, & thus to be known as the revolutionary power of Space Exploration.

During the 1960s, the race focused on landing a man on the moon. In 1969, the US achieved that goal & won the decade-long race. Although Yuri Gagarin was noticed as the first man in space with his Soviet spacecraft, Vostok I, on April 12, 1961, It was the US rocket, Apollo 11, who won the Space Race when it launched on July 16, 1969, and landed on the 20^th. Its crew, Neil Armstrong, Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin & Michael Collins, was also part of the historical event.

Enthusiasm for the space race disappeared in the years following the manned moon missions, partly because of the costs. However, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) still do the experiments of space. Here is a fact file of space events in the late 50s & the 60s.

USSR	1957	October 4^th	USSR launched Sputnik I, inaugurating the Space Age.
US	1958	January 31^st	US launched Explorer 1, its first satellite. Van Allen radiation belts discovered
USSR	1959	September 12^th	Soviet’s ‘Luna 2’ became first spacecraft to make a hard landing on the moon.
USSR	1959	November	Luna 3, a Soviet space probe, flew around the moon and sent back first pictures of the dark side of the moon.
USSR	1961	April 12^th	Yuri Gagarin, a Russian, became the first man to travel in space. He orbited Earth inside Vostok I for over an hour.
US	1961	May 5^th	Alan Shepard, Jr., became the first American in space aboard Mercury 3.
USSR	1961	August 6^th & 7^th	On Vostok 2, USSR's Gherman Titov made the first space flight lasting more than one day.
US	1962	February 20^th	On Mercury 6, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth
US	1962	December 14^th	Mariner 2, a US space probe, passed by Venus. The space probe sent back scientific data of the planet.
US	1962	July 1^st	Communications satellite ‘Telstar’, launched by the US, provided television pictures between Europe and America.
USSR	1963	June 16^th & 17^th	Aboard Vostok 6, USSR's Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space.
USSR	1965	March 18^th	Aleksei Leonov, a Soviet cosmonaut aboard Voskhod 2, became the first man to "walk" in space.
US	1965	June 3^rd-7^th	With Gemini 4, Edward White became the first American to "walk" in space
USSR	1966	January 31^st	Luna 9, a Soviet space probe, made the first soft landing on the moon.
USSR	1996	March 1^st	Venera 3, a Soviet space probe, reached Venus
US	1966	March 16^th & 17^th	Gemini 8 was part of the first docking of two spacecraft in outer space.
US	1966	June 2^nd	The US space probe, Surveyor 1, made a soft landing on the Moon
US	1966	August 17^th	Pioneer 7, an US space probe, launched into orbit around the sun.
US	1967	January 27^th	Apollo 1, a US-manned space capsule, caught fire during testing at Cape Kennedy, causing the first deaths in the US space program. Astronauts Roger Chaffee, Virgil Grissom, and Edward H. White II were killed.
US	1968	December 21^st & 27^th	Apollo 8; Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders orbited the moon, sending back pictures of the lunar surface.
USSR	1969	May 16^th	Venera 5, a Soviet space probe, landed on Venus. It sent back scientific data.
US	1969	July 31^st	Mariner 6, a US space probe, passed by Mars. Television pictures and data were sent back to earth.
US	1969	July 16^th & 24^th	Aboard Apollo 11, US astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin, and Michael Collins went on a historic manned moon-landing mission.
US	1969	July 20^th	Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon.
US	1969	November 14^th & 24^th	Aboard Apollo 12, a second lunar landing was achieved by Charles Conrad, Richard Gordon, and Alan Bean