The Russians didn't waste anytime in the race. They proudly sent the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, in Vostok 1, 1961. They achieved much success with Vostok. Vostok 2 allowed Gherman Titov to spend the first full day in orbit. Vostok 3 and Vostok 4 were the first two men missions. Vostok 5 was the first long duration mission and finally, Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman in space on Vostok 6. In 1964, the 2-3 crew Voskhod spacecraft was launched and in March 18, 1965, cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov did what many cosmonauts and astronauts dreamed of doing, walking in space. However, Aleksei Leonov's first space walk almost caused him to be the first one to die in space! His space suit inflated more than expected and so, he couldn't reenter the spacecraft because he was too large to fit through the airlock. Therefore, he had to give off some of the air in his space suit.

The Americans, however, sent the first astronauts in space 3 weeks after Yuri Gagarin's space flight on Mercury. There were seven astronauts in total including Walter Schirra, Donald Slayton, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Alan Shepard, Virgil "Gus" Grissom, and Gordon Cooper. In February 1962, John Glenn made the first US orbital flight. In all of the Mercury Project missions, each six spacecrafts had the number 7 included with its name. This was the sign of their friendship that they shared with each other. The Mercury missions helped developed hardware for space flights. From 1961 - 1963, United States flew many test flights and six manned Mercury missions. Afterwards, the United States introduced Gemini, an enlarged, redesigned spacecraft for 2 astronauts. Ten manned Gemini missions were flown from 1964 - 1966 to improve spacecraft control, astronaut movement in space, and piloting the spacecraft.