NASA Fast Facts
There are 10 major NASA facilities, including the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Timeline
October 1, 1958 – The official start of NASA.
October 7, 1958 – NASA announces Project Mercury. The Mercury project’s objectives are to place a human spacecraft into orbital flight around Earth, observe human performance in such conditions and recover the human and the spacecraft safely.
April 9, 1959 – The Mercury Seven are introduced as the first US astronauts: Scott Carpenter, L. Gordon Cooper Jr., John H. Glenn Jr., Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Walter M. Schirra Jr., Alan B. Shepard Jr. and Donald K. “Deke” Slayton.
NASA Fast Facts
elisfkc2 / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0
There are 10 major NASA facilities, including the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Timeline
October 1, 1958 – The official start of NASA.
October 7, 1958 – NASA announces Project Mercury. The Mercury project’s objectives are to place a human spacecraft into orbital flight around Earth, observe human performance in such conditions and recover the human and the spacecraft safely.
April 9, 1959 – The Mercury Seven are introduced as the first US astronauts: Scott Carpenter, L. Gordon Cooper Jr., John H. Glenn Jr., Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Walter M. Schirra Jr., Alan B. Shepard Jr. and Donald K. “Deke” Slayton.
The 26 Biggest Milestones in the Space Race
The Cold War was more than a buildup of arms, it was also a space race between the United States and the Soviet Union that began with the launching of Sputnik in 1957 and culminated with “.one giant leap for mankind.”
The U.S.S.R. put the first satellite into orbit, the first man into orbit, the first woman into orbit, and accomplished the first spacewalk even though the U.S. was always close behind with these achievements.
But when America was able to orbit and land a man on the moon first, the race was effectively over. The story then became became one of cooperation as the U.S. and Soviet Union teamed up for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project and later at the International Space Station.
美航天飞机首次飞行任务迎来40周年：NASA发布珍贵录像 sina.com.cn - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sina.com.cn Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Scientific American
Celebrating 60 Years of Humans in Space
The anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s historic voyage to orbit is a chance to reflect on how far human spaceflight has come and where it’s going next
April 12, 2021
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Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin is seen at Korinkaku on May 21, 1962 in Tokyo, Japan. Credit: Getty Images
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When cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to fly in space, he also became an instant celebrity, a diplomatic icon of the Soviet Union around the world.
Gagarin blasted off Earth 60 years ago on Monday (April 12), kicking off the era of human spaceflight. Rooted in the Cold War, human spaceflight was, at the time, inherently about the perception of power and prestige and it remains so today, although the nuances of international relationships at play have changed just as much as the technological ones.