Image of an astronaut and the Lunar Rover.
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Aris Multimedia Entertainment, Inc 1994.
Human Spaceflight
It was not long after the first space satellites were launched that we
succeeded in getting a human being into space. These first astronauts
and cosmonauts (the Russian word for astronaut) were test pilots who were
very familiar with flying in fast and dangerous planes! The first human
being to travel into space was Yuri Gagarin (USSR, 1961), followed a month
later by the US astronaut Alan Shepard.
Once we found out that humans could travel in space, a "space race"
quickly developed between the United States and the Soviet Union. The United States
main interest was to land on the moon. The Soviet Union was more interested in
setting endurance records and doing scientific research.
Russia, the United States, and 14 other countries are now working together on the International Space Station project.
For a brief history of the United States and Soviet Union human spaceflight programs, click
here.
Discover more about human spaceflight through the links below!
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The Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on October 29th at 2:19 p.m. EST. The weather was great as Discovery took 8 1/2 minutes to reach orbit. This was the United States' 123rd
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This is Administrator Goldin's speech about NASA's 40th anniversary: "Forty years ago, in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was created with the boldest and most noble of missions:
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Apollo 12 was launched on Nov. 14, 1969, surviving a lightning strike which temporarily shut down many systems, and arrived at the Moon three days later. Astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean descended
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