Race to the Moon Print: More Information

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Timeline of the Space Race / Moon Race 1959 - 1970
Below is a timeline of events during the space race to land the first person on the moon. All manned flights are listed as well as the most important unmanned launches.

Soviet manned launches in Bold Red; unmanned in red
United States launches in Blue; unmanned in blue

1959

Date	Spacecraft	Event
Jan 2 - 4	Luna 1	Moon probe; plan was to hit the moon; missed and flew by
Sep 12 - 14	Luna 2	Moon probe; first probe to hit the moon
Oct 4 - 7	Luna 3	Moon probe; first probe to return images from back side of the moon

1960

Date	Spacecraft	Event
May 15	Sputnik 4	Unmanned Vostok prototype
July 29	Mercury-Atlas 1 (MA-1)	Unmanned
Aug 19 - 20	Sputnik 5	Unmanned Vostok, carried two dogs
Nov 21	Mercury-Redstone 1 (MR-1)	Unmanned
Dec 1	Sputnik 6	Unmanned Vostok
Dec 19	Mercury-Redstone 1A	Unmanned, 15 minute sub-orbital flight

1961

Date	Spacecraft	Event
Jan 31	Mercury-Redstone 2 (MR-2)	Unmanned
Mar 9	Sputnik 9	Unmanned Vostock, carried one dog
Mar 25	Sputnik 10	Last unmanned Vostock, carried one dog
April 12	Vostok 1	First person in space: Yuri Gagarin
Apr 25	Mercury-Atlas 3 (MA-3)	Unmanned
May 5	Mercury-Redstone 3 (Freedom 7) (MR-3)	First US person in space: Alan Shepard
July 21	Mercury-Redstone 4 (Liberty Bell 7, MR-4)	Second US person in space: Virgil (Gus) Grissom
Aug 6 - 7	Vostok 2	First flight more than 24 hours: Gherman Titov
Sep 13	Mercury-Atlas 4 (MA-4)	Unmanned, first Mercury spacecraft to reach orbit
Nov 29	Mercury-Atlas 5 (MA-5)	Unmanned: chimpanze Enos

1962

Date	Spacecraft	Event
Feb 20	Mercury-Atlas 6 (Friendship 7, MA-6)	First US person to orbit the Earth: John Glenn
May 24	Mercury-Atlas 7 (Aurora 7, MA-7)	Scott Carpenter
Aug 11	Vostok 3	First mission with another spacecraft Vostok 4: Andrian Nikolayev
Aug 12	Vostok 4	First mission with another spacecraft Vostok 3: Pavel Popovich
Oct 3	Mercury-Atlas 8 (Sigma 8, MA-8)	Walter Schirra

1963

Date	Spacecraft	Event
May 15	Mercury-Atlas 9 (Faith 7, MA-9)	Last Mercury mission: Gordon Cooper
Jun 14 - 19	Vostok 5	First long-duration mission: Valery Bykovsky
Jun 16 - 19	Vostok 6	First woman in space: Valentina Tereshkova

1964

Date	Spacecraft	Event
Apr 8	Gemini 1	Unmanned
Oct 6	Kosmos 47	Unmanned Voskhod
Oct 12	Voskhod 1	First three-person crew: Vladimir Komarov, Boris Yegorov and Konstantin Feoktistov

1965

Date	Spacecraft	Event
Jan 19	Gemini 2	Unmanned
Feb 22	Kosmos 57	Unmanned Voskhod
Mar 7	Kosmos 59	Unmanned Voskhod
Mar 18	Voskhod 2	First space walk (EVA, extravehicular activity) by Aleksei Leonov; Pavel Belyayev
Mar 23	Gemini 3	Virgil (Gus) Grissom and John Young
Jun 3 - 7	Gemini 4	James McDivitt and Edward White. First US person to walk in space: Ed White.
Aug 21 - 29	Gemini 5	Gordon Cooper and Charles Conrad
Dec 4 - 18	Gemini 7	Frank Borman and James Lovell
Dec 15 - 16	Gemini 6A	Walter Schirra and Tom Stafford

1966

Date	Spacecraft	Event
Feb 22	Kosmos 110	Unmanned Voskhod
Feb 26	Saturn 1B AS-201	Unmanned, suborbital test of Saturn 1B
Mar 16	Gemini 8	Neil Armstrong and David Scott
Jun 3 - 6	Gemini 9	Tom Stafford and Eugene Cernan
Jul 5	Saturn 1B AS-203	Unmanned
Jul 18 - 21	Gemini 10	John Young and Michael Collins
Aug 25	Saturn 1B AS-202	Unmanned
Sep 12 - 15	Gemini 11	Charles Conrad and Richard Gordon
Nov 11 - 15	Gemini 12	Final Gemini mission: James Lovell and Buzz Aldrin

1967

Date	Spacecraft	Event
Jan 27	Apollo 1	Fire on during testing kills three astronauts: Virgil (Gus) Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee
Feb 7	Kosmos 140	Unmanned Voskhod
Mar 10	Kosmos 146	Unmanned Voskhod
Apr 8	Kosmos 154	Unmanned Voskhod
Apr 23 - 24	Soyuz 1	Cosmonaut Valdimir Komarov dies during landing; first person lost during a space flight
Oct 27	Kosmos 186	Unmanned Voskhod
Nov 9	Apollo 4 (SA-501)	Unmanned, first launch of Saturn V rocket

1968

Date	Spacecraft	Event
Jan 22	Apollo 5 (Saturn 1B)	Unmanned, first launch of Lunar Module spacecraft
Mar 2	Zond 4	Unmanned
Apr 4	Apollo 6 (SA-502)	Unmanned, second test flight of Saturn V
Sep 15	Zond 5	Unmanned, flew around moon
Oct 25	Soyuz 2	Unmanned
Oct 11 - 22	Apollo 7 (Saturn IB)	First manned Apollo flight: Walter Schirra, Donn Eisele, and Walter Cunningham
Oct 26 - 30	Soyuz 3	Docking attempt failed with Soyuz 2: George Beregovoi
Nov 10	Zond 6	Unmanned, flew around moon, destroyed during re-entry
Dec 21 - 27	Apollo 8 (SA-503)	First people to orbit the moon: Frank Borman, James Lovell, William Anders

1969

Date	Spacecraft	Event
Jan 14 - 17	Soyuz 4	Successful EVA crew transfer with Soyuz 5
Jan 15 - 18	Soyuz 5	Successful EVA crew transfer with Soyuz 4
Feb 21	N1	Unmanned, launch fails, destroyed after 70 seconds of flight
Mar 3 - 13	Apollo 9 (SA-504)	First manned test of Lunar module: James McDivitt,David Scott, and Russell Schweickart
May 18 - 26	Apollo 10 (SA-505)	Full dress rehearsel of lunar landing: Tom Stafford, John Young and Eugene Cernan.
Jul 3	N2	Unmanned, launch fails
Jul 16 - 24	Apollo 11 (SA-506)	First people to land on the moon: Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin; Michael Collins remains in command module.
Aug 8	Zond 7	Unmanned, flew around the moon

1970

Date	Spacecraft	Event
Nov 10-17	Lunokhod 1	First automated rover on the moon

Soviet manned launches in Bold Red; unmanned in red
United States launches in Blue; unmanned in blue

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