1961
April
Soviet Yuri A. Gagarin, traveling aboard the "Vostok 1", becomes
the first human in space. Gagarin spends one hour and forty-eight minutes on
his orbital flight.
 May
Alan B. Shepard, riding the "Mercury-Redstone 3", is the first
American astronaut in space. His flight lasts 15 minutes.
1962
February
John Glenn, a Marine Corps pilot, becomes the first American to orbit
the earth. Glenn's mode of transportation is the Mercury capsule,
"Friendship 7".
1963
February
The longest non-stop flight ever completed over the South Pole is made
by a U.S. plane. A distance of 3,600 miles is covered in ten hours. The flight
path went from McMurdo Station, past the geographical South Pole to Shackleton
Mountains, and continued southeast to the "Area of Inaccessibility" before
returning to the McMurdo Station.
June
Valentina V. Tereshkova of the Soviet Union is the first woman in space.
Tereshkova enters space aboard the "Vostok 6".
1965
March
While flying aboard the "Voskhod 2" with cosmonaut Pavel I.
Belyayev, fellow Soviet Aleksei A. Leonov becomes the first man to embark on a
"space walk." The event lasts approximately ten minutes.
 June
Spending approximately twenty minutes outside of his "Gemini 4"
spacecraft, Edward White becomes the first American astronaut to walk in
space.
1968
December
The "Apollo 8", carrying U.S. astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell,
and William A. Anders, becomes the first manned space vessel to orbit the moon.
1969
July
U.S. astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, part of the
"Apollo 11" crew, along with astronaut Michael Collins, successfully
execute the first manned lunar landing. While Collins stayed in the spacecraft
, Armstrong and Aldrin walked upon the surface of the moon. Armstrong, the
first man to walk on the moon described it this way: "The surface is fine and
powdery. It adheres in fine layers, like powdered charcoal, to the soles and
sides of my boots. I only go in a fraction of an inch, maybe an eighth of an
inch, but I can see the footprints of my boots and the treads in the fine,
sandy particles."
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