1960s+Space+Exploration

__**1960s Space Exploration**__ By Ben Federline == (Oct. 4, 1957) - U.S.S.R. launches Sputnik 1 into space (Apr. 12, 1961) - U.S.S.R. sends first man into space (May 5, 1961) - Alan B. Shepard becomes the first American in space (Jul. 20, 1969) - Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin become the first men to walk on the Moon while crewmate Michael Collins orbits around the Moon alone. [|View Entire Timeline] @ //thespacerace.com// ||  || The space race started when the Soviets launched a satellite into space called Sputnik 1. The United States went into a frezy to rapidly develop thier space program to catch up to the Soviets. __Successes of the Space Program__ The Space Race of the 1960's was the highlight of John F. Kennedy's presidency. In this time, N.A.S.A. was formed and launched several missions. The //Mercury Program// was started to get a United States astronaut into space. This was successful as Alan B. Shepard made it to space. The Gemini Program was designed to send two astronauts into space at a time. Finlly, the Apollo missions started to get a man on the moon. Obviously, that was a success. __Failures of the Space Programmedia type="youtube" key="j4JOjcDFtBE" height="298" width="396" align="right"__ Americas first attempt to launch a satellite was a complete failure, as seen in the Vangaurd TV3. The rocket failed at 2 seconds and made a staggering 4 feet. Apollo 6 was known as the "successfull failure" because two of the five engines shut down and the craft did not reach it's destination, however, the crew returned safely. Perhaps the worst of all was the Challenger, which, as seen in the video provided, disintergraded 73 seconds into flight due to a fault in the seal. The program was suspended for 32 months following the deaths of the six astronauts and one civilian chosen to go with them.
 * __Important Events in the Space Race of the 60's__

The Apollo program was the most successful mission, and everyone saw it on tv. It was widelypopular, and the names of the astronauts will ring in the ears of history forever.media type="custom" key="9531340" width="200" height="200" align="left"