Show Menu
Cheatography
  1. Home >
  2. Education >

Space Race Timeline (1945–1975) Cheat Sheet (DRAFT) by

Space Race Timeline (1945–1975)

This is a draft cheat sheet. It is a work in progress and is not finished yet.

1940s: Founda­tions of Rocket Science

1945 (May)
WWII ends. Both the U.S. and USSR scramble to seize German rocket technology and scient­ists.
 
U.S. captures Wernher von Braun and ~1,600 engineers under Operation Paperclip.
 
USSR takes German engineers and equipment from Peenemünde and Mittel­werk.
1946 (Oct 24)
First U.S. high-a­ltitude rocket launch using a captured V-2 from White Sands, New Mexico.
1947
First U.S. animals (fruit flies) sent into space aboard a V-2 rocket to study radiation.
1948
The Soviet Union begins R-1 rocket program (a near-copy of the German V-2).
1949
U.S. launches first monkey (Albert II) into space aboard a V-2; dies on impact.
1949 (Aug 29)
USSR detonates its first atomic bomb → Cold War compet­ition intens­ifies, laying groundwork for linking rocketry with nuclear weapons.

1950s: Satellites and Early Spacecraft

1950 (Jul 24)
First launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida (Bumper 8 rocket).
1952
Intern­ational Geophy­sical Year (IGY) planned for 1957–58; nations announce plans for satell­ites.
1955 (Jul 29)
President Eisenhower formally approves U.S. satellite project.
1955 (Aug 2)
USSR announces its own satellite project in response.
1956
U.S. begins Vanguard project (civilian satellite program).
1957 (Aug 21)
USSR succes­sfully tests R-7 interc­ont­inental ballistic missile (ICBM).
1957 (Oct 4)
Sputnik 1 launched by USSR: first artificial satellite. Sends radio pulses, shocks the West.
1957 (Nov 3)
Sputnik 2 carries Laika (dog), first living creature in orbit. Dies in orbit due to overhe­ating.
1958 (Jan 31)
U.S. launches Explorer 1, first U.S. satellite; discovers Van Allen radiation belts.
1958 (Mar 17)
U.S. Vanguard 1 launched; still the oldest human-made satellite in orbit today.
1958 (Jul 29)
NASA founded from NACA and military research groups.
1959 (Jan 2)
USSR launches Luna 1 (first spacecraft to escape Earth’s gravity, flies past the Moon).
1959 (Sep 12)
USSR’s Luna 2 impacts the Moon → first human object to touch another celestial body.
1959 (Oct 4)
Luna 3 photog­raphs far side of the Moon.
 

1960s: Humans Enter Space

1960 (Aug 19)
USSR’s Sputnik 5 carries dogs Belka and Strelka into orbit and returns them alive.
1961 (Apr 12)
Yuri Gagarin, Vostok 1: first human in space, completes one orbit.
1961 (May 5)
U.S. astronaut Alan Shepard, Freedom 7: first American in space (subor­bital).
1961 (May 25)
JFK delivers speech to Congress, commits U.S. to a Moon landing before 1970.
1962 (Feb 20)
John Glenn, Friendship 7: first American to orbit Earth (3 orbits).
1963 (Jun 16)
Valentina Teresh­kova, Vostok 6: first woman in space.
1964 (Oct 12)
USSR launches Voskhod 1: first multi-­person crew (3 cosmon­auts).
1965 (Mar 18)
Voskhod 2: Alexei Leonov performs first spacewalk (EVA), nearly dies during re-entry.
1965–66
(Gemini program, U.S.) – Series of crewed flights test docking, EVA, long-d­uration missions.
1966 (Feb 3)
USSR’s Luna 9 achieves first soft landing on Moon.
1966 (Jun 2)
U.S. Surveyor 1 achieves first successful U.S. lunar landing.
1967 (Jan 27)
Apollo 1 tragedy: fire during ground test kills astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, Roger Chaffee.
1968 (Sep 15)
USSR’s Zond 5 carries turtles and other lifeforms around the Moon and returns.
1968 (Dec 21–27)
Apollo 8: first crewed mission to orbit the Moon; “Earth­rise” photo taken.
1969 (Jul 16–24)
Apollo 11: Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin land on the Moon (Jul 20); Michael Collins pilots command module.
 

1970s: After the First Moon Landing

1970 (Sept 12)
USSR’s Luna 16 brings first robotic lunar soil samples to Earth.
1971 (Apr 19)
USSR launches Salyut 1, the first space station.
1971 (Jun 6–30)
Soyuz 11 crew spends 23 days aboard Salyut 1 (world record). Tragic­ally, all three cosmonauts die on re-entry due to cabin depres­sur­isa­tion.
1971 (Nov 13)
U.S. launches Mariner 9, first spacecraft to orbit another planet (Mars).
1972 (Dec 7–19)
Apollo 17: last crewed Moon landing; astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt explore Taurus­-Li­ttrow Valley.
1973 (May 14)*
U.S. launches Skylab, its first space station. Crewed missions continue until 1974.
1975 (Jul 15–24)
Apollo­–Soyuz Test Project (ASTP): U.S. Apollo and Soviet Soyuz dock in orbit, crews conduct joint experi­ments. Symbolic end of Space Race and beginning of U.S.–S­oviet cooper­ation.