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TECHNOLOGY

PICTURES: Milestones in American Space Flight

By Kenneth Chamberlain

Updated: May 29, 2013 | 5:45 p.m.
July 8, 2011 | 11:30 a.m.

Astronaut Ed White made the first American spacewalk on the Gemini 4 mission in 1965. In 1965 and 1966, 10 crews flew in the Gemini program, which allowed NASA to test space suits and procedures on docking two spacecraft, all of which was necessary for developing technologies for an eventual flight to the moon. (NASA)

Now that the final space shuttle mission is under way, and as NASA looks ahead to the new Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle as the next step in the United States' manned space program, it's worth taking a step back and looking at how we got here.

Below are some highlights in America's quest to explore space.

Milestones in American Space Flight

<p>Although rain threatened the final launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis, it successfully launched on Friday. This is the final space shuttle mission.</p> - AP Photo/Chris O'Meara

<p>The Soviets kicked off manned space flight in 1961, with cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becoming the first person to enter Earth's orbit. Gagarin’s flight, which only lasted a little more than an hour, was followed soon thereafter by the first manned American space flight.</p> - NASA

<p>The first American in space, Alan Shepard, was a part of Project Mercury, NASA's first manned space project, with six missions between May 1961 and May 1963.</p> - NASA

<p>Within weeks after Alan Shepard became the first American in space, President Kennedy addressed a special session of Congress on May 25, 1961, and set the goal of sending an American safely to the moon before the end on the decade.</p> - AFP/Getty Images

<p>John Glenn piloted the Mercury-Atlas 6 "Friendship 7" in 1962 on the first U.S. manned orbital mission, completing three orbits. In 1998, he returned to space, this time on a space shuttle, completing 134 orbits.</p> - NASA

<p>Astronaut Ed White made the first U.S. spacewalk on the Gemini 4 mission in 1965. In 1965 and 1966, 10 crews flew in the Gemini program, which allowed NASA to test space suits and procedures on docking two spacecraft, all of which was necessary for developing technologies for an eventual flight to the moon.</p> - NASA

<p>The Apollo program succeeded the Gemini missions in 1966, but in preparation for the program's first mission, three astronauts -- Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee -- died in a flash fire in the capsule.</p> - NASA

<p>Perhaps the most famous of all manned space flights was the first one to land a person on the moon, in 1969. Pictured is astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin taking his first step onto the moon in a photograph taken by fellow astronaut Neil Armstrong.</p> - NASA

<p>Astronaut Charles Conrad Jr., the commander of the first manned Skylab mission, attends to equipment that was used to explore manufacturing in weightless environments in 1973. The purpose of Skylab was to "prove that humans could live and work in space for extended periods, and to expand our knowledge of solar astronomy well beyond Earth-based observations," according to NASA.</p> - NASA

<p>Pictured from the Soviet Soyuz spacecraft, the American command/service and docking modules await joining with the Soviet craft in 1975. The two spacecrafts were joined together for nearly two days as a part of the first joint U.S.-USSR manned space mission.</p> - NASA/USSR Academy of Sciences

<p>After a brief lull, NASA returned to space through the space shuttle program, the first launch of which took place in 1981 (pictured here). As of May 24, 134 flights had been launched under the program.</p> - NASA

<p>The first American to orbit the earth, former Sen. John Glenn, and the first American woman in space, Sally Ride, pictured together in 2002. Ride flew on a shuttle mission in 1983.</p>

<p>In 1986, the shuttle program suffered its first casualties. The shuttle Challenger was 72 seconds into its flight, traveling at nearly 2,000 mph at a height of 10 miles, when it was suddenly enveloped in a red, orange, and white fireball as thousands of tons of liquid hydrogen and oxygen fuel exploded. All of the seven crew members were killed.</p> - AFP/Getty Images

<p>In 2003, the shuttle Columbia began to break up over New Mexico, the start of which may have been caught in this Air Force image. The crash, which killed all of the astronauts aboard, may have been caused by some damage to a wing during liftoff.</p> - NASA

<p>The shuttle Endeavor as seen from the International Space Station in May during the shuttle program's second-to-last mission.</p> - NASA

<p>The International Space Station, a successor of sorts to the original Skylab missions, was built through the combined efforts and equipment of the United States, Russia, Japan, and other countries. Like Skylab, its goal in part is to conduct science experiments without having to worry about gravity. Although it was built in part through the U.S. shuttle program, with the end of that program, Russian spacecraft now provide the only way to get to the station.</p> - NASA

Milestones in American Space Flight

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