Some Great Moments in the History of Space Exploration

1961
Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth on April 12, 1961. His famous flight lasted 118 minutes.

1969
On July 20, 1969, American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on the surface of the moon. As he stepped onto the moon he said, "That's one small step for man, one' giant leap for mankind."

1971
Russia's Salyut 1, the first space station in history, reached orbit on April 19, 1971. Cosmonauts visited the space station for short periods of time.

1981
On April 12, 1981, Columbia became the first space shuttle to blast into orbit: It was launched by the United States.

1983
Sally Ride became the first American woman in space on June. 18, 1983. She flew aboard the space shuttle Challenger.

1996
In 1996, NASA and the Russian, European, Japanese, and Canadian space agencies agreed to join forces to build the International Space Station (ISS). The ISS is the first multi nation space station, and is used to conduct research.

2004
On June 21, 2004, SpaceShipOne became the first manned spacecraft to be built and launched into space without help from a government.

Source: Scholastic SuperScience