Space+Travel

Jake Griffin Emma Corbett Yali Shi Alex Finkle Joey Erving

 On October 4, 1957 the Soviet Union launched the satellite Sputnik 1, and the space race began. After Russia launched Sputnik 1, U.S. created NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

The space race, as it was called, was almost a contest to see which country could outdo each other regarding the explorations of space. The next step in this race was to send animals into space to see what happened and then, hopefully, man. The United States was technically the first country to send animals to space, although a few fruit flies can hardly count. The first mammal to orbit Earth died seven hours after the rocket was launched. Laika, a dog, was launched in the Soviet's Sputnik 2. Many animals were sent into space before the Soviets sent man into space, and the U.S. brought man to the moon. Information from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race

In April of 1961, Russia sent a man into space. President John F. Kennedy responded by announcing our intentions to put a man on the moon, we had NASA and we were going to use it. We didn’t like the idea of being behind Russia. A will of the whole nation would be what it would take and $25.5 billion. The first step was putting a man into space. This project was nicknamed Mercury for the Roman messenger god. They learned important things that astronauts needed, like a bathroom, from these flights. Next came Gemini missions that worked on two astronauts going into space. The first flight to the moon was on July 16, 1969 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The astronauts that took place were Neil Armstrong, “Buzz” Aldrin, and Michael Collins. Their spacecraft Saturn took off for the moon and everyone on Earth went with them. Television took Earth into space and everyone watched as the astronauts took their first steps on the moon. It made no difference to the rest of the world that it was an American spacecraft; they just wanted to see the miracle.

"One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." - Neil Armstrong Sputnik 1 - 1957 http://chandrakantha.com/articles/indian_music/filmi_sangeet/media/1957_sputnik2.gif

NASA Logo http://www.its.caltech.edu/~yehgroup/img/logo/nasa%20logo.jpg